Smurf's monster 40TB unRAID NAS build [Part II]

Smurfin

Same here.  And unlike RAID (where I went through 2 consumer NAS's before taking the unRAID plunge), it's easy to expand.  Just added two more discs and mine is up to 30.9TB useable space now... Try getting that with RAID, or WHS for the same money

Dan201

im writing to my drobo fs at the moment, speed? 16MB/sec.

andyjayh

I thought the old thread had gone quite, then I found it had moved here, doh

I'm still very impressed with my unRAID server, just works. Mine now has Transmission for bit-torrent and Squeezebox server and these run on a cache drive. So although I agree that a cache drive is probably pointless in a truly storage only system, I've found it useful to run apps that run the drive up a lot. This way it keeps the data drives powered down and only the cache drive spins when required.

All in all I'm finding the unRAID a very good solution.

creative-av

Hi all,

I was going to build an unraid box in the summer but didn't get around to it. I would like something that can contain 15-20 drives and will probably want the cache drive for apps usage. I have looked at the Norco/X-Case 4224 box which seems ideal and the new improvements on fan noise seem to be well received.

Where I am struggling is what motherboard and CPU to buy. For the Norco I would need a board with at least 2 PCI-e x4 slots for the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards. It should also have at least 4 SATA ports and all the other essentials for UnRaid (on board graphics, gigabit LAN etc).

Can anyone help a suggest a good setup?

Steve

MikeK

Not if you pick the right OS/RAID/filesystem combination - then switching operating systems can be quite easy (though it has to be said you may not have a totally free choice of which one to go to)


Same here. And unlike RAID (where I went through 2 consumer NAS's before taking the unRAID plunge), it's easy to expand. Just added two more discs and mine is up to 30.9TB useable space now... Try getting that with RAID, or WHS for the same money

Again, several RAID based implementations can be expanded fairly easily, and they're not necessarily any more expensive either - perhaps the opposite if you factor in that the OS may be cheaper or even free.

As for WHS, if the internal redundancy offering is not your bag, then WHS can be used in conjunction with FlexRAID, SnapRAID or DisParity - not identical to unRAID but similar, and they offer some features which unRAID does not!


I'm not saying that these are better or worse than unRAID - just pointing out that there are viable alternatives with similar features.

Dan201

Is flexraid the most used version of raid for whs?

saguk1234

I have the Norco/x case 420. I use an amd 245 and a asus m4a89gtd mobo. The mobo has 2 x pci slots and on board graphics. I have never had a problem with it!

creative-av

Thanks Saguk. Looking on the Lime Technology forums it seems like a lot of people had issues with it and the SAS cards. Did you have to update/downgrade firmware?

Steve

saguk1234

I did have to downgrade the firmware on my mv8 but there was new bios for the asus which made the mv8 work on its new bios.

I have no problems on any firmware or bios!

creative-av

Super. Will check it out.

Having a look on the UnRaid wiki they have an example 20 case server using the X8SIL card. Anyone used this? I can't seem to find anyone stocking it so assume there is a newer version out there?