Welcome to the Greenleaf Prototype Builds Blog! The successor of Raj’s Prototype Builds, this blog allows us to provide DIYers with the most up-to-date hardware recommendations and test results for Greenleaf and unRAID servers.

Prototype designs that have proven themselves over time will be posted to the Recommended Builds section of the unRAID wiki. We’ve designed some of these servers with specific expansion paths in mind. You’ll notice that we repeat a lot of components in many of these designs; this makes testing for unRAID compatibility and reliability much easier, and it also allows for easy expansion along the paths I’ve outlined here.

All capacity calculations assume the use of 2 TB drives. All designs are also compatible with 3TB+ drives unless otherwise noted, although the use of 3TB+ drives requires unRAID beta software at the current time.

Here’s a few basic terms we throw around:

Budget Build – Intended to net you the highest drive capacity for the least amount of money. These servers are designed for basic unRAID usage, meaning data storage, media streaming, etc. They may or may not be fast/powerful enough to handle high-end add-ons such as video transcoding. These designs are the basis of the Greenleaf Eco servers.

Beast - Intended to be powerful multitasking servers. They cost more, but they will allow you to run any add-on you throw at them. These designs are the basis of the Greenleaf Pro servers.

Micro - These servers are intended to be as physically small as possible, also known as SFF (small form factor). Generally you will sacrifice some drive capacity when building this small. These designs are the basis of the Greenleaf SFF servers.

Mini - Also built with the intention of being physically small, but with more of an emphasis on striking a balance between size and drive capacity. These servers will have large drive capacities than the Micro builds, but not nearly as much as the Budget Build or Beast servers. These are not yet the basis of any Greenleaf servers, but they can be ordered as custom builds.

Both the Micro and Mini builds will generally use lower power components akin to the Budget Builds.

Quick Links
3-9 Drive Prototypes
10-15 Drive Prototypes
20-24 Drive Prototypes
Expansion Paths
Alternative, Misc, and Old Components

Notes
Yet again, the motherboard I have awarded the title of ‘budget board’ has been discontinued. I will start a new round of budget board testing soon (hopefully within a week or two). In the meantime, my old favorite the Biostar A760G M2+ has reappeared on eBay for $60 shipped. Note that this board takes DDR2 RAM (this will do nicely). All the other components I list in the Budget Box designs will work with this motherboard.

Regarding Norco SS-500 and SS-400 fan upgrades: The fans I recommend match the cooling power of the stock fans while producing less noise. I don’t consider the stock fans in the Norco drive cages to be too loud, but some folks do. If you are going to place one of these servers in a closet, garage, basement, or attic then you don’t need to upgrade the fans. If you are going to place the server in a noise sensitive area such as a living room, bedroom, or office then you may want to upgrade the fans to the quieter models I recommend.

These are the expansion paths we recommend, but they certainly aren’t the only options. Don’t hesitate to skip steps or start in the middle – use these paths however you see fit.

3 Drive microServer –> 4 Drive microServer –> 6 Drive miniTower

The first step adds 4 TB and the second step adds 8 TB capacity to the server. Reuse mobo, RAM, CPU, PSU, and 3-in-2 hot swap. Waste single hot swaps and Rosewill case. If you plan to follow this path, I recommend that you get the Gigabyte case from the beginning so that you don’t waste the Rosewill case, and a single 3-in-2 from the beginning so as to only have one wasted single hot swap unit.

5 Drive Budget Box –> 10 Drive Budget Box –> 15 Drive Budget Box

Each step adds 20 TB capacity to the server. Reuse Mobo, RAM, CPU, and 5-in-3 hot swap. Waste the PSU. If you plan to follow this path, I recommend that you get the 500W PSU from the beginning so that you don’t waste the 430W one. If you do this, there will be no waste at all.

Keeping prototype builds current isn’t always easy as hardware options change quickly. Motherboards and server cases especially seem to come and go on a monthly basis. Instead of constantly attempting to keep each and every build current, I’ll just add some alternative components here. I’ll list the component I use first, then alternatives below.

