Fileserver build, both large and small?

[VirtualLarry]

I need to build a fileserver. Timeframe, probably a year.

Here's what I have, for my existing fileserver.
8x Hitachi 7K3000 7200RPM 2TB HDDs (2x as spare)
5x Hitachi 5K3000 5400RPM 2TB HDDs (1x as spare)
Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R w/8 SATA, 1 IDE
Syba SiliconImage PCI SATA 3114 4-port PCI SATA RAID card
4x2GB DDR2-800 RAM (non-ECC)
500W Enhance 80Plus PSU
All in a Chieftec Dragon full-tower ATX case.
The 6x 7200RPM are in the two 3-drive cases (part of the case), and
the 4x 5400RPM are in a 4-in-3 Silverstone bay, in the 5.25" drive bay section.
There is an IDE DVD drive installed too, but I can pull that, to install another
4-in-3 caddy, and four more HDDs, and plug them in to a PCI-E or PCI card.
I have a spare Syba 3114 PCI SATA card, either for backup, or for four additional drives.

for an OS, I'm currently using unRAID, the trial version, which lets me utilize only three of my disks, one for parity and two for storage.

I had purchase a WHS v1 disc, but when I found out about the myriad limitations, I never entered the product key to activate it, and I took it off.

So, as far as OS goes, what should I use, and how should I configure the drives?
WHS 2011? FreeNAS? Should I get a PCI-E RAID controller? They seem scarce, ones with 4 or more ports. Either that, or expensive, once you get into the real RAID controllers like LSI, etc.

 

[yinan]

Why not just get a small array like a Qnap? I love those things.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I have very little experience with this, but I was very impressed with Nas4Free when I used it. The only reason I switched was because I do pretty much the same thing with Ubuntu or Mint and still be able to open a web browser or rip a disk once in a while. Nas4Free is very straightforward, more full featured than I expected, and of course, free.

You probably know this, but if you use ZFS, 8gb might not be enough for all those drives.

 

[SViscusi]

If you like unRaid then you should pay for the version that fits your needs. Being linux based it will give you more controller flexibility and keep you from having to shell out for a hardware card. I personally partial to zfs so I stick with FreeBsd. I'm actually running ZfsGuru, but FreeNas seems pretty good the few times I've tested the new version. The plus side is you can use nearly any ahci compliant controller. It's been a little while since I looked but when I rebuilt my server in the fall the Ibm 1015 was the controller dujour being under $100 on ebay and offering 8 ports. Before you decide you should fire up vmware and play around the interface. Since both unRaid and FreeNas are mature, stable platforms and both solutions will have a small, but not outrageously expensive cost, it'll come down to which one your most comfortable with.

 

[Zap]

I need to build a fileserver. Timeframe, probably a year.

Come back in a year and ask again. Any advice given now may or may not be relevant in a year.

 

[mfenn]

Agree with Zap on the hardware. Software-wise, unRAID is nice if you need flexibility wrt. the drives that you use. The performance can be pretty poor though.

You have enough drives such that I don't think unRAID's mix-n-match drive feature is super relevant. If I were in your shoes, I would probably go with ZFS via one of the pre-packaged NAS distros like FreeNAS. ZFS gives you much better performance and data integrity.