in the middle of setting up an unraid server, still waiting for parts. tested omv on rpi, xpenology 7.x on windows wm, and finally settled on unraid. i might still run xpenology for personal data backup, while using unraid for mass media nas. it's my first time building a nas, hope eveything goes well.

congrats, i'm still waiting for parts. after that still plenty of testing to be done before setting up unraid.

may i ask are you running all your hdd thru sata or other interface?

thanks. i asked because i bought one of those pcie sata card for 10+ HDD build before finding out that's not good idea.. guess i will try running it 1st while i learn more about SAS HBA.

This post has been edited by incognitroll: Jul 14 2022, 04:25 AM

https://unraid-guides.com/2020/12/07/dont-e...ds-with-unraid/

stability, and slow read & write speed, especially those running on pcie 1.0 x1 speed. not only this website, same consensus on unraid forum as well which is avoid pcie sata card in general.

just came across your post. been running an unraid server for about 17 months now. played with omv (on rpi), synology (xpe on vm), and then unraid trial version free for 30 days, and decided that unraid is the most suitable for me. started with 3 shucked drives from seagate external HDD cases and now running 10 HDDs (1 parity, 8 data, 1 unassigned device) and 2 SSDs (cache, mirrored) with 60TB.

if you just want to use it as a NAS for storage, can start with cheap used dell, lenovo refurbished desktop for 150-300. If you plan to run vm, docker, or multiple of these, then i suggest you get something more recent. i ran it with 4th gen intel i7, Z87-A & 16gb ram.

used dell: https://shopee.com.my/elink1128/14540451850

case that i use, supports 14 HDDs + 2 SSDs (sold out at shopee, check aliexpress or taobao): https://shopee.com.my/econova/11813674190

sata card (start with this when you run out of SATA ports on your motherboard; you will upgrade to LSI card eventually): https://shopee.com.my/acasisofficialshop.os/9665126297

For HDDs, bought mine from amazon jp, 8TB seagate and WD. cost about 50% less than here, but there's no warranty.

useful tutorials on anything unraid: https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceinvaderOne

This post has been edited by incognitroll: Jan 8 2024, 01:04 AM

under 40c. 3 x 140mm fan at the front of the case also 3 X 120mm strapped to the HDD cage to pull hot air away.

may be try to avoid seagates, they always run few degrees hotter. if yours are not seagate and still reaching 45c then really need to improve air flow in the case.



LSI cards sold on taobao and shopee for around 100-150 are not genuine. they tend to run extremely hot, and some users on unraid forum have reported read/write errors. genuine ones can be purchased on eBay for around 500 with shipping https://www.ebay.com/itm/165949664051

currently only using gigabit ethernet, and i mostly write directly to the array, so HDD speed is another bottleneck. pciex4 sata card is serving me just fine at the moment, but i'm running out of HDD space. may consider getting an LSI card when i outgrow this case.

edited: ntw just noticed you ran yours with PRO1201SFCU on your siggie, may i ask how many watts your system is drawing and how much run time the ups can provide in case power goes out? i'm planning to get one for my nas too. this exact same model with no fans (less noise) and USB so that it can communicate with unraid.

This post has been edited by incognitroll: Dec 29 2023, 10:39 AM

If you didn't overpay and it worked, then I guess it's not bad at all. Consider that the performance you can get out of it is much greater than a SATA card for the same price. Plus sff cables are neat, way easier to organize than sata.

As for power, my system is only at 10-20% load most of the time, and it will have the UPS all to itself. If you're getting 5mins runtime for two systems and a switch, I think mine will have more than enough time to complete a safe shutdown in case power goes out. Thanks for the reply.

This post has been edited by incognitroll: Dec 30 2023, 06:19 AM

came across this brand often on taobao and thought they are just another LSI knock-off. just did some reading and looks like they are legit. even patrick from sth visited their factory few years back. will definitely look into it. thanks for info.