Alternative Components
2 port PCIe x1 SATA expansion cards
Preferred:
SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)

Alternatives:
JMB362
Discussion here. Note that these cards ship from Asia and therefore take around 3 weeks to ship to the US.

SIIG SC-SA0E12-S1
Untested, but it should work

miniTower Cases
Preferred:
GIGABYTE GZ-X5BPD-500 Black

Alternatives:
GIGABYTE GZ-X2BPD-500 Black (120 mm fan)

GIGABYTE GZ-P5HA3W Black (slightly cheaper, 80 mm case fan)
GIGABYTE GZ-X6BPD-500 Black (120 mm fan)
GIGABYTE gz-KX9 Black (80 mm case fan)

Budget Box Cases
Preferred:
Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02

Alternatives:
Antec 902
Antec 900
Azza Helios 910
Thermaltake V6

Single Trayless Drive Bays
Preferred:
Mobile Rack for 3.5 inches SATA HDD – Open Frame (with Orange/Blue LED)

Alternatives:

Rosewill RX-C525 5.25″ SATA Trayless Hot Swap Mobile Rack (without LED)
SYBA SY-MR-35SOF 3.5″ Serial ATA hard drive SATA II HDD-ROM mobile rack  (without LED)

4-in-3 Drive Cages
Preferred:
Norco SS-400

Alternatives: (in order of costliness)
COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP (if you are on a tight budget and can’t afford hot swap drive cages, this internal 4-in-3 is an inexpensive compromise)
AMS DS-3141SSBK
ICY DOCK MB974SP-B Tray-less 4 in 3
ICY DOCK MB454SPF-B
XClio SS034

Misc Components
Basic Locking SATA Cables
- Other pretty colors

Old Components
These are the components that we have used in past prototypes, but have since replaced them because they are either EOL’d (end of life’d), discontinued, or largely unavailable. However, if you happen upon any of these components, then by all means go for them! They are all good quality and proven in the unRAID community.

Cooler Master Centrurion 590 – Oh how we all miss you. Simple, elegant, cheap. Nothing this good ever lasts forever.

Xigmatek Utgard Original CPC-T90DB-U01 – This case has been discontinued, but the replacements are pretty similar.

Xigmatek Utgard Mesh CPC-T90DB-U03 -  This case has been discontinued. The replacement has a large side window instead of mesh.

Thermaltake V5 – Another discontinued case. I was never a huge fan of the large handle on top anyway.

GIGABYTE gz-ph2a3 – This miniTower case has been discontinued and replaced with a few nicer-looking options.

Biostar A760G M2+ – The original 15 Drive Budget Board. Great while it lasted, but has been discontinued. Also worked well in smaller cases as it was a good 2 inches shorter than most MicroATX motherboards.

Supermicro MBD-C2SEE-O – The original 20 Drive Budget Board. At the end of the board’s production cycle many of us were lucky enough to pick one up for a mere $20 shipped. For nostalgic purposes, here’s the thread.

Supermicro MBD-C2SEA-O – Another 20 Drive Budget Board, just a slight variation on the C2SEE.

JetWay JHZ03-GT-LF (more info) – A great budget board for 20+ drive servers, unfortunately appears to be EOL’d.

JetWay JMA3-880GTV2-LF (more info) – A short-reigned budget board, it was discontinued about two weeks after I declared it the champion of my first round of budget board testing.

Intel Core i3 530 – The original 20 Drive Beast CPU. I haven’t seen this CPU for sale for many months so I assume it has been EOL’d. As of August 24, 2011 it is back in stock! Still, it is more expensive than the i3 540 so there’s no reason to choose it.

AMD Sempron 140 – The original Budget Box CPU. The Sempron 145 is marginally faster and is selling for close to the same price, so I’m not complaining.

