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Thanks Defcon!

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Defcon XX was a blast, it was great to meet so many fellow geeks and hackers! I snapped a few cell phone pics of my live unRAID demo:

Alas, nobody took me up on my challenge to fill the 30 TB server by the end of the con, but someone did hack my WIFI router on several occasions, so that’s fun!

Defcon highlights for me were Michael Perklin‘s talk and Q&A session on Anti-Forensics and Anti-Anti-Forensics, the GTV Hacker talk on rooting the GoogleTV, the short-lived but delicious WhiskeyCon, and dancing my ass off to Infected Mushroom poolside at the Rio. Maybe now that the con is over I’ll finally have time to hack my badge!

Check out the rest of the badges here. At the Unix Surplus booth I was awash in a sea of servers….

We’re working together to bring you a powerful new unRAID system at a bargain basement price. Here’s a sneak peek: 1U Server (Dual Core Intel CPU & 4 GB of RAM) + 3U 16 Bay Expansion for $1000 fully configured! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to be the first to hear about it!

See y’all next year!

10-15 Drive Prototypes

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All prices in this section are current as of January 11, 2012 unless otherwise noted.

10 Drive Budget Box
Mobo: ASUS M4A78LT-M (more info; be careful when shopping around, as there is an LE version and a non-LE version of this motherboard. You want the non-LE version!) new budget board testing underway!
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Card: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card
Cables:
0.5m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male w/ Latch to SATA 7pin Female (x4) Forward Breakout Cable x 1
non-locking SATA x 4 (2 included with motherboard)
Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-500
Fans: Coolink SWiF2-801 80mm *optional (Norco SS-500 fan upgrade if quieter performance is desired)
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $520 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 18 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 15 Drive Budget Box with replacement of the power supply.

12 Drive Budget Box
Mobo: Biostar A880G+
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Card: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card
Cables:

Hot Swap Drive Bays:

Fans: Coolink SWiF2-801 80mm *optional (Norco SS-500 fan upgrade if quieter performance is desired)
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $535 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 22 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 15 Drive Budget Box with replacement of the motherboard, the power supply, and the two single hot swap bays.
12 Drive Budget Box (alternate)
Mobo: Biostar A880G+
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Card: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card
Cables:

Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-400 x 3
Fans: Coolink SWiF2-801 x 3 *optional (Norco SS-400 fan upgrade is quieter performance is desired)
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $560 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 22 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 15 Drive Budget Box with replacement of the motherboard, the power supply, and the hot swap bays. However, this one really isn’t intended to be expandable. If you are thinking of expanding to the 15 Drive Budget Box, go with the original 12 Drive Budget Box instead (not this alternate model).

15 Drive Budget Box
Mobo: ASUS M4A78LT-M (more info; be careful when shopping around, as there is an LE version and a non-LE version of this motherboard. You want the non-LE version!) new budget board testing underway!
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Cards:

Cables:

Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-500
Fans: Coolink SWiF2-801 80mm *optional (Norco SS-500 fan upgrade if quieter performance is desired)
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $635 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 28 TB
Expandability: None.

20 – 24 Drive Prototypes

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All prices in this section are current as of June 16, 2012 unless otherwise noted.

20 Drive Budget Build (rackmount)
Mobo: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 (feel free to upgrade, pretty much any DDR3 1066 or 1333 RAM should work)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4220
SATA Expansion Cards: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

  • IBM ServerRAID M1015 x 2 – Replacement Option (As the Supermicro cards are difficult to obtain outside of the US, unRAID forum user seanant is currently selling these M1015 cards internationally. They are reported to work well with unRAID, though I personally have not used them.)

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $830 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 38 TB
Expandability: None.

20 Drive Budget Build (tower)
Mobo: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 (feel free to upgrade, pretty much any DDR3 1066 or 1333 RAM should work)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Antec 1200
Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-500 x 4 (Two alternatives are listed below. Both have their pros and cons. You can read my review of all three cages here.)

Fans:

SATA Expansion Cards: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2
Cables:

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $985 (without the optional fans) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 38 TB
Expandability: None.

