[Flinger]

I posted this over on the lime-tech forums, but I thought I would post it here as well because there is overlap and these forums tend to be more active.

What is your budget? $350ish

How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need? 10-12, though I will only have 6 to begin with.

Is expandability important to you? If so, what's your long term goal? I think I'll max out at 10, 12 at the most.

Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)? If so, which ones? Be specific. uTorrent, Sickbeard, SAB, MySQL, possibly more. This unRAID box will be serving up mostly 720p and some 1080p to three different XBMC HTPCs.

Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives? If you don't have a specific need for 7200 rpm drives, then choose green drives. Green Drives

Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build? This includes drives.
I have one SATA expansion card that adds two more SATA, and 4x2TB WD EARS.

If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up. See below.




CASE Antec Three Hundred Illusion
PSU Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W
MOBO ASRock H61M/U3S3
CPU Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
RAM G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)

I'm also going to buy 2x2TB WD EARX, one for parity and the other for more space and also because I will need a blank drive so I can begin migrating my data into the array. I have thumb drive and enough SATA cables for the install. Just wondering if I am missing anything glaring or if any of you have advice, concerns if this were your build.

[wsume99]

Only a few comments...

1. I would avoid the Atheros NIC on that MB. The NIC hierarchy is Intel >> Realtek > Atheros. The limetech forums may say its compatible but I would not have one in my server. You could always just throw in an Intel PCI NIC if you have any issues. That is what I did when my onboard realtek NIC went haywire. So I guess I'm just asking if you're aware of the NIC you selected. It may be fine but you may want to choose a different MB as well.
   
2. That case can only support 11 HDDs - assuming you purchase a 5-in-3 hot swap bay.
   
3. You could opt for a G530 or G620 instead of the i3. It would save some $$$ and you would still have all the CPU you'd ever need.
   

[GortWillSaveUs]

An i3 CPU for an unRaid box seems to be overkill,...and adding cost to your limited budget,..especially when the hard drives are what add cost pretty quickly.
I do understand that you want to run the extra apps,..but not sure that an i3 is really needed.

[wsume99]

^^Agreed. If you were going to be transcoding on the fly (i.e. Plex or AirVideo) then it might make sense but it's not needed for the apps you listed. So I'd go with a G530 or G620.

[assassin]

I use a g530 in my whs2011/flexraid server. I run plex server without any issues.

[jangjong]

I'm running G530 + Atheros chip NIC MB. Haven't had any problems specific to unRAID so far.

[wsume99]

I'm running G530 + Atheros chip NIC MB. Haven't had any problems specific to unRAID so far.

Good to hear. My point was not that it won't work but that IMO Atheros NICs are riskier than the other two major OEMs. My biggest concern when building my server was stability so I spent a few more $$$'s to purchase solid components.

[jangjong]

Good to hear. My point was not that it won't work but that IMO Atheros NICs are riskier than the other two major OEMs. My biggest concern when building my server was stability so I spent a few more $$$'s to purchase solid components.

Definitely understandable. I would have gone with Intel NIC if I actually planned out what parts I want.. I just saw $15 MOBO deal that I couldn't pass away and decided to gamble haha. I took a chance but in the end, it worked out nicely.

[Flinger]

I went slightly above my budget, but I always do. LOL. I ended up going with a different mobo, they had an open box so I got it for the same price as the original build. This one has an extra PCIe x1 slot and a Realtek NIC. I also swapped out the case for a 900 which will give me the ability to use 4in3 or 5in3 cages so I can cram in more drives. I kept the i3 because I want to future proof and keep all options open.

CASE Antec Nine Hundred
PSU Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W
MOBO ASRock H67M
CPU Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
RAM G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)

Also, thanks for the advice, everyone.