[t2ffn]

So I've gone around and around, and decided instead on unRaid, I'm going to use the hardware I have, with Win7 and FlexRaid, and also use the tower for XBMC in the bedroom, and Usenet. UnRaid looks great, but the hardware is so picky, especially harddrives! Flexraid works on top of any OS and any hardware. Simples. I can use this as my server, run a 2nd XBMC and use a central MySQL database for the library.

Quick recap of the current kit:

PHP Code:

Coolmaster 590
ATI Sapphire HD 3870 graphics card. (Twin DVI, no HDMI)
2 x Kingston 2Gb Ram 800Mhz DDR2 Ram
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66Ghz Processor
Intel MOBO DG41TY 


What I think I need to add all of my HDDs:

Molex -> Sata power
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-cb-4...able-200mm

Sata Card PCI-e
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002V...B6FBTK1FYF

I've never built a full PC so would appreciate if someone could explain a little on the Sata cards, I've seen some that use "break out cables" where they can have 4 drives on once connection. Are they better than for example, the 4 port card linked above?

I want to use it with Win 7 and Flexraid.

Thanks

[poofyhairguy]

Sata Card PCI-e
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002V...B6FBTK1FYF

Only thing I don't like is this card. Two problems with it:

1. 2 sata is the most I want on a PCIe 1x bus (or a normal PCI bus)

2. That card is obviously a 2x card with a portmultiplier built in, so when you want to access two drives at the same time it will be slow compared to onboard sata.

If you want to use that mobo and you want to fill that case (so be able to have 12 drives), then get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6816101358

And some breakout cables. Then replace your GPU with a PCI GPU (get a 8400 GS off ebay for cheap).

If that is too rich for your blood, then I would recommend instead getting this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JQG...AJ6KJDVJXT

And this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6816132001

That gives you four drives (8 total) and maxes both your PCIe and PCI buses.

What is your PSU? Unless you bought one for the task with a single rail of power, the one you have probably won't work.

[t2ffn]

Beautiful. Shame my brand new graphics card didn't sell on ebay as that would pay towards the Sata card.

Thanks for the tip, not too clued up on sata, sas etc. Breakout cables it is. That card is £85 in the UK, so not too bad really.
The nVidia card can be picked up for about £20 on ebay by the looks of it.

Thanks.

[poofyhairguy]

Two final things:

1. I recommend the 512mb 8400 GS, not the 256mb one if you want to play Blu Ray rips.

2. After a little research for you I have found that this mobo has a SPDIF connector onboard:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/17101/en...nglish.pdf

So if you buy one of these (EXACTLY one of these):

http://cgi.ebay.com/V-2-Gigabyte12CR1-1S...3086wt_907

You can not only get 1080p video support (via the 8400 GS) but also an optical out for your receiver. Good HTPC then....

[t2ffn]

As usual, stellar advice with well thought out links.

Thanks, I may have to take your advice!

[misterpink]

What is your PSU? Unless you bought one for the task with a single rail of power, the one you have probably won't work.

I've got a question about this specifically with regard to flexraid. Assuming flex raid on win7 where the only real drive use is writing to or from a single drive (whichever happens to house the content in question) plus the parity drive I'd guess on writes - with the rest of the drives theoretically spun down - is a huge PS really necessary?

[poofyhairguy]

is a huge PS really necessary?

No, the size of the PSU doesn't matter much. My ten drive server only has a 400w PSU.

The trick is to have a single rail PSU so that there is enough watts for the drives. A single rail 400w PSU has more power for HDs than a 650w multi-rail PSU! Most PSUs are multi-rail- the main exception are Corsair PSUs and Antec Neo PSUs...

[misterpink]

The trick is to have a single rail PSU so that there is enough watts for the drives. A single rail 400w PSU has more power for HDs than a 650w multi-rail PSU!

Thanks, I'm glad to know I don't need to be specing out a 1000+ watt psu. However I'm a little confused on the rail issue - I would think in a system where the major power draw was a bunch O' drives that single rail vs multirail would be less of an issue, not more?

My understanding is that the advantage of single rail is the amount of amps that can be drawn per rail before a PS will shut itself off. So for example, if the PS was designed to shut down if it was drawing > 20amps, in a single rail system you can draw up to 20amps across all plugged in components before a shutdown. In a multirail, you have multiple shutdown circuits - so you may have a max of 10amps before shutdown for each rail - so you would need to be more careful in terms of what components were plugged in to each rail - and you'd run in to problems sometimes especially in a gaming rig where you had one particular component that was a huge power suck.

With that understanding - I would think that in a server that is mostly just NAS and maybe a little bit of download processing with a whole bunch of disks - power is naturally going to wind up being distributed fairly evenly across both (or all 4, depending) rails.. no?

Am I totally off base?

[bigdog66]

Thanks, I'm glad to know I don't need to be specing out a 1000+ watt psu. However I'm a little confused on the rail issue - I would think in a system where the major power draw was a bunch O' drives that single rail vs multirail would be less of an issue, not more?

My understanding is that the advantage of single rail is the amount of amps that can be drawn per rail before a PS will shut itself off. So for example, if the PS was designed to shut down if it was drawing > 20amps, in a single rail system you can draw up to 20amps across all plugged in components before a shutdown. In a multirail, you have multiple shutdown circuits - so you may have a max of 10amps before shutdown for each rail - so you would need to be more careful in terms of what components were plugged in to each rail - and you'd run in to problems sometimes especially in a gaming rig where you had one particular component that was a huge power suck.

With that understanding - I would think that in a server that is mostly just NAS and maybe a little bit of download processing with a whole bunch of disks - power is naturally going to wind up being distributed fairly evenly across both (or all 4, depending) rails.. no?

Am I totally off base?

along with what poofy says I think another big advantage with single rail is that you know better about what your going to get.....a lot of "multi rail" psu's are just marketed as that way when in rality they may have some guts to be considered multi rail but lack major circuitry to really be multi rail and in turn are less stable than either true classification....plus going with multi rail then you have to spend more time doing math and trying to figure out what devices to put on which rails and a lot of times psu's lack proper documentation for you to know which rails are which
and with prices being very reasonable on true single rail psu's ranging from 28 to 52 amp units then there really isn't any reason not to go with these

a good rule of thumb I have learned from server forums is as far as hard drives go is about 2amps per green drive and 3 for non green drives
and nowadays going with green drives is preferable so for a 20 drive media server a 52amp psu would be more than comfy running that

[poofyhairguy]

power is naturally going to wind up being distributed fairly evenly across both (or all 4, depending) rails.. no?

No. With a PSU too often all the drives are forced on one rail, while two whole rails are wasted for running SLI GPUs that you never use. GPU rails lacks the proper voltages to run HDs, so nothing gets evenly distributed. Instead one rail gets maxed with HDs and you have problems.

With single rail, that can never happen....