Suggestions please for a new build


daze

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Hi guys,

 

I have an old i7 (first gen, I believe) with 6GB RAM, on an Intel board, it's using a nice case but I don't do much gaming on the PC anymore. Last I turned this thing on was probably more than a year ago.

 

It's a bit late and my brain is fried to recall the exact details such as the PSU. Though the i7 CPU is water cooled with a Corsair H80i or so.

 

What I'd like your help on is:

 

1. Drive cages to fit at least 8 cages.

2. SATA Controller card, from reading the forums, either of these look good in IT modes? Anyone of these better than the other? LSI or Dell?

- LSI 9210-8i and 9211-8i

- Dell Perc H310

 

For virtualization, I have a i5 NUC with 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD, and USB 3.0 5GB HD running ESXi, so I think the 6GB RAM should suffice above.

 

My existing unRAID server is a 4 bay piece of crap, Acer easyStore. I had to put in an Intel card because the built in NIC has issues with unRAID drivers. I'd like to remote this slow poke running with 2GB RAM on an Intel Atom.

 

The idea is to move the 4 drives from above, and also use some 500GB SeaGate drives I have lying around.

 

I've been lurking in the forms for a while, and really want to get my idle i7 up and running.

 

Thoughts, and constructive criticism is highly welcome!

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It's an old Antec Nine Hundred case with 2.0 USBs. It has 9 drive cages.

 

Do you have suggestions for what kinds of 4in3 or 5in3 drive cages are good quality with easy access to drive for swapping/insertion?

 

As for VMs, it has a decent enough nVidia card that can play most games pretty decently. Can't recall what card exactly, but will find out and update. The board is an Intel board (DX58OG). If it could pass through the card for me to play the very occasional Steam game, great! But otherwise, I don't have any need for VMs on this machine (if I do in the future, I can add RAM).

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I don't think the first gen Core i7 supports hardware pass-through...

 

There's a whole thread on drive cages here.  Icy Dock, iStarUSA, SuperMicro, Rosewill and Norco are all popular.  You need to decide on trays or trayless.  Also, look through the reviews on the integrated fans - some move air better than others, and some are more quiet than others.  I prefer 4in3 drive cages unless you really need 5in3 - the 5in3 cages really pack things in tight.

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I want trays so I can remove disks easily when need be. I would prefer, as you do, to for 4in3. Heat can be a substantial factor in drive failure. Thanks for the link. That's very help full.

 

As for pass through for VM Gaming, that's fine. I can just boot it up with regularly or build another PC for gaming should the need arise. In fact, my 2016 top of the line MacBookPro 15" with discrete AMD graphics should work decently with the old collection of Steam games.

 

Take care.

 

Post more when I have this setup.

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I'm thinking about picking up one of these to try for a case that has some molding up front that makes a cage with a front mounted fan difficult:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132037&cm_re=drive_cage-_-16-132-037-_-Product

 

Also a 120mm fan, but note that the power connectors are Molex not SATA.

 

The Rosewill is also a nice unit (I have one), but the "pull" simply doesn't work as well as the "push" arrangement of the front-mounted fan.  But if it fits better, clearly that's the one to use with your case.

 

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I did order, and hope to receive the two Icy Black Vortex 4in3 tomorrow (from Amazon).

 

Now, which one is a better choice? Or does it not matter too much?

 

- LSI 9210-8i and 9211-8i

- Dell Perc H310

 

Thanks guys for your superb help.

 

D.

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Orders for breakout cables (2), and some SATA power cables (just to be on the safe side), and the LSI 9211-8i ordered. Hoping to get all by Friday.

 

Report back with hopefully, some good results by moving the 4 HDs from the old Acer server. And see how much of a performance improvement I get.

 

I have Windows 7 Home or something similar running on the new box. So flashing so hopefully not be too time consuming. :)

 

Thanks all for the recommendations. It's been a project I let sit on the back burner for a while.

 

When I can, I'll pick up some additional hard drives (4 more), and stick them in the server. Would the SeaGate archival HDs be OK? I gather they may not be the fastest, but cost is a concern (as always with media). I generally stick to green WDs, and they have proved to be fairly reliable. Which I can't say about the SeaGates...

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... Would the SeaGate archival HDs be OK? I gather they may not be the fastest, but cost is a concern (as always with media). I generally stick to green WDs, and they have proved to be fairly reliable. Which I can't say about the SeaGates...

 

If you plan to use the Seagate Archive units, be sure you understand the limitations of the shingled technology.  Seagate has done an excellent job of mitigating the impact of this, but there are still use cases where it's simply NOT a good idea to use these drives.  MOST UnRAID uses will work fine with them -- but you should be sure you understand the limits.  You can read a good bit about them here:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39526.0

 

Personally, I tend to buy almost exclusively WD Reds for my servers -- including the superb helium-sealed 8TB version (but it costs a good bit more than the Seagate Archives).

 

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I've picked up two 8TBs of the SeaGate AMR series. Let's see how it goes. I'm not terribly worried about speed. Either way, as a parity drive it shouldn't slow down the rest of the drive, I hope and think. Still waiting for the breakout cables, and the LSI card. And for these two drives (which aren't blockers).

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Took a a few hours to get the 9211 flashed to IT mode. These two links were useful, as booting to DOS didn't work because of the PAL issue, and Linux didn't support the erase feature... Only resort was EFI:

 

http://serverfault.com/questions/679175/failed-to-initialize-pal-while-upgrading-an-lsi-9211-8i-to-it

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/63828/how-to-create-bootable-flash-for-efi-shell

 

Hope that helps someone.

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And we're up! Looks good so far. I need to disable the onboard crap on the board as I won't be using it. HD temps are pretty decent... 28C to 30C (not being used at time of checking).

 

Waiting for the SeaGate AMR 8TBs to arrive. And to reduce overall power consumption in the system by removing the nVidia 750Ti,  the Blu-Ray burner, two small SSDs... Etc.

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I built an unRAID system with this case, its very tight inside an while you can fit two 2.5' drives in the supplied cage, I took mine out as it was simply too tight. I had to use a SATA controller card in this case as my motherboard only had five SATA ports.

 

The suggestions for controlling airflow in the case should definitely be followed, I have 8 drives in my case and they are all constantly running around 30-31 degrees C

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