SilverStone RM21-308. 2U can only fit low profile gpu and pci nvme card.

if you don't mind china brand then can import from taobao, search keyword 2u热插拔机箱550深

recently imported an used 24 bays chasis with hot swap. comes with 12Gb backplane, 3 fans, 2 800w power supply < RM 750.

This post has been edited by incognitroll: Nov 7 2024, 04:53 AM

there are some 560mm deep ones, https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-2u-h...ctlist.search.0

not sure if they fit your setup.

unraid is a great solution for people who store their data across different hdd sizes and are starting to look for a nas solution. you can mix and match any hdd size in the array, as long as the parity disk(s) are the largest. when storage space runs out, just add another disk and you're good to go. there's no need to worry about adding matching disks to expand a raidz group, resilvering, and so on.

the current pricing structure is a bit off-putting, to be honest. previously, you could get a lifetime upgrade license for the price of one hdd, which was a bargain. at least they still offer a 30-day free trial with full functionality.

one nice thing about unraid is that it’s not picky with hard drives. most of mine are smr ones i got cheap from amazon japan. like rm 4XX to 5XX for a brand new 8tb, as long as you don’t care about warranty. after covid, prices kept going up, reeaching over 600, and for some reason, fewer sellers are shipping here now.

the last drive i bought was exos x16 refurb from taobao for under 600. smart data was wiped, but i’m not too bothered as long as it passes the unraid preclear without errors. some people on the unraid forum run up to five passes, but for me, since most of my drives just for media storage and i’ve got two parity drives, i figure one clean pass should be enough.

ya, with unraid, you just assign your largest disk as the parity drive, and then you’re free to use the full capacity of all the remaining drives.

back in 2022, the basic license cost $59, and later they offered an upgrade to pro (lifetime) for $79, with a 30% discount. so, i ended up paying $59 + $55.30 = $114.30 for a lifetime license. after the pricing changes, they grandfathered existing pro users, meaning my license still gets all future upgrades. it really depends on how you look at it. for someone new to nas, $249 might feel like a big upfront cost. however, for someone who's been using nas systems for a while or is trying to build a relatively cost-effective (hardware), power-saving nas, they might see $249 as roughly the cost of a single hard drive.

before i go further, i just want to say zfs is hands down the best file system out there. i have some backups i wish were on zfs so i could benefit from features like deduplication, self-healing, snapshots, and blazing fast read/write speeds. that said, you also have to ask: do you really need all those features? because they do come with some overhead.

unraid, on the other hand, can run on very modest hardware. even old cpus like core 2 duo or amd athlon/phenom chips from 16–17 years ago, with minimal ram, will work. zfs, by comparison, typically recommends a modern cpu and around 1gb of ram per TB of storage,especially if you plan to enable deduplication. also, avoid smr drives, or the resilvering process might take weeks due to their slower random write speeds.

another thing i love about unraid is the drive spin-down feature. for example, let’s say i have my media collection spread across 30 hard drives, and i’m watching lotr trilogy (about 9 hours long). only the drive containing the movie spins up and the other 29 drives stay idle, saving both power and wear.

and finally, there’s the ease of expansion. you can add drives of any size, at any time, as your media collection grows. no need to rebuild the entire array.

in my opinion, unraid is a solid choice for media storage. if you're dealing with enterprise or mission-critical data, though, truenas with zfs is the way to go. for most people who just need to back up personal media, synology is a great option. their interface is super user-friendly, and it's really easy to access, share, and back up your data, whether on a pc or through their mobile app.

last month, nascompares posted a workaround that lets you use any drive with the 2025 synology nas. i haven’t tested it myself since i don’t own one, but based on the comments, it appears to work for most users. it’s unclear if synology will patch this in future updates, so proceed with caution.

Synology comes to its senses, removes all HDD limitations from 2025 DiskStation models

https://www.androidcentral.com/accessories/...kstation-models

Synology Hard Drive Support MASSIVE U-TURN in DSM 7.3



SYNOLOGY Allowing THIRD PARTY DRIVES AGAIN - DSM 7.3 UPDATE



This post has been edited by incognitroll: Oct 8 2025, 12:33 PM