DoeBoye

The AOC-SASLP-MV8 is a 4x board, so running it in a 4x slot, 8x slot or a 16x slot won't yield any difference in performance. Theoretically, the 2 cards should perform the same or nearly the same as they did on the old board... The only thing that may be problematic is if the P5Q-E does not let PCI-e cards other then Video Cards run in its 16x (mechanical) slots. This has been a problem in the past. For a while, some manufacturers, in their infinite wisdom, were crippling the 16x slots to only support video cards... DB

To be honest, it's not actually a "Kill-a-Watt" branded meter. I'm using the word like I would use "Hoover" for vacuum or "Kleenex" for ummm.... facial wipes(?) . The one I have is made by "Blue Planet" or something like that. It appears to do the same stuff as the actual "Kill-A-Watt" brand though... Edit: Crap. Just remembered that I used it to see how much juice my space heater pulled on the different settings... If there is a max recorded in there, it'll be reflecting that value.... Guess I'll reset it and see what it does over the next few days...

I'll see if I can run some benchmarks on both chips over the weekend to get some more data. Anyone have a good suggestion for something quick and easy to test with? My benchmarking experience outside of Windows is pretty weak . re price: I got mine from NCIX, pricematched to BestDirect for $89: http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/222596/AMD/AD600EHDGIBOX/

I just got my new UPS delivered yesterday, and noticed the literature mentions the hardware supplied only supports a 2post rack mount. I just assembled my new rack last night (my first foray into this new world), but it seems to me that there are 4 places where the ups needs to be bolted in... UPS http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SC1000 Rack https://ca.startech.com/product/4POSTRACK12A-12U-4-Post-Server-Equipment-Open-Frame-Rack-with-Adjustable-Posts-and-Casters The APC manual mentions an optional 4-post mounting kit that needs to be purchased, which is a bit irritating, to say the least... . Does anyone have a suggestion for a cheaper way to mount this UPS in the rack other then the APC kit? Maybe generic ebay rack hardware that would work with this UPS? Thanks for any advice! EDIT: The UPS does come with a 2-post rack mounting solution...

You're right about the PSU being over-sized . The plan has always been to max out my pro license though, and I figured I may as well get the PSU to support it from the get-go . Expansion stalled for awhile, as my case ran out of drive slots (well, there is one more, but the EARS drive I bought recently to go in there did not pass pre-clear, so I returned it). That said, NCIX just delivered my new Norco case yesterday! Hurrah! As soon as the last bits arrive (still missing the SAS to SAS cables), I will start moving everything over to the new case and add another few drives (once they go on sale, of course). re: Max boot: Not sure what to say. Pretty sure I've never seen it go that high, but my data recording procedure is fairly lax . You have me curious now. I'll shut it down and reboot a few times tonight and see if the numbers vary greatly.... I'm pretty sure the kill-a-watt has a peak metering function. Though I imagine it won't tell me the date when it happened, so I won't know if it was pre or post the new cpu...

