[Guide] NAS Killer 4.1 supplemental + deals

If you’re asking if unraid is the recommended os to use around here for storage backup capabilities, then yes.

Yes to all those above plus best buy. Theres a thread specifically on wd best buy externals. There was a 12tb sale not too long ago at best buy and you just missed an Amazon 12tb sale. It pays to check this forum daily.

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Thank you again! Yeah, I have a 12TB WD external drive that I got last year on black Friday for a good deal. Going to keep my eyes peeled.

Thanks again for the help. Now anxious to get parts and start building. My plex is dead since it was running on my laptop that I discovered today to have an extremely swollen battery. Seemed smarter to not have a media server for a few weeks rather than a fire. . .

Remove battery and run off power cord ?

If only. Not that kind of laptop, I’m afraid. A crappy Surface Book that has a swollen battery after I got my first one replaced last year for the exact same reason.

A question for those of you who have bought track builds and transplanted into a tower: Do I need to buy an I/O shield for the tower? Is it possible to use whatever’s on the chassis of the rack build in the tower? Haven’t received my build yet and trying to prep parts for a quick assembly when stuff is here.

You don’t need an IO shield, I run almost all of my builds without it.

I cut mine off the server chassis and glued it onto the new. Pointless, monster ghetto, but i like it.

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So I got all the parts. Of course, idiot that I am, I didn’t plug the server build in and check it before taking it apart and transplanting into the tower. . .

Double unfortunately, my monitor doesn’t have a VGA port, so now I can’t plug it in and check what’s going on. When I switch it on, the motherboard powers up, gives me two short beeps, and then after a few seconds, a continuous, lower tone beep that doesn’t stop. Without display, I have no idea what’s going on. The internet suggests the beep might just be a warning for any number of things that can be configured in the BIOS.

I’ve bought a VGA adapter now. Coming in two days. So, so annoyed at myself for not checking the server before ripping apart. Here’s hoping it’s just a warning and nothing’s actually busted or shorted.

I’ve double and triple checked the cables and connections, so don’t think it’s any of that. Either I shorted something or it’s just a warning tone. Sigh.

I don’t believe the vga adapter is going to work. I didn’t test it, but read you need a true vga monitor. I was lucky enough to have a monitor with all 3.

speaking of shields, I also couldn’t mount the back plate for the arctic 34 on the motherboard because there isn’t enough space in the N400 case to stick it on. Guessing it’s not a huge deal, since I was able to mount the cooler anyway. Anything to be aware of as a potential consequence of not having the back plate?

Edit: Turns out, there’s already a backplate mounted on the board. Phew! RELIEF.

The adapter worked! I have video and I didn’t fuck anything up! The annoying beep went away when I turned off the BMC alert, which I gather is because it’s not running in a rack with 8 fans.

Time to do things that this forum doesn’t approve of and install Ubuntu to manage data with ZFS and mergerfs so that I can stream stuff to watch over WiFi (pls don’t kick me out)!

I got combo 1 and the groupbuy array deal from bitdeals - I left everything in the big chassis for now and cannot seem to get either additional lsi card(9211-4i/8i) to work. Are they not compatible? They aren’t even recognized in the bios. Had no problem flashing the onboard controller though.

I tried multiple slots, tried disabling the onboard controller, and even tried on my desktop and got nothing. I can see the cr12 led is green when I boot, but I’m out of ideas. I doubt I received two bad cards.

Hey guys!

I do have a combo 4.1 units and I was able to get my hands on a Hp290 when it was cheap!
Wondering if it makes sense to add a GPU to my Unraid and move Plex on there as well?
I never get more than 8 simultaneous transcoder so I can get away with a used GPU for $150ish!

  • Will I be saving any power consumption?
  • Will I see upgrade in performance or that doesn’t matter?

Thanks guys

My combo:

I bought one of the 1U combos and got flashed IT mode, then got UnRAID up and running, but getting the motherboard to consistently boot from the USB stick was impossible. I futzed around in the BIOS extensively but never could make it happen. I eventually accidentally bricked the BIOS by trying to ‘restore default settings’.

I am considering getting another Tyan motherboard, because I want to keep using the 1U case.

The 1st motherboard consistently displayed the error:

BMC is no responding !! Please press ESC key to skip!!

Is that typical? If I order another Tyan motherboard are the same problems likely to occur? I asked the Ebay seller these questions and they wouldn’t provide a clear answer.

I had no problems with the Tyan Mobo at all. I’m booting from USB regularly and it works every time. You’re using the internal USB ports right?

any help here!?

Yes. It worked fine for IT mode flashing, then worked intermittently for UnRAID.

Do you get the BMC error at boot?

@JDM_WAAAT any thoughts?

What are you looking for help on?

I do have a combo 4.1 units and I was able to get my hands on a Hp290 when it was cheap!
Wondering if it makes sense to add a GPU to my Unraid and move Plex on there as well?
I never get more than 8 simultaneous transcoder so I can get away with a used GPU for $150ish!

  • Will I be saving any power consumption?
  • Will I see upgrade in performance or that doesn’t matter?