20 Drive Beast (rackmount)
Mobo: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O
CPU: Intel Pentium G620 (feel free to upgrade to Intel i3 2100 or other Intel i3 2100 series CPUs)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333 (8GB of RAM may be overkill, but I can’t find any compatible 4GB kits!)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4220
SATA Expansion Cards: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

  • IBM ServerRAID M1015 x 2 – Replacement Option (As the Supermicro cards are difficult to obtain outside of the US, unRAID forum user seanant is currently selling these M1015 cards internationally. They are reported to work well with unRAID, though I personally have not used them.)

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $1005 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 38 TB
Expandability: None.

20 Drive Beast (tower)
Mobo: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O
CPU: Intel Pentium G620 (feel free to upgrade to Intel i3 2100 or other Intel i3 2100 series CPUs)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333 (8GB of RAM may be overkill, but I can’t find any compatible 4GB kits!)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Antec 1200
Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-500 x 4 (Two alternatives are listed below. Both have their pros and cons. You can read my review of all three cages here.)

Fans:

SATA Expansion Cards: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

  • IBM ServerRAID M1015 x 2 – Replacement Option (As the Supermicro cards are difficult to obtain outside of the US, unRAID forum user seanant is currently selling these M1015 cards internationally. They are reported to work well with unRAID, though I personally have not used them.)

Cables:

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $1180 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 38 TB
Expandability: None.

22 Drive Budget Build (rackmount)
Mobo: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 (feel free to upgrade, pretty much any DDR3 1066 or 1333 RAM should work) 
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4224
SATA Expansion Cards:

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $875 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 40 TB + optional 2 TB cache
Expandability: None.

22 Drive Beast (rackmount)
Mobo: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O
CPU: Intel Pentium G620 (feel free to upgrade to Intel i3 2100 or other Intel i3 2100 series CPUs)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333 (8GB of RAM may be overkill, but I can’t find any compatible 4GB kits!)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4224
SATA Expansion Cards: Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

  • IBM ServerRAID M1015 x 2 – Replacement Option (As the Supermicro cards are difficult to obtain outside of the US, unRAID forum user seanant is currently selling these M1015 cards internationally. They are reported to work well with unRAID, though I personally have not used them.)

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $1090 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 40 TB + optional 2 TB cache
Expandability: None.

24 Drive Budget Build (rackmount)
unRAID currently supports a maximum of 22 drives, but you can add more drives outside the parity protected array via unMenu or SNAP
Mobo: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 (feel free to upgrade, pretty much any DDR3 1066 or 1333 RAM should work) 
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4224
SATA Expansion Cards:

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $900 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 40 TB + optional 2 TB cache + optional 4 TB extra space via SNAP
Expandability: None.

24 Drive Beast (rackmount)
unRAID currently supports a maximum of 22 drives, but you can add more drives outside the parity protected array via unMenu or SNAP
Mobo: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O
CPU: Intel Pentium G620 (feel free to upgrade to Intel i3 2100 or other Intel i3 2100 series CPUs)
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333 (8GB of RAM may be overkill, but I can’t find any compatible 4GB kits!)
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
Case: Norco 4224
SATA Expansion Cards:

Cables:

Fanplate: Norco 120mm fanplate *optional
Fans: (replacing the stock fans is optional, but recommended if quiet performance is desired)

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $1075 (without the optional fans/fanplate) + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 40 TB + optional 2 TB cache + optional 4 TB extra space via SNAP
Expandability: None.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186031

Blogs

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Don’t forget to visit the Blogs section of the website, which we hope people will find both useful and enjoyable.  In the How To’s blog we’ll be offering tips, tricks, and tutorials about how to get the most out of your server.  Make this your first stop for information and discussions on topics such as configuring your HTPC to work with our servers, configuring automatic backups from your other computers to your GreenLeaf server, and even more technically challenging tasks like running Virtual Machines on your server.  In the Software and Hardware Rant Stephen and Kyle will pontificate about new technology as it hits the market, future paths we plan to take with our server designs, add-ons and software development, prototype designs, and other interesting topics.