[outatouch0]

Decided to go the unRAID route.

I already have a spare power supply that my HTPC suddenly decided it didn't like.
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Single +12V Rail
1 x Main connector (20+4Pin)
1 x 8 Pin EPS 12V
1 x PCI-E
4 x SATA
3 x Peripheral
1 x Floppy
approx $45 from prev. build

I now have a 10 HDD capable case (11 with a 4in3 adapter) that was given to me (just have to clean it up from the soda spill all down the front).
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x 80mm Front Fan 1 x 120mm Rear Fan Side Air duct
5 External 5.25" Drive Bays
1 External 3.5" Drive Bays
4 Internal 3.5" Drive Bays
approx $55 a few years ago


I just ordered:

Flash Drive for unRAID operating system
SanDisk Cruzer Fit 4 GB USB Flash Drive SDCZ33-004G-B35
Nice and tiny so I won't have to buy an internal adapter to put it inside the case or worry about it sticking out of the case too far.
$8 at amazon

MB
GIGABYTE GA-F2A85XM-D3H FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 (x16, x4)
SATA 6Gb/s 8 x SATA 6Gb/s
$72 amazon

CPU
AMD A4-5300 Trinity 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7480D AD5300OKHJBOX
$50 amazon

RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-4GBXM
$40 newegg

Parity Drive
Western Digital WD Black WD4001FAEX 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$258 w promo-code at newegg
wish I had the funds to buy two more.

I have an old Raptor I might try out as a cash drive if I can pick up an IDE to SATA adaptor cheap.

[Beer40oz]

Why a WD black for your Parity? 4TB that is awesome... Love it....

[Harro]

Good luck with your build. I have built 2 unraid boxes and my 1st one, I used the exact same power supply as you have listed. It works good but on my second unraid box, I went with a modular power supply and wish I had done that for the first one. It made wire management so, so much easier and looked cleaner when everything was done. You may also want to up the 430w to a 600+w supply depending on what you will run in the build and to leave room for growth later on.

[GortWillSaveUs]

Just make sure you use the right version of unRaid. I'm not sure if they have formally released the version that has support for 3TB. Plenty of people have been using it for many months now.

[outatouch0]

@Beer40oz
well, its 4TB! I have been a WD-Black user forever - you can leave them run (spinning) 24/7 and they become obsolete (sizewise) long before they fail. I lean towards performance over power savings though I have done more reading and now will be switching to WD-reds. I come to understand how the performance of Blacks really doesn't come into play for long contiguous (unfragmented) files on Linux based media servers.

@Harro
Modulars are fantastic, I have one on my main rig. I will upgrade the PS, the 430W was an extra one I already had on hand (my HTPC suddenly decided to get picky about what PS it would accept).

@GortWillSaveUs
Yea I tried version 4.7 which did not recognize drives >2TB so I had to start over with beta version 5 which seems to be working just fine.

My only gripe right now, and maybe you guys can help me, is the library updates when I start XBMC take a very long time. I used to run a 2 disk Synology and two disks on my main rig and the updates did not take half as long as they do now.
I think some of it has to do with spinning up idle drives. Even so, it takes longer than I would expect - the screensaver kicks in before the updates. I need to find out how to set the drives to remain spun-up during certain hours of the day and then go idle after no activity past 11pm.

[DonnyP]

@Beer40oz
well, its 4TB! I have been a WD-Black user forever - you can leave them run (spinning) 24/7 and they become obsolete (sizewise) long before they fail. I lean towards performance over power savings though I have done more reading and now will be switching to WD-reds. I come to understand how the performance of Blacks really doesn't come into play for long contiguous (unfragmented) files on Linux based media servers.

@Harro
Modulars are fantastic, I have one on my main rig. I will upgrade the PS, the 430W was an extra one I already had on hand (my HTPC suddenly decided to get picky about what PS it would accept).

@GortWillSaveUs
Yea I tried version 4.7 which did not recognize drives >2TB so I had to start over with beta version 5 which seems to be working just fine.

My only gripe right now, and maybe you guys can help me, is the library updates when I start XBMC take a very long time. I used to run a 2 disk Synology and two disks on my main rig and the updates did not take half as long as they do now.
I think some of it has to do with spinning up idle drives. Even so, it takes longer than I would expect - the screensaver kicks in before the updates. I need to find out how to set the drives to remain spun-up during certain hours of the day and then go idle after no activity past 11pm.

Are you able to use a Wake LAN in XBMC? Plug in your servers MAC address to configure it and your hard drives will spin up as XBMC boots up. This might solve your speed issues?

[outatouch0]

I appreciate the suggestion and will look into that.
Been on vacation and have a 1 yr old so I don't have a lot of time to set things up like I used to.