Server PC

FlexRAID is pretty much a driver on top of the OS. I looked into it for the drive pooling capabilities at the time, added SnapShot RAID later.

It runs on Windows and Linux, whichever you prefer. Supports drives of any size/shape/location, multiple parity drives, and a few other neat little tricks. It's a pretty trick little program, I'm using it on Windows 7. Happily paid for the full monty version when he decided to go commercial. Really helped me out with my file server when I got tired of running Ubuntu a while back.

Okay guys, back after a short break. Here's where I'm at:

Got a budget of around £200 to get me started.

Currently have around 12tb of storage spread over 7 desktop HDDs, and 1 internal HDD. Which I would like to migrate to my new server over time.

Want to use unRAID for my server. On my server I'd like to run sickbeard, sabnzbd, couchpotato, headphones, subsonic and maybe airvideo.

I've already had some great advice here which im grateful for, but I'm finding myself a little overwhelmed. Need a bit of hand-holding to get me on the right track. I don't have any pc or server building knowledge, but I do know where I'd like to end up. Would ideally like to use the desktop HDDs I have in some capacity, can they be taken out of their case and stored any other way? Also know that I eat up storage quickly so would need a server that could keep expanding, but I'm so over desktop HDDs now, they don't seem to be the way forward for me. I'm down to my last 40gig, but there is a summer break now for tv shows which seems like a good time to change.

I'm learning all the time, but don't want my inexperience to backfire here. I'm not from an I.T. background so I'm learning as I go. Was going to build a server by repurposing an old tower pc. Been looking on eBay for an old one to start me off but don't want to get one that isn't fit for purpose.

In my situation what would you guys opt for? Am I going about this the right way? Maybe I'm over complicating things I'm based in the uk so please bear that in mind when providing any places to source hardware.

Server is still a WIP but it is built and I'm running out of cash now Just have the HDDs left to buy, so now the question becomes should I have a cache drive or not? Thoughts?

(2012-08-06 16:02)Deano316 Wrote:  Server is still a WIP but it is built and I'm running out of cash now Just have the HDDs left to buy, so now the question becomes should I have a cache drive or not? Thoughts?

If you're short on money,...don't worry about it for now.
One consideration though,...a cache does not have to be a large drive.
So if you have a 250G laying around, or can pick one up real cheap,..then use that for a cache drive.

(2012-08-06 16:08)GortWillSaveUs Wrote:  

(2012-08-06 16:02)Deano316 Wrote:  Server is still a WIP but it is built and I'm running out of cash now Just have the HDDs left to buy, so now the question becomes should I have a cache drive or not? Thoughts?

If you're short on money,...don't worry about it for now.
One consideration though,...a cache does not have to be a large drive.
So if you have a 250G laying around, or can pick one up real cheap,..then use that for a cache drive.

I thought a cache drive had to be equal to or larger than your largest (2TB) drive? Also, without a cache drive where would I put sab/s.beard?

We might be talking about two different things,...
Were you thinking a parity drive,...
The parity drive has to be the largest drive,..while a cache drive is optional.
Here's a thread that discusses whether or not to use a cache drive.

If you want to do a budget RAID setup a used Dell Perc 6/i SAS Raid controller is an option you should consider

Available on Ebay all the time for ~$100
- based on LSI SAS1078 RAID on Chip (ROC) 500MHz
- Onboard 256MB of ECC Registered 667MHz DDR2 3-5-5-5
- RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60
- battery backup
- PCIe x8
- 2 (SFF-8484) SAS internal connectors (support for 8 x SATA drives)

More info here - http://www.overclock.net/raid-controller...-tips.html

You need a SAS to sata breakout cable as well but they are only around 20 bucks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6812120933

(2012-08-06 21:05)GortWillSaveUs Wrote:  We might be talking about two different things,...
Were you thinking a parity drive,...
The parity drive has to be the largest drive,..while a cache drive is optional.
Here's a thread that discusses whether or not to use a cache drive.

If that's the case, then I'm only one drive short of finishing my server Have a small temporary HDD in it already. It's only small and I was going to discard it, but hearing that I'll reconsider. Thanks for the help