Newbie Economy Build - UK Specific

Anyone got experience building unraid based servers in the UK? The vast majority of the things I've read refer to sourcing products in the USA (normally from newegg), which I've either found hard to obtain here, or much more expensive. I'm wondering if anyone can suggest some components that represent good value in the UK. If they can be found from a a single (or couple) of suppliers that would be a bonus to save on shipping. Somewhere like http://www.ebuyer.co.uk or http://www.dabs.com would be perfect.

I will be placing 4 1tb sata drives in the new build (which I already have). I'll end up needing more storage, so would like the box to take a minimum of 8 sata disks, although I'm happy to buy a 4in3 module later if needed.

Other than that, my main restraint, unfortunately is cost. I need the build to be as cheap as possible, ideally under £150.

I like the look of the Coolermaster 590 case, which is not the cheapest, but seems to be a good, popular choice. I can pick it up in the UK form ebuyer, including a 500w cpu for £69.99

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143125

Can anyone suggest other components to match with the case (from ebuyer perhaps)? Is it possible to do it for under 150? Or should I consider a cheaper case?

Thanks

I looked for the first board with more than 4 SATA port and started with Intel. IMHO the intel boards seem to have more support or at least less users saying they don't work with unraid.  As for 6 SATA ports adding more cards is an option but could get expensive as well.  With 6 you'll be good for another 2 drives.

This one has 6 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148024 and free delivery and is close to the one on the http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#Motherboard its £63.73 while the cheapest board on the site is 39.

This Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz is fast enough at £31.51 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128997  or for a little more an Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2GHz has fast enough for £42.55 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145259

Now your 10 over and still need memory.

You could go the AMD route

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 which is on the hardware compatibility page (only one user posthttp://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2642.0) and is £46.84 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/153087

Then a lower end processor AMD Athlon 64 Socket AM2 LE-1640 (2.6GHz) for 32.99http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141243

Now your right at 150 and still need memory

Now some would say 2GB is over kill but its inexpensive so 20.99 for Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129177 for either system would do.  I also like memory that has heat spreaders.

So with one your over by 30 the other by 20.  But the intel route the board has free shipping so I don't know what that would equate too.

In the end if you pick a mobo with supported chipsets you'll be pretty well off.  As for processors and memory unraid is very light on the CPU and doesn't need a whole lot.  My first server was a celeron from 3 years ago with 1gb of memory and it worked fine.

I came up with a similar configuration.

All parts from eBuyer.com as follows:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L iG31 Socket 775 Onboard VGA 42

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140066

CPU Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz Socket 775  31

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128997

RAM Kingston 2gb (2x1gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 20

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149699

Case + PSU Coolermaster CM-590 Case Plus CM eXtreme 500W PSU  70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143125

163 total + shipping

Notes:   The MB only has 4 SATA ports and onboard graphics.  It will get you started, but you'll need to purchase a SATA controller card (and 4/3 drive cage) for future expansion.  You could go with a cheaper case and separate power supply, but you'll end up paying close to 70 for those anyway.  As Erikatcuse stated, better off building a system that is set up for future expansion.

Also, special attention should be paid to the power supply.  You don't want to cheap out on it.   A faulty or underpowered one can cause problems down the road.

Oh, and to use more than 3 drives, you'll need an unRaid key.

Might shoot for 200 budget.

I cant recommend strongly enough biting the bullet and paying the extra to get one of the 2 official unRAID boards.

Doing so you are essentially then buying a NAS appliance that has been thoroughly tested and continues to be tested by the creator of unRAID. yes it is much more expensive but taken in the context of how much time unRAID has been tested by the most skilled unRAID user on THAT specific hoard IMO it false economy not to.

Yes other boards will work and if your the type that likes debugging maybe thats the route to go but dont put too much stock in people saying xxx board works. Some of these users will have very light NAS needs with few disks and not hammering them. the last thing you need is to find that your setup breaks after a while when scaling.

This is EXACTLY the situation I was in. I went through 2 boards that were community recommended only to find that I had bugs that no one else had reported. I spent weeks trying to fix it and eventually purchased the older offical board. Since that day I havent had a single unique to me bug. My time = money so its money well spent.

In fact something like this should be added to the wiki.

What you say is completely valid, and I respect it.  I differ in my opinion a little, in that I prefer to see unRAID as widely compatible with almost any board, but I cannot say my opinion is better, and I believe new users should hear both.  I've added an intro note to the Hardware Compatibility wiki page, top of the Motherboard section, and included a link to your thoughts.  I don't know if this is what you wanted, so feel free to edit and improve.

Thanks very much for the replies here. It's really appreciated.

Out of the two motherboards mentioned, I'm tempted to go with the more expensive one, simply because of the sata ports. I envisage myself needing 5 or 6 in not too distant future. So it will save getting an extra card. Plus, that board seems to have more users reporting success. Where are the "official" boards listed. I'm sure it's starring me in the face, but I couldn't see mention on the hardware computability page.

So far:

MSI P43 Neo-F iP43 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148024 - 63

Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128997 - 31

Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Hyperx Memory CL5 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129177 - 21

Lexar 2GB USB Flash Drive JumpDrive FireFly http://www.ebuyer.com/product/122989 - 4

Case + PSU Coolermaster CM-590 Case Plus CM eXtreme 500W PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143125 - 70

=£189

The £200 budget is looking more realistic. Might have to apply to the gf for an extension.

