2014-07-13, 23:55
I had been looking at unRAID, but settled on FlexRaid's tRAID. In part because I work exclusively on Windows since probably 1998 (use to do SysAdmin work on a variety of platforms and flavors), and I already have Windows 7 licenses available. The system would function primarily as a NAS, but also be able to be a HTPC. If possible some light gaming (given existing GPU) would be nice too. I'm looking for advice on a few components.
Existing Components:
Existing Components:
- CASE: ULTRA Etorque™ H4 Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case
- GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
- HDD: WD Red NAS WD30EFRX 3TB - (5) at the moment
- CPU - I was thinking about this i5: Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W. I was thinking that would allow me to do any gaming I might want to do. Any concerns about that? If I didn't want to do much gaming would an i3 be sufficient? Alternatives?
- MOBO - What would you recommend? All of the drives are SATA III so I was looking for 6.0GB/s. It would need to support the SAS controller card, and probably have 4 SATA III connections given the need to support a maximum of 12 (4+8 from SAS) drives.
- SAS - What's the biggest between a SUPERMICRO vs. LSI SAS controller card? Any recommendations? I want to be able to maintain the 6.0GB/s transfer rate. Any difficulty on any firmware updates that might be required?
- PSU - How much of a power supply do I need to support all of these components to be safe?
- Any other advice would be appreciated