AMD Sempron 130 – This CPU is marginally slower and marginally cheaper than the Sempron 140, but it should still work just as well for a budget box type of server. I prefer the Sempron 140/145 only because it ships with a heatsink and fan, whereas the Sempron 130 is just a bare CPU. If you already have a CPU heatsink/fan that you would like to use in your server, or if you plan to upgrade that component anyway, then don’t hesitate to use the Sempron 130 and save a few bucks.

COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan (4 pack) – I originally recommended these cheap fans as upgrades for the Norco rackmount cases, but since have revised my recommendation for some better quality fans that will provide better cooling for drives. These ones are still fine to use if you are on a tight budget.

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

3 Drive microServer
Mobo: ZOTAC GF6100-E-E
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Rosewill R101-P-BK
Cables: non-locking SATA x 2 (1 included with motherboard)
Hot Swap Drive Bays: Mobile Rack for 3.5 inches SATA HDD – Open Frame x 3
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $240 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 4 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 4 Drive microServer or the 5 Drive miniBox with replacement of hot swap bays. Expandable to 6 Drive miniTower with replacement of hot swap bays and case.

4 Drive microServer (same as above, just substitute a 3-in-2 for two of the hot swap bays)
Mobo: ZOTAC GF6100-E-E
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Rosewill R101-P-BK
Cables: non-locking SATA x 3 (1 included with motherboard)
Hot Swap Drive Bays:

• Mobile Rack for 3.5 inches SATA HDD – Open Frame
• SNT SNT-SAC2131B 3×3.5″ Hard drive in 2×5.25″ Bay Hot Swap SAS/SATA Backplane RAID cage

Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $275 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 6 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 5 Drive miniBox with replacement of hot swap bays. Expandable to 6 Drive miniTower with replacement of the single hot swap bay and case (but the 3-in-2 will still be used).

5 Drive miniBox (pics using a different 5-in-3 and a different mobo)
Mobo: ZOTAC GF6100-E-E
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Rosewill R101-P-BK
SATA Expansion Card: 2 port SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)
Cables: non-locking SATA x 4 (1 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: $290 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 8 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 6 Drive miniTower with replacement of the hot swap bays and case.

5 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 DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Card: 2 port SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)
Cables: non-locking SATA x 3 (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: $325 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 8 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 15 Drive Budget Box with replacement of the motherboard and the power supply.

6 Drive miniTower (Original Thread)
Mobo: ZOTAC GF6100-E-E
CPU: AMD Sempron 145
RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: GIGABYTE GZ-X5BPD-500 Black
SATA Expansion Card: 2 port SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)
Cables: non-locking SATA x 5 (1 included with motherboard)
Hot Swap Drive Bays: SNT SNT-SAC2131B 3×3.5″ Hard drive in 2×5.25″ Bay Hot Swap SAS/SATA Backplane RAID cage x 2
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $325 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 10 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the Budget Box series with replacement of motherboard, case, and possibly hot swap bays and power supply…though by that point you are basically building a new server.

9 Drive Budget Box (inspired by WeeboTech’s rig)
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 DDR2 800
PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W
Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02
SATA Expansion Cards:

• 2 port SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)
• 2 Port SATA Serial ATA PCI RAID Controller Card – Silicon Image

Cables: non-locking SATA x 6 (2 included with motherboard, 1 included with PCI SATA Expansion Card)
Hot Swap Drive Bays: Mobile Rack for 3.5 inches SATA HDD – Open Frame x 9
Hard Drives: Green drives (5400 rpm or 5900 rpm), such as WD Green, Hitachi CoolSpin, Samsung EcoGreen, and Seagate LP
Cost: $385 + shipping + cost of hard drives
Capacity: 16 TB
Expandability: Expandable to the 10 Drive Budget Box with replacement of hot swap bays. Expandable to the 15 Drive Budget Box with replacement of the motherboard, the hot swap bays, the PCIe SATA expansion card, and the power supply.