Do those 4in3 modules masquerade under any other names? The seem strangely absent from both the ebuyer and the dabs sites.

Anything I'm missing? I have no cables whatsoever, so anything that isn't going to be bundled with the case/motherboard I'll need to also purchase. By my reckoning, at minimum I'll need 4 sata cables (unless they are included somewhere?)

Thanks again for the assistance

Thanks very much for the replies here. It's really appreciated.

 

Out of the two motherboards mentioned, I'm tempted to go with the more expensive one, simply because of the sata ports. I envisage myself needing 5 or 6 in not too distant future. So it will save getting an extra card. Plus, that board seems to have more users reporting success. Where are the "official" boards listed. I'm sure it's starring me in the face, but I couldn't see mention on the hardware computability page.

 

So far:

 

MSI P43 Neo-F iP43 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148024 - 63

Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128997 - 31

Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Hyperx Memory CL5 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129177 - 21

Lexar 2GB USB Flash Drive JumpDrive FireFly http://www.ebuyer.com/product/122989 - 4

Case + PSU Coolermaster CM-590 Case Plus CM eXtreme 500W PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143125 - 70

 

=£189

 

The £200 budget is looking more realistic. Might have to apply to the gf for an extension.

 

Do those 4in3 modules masquerade under any other names? The seem strangely absent from both the ebuyer and the dabs sites.

 

Anything I'm missing? I have no cables whatsoever, so anything that isn't going to be bundled with the case/motherboard I'll need to also purchase. By my reckoning, at minimum I'll need 4 sata cables (unless they are included somewhere?)

 

Thanks again for the assistance

Sometimes the motherboard will come with SATA cables.  I know the Abit AB9 Pro i bought did; granted i ended up buying others that were right angle connector types cause it fit better in my case.

Anyway, the official motherboard is not very well distinguished on the Hardware list… i will fix that in a second.  Basically the folks that have been here a while just looked at the preconfigured Lime Tech box and found the board on the list.

EDIT: OK, i have updated the Hardware Page to more prominently reflect the current and past official boards.  I will also be (hopefully sooner rather then later) be adding many more links for every board on the list.  Ideally i will be adding a link to the manufacturers website and a link to newegg for reviews.

What you say is completely valid, and I respect it.  I differ in my opinion a little, in that I prefer to see unRAID as widely compatible with almost any board, but I cannot say my opinion is better, and I believe new users should hear both.  I've added an intro note to the Hardware Compatibility wiki page, top of the Motherboard section, and included a link to your thoughts.  I don't know if this is what you wanted, so feel free to edit and improve.

I try to be neutral on this issue, but tend to lean towards NAS's side (as much as it pains me );

Buying one of the standard motherboards (motherboards that are or have been used in Limetech pre-configured servers) helps ensure compatibility with current (and future) unRAID versions.  These are tested by LimeTech before release.  If a user has a problem, motherboard compatibility issues (hard issues to diagnose or eliminate from consideration) can largely be ruled out.  You do pay a premium, and Intel processor-based MBs are the only option, but they have the right features for an unRAID server.

But only a small minority of users use them, and the motherboard section of the forums is full of posts about motherboards.  Just take it and the hardware compatibility matrix with a grain of salt.  Be careful that you don't select a motherboard just because one or two newbies with 3 drive systems reported success after running for 2 hours.  These systems really need to run a for a month or two and demonstrate stability and ability to successfully check parity before you can have some confidence that they are really stable and compatible.  Some problems don't crop up until you get lots of drives in the system.  If this is where you are going, try to find a motherboard that is known to support more than 12 drives to minimize risk of hitting a wall prematurely.

I have suggested a verification leveling system, which is just getting implemented.  If people are willing to test their systems and report compatibility using these standard criteria, the risk of using a non-standard board will be lessened. 

There are always those, however, that like to explore the brave new world of unverified motherboards.  (Thank goodness or we'd never learn a thing about newer motherboards).  But those users need to realize the they may have some bumps in the road.  RobJ, Joe L, and others in the forum (including me) try to be as helpful as we can to help them diagnose problems.

I (personally) use one of the standard motherboards (P5B VM DO), a decision that I do not regret.  But that motherboard is not currently offered and likely next to impossible to find.  The new standard motherboard is this SuperMicro C2SEE motherboard.

I went through 2 boards that were community recommended only to find that I had bugs that no one else had reported.

I presume neither of these was at the time nor is now on the motherboard compatibility list?

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#Motherboard

No this was before i kick started the wiki into motion

Thanks for all the replies and putting up with my fairly basic questions - it's really appreciated

I'm thinking of stretching to SuperMicro C2SEE (although it's availability in the UK seems a bit patchy). For the peace of mind and guaranteed future compatability, I'm thinking it might be worth it. Will it work ok with the Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz?

Can anyone confirm that the power supply that ships with the coolermaster 590 bundle (500w) is a reasonable choice? Will I run into power problems if I'm running say 6-8 drives in the future? I can't envisage running more than 8 in the next few years, but if the 500w is unlikely to power 6, I might consider buying just the case, and selecting a different power supply.

Thanks