Okay, a concept is coming together. This concept uses the X-Case eXtra Value with two 8-port controller cards and a motherboard with lots of SATA ports to minimize the # of controller cards needed. Here's the high level price breakdown:
- Motherboard: $160
- Memory: 8GB @ $55 / 16GB @ $90 / 32GB @ $180
- CPU: Low-end @ $71 / Mid-range @ $172 / High-end @ $269
- Controller Cards: $112
- SAS Drive Cables: $64
- Power Supply: $90
- Case: ~$500 shipped (you need to get a shipping quote)
- Unraid Pro license: $130
Total Costs:
- 8GB Low-end: $1182 (that's only $50 per drive bay!!!)
- 16GB Midrange: $1318
- 32GB High-end: $1505
Optional Cache Upgrades
- 1x 1TB SSD (Samsung 860 EVO): $150
- 2x 1TB SSD (Samsung 860 EVO): $300 (mirrored for protection)
- 1x 1TB NVMe (Samsung 970 EVO): $300 (only do 1 or you lose SATA ports)
My recommended options are in green, as they represent the best value plus Docker capability without going overboard, in case you want to run Dockers or maybe a lightweight VM. That's less than $1500 for a nicely equipped Unraid server.
Motherboard
The ASRock Z270 TAICHI LGA 1151 motherboard ($160,
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... 6813157754), which will provide up to 10 SATA ports on-board, and at least two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 ports running in x8 mode concurrently (important for the Controller Cards below). This board also has 3 Ultra M.2 sockets for NVMe SSD's.
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With this board, you would connect 8 SATA ports to the X-Case backplanes. That leaves either 2 SATA ports for SSD cache drives (i.e. you could connect two 1TB drives and mirror them, so you get 1TB of cache that is mirrored for protection), or you can use 1 M.2 socket to connect an NVMe SSD (only one, though, otherwise you lose some of those 8 SATA ports going to the case). While the NVMe is definitely faster, you won't notice this on a gigabit network connection, and they are more expensive, but the choice is yours.
Do note that any data on the cache is not protected unless you mirror the cache with 2 drives. Typically your rips will hit your cache drive first, then get moved over to the array overnight, so having a mirrored cache is not important. But if you use Dockers/VM's, that data may also reside permanently on your cache, so having those drives mirrored will be nice insurance. You can also set up some shares to always be on the cache (i.e. Music) so you get super fast network access to that data without spinning up any drives. In that case, you could either mirror your cache drives or just keep an extra copy of your music in your protected array as a backup.
Also note that while the cache drive is technically optional, YOU WILL WANT THIS!!! A must have option in my mind. I was scared of setting up a cache drive for years, but it is so easy and works so well, I regret every day I neglected to do this.
This motherboard is compatible with both 6th and 7th gen Intel Core i7/i5/i3 / Pentium/Celeron Processors (Socket 1151), but not 8th or 9th gen.
This motherboard has dual gigabit NICs. Hopefully that is fast enough.
CPU
For basic Unraid file serving, you don't need much horsepower at all. I ran for years on a very low end Celeron G1610. These days, a Celeron G3950 is a good choice at $71 with heatsink and fan included. Note that this CPU only supports up to DDR4 2133, so you might be able to save a few more bucks by looking at slower memory than what I listed below.
If you think you will be running some Dockers and doing any transcoding, it's probably worth throwing a bit more horsepower at it. The Core i3-7300 is a nice upgrade at $172 (heatsink and fan included). This also includes Hyperthreading and VT-d Virtualization, so you can run VM's, though with it only being a dual core I'm not sure I'd recommend running a Windows VM on it.
If you'd like to run a Windows VM (desktop/server) I would definitely recommend stepping up to a quad-core CPU. The Core i5-7600 is a great choice at $269 including the heatsink and fan.
Graphics/Video Card
All three of these CPU options include integrated graphics, as does the motherboard. So you won't need an external graphics card unless you want to do something like a Win10 VM for gaming or movies. I run lots of VM's (up to four Windows Server 2016 at the same time) but I access them all remotely over RDP, so I don't need anything more than basic graphics. But I'm the exception - most Unraid users who are doing VM's are doing this for a Windows desktop, so they need high end graphics passed through.
Normally the only time you will ever use the server's graphics capabilities is when setting up the motherboard's BIOS options, or when using the Unraid console for some troubleshooting. 99.9% of the time, you will access the server remotely over the network, using the web interface or remote console/terminal.
Instead of hooking a monitor/keyboard up to it, you could alternatively use a KVM over IP type device, so you could connect to the KVM device over you network, and view the monitor's output, including the BIOS screen. You would hook the KVM over IP device up instead of a monitor/keyboard/mouse. If you hunt around, I think you can find these for under $100. I keep thinking about getting one, but I so rarely interact with the server hardware in the basement, and I had a spare monitor/keyboard handy.
