Completed my HTPC Build and an unRaid server. Woohoo!! (1 Viewer)

After much researching, I finally completed my HTPC as well as an unRaid Server. Thanks to all who gave comments on their systems and helped me decide on this system. All the parts are solid and it is silent.
Here are the parts:
[CASE]
SilverStone Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX Media Center/HTPC Case ML03B (Black) $59.99
[Power Supply]
SilverStone Strider 400W, 80 PLUS, Active PFC Power Supply ST40F-ES (Black) $48.99
[CPU]
AMD A6-3500 APU with AMD Radeon 6530 HD Graphics 2.1/2.4GHz Socket FM1 65W Triple-Core Processor - Retail AD3500OJGXBOX $74.99
[CPU Cooler]
Scythe BIG SHURIKEN 2 Rev B. 5-Heatpipe Universal Low Profile CPU Cooler (SCBSK-2100) $47.95
[MOBO]
ASRock MB-A75M Socket FM1/ AMD A75 FCH/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&GbE/ Micro ATX Motherboard $74.99
[RAM]
Kingston HyperX Genesis 4 GB Kit (2x2 GB Modules) 1866MHz DDR3 PC3-15000 240-Pin Non-ECC CL9 1.65V DIMM XMP Desktop Memory KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX $35.74
[SSD]
Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2 $80.99
[BD-ROM]
LG UH12LS28K LightScribe 12x SATA Blu-Ray Combo Internal Drive, Bulk (Black) $57.39
[OS]
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack $99.99
[Keyboard]
IOGEAR Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black) $39.08
[Remote]
Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition $15.41
[HDD] (One for HTPC and one for unRaid server)
Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARX
and for the unRaid (I already have a motherboard and RAM):
[Case]
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $54.99
[Power Supply]
Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Since I only have 4 internal sata on the mobo, and no PCI-E,..I needed a PCI solution to expand my sata connections. A co-worker highly recommended this card and said he uses it with great success,..and great price at: $10.07 (I'll probably buy another once I upgrade my unRaid license to a Pro Level)
PCI to SATA / IDE (2 SATA / 2 PATA) Combo RAID Controller Card - VT6421A (Manufacturer Part # SY-VIA-150R)
I have an external Western Digital HDD with an ESATA connection. Never had the cable, so picking this one up for: $8.01 with Free Shipping
Cables To Go 10221 External Serial ATA Cable (2 Meters, Black)
Since I don't want to run CAT cables through my walls,...the same coworker Highly Recommended these and said he uses them flawlessly with his HTPC. Price: $72.62
ZyXEL PLA401v3 HomePlug AV 200 Mbps Powerline Wall-plug Adapter (Starter Kit - 2 units)
AND, can't go wrong with this price on 2 sata cables: $0.97 with Free Shipping!!!!! (Buying 5 sets of these)
SATA Data Cable (2pk.)
Overall, I am TOTALLY pleased over this build. I can't get my family off of it.

Nice looking configuration. I like the front end, I've been thinking about something similar for a more basic front end unit; for those that want to save power and just store whole (no recompression) then an FM1 chip or G620 will generally hold it's own.

Thanks! I was really pleased on:

• how easy it was to build
• how great it's working
• how it looks
• how quite it runs,...it's SILENT

How do you attend to backup your RAID storage device? A RAID is not a backup, it only provides data redundancy.

Audioseduction said:

How do you attend to backup your RAID storage device? A RAID is not a backup, it only provides data redundancy.

Click to expand...

Awesome point that is not understood by most people. Most people think that RAID is backup. It is not!
For me,...the most important things that need backups are: pictures and documents.
Essentially everything else can be ripped again from original copies. This includes music and movie that I own. Essentially they ARE your backup.
It might be a pain, and a long process, but it can be done. Whereas, pix and docs are gone if you don't have a backup.
So to answer your question, in my case, my main storage is unRaid.
But I backup pictures and important documents to another external drive once every 2 weeks.
Then once a month, I burn a DVD of all pictures and docs once a month and store that DVD in a fireproof safe.
Thanks again for asking!

I've spent way too many hours ripping my movies just to have a storage device take a dump on me and to not have a backup to easily restore from. My primary RAID 5 storage is a drobo s with 5 3TB 7200RPM drives. I will have a second drobo with identical setup installed tomorrow which I will use as a backup of my primary storage.

Audioseduction said:

I've spent way too many hours ripping my movies just to have a storage device take a dump on me and to not have a backup to easily restore from. My primary RAID 5 storage is a drobo s with 5 3TB 7200RPM drives. I will have a second drobo with identical setup installed tomorrow which I will use as a backup of my primary storage.

Click to expand...

I hear ya,....I guess any back-up solution is all up to what frustration level you're willing to live with.
I remember a company that had RAID 5 and tape backup.
Problem was that they never tested a restore of data from the tape backup.
Well the RAID 5 had massive drive failures. Once they replaced the failed drives,..they tried a restore from tape, only to find out, all of their tapes were blank.
Ooooops!

unRAID is a bit different. In the end, I just use a lot of JBOD, basically (HomeServer) with a little over 22TB onhand at the moment. Now, I worry about keeping backups of my pictures, etc. which I do synchronize with the cloud (CloudBerry and an AmazonS3 Account); but the disc images? In the end, if the whole server blew up, I have all of my original media stored upstairs in the attic, and I can just get it and re-rip it all over again. It'd be annoying, but not the end of the world. I tend to prefer the JBOD options over RAID, in part because of that - since I'm not worried about data integrity of the set, if a single drive fails, I lose the data off that drive.. which is basically 100% ready to be replaced at any moment.. so I forget the headache...

But what your goals are really set your backup strategy/etc.

I have the 2nd drobo setup. Currently copying all files from the primary storage to the new backup. Looks like it may take several hours. I hope to have it done copying sometime tomorrow.