My first (unraid) server setup (looking for expansion)


skank

Recommended Posts

Hello,

 

Originally i was planning to buy a Synology NAS, but when looking deeper into the matter, i came to this place...

First thing i want to ask is that if this is all kinda easy to setup, im no newbie in setting up pcs, but i am to "linux"

 

Anway, I've been reading a lot here on the forum and on the internet, before making this step.

 

What i want exactly:

 

- All data should be accesible for each user (even playing movies from the central data place from 2 different places at the same data should be able to run with hesitation, ex: me watching movies in front of tv, and my kid upstairs watching his movie from the same place at the same time)

- should be resistant to hard disk failure

- easy to expand, (4x2tb will do for now, but there it should be easy upgradeable and quite cheap )

- Not too expensive in buying (in steps)

- Very important : it should be a low energy costing system when its running

- Gigabit speed for transferring large files (movies)

- FTP server

- Streaming media server

- Possibility to download (not sure if im gonna download upstairs, unpack and then move the file to the data storage or download from the data storage place, unpack it there and stuff... i dunno how you can see then if its corrupt...)

 

Another thing i want to make clear is that my complete setup should be in stepss so:

 

step 1: buying hardware to make a server for 3 bays with room to expand

step 2 (might come close since i already got 2tb full of movies) going from 3 bay to 6 bay (and buying unraid plus)

step 3: going from 6 bay to 10,12 or 15 drive (not sure about how many i want, but 15 is way the limit)

 

Setup and prices is WITHOUT harddisks, and system should be a low energy running system

 

My budget for step 1 is 300 euro max 350 euro (i live in belgium, can buy in netherlands too)

 

Can you guys be so gentle to help me...

 

Finding a nice expandable good case, motherbord and cpu and stuff :)

 

Thanks in advance !

 

 

Link to comment
  • Replies 117
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Everything you listed is possible with unRAID.  The setup is quite easy, easier than installing Windows in my opinion.  The only tricky part is when you start using add-ons, as some of them can be quite involved to get up and running.  The only add-ons I see you needing are FTP and downloading (not sure if you mean torrents or newsgroups, but both are possible).

 

Here's a few places to get started:

 

unRAID Wiki - Recommended Builds

 

Unfortuneately these are all US based, but you still might find these helpful:

 

My prototype designs.

 

It sounds like the 5 to 10 to 15 drive budget box expansion path might suit you perfectly.  Details here.

 

The Pimp Your Rig thread is also full of great ideas.

Link to comment

Well, i inspected all those pages before :)

Nice pages !!

 

Looking closer to the case:

 

I had these 3 in my mind (is it correct to start chosing the case before everything else, or do you start with the motherboard?)

 

- Cooler Master centurion 590 for 67euro

- Zalman MS1000-HS2  for 138 euro

- Sharkoon rebel 9 economy 42 euro (or value 53 euro)

 

i dunno if i need the hot swaps...

it is handy though...( in my dune 3.0 base i have a hot swap place for a hdd right?, just push it in?)

is there a possibility to build hot swaps in the cooler master or sharkoon?

 

Link to comment

I recently stated with also unraid, an bought my hardware on saleouts

 

I would suggest you read the wiki for supported hardware (think about onboard nic) and motherboards and hardware topics

go for a low power amd or intel ( I whent for an Celeron E3000)

 

and go for a good PSU ( i when for a coolermaster gold 600w but this one is a little pricey) like a corsair

 

I know Biostar is a little hard to get in belguim/netherlands

 

but i got my motherboard and cpu for round 90 euros here in the netherlands, jut bought from old stock of a pc store that saves you money.

 

but the case my preference goes to the cooler master 590 and put a 5 in 3 swap case so you can later ad 2 more oft hose and have 15 disk.

Link to comment

I recently stated with also unraid, an bought my hardware on saleouts

 

I would suggest you read the wiki for supported hardware (think about onboard nic) and motherboards and hardware topics

go for a low power amd or intel ( I whent for an Celeron E3000)

 

and go for a good PSU ( i when for a coolermaster gold 600w but this one is a little pricey) like a corsair

 

I know Biostar is a little hard to get in belguim/netherlands

 

but i got my motherboard and cpu for round 90 euros here in the netherlands, jut bought from old stock of a pc store that saves you money.

 

but the case my preference goes to the cooler master 590 and put a 5 in 3 swap case so you can later ad 2 more oft hose and have 15 disk.

