well 15 drives is really the max for me too

the only thing, go for hotswap or not, is hard

 

Bolle, you maid up your mind about the case/drivecages?

Just made the first step to the server, ordered a Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro Economy case.

 

Now to do the final tweaking on:

 

CPU/mobo:

*The before mentioned ASUS mobo + AMD 240e CPU or

*Asus H55 mobo + i3 530 CPU; looks more energy efficient, more CPU headroom if ever needed; extra PCI-express x4 slot for second Supermicro card but approx 60 EUR extra

 

Power Supply:

CX500 or:

VX550; more energy efficient, more headroom for growth in HD's.

 

Cages;

Sharkoon 3-in-2's (pay as you go, but end up with less disk in the case)

Norco 5-in-3; bigger initial investment as only worthwhile to order 3 units at once from UK.

 

And of course the last 2 choices are quite related; am I going for a cheaper start but max out at 13 disks, our invest more initially to max out at 15.

Or invest even more in even bigger power supply and the intel CPU/mobo to give headroom to grow to 20 disks in the future...

 

Ah the choices, the choices.... 

 

once you'll get at 12 disks, 3tb and 4tb disks will be available so you can start from 0 then i wouldnt go for 15 or 20..

where do you get the pro economy , i only see pro value, or economy..

I think I just picked the last one up at Informatique, 49 EUR after their earlier quoted price of 91 EUR turned out to be wrong.

 

Alternative case might be Antec threehunderd, can be found for 59 EUR at azerty. No cable managment though.

I think I just picked the last one up at Informatique, 49 EUR after their earlier quoted price of 91 EUR turned out to be wrong.

 

Alternative case might be Antec threehunderd, can be found for 59 EUR at azerty. No cable managment though.

 

is it the pro value or just the economy?

So I did just that, I built myself a 9 drive server.  I don't have any pictures yet, but I hope to post some by the end of this weekend.  I also built it in such a way that if my needs ever increase, I could upgrade it to a 15 drive server with ease (and expense).

 

 

Raj,

 

You really think, based on your past history, that you will have the same unRAID box in ten months?

So I did just that, I built myself a 9 drive server.  I don't have any pictures yet, but I hope to post some by the end of this weekend.  I also built it in such a way that if my needs ever increase, I could upgrade it to a 15 drive server with ease (and expense).

 

 

Raj,

 

You really think, based on your past history, that you will have the same unRAID box in ten months?

 

That's the plan, but point well taken. 

Ok, I (finally) placed the order yesterday. Working out the last details turned out to be more time intensive than planned.

 

In the end I reflected back to some of the reasons I was attracted to a DIY NAS and unRAID, this being a more attractive budget and a 'grow as you need' possibility. That meant that the getting 3 Norco 5-in3's  at once from the UK was an upfront cost (approx 240 EUR) not in line with this reasoning, combined with the fact that even getting close to filling 13 disks seems like a challenge now!

 

The budget aspect also meant I went for the AMD option for motherboard and CPU, this seems more than sufficient for most needs (looking with some interest at airvideo...) . Also, I see changing motherboard + CPU as something coming up in a few years anyway to accommodate the new > 2 Tb disks, so just starting with the AMD solution seems like a good start.

On RAM I also picked 1 x 2 Gb looking at the budget aspect, that should be sufficient initially. I picked one module so it's easy to add another module in the near future. Furthermore my supplier has a special on Kingston RAM which means it's actually cheaper to add another module later.

 

Case fan: Nexus 120mm Real Silent Case Fan D12SL-12 - 120 mm - orange € 4,94 x 1 = € 4,94 (not included in my case, well tested and the orange version is cheap  )

RAM: Kingston ValueRAM - 2 GB - DIMM 240-pins -DDR3 - 1066 MHz / PC3-8500 - CL7 - 1.5 V - non buffered - non-ECC € 24,09 x 1 = € 24,09

HD: Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS - 2 TB- intern - 3.5" - SATA-300 - 5900 rpm -buffer: 32 MB € 91,88 x 1 = € 91,88

HD: WD Caviar Green WD20EARS - 2 TB - intern- 3.5" - SATA-300 - 5400 rpm -buffer: 64 MB € 83,70 x 2 = € 167,40

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240e / 2.8 GHz Energy Efficient - Socket AM3 - L2 2 MB ( 2 x 1 MB ) - Box € 57,99 x 1 = € 57,99

