Yeah the unRAID box seems like a good solution. I don't have any spare computer parts lying around. Can you suggest a build ? I want something that doesn't take up too much space.
Have you heard anything about FlexRAID. It also seems similar to unRAID.
I had heard of it but hadn't really looked into it. My dilemma was unRAID vs. FreeNAS and putting together a ZFS RAIDz1 system. Eventually settled on unRAID because of the ability to just add an extra drive now and then without having to change the whole array or upgrade all of the drives one at a time.
Inspired, I looked into the FlexRAID. Seems like the difference comes down to whether you want to install a system that is kind of "Set it and Forget It" or something where you plan on accessing the system frequently and maybe want to run some other software like a DLNA server or Torrent Client.
FlexRAID runs on top of an already existing OS like Windows and then runs as a driver to establish the storage pool that you've setup. You can then run other programs in Windows with the FlexRAID system. FlexRAID also appears to create parity by taking a scheduled snapshot of the array and rebuilding from that, or so it would seem to me. Discussions indicate that it can cause a few recovery issues that way but it seems to be pretty well received and supported. You can also just add a drive with data on it and the FlexRAID array should see the data and integrate it into the storage pool which is really nice.
unRAID is its own operating system that runs off of a flash drive. You can add drives as often as you wish and the array will automatically expand with the addition. Parity is done on the fly or you can use a cache drive to speed up write times.
The reason I would still choose unRAID is that if one of your drives fails, it will continue to run and data will be retrieved from the parity drive until you replace it. With the FlexRAID, your data will be unaccessible until you rebuild from the snapshot. I just want a headless system that I can access from a WebGUI from different PC that just does a job for me (store and retrieve data) and just sit there otherwise. unRAID also does not require much for resources. Just about any motherboard and CPU combo that will boot from a flash drive will work great. FlexRAID will require whatever the base OS requires. I used an AMD FM1 microATX board with 6 SATA ports and the cheapest dual core AMD/APU that I could find. All of the hardware (before adding drives) came in at less than $300. I'll get you a parts list that I used.
As far as FlexRAID vs. unRAIDI don't think you'll go wrong either way.
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