Memory/RAM
For basic Unraid file serving, you don't need much memory at all. I ran one for years on just 2GB of RAM. The biggest consumer of RAM for file serving is the directory caching (which is awesome, as a bigger cache of your directories prevents drives from spinning up just to browse your folders and makes browsing much faster). Currently my server is using 3.2 GB of RAM with a handful of plugins and a couple Dockers, but no VM's.
So at a basic level I would recommend 8GB. You can easily find 8GB DDR4 2400 for $55 or less.
If you plan to run some Dockers, it's probably worth the upgrade to 16GB, and you can get 16GB DDR4 2400 for about $90.
And if you plan to run VM's, or Dockers and VM's, 32GB is a good upgrade. 32 GB of DDR4 2400 is about $180.
It's probably not worth chasing higher RAM speeds unless you will be doing memory intensive tasks like transcoding.
It's always smart to review the motherboard's Memory Support List (on ASRock's website) to make sure you are getting supported memory.
Controller Cards
One of the most popular controller cards is the
LSI 9201-8i. These are great for Unraid. Each one supports 8 drives (2 SAS connectors). You will need 2 of these to control 16 drives, since the motherboard will handle the other 8. They cost $56 each, shipped, for a total of $112:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-6Gbps-SAS- ... :rk:1:pf:0
These are older cards, using a PCI Express 2.0 x8 connection, so it is important to make sure these get installed in a slot with x8 connectivity. The motherboard I spec'd above will do this just fine, you just have to make sure you use the right slots. If you use the wrong slot, they will drop to x4 lanes, halving throughput. Also, if you use 3 slots, then at most you will be in x8/x4/x4 mode, so you do not want to have 3 PCI-e slots occupied on this motherboard, or you will halve throughput on at least one of these controller cards.
There is a newer model, the 9207-8i, that uses a faster PCI Express 3.0 x8 connection, and would still be okay even in PCI-e 3.0 x4 mode, but this costs about $40-$50 more per card, so I really don't think it is worth it unless you think you'll have 3 PCI-e cards installed at some point.
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SAS Data Cables
You will need four Mini-SAS SFF8087 to Mini-SAS SFF8087 cables (two per card, each cable supports 4 drives). These cables run from the LSI Controller Cards to the case's backplane. These are $9 each on Amazon (the 0.7m length should be good), for a total cost of $36:
https://www.amazon.com/CABLEDECONN-Inte ... B00S7KU3PC
You will also need 2 Mini SAS to SATA Reverse Breakout Cables (SFF-8087 to 4x SATA) which will connect the 8 SATA ports on the motherboard to the case backplanes. These are $14 on Amazon (1.6 feet length is good), for a total cost of $28:
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-In ... B018YHS9GM
Case
X-Case eXtra Value RM 424 for $351. The EX model is $638, $187 more than the eXtra Value, but saves you the expense of having to buy those 2 controller cards. Since the controller cards will only cost $112 for two, the eXtra Value case actually comes out $75 cheaper. True, you do have to splurge for a nicer motherboard with both more PCI-e lanes and more SATA ports, but you're probably still saving money over the EX model. On top of being cheaper, the controller cards provide dedicated bandwidth to every drive, while the expanders share bandwidth, possibly making certain data activities slower (i.e. monthly parity checks that use all drives simultaneously). So faster and cheaper = win in my book.
This case also has room to install a couple 2.5" SSD's inside, perfect for cache drives.
You'll need to get a quote on shipping, but I'm guessing it will be around $150, so let's call this case $500:
https://www.xcase.co.uk/collections/4u- ... tswap-bays
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Power Supply
The biggest power draw a server like this will see is when all 24 drives are spun up simultaneously (Unraid does not have a staggered spin-up, so even if your motherboard/controller cards offered staggered spin up, that would only be at system start-up). Whenever all your drives are idle, starting a Parity Check in Unraid will instantly spin up all 24 drives, maximizing the hit on the power supply.
This load is estimated at up to 50 Amps on the 12v line, and 9A on the 5V line. You'll obviously want a power supply that exceeds these specs, so you have capacity left over for the rest of the system (CPU/motherboard/controller cards/graphics/cooling).
Your typical 650W power supply will have plenty of 5V amperage, but only 50-55 Amps on the 12v line. A 750W power supply gets you into the low 60's on the 12V line, and should be good for most systems. An 850W takes the 12V line over 70A, but this should only be needed if you are using a very high-end power hungry CPU. If you were doing a dedicated high-end graphics card, you'd probably need to bump this up to 1000W or more, depending upon the card.
I'm recommending this Seasonic FOCUS SSR-750FM 750W 80+ Gold power supply. It is semi-modular, has 12V@62A, and an excellent value at $90:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... gnorebbr=1
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Hopefully I didn't miss anything.
Paul