Unraid build

colm_c

My trusty 5 year old netgear readyNAS is showing it's age badly.

Time for a new setup, looking at setting up unraid server to replace it.

I'm diggin the fractal design R5 for the case:
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/definer5landingpage

Parts I have already:
- SSD (for the unraid cache drive)
- Hard drives for storage

What I need:
- the case
- everything else

I've never actually built a PC before but I'm pretty confident in my skills.

Budget for everything (including case) is 3-400.

Main considerations are: low power consumption, low noise, low heat. Other that NAS functionality, I'll probably run plex and a few other applications on the server so needs enough power/memory for that. It will also be running headless 99% of the time so no video/audio requirements.

What do the good folks suggest.

Cuddlesworth

That's a tall order for a small budget, one in which you have taken well over 25% on the case alone.

ED E

Budgets tight.

Article No. HV203FEADE	
FRACTAL DESIGN Define R5 Titanium mit Sichtfenster, ATX, ohne Netzteil	
ready for dispatch (only 1 article)
114,99 €

Article No. HVR350L8DE	
be quiet! PURE POWER L8 350W	
ready for dispatch
48,75 €

Total: 	
163,74 €

These are lovely boards for low power cool operation, I copied Seph and got one, but its €425 without RAM.

So you'll need a board, CPU and RAM with a rake of SATA ports(presumably) but not costing an arm and a leg.

So assuming you go intel for TDP, and low power, and want integrated graphics to remove the need for a GPU...

ASRock Z97 Extreme4 is the bottom of the 8 sata ports.



I'm useless at speccing things out, so the others can probably shave a bit off that. Geizels will take 5% too. Depends on your drive count and how much load you intend to put it under. Oh and I forgot to include a cooler.

Serephucus

Sadly that ASRock board isn't an option as ED said, so you're probably looking at something like what he's specced you.

Another option is to get a cheaper H81 board and a few of these. I'm unsure what controllers unRAID is compatible with though, so you'll want to look into that.

Cuddlesworth

Expensive to run though. I reckon that Pentium plus case + drives + fans would be around 100 watts Idle. Which is 150 Euros a year 24/7 atm(electricity in Ireland has increased year on year out of line with inflation). The Avoton Atom with a Pico PSU would run at at least half and uses a passive heatsink so its much quieter.

ED E

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Expensive to run though. I reckon that Pentium plus case + drives + fans would be around 100 watts Idle. Which is 150 Euros a year 24/7 atm(electricity in Ireland has increased year on year out of line with inflation). The Avoton Atom with a Pico PSU would run at at least half and uses a passive heatsink so its much quieter.

42-55W at the wall in fact. PSU fan never spins up.

Serephucus

Can confirm. 9 drives with spin-down disabled, and it pulls about 50-60W from the wall.

colm_c

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

That's a tall order for a small budget, one in which you have taken well over 25% on the case alone.

Yeah, fair enough thought it might have been a bit low alright, let's bump up the budget 5-600.

I'm not a fan of the atom processors, prefer i3/i5.

Likely to max out the case over time 8 HDD + 2 SSD's so I think the PICU probably won't have the power to be able to spin up all of these drives.

ED E

That particular atom is not like other atoms, just FYI.

colm_c

ED E wrote: »

That particular atom is not like other atoms, just FYI.

Looking at the Avoton specs, they do look decent and designed for just what I need.

Atom is back on the table.

Cuddlesworth

colm_c wrote: »

Yeah, fair enough thought it might have been a bit low alright, let's bump up the budget 5-600.

I'm not a fan of the atom processors, prefer i3/i5.

Likely to max out the case over time 8 HDD + 2 SSD's so I think the PICU probably won't have the power to be able to spin up all of these drives.

I'm surprised about the efficiency of the Pentium, but those Avoton's are amazing. Keeping in mind the quad core version are what Synology use in their high end kit. They have a TDP of 13-15 watts with a decent amount of power. For use in a NAS/Web server they are perfectly positioned.

ED E

The new generation have even lower TDPs, but theyre pricey.