New unraid build

Hello guys,

i will start to build new unraid server, the one i have now doesn't support virtualization. Could you give me some info what would hardware to choose.

I have enclosure (rack 19"), i have 4GB RAM DDR3, unraid pro licence.

I would need a motherbord (support for vt, 2x gigabit NIC), 6TB total storage, cache drive, raid card to connect all of this.

The server would be used, apart from the storage, for tvheadend (to 2-3 computers), running 2-3 virtual machines (windows, linux), running dlna,...

Thank you for the help!

I'm a small potatoes unRAIDer myself, but you could probably help folks better understand your needs if you specified how many drives you plan on installing in this system.  Also, what are the specs on your existing enclosure and power supply?

Hi, yes, there would be around 6 drives + a ssd cache. Enclosure is rack 4U custom made, so i can fit inside pretty much everything. Power supply isn't good, because it is just a small adapter of the atom motherboard.

Ok, so here is my parts list so far:

MB: ASRock C226 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157409

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4570

GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 4600

NIC: Dual onboard

PSU: Corsair RM550 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139053

What do you think? Is is good configuration or do i need to change something?

Ok, so here is my parts list so far:

 

MB: ASRock C226 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157409

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4570

GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 4600

NIC: Dual onboard

PSU: Corsair RM550 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139053

 

What do you think? Is is good configuration or do i need to change something?

From what I see the mobo supports ECC memory which is a good feature. Do you plan to use the expansion slots for a TVHeadEnd tuner card? With "just" six drives you're not going to need more slots for controller cards. These days a plain-old PCI slot is a waste of real estate. On-board video is nice, but you don't need much more than VGA resolution.

With the cost of that board you may want to look at a SuperMicro equivalent. SM's boards are frequently used for unRAID builds and support on this forum would probably be better.

For PSU's, Silverstone and SeaSonic edge out the Corsairs except the HX series.

Good luck with your unRAID build!

If ECC is a design requirement I think you need to have a CPU that explicitly supports it.  I'm pretty sure the i5-4570 does not.

No, the ECC is not a must.

What MB do you recommend? From Supermicro i found http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182831.

Don't need to have on-board video, hifi audio, fancy stuff... Just need to have 6+ sata ports, dual gigabit nic, 1150 socket.

The motherboard you've selected supports ECC (a good thing) ... but the processor you've selected absolutely does NOT have ECC support.

For ECC support, you'll need to use one of the Core i3's with ECC support (check the specs) or a Xeon E3 series CPU.    The Xeon is your best choice, as you can get notably better performance as well as lower power consumption.

Ok so if i go with E3-1230 v3 http://ark.intel.com/products/75054/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1230-v3-8M-Cache-3_30-GHz, i can use ECC.

Yes, that's an excellent choice for your CPU.    PassMark is 9429 ... well above the 7073 of the Core i5 you were considering; and it's a much better CPU ... lower power consumption, less heat generation, and ECC support 

Only thing i am worried about is the lack of graphics on the CPU. Because i don't know if tvheadend uses GPU or CPU to handle the stream forward to clients (XBMC)? So if that is the case, it is better to choose the E3-1246 with Intel graphics http://ark.intel.com/products/80916/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1246-v3-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz.

Agree -- the 1246v3 is an excellent choice and has the HD4600 graphics embedded.  It also has an even higher PassMark score -- 10184.

I have that same motherboard and I went with the xeon 1245 best bang for buck and it was not that much more than the 1235.  I use esxi with mine so I don't need to use a gpu but I have one just in case.  I'm not sure if there are still issues with passing through the CPU's GPU.  When I built my system people where having trouble with it but that was a year ago and lots of things have changed.

I am running unRAID and a Windows 8.1 VM for Argus TV, XBMC library sync, and MySQL.

I eventually want to move to unRAID 6 and use dockers for everything.  I thought I read somewhere that Argus TV is going cross platform and if it does I might be able to use that with dockers.  Otherwise I'll give tvheadend a try.