Hi Folks, I've been running a Sempron 140 in my unRaid server since I built it a bit over a year ago. It's been running quite well for me, and no complaints. It's a 45 watt chip, and it served files like nobody's business . Fast forward to today: I need to reduce my electrical bill! Having my main pc as well as my server running 24 hours a day is just not helping. Solution: I moved the apps I had constantly running onto my unRaid server, and voila! Instant 100 - 150 watt reduction in usage, as my PC no longer needed to be on 24/7. Of course, now that I was using my little Sempron for more then just basic file serving, I was concerned it might not have enough oomph (who am I kidding? I didn't notice any slowdowns, performance-wise, but we have to think ahead, right?? ). After a bit of research on these boards (Thanks for the advice, folks!), I ended up deciding on a low-power (electrical-wise) Athlon II: the X4 600e. The specs claim this more advanced chip, with 4x the number of cores that my Sempron 140 had, uses the same amount of juice (45 watts).... It's true! I couldn't believe it! At idle, and when all drives spun up and serving files, the new cpu uses pretty much the same amount of power as the old one: These numbers are measured at the wall using a kill-a-watt meter (and the 30 watts that my router, switch, modem, and UPS use has already been removed from the numbers) : Sempron Boot: 150 watts Idle: 60 - 65 watts Spun Up: 100 -110 watts Parity: 130 watts Athlon 600e Boot: 160 watts Idle: 60 - 65 watts Spun Up: 100 -110 watts Parity: 150 watts Note: These are all approximate numbers. Give or take 5-10 watts... As you can see, the Athlon II does use more juice under load, but when idle or serving up content, power usage is pretty much the same. So I just installed the new chip, and I haven't tested differences in more processor intensive activities like unraring etc., but one thing I noticed immediately (which was unexpected), was that the unMenu interface is significantly more responsive.... Not sure I understand why that would be, as I can't imagine it is a terribly processor-heavy task, but for whatever reason, switching from menu to menu, and rendering the new content is noticeably quicker... I hope this post gives some ideas to people considering upgrading AMD processors Some data: My unRaid server: 8 2TB WD Green drives 1 1.5 TB WD Green drive 2 1.0 TB 7200 RPM Seagate drives 750 watt Corsair Power Supply 4 gigs ram Gigabyte board (see sig) 4 120mm case fans 1 80mm case fan Athlon II 600e synthetic benchmark http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X4+600e According to Passmark CPUMark, the performance seems to be fairly close to the i3 540... Next step will be some underclocking/undervolting to see if I can gain some more power savings while keeping up a higher level of performance then the Sempron... Thanks for reading! Cheers, DB.

I ordered 2 from ncix last week and they just arrived. They showed in stock at the time, and now they show as available in 1-2 weeks, but you might get lucky... http://ncix.com/products/?sku=37999&vpn=AOC-SASLP-MV8&manufacture=SuperMicro PS: I price matched with bestdirect...

So your bios has no Power Management Menu, or just not that option? It may be worded slightly differently...

Hi mickeykool, I've never seen a bios that didn't have the option (Not to say you're wrong, just seems weird).... I've attached a generic screen shot I came across that shows it, in case you weren't looking in the right menu... Obviously, you would change that setting to 'On'... DB.

If the used X2 doesn't work out, AMD has some low power 2, 3, and 4 core processors rated for 45 watts and under $100... Not much cheaper then the the i3, but combined savings with the cheaper amd mobo might save you almost $100 with tax etc, and you still get a low power cpu...

Not that this has necessarily anything to do with your issue, but the above statement leads me to believe that everything is connecting through the WRT54TG, which I'm fairly sure only supports 10/100. All the cat6 cabling in the world won't help if the data is going from unraid to a gigabit switch to a megabit router to the rest of your network (And the airport extreme, is it gigabit as well?). Have you tried Internet -> Router -> Gigabit Switch -> Everything else?

You could try unplugging all the drives (and any controller cards as well) and see if it will POST at all. Also, pull and re-seat the memory. If it still doesn't post, and no signal to the monitor, do you have another power supply to test with? Also, if the bios *does* comes up, don't forget to reset the boot order so the flash drive boots...

Arggg! If only I had seen this link before I bought my 12u rack!! I even have a Lack Side Table that I believe has fallen into disfavour with The Missus!! . Ah well! If anyone does this, I'd love to see some pics! And the best thing is that our local Ikea has been selling these for $7.50 each!!

Thanks bjp999 and keyvan! Just the information I was looking for!

Hello All! I'm trying to source some reasonably priced mini SAS to mini SAS cables for a norco 4224 build. Can anyone tell me the minimum required length for these cables to reach the Norco backplane from the standard SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 card? I'm seeing some that are 9inches, 12inches, and 30inches that will ship to Canada... I'd rather not get the 30 inch one if possible, but don't want to buy too short either... Thanks!