 

how do i know if its a low power amd or intel?

biostar truly is hard to get here :(

thinking of motherboard, should i go for am2 or am3?

whats onboard nic?

you mean onboard graphical card?

Link to comment

1) how do i know if its a low power amd or intel?

2) biostar truly is hard to get here :(

3) thinking of motherboard, should i go for am2 or am3?

4) whats onboard nic?

you mean onboard graphical card?

 

1) AMD Semprom 140 or X2 250

  Intel Celeron 430, Celeron E3000 or Atom D510

(get a faster one when you trancoding)

 

2) Yeah i just when for a stock intel board I could get for cheap and it had 6 sata

 

3) if your going for amd then make sure it is am3

 

4) I mean nic = onboard Network card on the motherboard, make sure its not Atheros brand cause that one is not supported

 

but check the motherboard topic to see what people are using what the problem could be and what the fixes are

 

btw what is you media player ? htpc, NMT or a console ?

Link to comment

1) how do i know if its a low power amd or intel?

2) biostar truly is hard to get here :(

3) thinking of motherboard, should i go for am2 or am3?

4) whats onboard nic?

you mean onboard graphical card?

 

1) AMD Semprom 140 or X2 250

  Intel Celeron 430, Celeron E3000 or Atom D510

(get a faster one when you trancoding)

 

2) Yeah i just when for a stock intel board I could get for cheap and it had 6 sata

 

3) if your going for amd then make sure it is am3

 

4) I mean nic = onboard Network card on the motherboard, make sure its not Atheros brand cause that one is not supported

 

but check the motherboard topic to see what people are using what the problem could be and what the fixes are

 

btw what is you media player ? htpc, NMT or a console ?

 

about 1)

i was looking at the amd sempron 140

other im interested in is the amd sempron 145 (noticeable next to the 140?)

or the amd athlon II x2 240e (noticeable next to the sempron 140?) or the amd athlon II x2 250e

your opinions ! (no intel for me please)

 

I'm using a dune base 3.0 player ;)

Link to comment

go for the 140, unless your gone run some apps on the unraid a 140 should be enough

a faster cpu doesn't help the speed of the write/read to/from the unraid

but also seeing lot of users have some asus motherboards

 

was looking at alternate

 

but this seems nice mobo+cpu+4gbmem http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Moederborden_Socket_AM3/ALTERNATE/Upgrade_Kit_MSI_880GM-E41-X2_250-4GB/489894/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Upgrade+kits

 

Link to comment

i dunno if i need lots of applications?

 

This is what i want now:

All data should be accesible for each user (even playing movies from the central data place from 2 different places at the same data should be able to run with hesitation, ex: me watching movies in front of tv, and my kid upstairs watching his movie from the same place at the same time)

- should be resistant to hard disk failure

- easy to expand, (4x2tb will do for now, but there it should be easy upgradeable and quite cheap )

- Not too expensive in buying (in steps)

- Very important : it should be a low energy costing system when its running

- Gigabit speed for transferring large files (movies)

- FTP server

- Streaming media server

- Possibility to download (not sure if im gonna download upstairs, unpack and then move the file to the data storage or download from the data storage place, unpack it there and stuff... i dunno how you can see then if its corrupt...)

- Mail server

 

I dunno if i need more app.

Maybe once i'm in to it, i see more helpfull applications

 

About the link you gave me.. i'm really interested in a low energy CPU

so it should be a sempron 140 or 145 or an x2 240e or 250e

 

Link to comment

- Possibility to download (not sure if im gonna download upstairs, unpack and then move the file to the data storage or download from the data storage place, unpack it there and stuff... i dunno how you can see then if its corrupt...)

 

For that I recommend a dual core you like a 240e or 250e, so you always that extra power when you need it.

When they go idle they will not use more than an 140.

 

When you use unraid 4.5.6 rc3 you can use 'modprob powernow-k8' to turn on te power saveing of the cpu (you can add it to the go script, but now where going a little deeper in to unraid)

 

Link to comment

- Possibility to download (not sure if im gonna download upstairs, unpack and then move the file to the data storage or download from the data storage place, unpack it there and stuff... i dunno how you can see then if its corrupt...)

 

For that I recommend a dual core you like a 240e or 250e, so you always that extra power when you need it.

When they go idle they will not use more than an 140.

