[Beer40oz]

Ok so I got my list down of what to purchase to make this server:

Beer UnRAID Server

MSI 760GM-P33 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 CMPSU-430CX 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply

Patriot Xporter XT Boost 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model PEF4GUSB

AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor SDX140HBGQBOX

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7/1G

COOLER MASTER SickleFlow 120 R4-L2R-20AR-R2 120mm Silent operation Green LED case fan

Pretty awesome all is about $250.... (no Hard Drives of course)


Does this look ok? The PSU is 430 watts is this enough to power 10 green drives?

Please advise all comments welcomed.

[eskro]

Which 'green' drives your talking about? SEAGATE? WD?

[Beer40oz]

Which 'green' drives your talking about? SEAGATE? WD?

WD.... and also wondering on the Hard Drives.... what is best? and what is best for the Parity one?

Im going to start with the free 3 hard drive option first.

I read that Poofyhairguy recommends this one:

Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W

[eskro]

well 620W is powerful!

but i too, wonder if the CORSAIR CMPSU-430CX 430W can handle 10 Hard Drives..

Anyone?

[xecutionx]

If everything your running is lower power (say an atom board) it doesn't make sense using a 500W+ PSU. Most PSUs are not efficient at lower outputs.

I think a normal hard drive probably uses like 3 amps. You need to look at how many amps the 12v rail has, and don't exceed it. The green drives obviously use less.

Don't quote me on anything, this is what I got from reading a few topics.

[numb7rs]

Hard Drives need a big current when they spin up. Peak start up power is roughly 20W for a typical 'green' drive. See 'Power Consumption' near the bottom of the page. I think that Corsair should be fine.

[bmcclure937]

The Corsair PSU you have selected should be fine. It is a single 12V rail. Even under the load during spinup on boot. Looks like a solid build... I do not use UnRAID so I cannot comment on the CPU requirements.

I run a single-core AMD Sempron 2.6GHz in my FreeNAS box using ZFS. I finally decided to upgrade to an AMD Athlon X2 5050e (45w TDP) to help with processing for ZFS while still keeping cool and at 45w. This is a good choice for me, because I will be using 9 disks with ZFS and that can require a little more CPU!

I do not know how UnRAID works (as well as I know about FreeNAS and ZFS) so I cannot comment on the needed CPU specs. I bet they are nothing fancy and a single-core will do just fine. Heck, a single-core has suited my needs for 2 yrs in FreeNAS running 4x1TB drives but now I am upgrading and want my performance to be good with all of my disks in ZFS.

Anyhow, back on topic! If UnRAID does on-the-fly parity checks and R/W from all drives at the same time... then it may not be a bad idea to use a beefier CPU. Someone with more UnRAID knowledge would need to comment on this. I know the R/W performance of UnRAID is rather slow (comparatively speaking) due to the method used for parity. I think it reads from all of the disks, but am not sure.

Does anyone with UnRAID experience know if using a dual-core CPU could help with throughput?!

[eskro]

well i know that unRAID spins only the drives that contains the data your trying to access..

So if you have a 10 hard Drive unRAID array, not all 10 will spin 24/7...

just the one it needs....

[leigh_munro]

That PSU is fine...

I've built 3 different 10 disk unRaid servers (atom based) all with PSU's rated around the 400w mark. One of the build used that exact PSU which works fine with a mixture of old and new disks ranging in size from 320GB-2TB. Really the main thing you are looking for is something with a single 12v rail, which the CX430 has.

FYI the other PSU's i used without issue are;

Corsair VX450w
Antec NEO ECO 400C

Leigh.

[eskro]

Well then Beer40oz, judging by your wish list

i can say that you have the BEST Super Low Cost NAS Rig one can get for the money!!

Handles 10 Hard Drives!!

So in an unRAID array this means potentially --> 18TB + 2TB!!

thats crazy

Good job Beer40oz!!

[TugboatBill]

I'm running 6 Seagate 2GB LP drives w/a cache SSD and a Intel DQ45EK MB & a low power Celeron CPU on a 300W supply. No problems whatsoever.

Speed? Depends on the drive speed and your network. I'm using a SSD cache and I consistently get 90BM/s writes, so unraid can be fast. I haven't tested read speed because I have all the read bandwidth I need for feeding 3 PCs.

[Beer40oz]

Sweetness I love this this forum. The Antec NEO ECO 400C looks pretty tempting too since it's lower power consumption 80 PLUS CERTIFIED and more connectors.

How about for hard drives? what is a good one for parity? and for the rest?

[misterpink]

I have the neo eco 400 in a new build with a single core sempron and 8 drives (so far) and i haven't had any problems. It sips juice 99% of the time as I usually only have 2 drives spun up max. Even if I add a few more, the only time I'll be crossing my fingers is if I have to do a full power/boot cycle - which thankfully is rare.

[eskro]

~ delete please ~