Great news! It's unfortunate your motherboard died, but at least it was an easy swap! I bet you'll always be grounding yourself before swapping out parts in the future

Single rail definitely is better, especially if you plan on increasing the number of drives! Hopefully it will be the motherboard that is the problem! Goodluck! Be sure to post back with the results

Well, the new PSU is a better part (higher efficiency, single 12v rail), but if the original one was not giving you problems (why did you replace it in the first place?), I would probably try it first. If all runs well, I would swap it out for the newer, better PSU. If your board dies again, chances are good the PSU is frying it (which I highly doubt)... In a best case scenario, you would want to be working on a grounded static mat, with yourself grounded as well... As we rarely find ourselves in the situation where that sort of stuff is available (i.e.: Not that I'm implying I often work under the desk with a headlamp on my head because I'm too lazy to pull the server out and unplug everything... ), you should at the very least make sure you are grounded before touching the box (at the very least, touch something metal to discharge any charge you've built up just before touching any components) and try and avoid working on say... carpet . Good Luck!

It doesn't happen that often, but it certainly can . As far as what is bad... Chances are good that if something failed from swapping out PS, it would be the mobo... Nothing is ever guaranteed though, with the weird cases like yours... If Fry's has a good return policy if it turns out not to be the mobo, then I think that's a good next step. I hate trying to isolate a problem by replacing parts one at a time, but sometimes, that's all you can do... Good Luck!

Doh! Sometimes it's best to double check the obvious stuff first . But since you've done that, and you have same issue with the old PS.... It's possible that mobo got damaged when swapping PS .... Just for kicks, try pulling the ram and reseating it. Sometimes the weird unexplainable crap gets solved by that. Even if Ram wasn't touched... Long shot, but... And while you're at it, reset the Bios (pull the battery for a minute)... I'm a firm believer in eliminating all options, no matter how unlikely, before assuming a major component is toast for no apparent reason....

Did you check all the obvious things? Monitor cable plugged in tight? Video Card seated properly? (Assuming you are using a discrete video card) Power cable (both of them) from Power Supply plugged in tight into the mobo? If video card has dedicated power cable, is it plugged in?

Thanks! That looks like it will almost double the performance I currently get (Based on CPU Benchmark). Found one on Ebay for $57! Anyone using a AMD Athlon II X3 400E? Came across it on Ebay. Claims 45w TDP as well, but looks like it does even better on synthetic benchmarks. Selling for $80... http://cgi.ebay.ca/AMD-Athlon-II-X3-400E-AM2-AM3-CPU-Triple-Core-45W-/220743166302?pt=CPUs&hash=item336551695e

Hey Folks, I'm running a Sempron 140, and love it, but am considering replacing it with something with a bit more juice (without replacing mobo) because I've started using the server for Downloading/Extracting content as well, and may start using it for encoding. Not really sure if it's necessary, but thought I'd start doing a little investigation... I'd like to keep the chip as low-power (watts-wise) as possible while increasing the oomph... Any recommendations? My 11-drive server (including cache and parity) currently uses around 97 watts with drives spun down and idle, and 150 watts with drives spun up and serving content. EDIT: Board supports AM2/AM2+/AM3 Thanks!

Personally, I'm from the "If ain't broke" camp. If you are currently using it in your UnRaid server, and you are experiencing no issues or weirdness, why change it? . The only time I would veer from that path is if the original component was from a less then reliable manufacturer, or if it is known to have a high failure rate... As for the second part, as the rest have attested to, swapping in a new motherboard is fairly painless

I used to use an old 400GB sata drive as my cache drive until I read about Rajahal's "Warm Spare" concept of using a precleared cache drive the same size as your largest drive. In the event that one of your other array drives fails, it's just a matter of clearing off the content from the cache drive, unassigning it as cache, and reassigning it in the failed drive's slot. Once the array rebuilds the failed drive's data on the ex-cache drive, your array is back and fully protected (minus a cache drive of course). Here's some more info on it: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5754.0 Just gives me a bit more sense of security I suppose ... That said, I may purchase a faster drive for cache, and in the event an array drive fails, I could do the swap, and simply swap it back to cache when a new green drive has precleared and is ready to go.... Eventually, once I have a larger case, I will simply keep the faster drive in the cache position, and have an unassigned precleared green drive as a spare waiting in an extra slot...