 

When you use unraid 4.5.6 rc3 you can use 'modprob powernow-k8' to turn on te power saveing of the cpu (you can add it to the go script, but now where going a little deeper in to unraid)

 

 

ok thx, script thing is chinese for now, and i wont look deeper into it cause i want to make the server first ;)

Possibilities mainboard:

 

Asus M4A78L-M for 55 euro

Asus M4A785T-M for 67.5 euro (i dont see the difference with the first asus?)

Biostar TA785G3HD but impossible to find lol

Link to comment

Asus M4A785T-M is a good choice think user 'unraided' and a couple of other users has it and hey are very positive about that board,

Was also my first pick (but I could get some other hardware cheaper ;) and when for that)

 

see here for that board http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5909.0

 

M4A78L-M is also a good choice and level1 tested

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5642.0

 

Make sure you do not buy a LE edition of the board like M4A78LT-M LE

Link to comment

Asus M4A785T-M is a good choice think user 'unraided' and a couple of other users has it and hey are very positive about that board,

Was also my first pick (but I could get some other hardware cheaper ;) and when for that)

 

see here for that board http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5909.0

 

Make sure you do not buy a LE edition of the board like M4A78LT-M LE

 

Can you tell me what the difference is between asus m4a78L-M and m4a785t-m?

Both support wol?

For now, i dont see any reason to pick the m4a785t-m instead of the cheapier m4a78l-m

Link to comment

An explanation of what the "Tested Level" column means:

  • The first level should require at least 3 drives (limit of free license), should have successfully computed parity, and should have successfully checked parity. A syslog should be posted to make sure there are no nasties that might point to compatibility issues. (The syslog will also document parity check performance).
  • The second level should be a user with at least 6 drives (limit of Plus license) that has run for a month without a power down, had a successful parity check at the beginning and end of the month. A syslog should be posted here for that period. During this period at least 10% of the array size should be copied to and from the array.
  • The third level would be a user that has had 13+ drives (including a cache disk), that has run for two months without a power down, has successfully parity checked at least 3 times (start, middle, end) and has posted a good syslog for that period. During this period at least 15% of array size should be copied to and from the array.

 

you find this at http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#An_explanation_of_what_the_.22Tested_Level.22_column_means

 

You better ask in the topic of those motherboard, seems nobody has given information about level 2 and higher of those motherboards.

 

But level 1 gives you a good idea of the compatibility with unraid

Link to comment

i dunno if i need lots of applications?

 

This is what i want now:

All data should be accesible for each user (even playing movies from the central data place from 2 different places at the same data should be able to run with hesitation, ex: me watching movies in front of tv, and my kid upstairs watching his movie from the same place at the same time)

No problems regardless of CPU or memory selection, even if you have an unresolved drive failure!

 

- should be resistant to hard disk failure

 

Only as resistant as the hard disk itself.  Loss of data is minimized with parity protection.  

- easy to expand, (4x2tb will do for now, but there it should be easy upgradeable and quite cheap )

- Not too expensive in buying (in steps)

 

Better than buying a Syno and unable to expand without investing $$$ on another NAS.

 

- Very important : it should be a low energy costing system when its running

The range of hardware available allows you to use a power sipping system.

- Gigabit speed for transferring large files (movies)

- FTP server

- Streaming media server

- Possibility to download (not sure if im gonna download upstairs, unpack and then move the file to the data storage or download from the data storage place, unpack it there and stuff... i dunno how you can see then if its corrupt...)

- Mail server

 

Gigabit - based on motherboard capability

FTP (see Raj's link above)

Torrents...most common Transmission

You probably won't need a media server as the Dune will see your SMB or NFS shares (and stream well!)

Mail server - what do you want to do?

 

btw, I have a Syno and use it for my torrents and share unRAID via NFS (the DiskStation Manager interface is nice)...but unRAID provides most of what I need....storage. :)

Link to comment

 

 

Can you tell me what the difference is between asus m4a78L-M and m4a785t-m?

Both support wol?

For now, i dont see any reason to pick the m4a785t-m instead of the cheapier m4a78l-m

Comparison

 

M4A785T-M: Requires DDR3 memory, 785G Northbridge, 4 memory slots

M4A78L-M:  Requires DDR2 memory, 760G Northbridge, 2 memory slots

 

 

 

so with M4A78L-M, dd3 doesnt fit? or is it minimum ddr2?

2 slots is enough for me though :)

the only thing that bothers me now, is that it hasnt passed all 3 tests yet...

although i cant seem to find the m4a785t-m on the list either...

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.