[powerplyer]

Hello, Thank you for viewing the thread. I am not new to this stuff but am a little lost on correct software options.

Purpose/Requirements for new NAS:
Host 4 XBMC boxes in the house
Host 1 Plex Server for TV (for fun)
Back-Up of personal Data (personal user folders w/UN-PW)
Back-Up my copies or HD_DVD's and Blu-Ray (RAW)
Good protection but not RAID 1
Lowest Power consumption
Need more space
Not to loud
Spin-Up only drive that is getting accessed.
Faster Write Speed (Currently on 35MB/s once cache is full)
Future: Run XBMC (SQL) to update library in one location.

Current Configuration: (from previous recommendations)
System: Supermicro - X9SCL/X9SCM
CPU: Intel® Celeron® CPU G530 @ 2.40GHz - 2.4 GHz
Memory: 8200 MB (max. 32 GB)
Network: eth0: 1000Mb/s - Full Duplex
HBA card to drive 7 drives 3TB drives in JBOD
120GB Cache Drive
Basic Full Tower C
Paid Unraid Pro

New Configurations: (Some of this is overkill)
System: Supermicro - X10 SLM (with IPMI)
CPU: E3-1230V3
Memory: 8GB or 16GB or Kingston
120 GB Cache Drive + OS (depending on NAS SW)
16 X 3TB Drives
SuperMicro 2U chassis.
Power Supply: 3 X 450 Redundant
2 X HBA's to drive 16 drives

Now here is my questions:
I have looked at various software's and am more confused. I have looked at OMV, SnapRAID, FreeNAS, Ubuntu Server, Unraid (currently using). Each has its advantages and disadvantages for the kind of HW I am proposing. However I keep coming back to UnRAID only if I could get better write speeds. The second place runner up is OMV.

In any event if anyone has any recommendation on SW or modification to the HW; I am open for suggestions.

[CaptainPsycho]

Spin-Up only drive that is getting accessed.

Here you are limiting yourself.

Only Snapraid and UnRaid can offer this.

If you don't want to spin up all you drives think about creating different pools.

F.e. i have one raid1 system / temp volume, one 2TB raid1 volume for personal data and music, and one bigger raid6 volume for backups, media ...

Power Supply: 3 X 450 Redundant

You mean 2x, do you?

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SuperMicro 2U chassis.

There are no 2U chassis supporting 16x3,5" drives.

[RaggSokk3n]

Win 8 is also an option as long as the spin up requirement isn't that important. I'm getting up to 100MBps 7*3,5 Segate 7200. Biggest advantage is full gui over remote desktop / TeamViewer. Only drawback I see is a higher cpu requirement (I'm running 3220t). Uptime can reach 6 months+ if you turn of auto update. It has no max amount of drives and supports 99,9% of all sata expansion cards so with the right mobo you could reach 72drives easily.

---

There are Lian Li cases that look pretty good that supports 16drives +

[powerplyer]

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

Some correction:
The chassis is 3U sorry.
The PS is not redundant but failover.

As for the unRaid vs SanpRAID look to be the only option.

The problem with WHS is the 50% loss of capacity. I will look over the LL case.

Thanks for the feedback.

[two515ty]

Win 8 is also an option as long as the spin up requirement isn't that important. I'm getting up to 100MBps 7*3,5 Segate 7200. Biggest advantage is full gui over remote desktop / TeamViewer.

The problem with WHS is the 50% loss of capacity.

I believe he was referring to a full Windows 8 install, not Windows Home Server. I'm not sure how much they would differ in setup and performance, but it doesn't sound like an unreasonable option.

[NEOhidra]

Spin-Up only drive that is getting accessed.

FlexRaid - RAID over File System (RAID-F™) on windows should do that (for other platforms i am not sure). All you need to do is to mount your drives as NTFS folder and then you can add them in one pool. Here is the wiki article that explains it.

[Harro]

Now here is my questions:
I have looked at various software's and am more confused. I have looked at OMV, SnapRAID, FreeNAS, Ubuntu Server, Unraid (currently using). Each has its advantages and disadvantages for the kind of HW I am proposing. However I keep coming back to UnRAID only if I could get better write speeds. The second place runner up is OMV.

In any event if anyone has any recommendation on SW or modification to the HW; I am open for suggestions.

I posted about what I am getting for speeds a while back. Read, Write speeds on my Unraid server
So speed I don't think is really an issue for me but it could be for others. Do your research well and I think your speeds would be the same.

[Orbi]

Using a cache drive with unRaid, the limiting factor in writing speed would be your network...