Cold Storage Built


volume

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Hello

 

i would like to built a cold storage built and i would like to help and guide me to the right decisions.

 

  • What is your use of the cold storage?  
    Just to store video and photos
    Most of the time, the unRAID built, may be shut down and i will start it up, only a few times per month, just to copy/paste the files that i need, to my main synology server.
    When the copy/paste will be finished, the unRAID will be shut down.
    But if, for the health of the drives, is better to run them 24/7, than shut them on/off, then, i may have it running 24/7 or idle them at a specific time.

 

  • What is your budget?  Even if you don't have a strict budget set out, at least give us an idea if you are pinching pennies or splurging on your build.
    As economic as possible, my top budget is around 800€ for the built. I hope to built it with much less.

 

  • How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
    At the moment i have 6 x Seagate archive 8TB and in the few months (if my built is ecomonic) i plan to add another 2 x Seagate archive 8TB
    Total of 8 disks (6 data, 2 parity)
    i already have ~50TB of data that i would like to move to unRAID
    I would add 1 x Seagate archive 8TB, every year

 

  • Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?
    In the next 4-5 years, that i will reach the 12 disks, i will reconsider the built, and maybe move the whole array in a bigger box that occupies more data drives
    or replace all drives, with bigger capacity drives i.e. 10TB drives

 

  • Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)?  If so, which ones?  Be specific.
    My only need is to store video files and photos. No VMs, transcoding, torrents, etc
    Just a big pool of TB.

 

  • Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives?  If you don't have a specific need for 7200 rpm drives, then choose green drives.
    No, the decision for the drives that i use is purely TB/€. When the 10TB drives will have better TB/€ value, i will replace them all.
    Right now the drives is the Seagate archive 8T.

 

  • Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build?  This includes drives.
    Yes i already have 6 x Seagate archive 8TB that i will definatly use.
    And If its appropriate for the new built, i may also use the Fractal Design Define R2 case.

 

 

I would like some recommendation for the case, motherboard, cpu, ram and if i need some SATA/SAS card for more sata

I dont have the need to hot swap, or remove the drives from the case, so the 3in5 cages maybe don't have any advantage.

 

Thank you so much for your time and recommendations!

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For a pure NAS build I'd use a Pentium G series, like the Haswell G3258 or Kaby Lake G4600.  You could get by with 4GB of RAM, but I'd use 8GB and I'd use ECC RAM though regular RAM would be fine.  I like motherboards from Asus, ASRock, and Supermicro but since prices and availability vary in the EU from what I'm used to in the US, I'd pick a brand based on what's available there.  For a SATA controller the usual approach is an LSI based controller like the IBM M1015 or Dell PERC H310, purchased on eBay as an inexpensive server pull (that may vary in the EU as well).  I'd use the R2 since you have it, it's a good case.

 

Whether to leave the server on or off is a tough call.  The greatest stress is placed on a system when it is starting up.  For me it would depend on how often a "few" times a month is.

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1 hour ago, Sphinkx said:

So 50% of the time the server will be on. I would say that it's best to leave it on. You can add an UPS if you are worried for power failures.

 

 

 

My guess is that i will start the unraid server, 5 to 15 times per month, only for 10-20 minutes, to copy some data, then it will be shut down.

I have already a APC smart ups 750VA for the unRAID.

 

any other site like pcpartpicker;

 

MOTHERBOARD:

Is it better to prefer the LGA1150 with 8 SATA (and later add a SATA controller)

or the LGA1151 with 10 SATA;

 

CPU:

Which is better Haswell G3258 or Kaby Lake G4600?

or anything else? around the same price..

 

ECC RAM:

its preferred to have more SPEED or low CAS?

2x4GB  or 1x8GB?

Edited by volume
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It's always nice to avoid an add-in card.  SATA Controllers also have a notable power draw - I'll say 10w, but it's been a while since I looked at that.

 

Despite the fact that there are some problems with Kaby Lake processors right now, they will be solved so I'd probably go with the G4600.

The G4600 is probably faster than the G3258 even with Hyperthreading disabled.  That said, the G3258 could support your needs without issue.

 

For server memory picking something from the motherboards compatibility list trumps any of the specs for me.  You aren't going to overclock a server.  You will have slightly better performance in a dual channel (2x4GB) configuration, but 1x8GB would be fine and would draw slighly less power - "slightly" = minor in both cases.

 

Regarding your on vs. off dilemma, it's a tough call.  Investigating S3 sleep may be worthwhile.  But is there any real difference in waking up from S3 sleep and spinning up the hard drives vs. simply turning the machine on and off?  I feel there is more stress from turning it on and off but it's not a clear call... 

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I'd say leave it on with drives spun down.

 

Booting up and shutting down every other day will become a PITA :)

 

And the heavy thermal cycles are not so good for it. When spun down, the drives will still be warm and not experience quite the shock of a full power up.

 

And who knows, with it up and available, you may find you use it for more than you might think. Dockers are awfully convenient.

 

Just my $0.02.

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I'd say leave it on with drives spun down.
 
Booting up and shutting down every other day will become a PITA
 
And the heavy thermal cycles are not so good for it. When spun down, the drives will still be warm and not experience quite the shock of a full power up.
 
