[seand]

Poster A aks "Are there prebuilt systems?"

Poster B says "Yes there are but they are very expensive compared to build your own" and offers a link to illustrate that illustrates point about price.

However, link is outdated.

Poster C could simply say "Actually link is outdated, etc." and leave it at that. Instead goes off into lots of petty and needless name calling that does not help anyone.

Reread the thread. It speaks for itself.

But to try to get somewhat back on topic, yes, thanks for the links to the 3 non-lime tech folks building pre-builds currently. They are all priced about the same as the ones lime-tech sold previously. All quite a bit more expensive than a build your own. FWIW, all 3 builders choose to use hot swap drive cages even though UnRAID does not actually support hot swap. Make what you want of that. Your link, if not the stuff about me, was a helpful contribution.

[publicENEMY]

why unraid? why not freenas? freenas is free.

[eskro]

why unraid? why not freenas? freenas is free.

Well, because unRAID pawns all for media storage!!
The ability to grow your array as needed
using any Drive/BRand/Size is priceless!!

[claypigeon]

why unraid? why not freenas? freenas is free.

IMO you first need to ask if you need raid based NAS at all with respect to XMBC.

IMO the primary value of a RAID system (again assuming the use case is XBMC) is data protection/recovery for your content.

If data protection / recovery functionality is not a core requirement to you, IMO just use network shares as your NAS. You risk drive failure based data loss but if that is ok with you, dont waste your time on a RAID based NAS.

you can keep adding physical and logical volumes to your system and you just add them to your XMBC sources, XBMC treats sources of the same type as a single view across multiple volumes. There is no need to have all your content in 1 large logical volume, xbmc does a fine job of abstracting the physical layer of the underlying data files, directories and file systems.

[bcboncs]

Well, because unRAID pawns all for media storage!!
The ability to grow your array as needed
using any Drive/BRand/Size is priceless!!

I just watched a crap-ton of videos about unRAID on youtube from blip.tv or category5.tv but now I have a few questions to you since you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable source for this stuff.

Is there any other RAID environment that slows down HDD usage when not in use and allows expansion for new HDDs? I don't want to purchase a license if there are other similar solutions out there.

Thanks!

[wsume99]

Say I have 2x 2TB hard drives. 1 is parity from the start.

If I expand with TWO new hard drives, does the parity drive keep up?

Yes, as long as the new hard drives are 2TB or smaller.

Also, is there a certain amount of storage the parity drive must have or can a single 2TB parity drive be good enough for 10x 2TB storage drives?

The rule for parity drive size is that it must be as large or larger than the biggest disk in your array. As long as you do not violate that rule a single parity drive will protect as many hard drives as you need up to the maximum unRAID will support (20 data drives w/ the pro license).

[T800]

ASRock 880GM-LE (Incl. VAT: £46.70)

chip is Realtek 8111DL and is listed working on unRAID WiKi page...

however, you can install a MAX of 18HDD's with this motherboard...

Can you explain how this is done? What cards etc?

I've got my server built with 5 drives added.

[dannycorker]

Hi - I'm UK based and interested in building a NAS - is there a step-by-step guide anywhere for this? I know nothing about NAS at all at the moment, but am tech savvy (studying computer science at Uni), I'm just not sure where to look for info about setting up unRaid etc! :S

[eskro]

@T800: sure!

ASRock 880GM-LE's Slots & Ports:
----------------------------
PCI Express 2.0 x16: 1
PCI Express x1: 1
PCI: 2
SATA-II Ports: 6

1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot = 8 hard drives using this Here
1 PCI Express x1 slot = 2 hard drives using this Here
2 PCI slots = 2 hard drives using this Here
6 SATA-II ports = 6 hard Drives

So thats a total of 18HDD's

And note that even tho there's 2 old school PCI slots,
its not recommended to place more then 1 Sata card there
since they use share bandwith...
So yeah, 1 of the 2 PCI slots stay empty...

[bcboncs]

I saw that unRAID budget server list was last updated on the 17th, but would you agree that that hardware is still the best-budget hardware for today as well?

I may switch up the case to the case as mentioned by that first poster but everything else I don't want to tweak unless I need to.

Also, is there any other software RAID/NAS configuration out there that will support low performance drive speeds when HDDs are not in use and allows expansion for new HDDs?

I don't want to purchase a license if there are other similar solutions out there.

Thanks,
bcb

[itsjwills]

Hey eskro,

If I went with the unRaid Entry Level build would I still need to get everything listed in your Group 6 HTPC Build?

I am looking at building everything all at once and those are the setups that I would like to go with. If I am building the server how would that affect my Group 6 build?

[CASHMON3Y]

I just built a new server using these parts, its not UnRAID but Its still for a server.

$60 CPU - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz
$62 MOBO - ASUS M4A78LT-M (6 SATA ports, 2 PCIe for expansion and 4 DIMM's)
Then just 4GB of DDR3, and several 1TB Samsung SpinPoint drives. The parts should be here next week, im so excited!!

[eskro]

bcboncs:
yes, its still the best value up to this day!
you can even save $25 if you just change the motherboard
for the ASRock 880GM-LE model ,,,,
but you loose 2 more HDD's capacity in the END...
read here --> http://ow.ly/1uUYFV
and i cant talk about other NAS software,,,
unRAID is whats mainly used for media storage...
yes, u might have to pay in the end,
but honestly, its worth it!

itsjwills: not sure what u mean,,,
you want an ALL-in-ONE HTPC!?
HTPC + NAS together!?

CASHMON3Y: nice!! keep up updated!!

[CASHMON3Y]

I think I may just make my own thread on it, somewhat for my own benefit too so that I can keep track of the exact install process if I need to follow it again. Ill edit this post with the link!

Edit: Link!

[itsjwills]

bcboncs:


itsjwills: not sure what u mean,,,
you want an ALL-in-ONE HTPC!?
HTPC + NAS together!?

CASHMON3Y: nice!! keep up updated!!

No, I am looking to build them separately. I was just curious if your HTPC recommended builds would change at all if using an unRaid server or if you built them in a way that a server would compliment them. Sorry I am not very knowledgable when it comes to all of this.

Would I be okay going with your Group 6 recommendation exactly as stated with the beginners unRaid server exactly as stated?