HD cage Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Intern 3-Bay -  3.5" - SATA-300 - 300 MBps - SATA-300 € 56,54 x 1 = € 56,54

Mothertboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M - micro ATX - AMD 760G - Socket AM3 - UDMA133, SATA-300 (RAID) - Gigabit Ethernet - video - High Def € 52,73 x 1 = € 52,73

PSU Seasonic S12II-520 Bronze  - ATX12V - 220 Volt AC V - 520 Watt - active PFC € 70,35 x 1 = € 70,35

 

Next to this I already have the Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro Economy case (49 EUR) and I'm picking up a second Sharkoon hotswap cage (40 EUR) almost new from a private seller this weekend.

 

Regarding the PSU, I read some negative reports on the quality of the current Corsair CX series build by their OEM supplier Channel Well Technologies (CWT), although the old CX400 was highly regarded. Also the VX550 is a CWT unit although of much better quality. In general the Corsair units supplied by the OEM supplier Seasonics were perceived to be the better quality, such as the VX450.

So I decided to look for a Seasonic unit and found the S12II-520 Bronze (490W and 40A on 12V rail). What attracted me to this unit, apart from the good reputation of Seasonics, is the slightly more attractive price over the VX550, but most importantly the reviews mentioned a very good efficiency even at low loads. So that is attractive for unRAID use, with several HD's idling etc.

A catch with this unit is that although on the manufacturer website it is stated as a multiple rail (so no good for server use), the reviews all revealed that is actually a single rail unit.

 

So finally on the building the damn thing  , thanks to you all for your help and good advices!

 

nice to know you finally made up your mind

im still stuck with the case, and that i read your thing here, again the psu

Some PSU info: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm

 

(Warning, heavy nerd content!)

And added another 2 Gb RAM to the order.

 

And put the first hotswap HD into the case today, whilst awaiting the rest of the components.

Everything is ready to be shipped at my supplier, only the Athlon 240e CPU is holding things up.

 

The anticipation is killing me!  

Everything is ready to be shipped at my supplier, only the Athlon 240e CPU i sholding things up.

 

The anticipation is killing me! 

 

did you order that at azerty.nl?

is it boxed with a cooler?

 

once you'll get everything ,tell me how the shop is.. (reliability.. should i take the risk to order there from belgium?)

Yes, at azerty. It is boxed with a cooler according to the description.

 

Experiences with them have been good sofar. I made some changed to my order later (claimed a rebate for the Kingston memory, and added 2 Gb extra RAM) and this was handled quickly.

 

I expect delivery to go ok, once they have the CPU in stock.

 

Yes, at azerty. It is boxed with a cooler according to the description.

 

Experiences with them have been good sofar. I made some changed to my order later (claimed a rebate for the Kingston memory, and added 2 Gb extra RAM) and this was handled quickly.

 

I expect delivery to go ok, once they have the CPU in stock.

 

 

so no need for a different (extra) cooler?

It's the standard AMD cooler. You can probably get a better/quieter one but will cost extra.

Stock coolers are fine in my opinion.

Stock coolers are fine in my opinion.

 

Agreed, for the purposes of unRAID it is more than enough.

 

If you plan to run ESXi, Slackware dev, custom VMWare kernel, multiple handbrake encodes, etc then you may want a better CPU cooler, but it is not need for the majority of cases.

how is it going?

Waiting for the AMD 240e processor, apparently it was out of stock at their regular supplier so they've ordered it a second one. Hopefully the shipment will arrive saturday....

i'm ordering tomorrow

Yes, at azerty. It is boxed with a cooler according to the description.

 

Experiences with them have been good sofar. I made some changed to my order later (claimed a rebate for the Kingston memory, and added 2 Gb extra RAM) and this was handled quickly.

 

I expect delivery to go ok, once they have the CPU in stock.

 

 

i want to make a change too, you did that by mail?

Placed the order for the extra item and mailed to the 'orderwijziging' address. My CPU is also in, so everthing is complete, but it appears they didn't ship it today... 

ok getting pretty fed up with the place I ordered (Azerty). They might (appear to) have a large selection and good prices, but otherwise they're pretty useless. Mistake upon mistake in getting my order ready and delivered....

 

Next time I pay the 3% extra or so and go to the place I have bought regularly before (Informatique).