And who knows, with it up and available, you may find you use it for more than you might think. Dockers are awfully convenient.
 
Just my $0.02.


I have a synology 1815+ online 24/7, and i only need the unraid for some back up and copy files now and then. I already loved docker and openvpn so i can reach my unraid from my job and complete my transfer quicker. Im moving files from an xpenology to the unraid and looking for new hardware, because right know the unraid is built in my 7 years old and cheap hardware.

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unRAID gives you a lot more options hardware wise, and with Ryzen and i9 tehnology develops, you would be in a good position to leverage that hardware. A synology 1815 costs close to $1800 with 8 bays. You could do that with unRAID for 1/4 that price, and be able to expand to 12, 16, even 30 drives economically. And swapping a motherboard is a lot cheaper than rebuying the whole turn key solution.

 

Something to think about anyway. But sounds like you have a workable plan for using unRAID for backups, and this should work for now.

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It's always nice to avoid an add-in card.  SATA Controllers also have a notable power draw - I'll say 10w, but it's been a while since I looked at that.
 
Despite the fact that there are some problems with Kaby Lake processors right now, they will be solved so I'd probably go with the G4600.
The G4600 is probably faster than the G3258 even with Hyperthreading disabled.  That said, the G3258 could support your needs without issue.
 
For server memory picking something from the motherboards compatibility list trumps any of the specs for me.  You aren't going to overclock a server.  You will have slightly better performance in a dual channel (2x4GB) configuration, but 1x8GB would be fine and would draw slighly less power - "slightly" = minor in both cases.
 
Regarding your on vs. off dilemma, it's a tough call.  Investigating S3 sleep may be worthwhile.  But is there any real difference in waking up from S3 sleep and spinning up the hard drives vs. simply turning the machine on and off?  I feel there is more stress from turning it on and off but it's not a clear call... 



Thanks for the reply, i will wait till the problem for the G4600 solved and then i will buy it. Probably i will buy another 2 seagate archive ao i can have 2 disks for parity and the other for data, now i have 1 parity disk. I think this is a safer choice for my data, than to upgrade my old hardware. And i will upgrade my hardware in the next months with the "fixed" G4600.


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unRAID gives you a lot more options hardware wise, and with Ryzen and i9 tehnology develops, you would be in a good position to leverage that hardware. A synology 1815 costs close to $1800 with 8 bays. You could do that with unRAID for 1/4 that price, and be able to expand to 12, 16, even 30 drives economically. And swapping a motherboard is a lot cheaper than rebuying the whole turn key solution.

 

Something to think about anyway. But sounds like you have a workable plan for using unRAID for backups, and this should work for now.

 

Unfortunately first i bought the synology and then i learn about the unraid. But even though that its expensive, the DSM is very powerful and user friendly. But i feel more safe with unraid with big pools in TBs.

 

Any recommendations for a good psu?

 

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Join the club... A lot of us bought a synology nas first.  But I still use my DS1513+ mainly to stream audio. I'm still glad I bought it because I need to run minimserver with my Lumin T1 streamer.  That's something I wish unraid had was minimserver.  For some reason it's not available for unraid yet.

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6 minutes ago, volume said:

 

Unfortunately first i bought the synology and then i learn about the unraid. But even though that its expensive, the DSM is very powerful and user friendly. But i feel more safe with unraid with big pools in TBs.

 

Any recommendations for a good psu?

 

 

You just want a 12V single rail. Corsair, Seasonic, Thermaltake, Enermax - I don't have a strong recommendation. Last one I bought was a 750watt Thermaltake.

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Regardless of the wattage of the powersupply, what's important in any system is the capacity of the 12v rails.

 

IF a 400W power supply has a single rail, then it'll probably have ~30A available on the rail.  This will be ok.

 

But, if its dual rail, then 12v1 will be dedicated to the processor, and 12v2 will be split between the molex / accessory cables and the video card, and will carry at most 18A

 

With 8TB Seagate Archive drives having a startup current of 2A, 10 drives is 20A, so you're already over the allotment, and will only have trouble.  The wattage calculators are a start in any purchase decision, but do not tell the whole truth.  You have to actually look at the specs of the powersupply in question and add up the current consumed by the various components in order to guarantee a trouble free experience.

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Right now i have set up unRAID in the following hardware and i transfer my data to the pool.

I didnt notice any delays on the response. Transfer speeds vary for 80-100mb/s when i copy files to the first drive, now in the second drive the speeds was 30-50mb/s

i had 1 parity from the start. I move files and the drives from xpenology, i copy them to unRAID, then put the drives that i empty to unRAID and preclear them.

preclear for a Seagate archive 8TB could take 40-45hours.

 

When i will get the new faster built for my unRAID, the preclear time (for the same model of disk) will be shorter?

and also the parity check?

 

i don't think i will see any difference for the transfer speeds..

 

when i preclear a new disk, is it a good idea, for all disks and the parity, to have them Spin down delay: at 15 minutes?

 

Screen Shot 2017-07-13 at 17.24.28.png

Edited by volume
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