BetaQuasi

Just reading this again - you're on 4.7 and using a z68-based board. I'd recommend trying a beta build (b14 should be fine looking at your hardware). Essentially the chipset on your board is much newer than the drivers etc in the kernel that is in 4.7. Give b14 a crack and see how you go. Could also be the PSU as mentioned.

I expect my 256Gb Performance Pro to arrive either tomorrow or the next day - will report back on drive height. I'm cautiously optimistic that it isn't a 12mm drive (the Force 3 I have isn't, it's just under 8mm) and there are reports here of someone getting the drive into a Sony Vaio SE1, which are pretty thin: http://forum.notebookreview.com/8421611-post10354.html In any case, I hope they're not 12mm, 'cos then mine won't fit in the StarTech PCI expansion hotswap slots I bought! lol

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X9SCMFB is the same board, just the bulk (OEM, not retail box) version.

as dgaschk mentioned and linked to two posts up, use tail to pipe the syslog into your telnet/putty/whatever session and then just copy and paste the results after a crash (if you're using putty obviously don't click OK on the 'lost connection' dialog The command you want is: tail -f /var/log/syslog BQ

I'm almost 100% certain that as Johnm mentioned, your chipset isn't properly supported by 4.7, which according to your syslog you are running - try 5.0 b14 or something and see how you go. The H67 chipset is only a year and a bit old (January 2011 according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets) and the kernel in 4.7 is 2 (?) or so years old. BQ

Hey, I'm a fellow Aussie and ended up getting the X9SCM-F-O and 16Gb of the same RAM from superbiiz.com - they ship internationally and as the parts themselves are much cheaper than anything locally (also save a few bucks as our dollar is stronger) it will work out about the same. They only accept direct debit though, unless you use some sort of mail forwarder. For controllers, perhaps look at the IBM Serveraid M1015's, though I can't comment on their WOL compatibility. In saying that, they feature in a stack of IBM servers that all market their WOL ability. There's a few on ebay (link below). The guy I used will ship them with the full height PCI bracket and one set of SAS to SATA breakout cables ($10 extra for a second set, just ask for an invoice rather than paying straight up.) He will also preflash them so you don't have to. Shipped for $20, and if you order 2 (like I did) it's still $20. Not a bad deal. He also has a long history of selling these. If you do look into other options for the M1015's, note that often they don't come with any extras, i.e. no PCI bracket and no breakout cables. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/IBM-ServeRAID-M1015-LSI9220-8i-46M0861-Bracket-and-SFF8087-4SATA-cable-/200739872127?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebd075d7f#ht_855wt_1396 Re: the case, I was interested in the Norco 4224 as well - Techbuy are indeed the only resellers down here (official reseller according to norcotek.com), however they don't really have a warehouse to speak of, so I'm guessing when you order, it's probably shipped from overseas anyway. My only real concern with the 4224's was the few mentions in these forums about faulty SATA backplanes - I'd take the gamble if I lived Stateside, but dealing with RMA'ing something like that from here in Aus could be quite painful! Lastly, if your intent is to stick with the 4224 and use a HBA, you'll need some SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cables to hook it all up. If using the 1015's, the 0.5m standard ones are too short. Everything local seems to be ridiculously priced for these ($30 and up, and nowhere has stock 0_o), but there are Chinese ebay vendors that sell them for $10 with postage included. Otherwise, monoprice over in the US also ship here to Aus and a few forum users have used them. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1m-10Gbp-SFF-8087-Mini-SAS-36-Pin-Mini-SAS-36P-Cable-/280708846267?pt=AU_Components&hash=item415b8d12bb#ht_2239wt_1163 The reverse breakout cable you have listed above is typically used for connecting from multiple motherboard SATA ports to the Norco's backplane. Cheers BQ

Thanks for the tip John - I'd purchased a 256Gb Corsair Force 3 for my build (still waiting on Supermicro parts) as it claimed to have Background Garbage Collection, but that article certainly illustrates the advantage of the Performance Pro model clearly! I've just ordered one myself for use as an ESXi datastore, and will use the Force 3 in my laptop, which I've been meaning to stick a SSD in for some time!

If all your other drives are 2TB as per your OP, then just stick with a 2TB parity drive and save some $$.

I was in a similar dilemma to you - I ended up importing a Supermicro board from superbiiz (still cheaper than any local option here in Australia and really wanted IPMI and ECC RAM). Will be using a E3-1230 to start with, may upgrade to an E5 down the track when they get a little cheaper. For me, the RAM was a no brainer, but I only had 4 slots to deal with!. 4x4Gb ECC for $120, and if and when the price of 8Gb sticks drops (which I'm sure it will eventually) I'll swap them out. I can get by on 16Gb until then. Your needs may differ of course!

Heyas, Ok this is probably a little premature - I'm still waiting on a few parts to arrive as I've had to import them from the US (I live in Australia), but wanted to share anyways and get some feedback on what people think. I borrowed a few hardware ideas from this forum (the Supermicro kit, a la Johnm's Atlas and some others) and the rest is fairly standard. I am particularly looking forward to testing the case/drive bays out. The case is steel, so it will be bloody heavy when it's filled, but that's ok, not like I need to move it This build is ESXi-centric, as I wanted to get rid of all my 'lab' boxes (a lot of my day job work is in virtualisation and storage, and my home kit pretty much consisted of a cheap and nasty Dell tower server and a few random desktops/old gaming rigs, all of which were power hungry and, frankly, a bit crap!) A list of the parts (prices in AUD unless noted otherwise): Case: Xigmatek Elysium Super Tower - http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18284 $179 Drive bays: 2x Xigmatek 4 in 3 (Case comes with 2, total of 4) - http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18507 $17 x2 Case: Norco 4224 with 120mm fan plate and ball bearing rails CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 - $229 Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O - $167 USD @ Superbiiz Storage Adapter: AOC-SASLP-MV8 - $102 USD @ Superbiiz and 2x LSI SATA breakout cables $26 USD @ Superbiiz (Now a spare) Storage Adapters: 2x IBM RaidServe M1015 flashed to IT mode RAM: 2x KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G unbuffered ECC kits (16G total) - $122 USD @ Superbiiz PSU:Seasonic X660 Gold$159 Flash drives: 2x Lexar Firefly $12 (one unRaid, one ESXi) Flash drives: 2x Patriot Xporter Rage XT 8Gb SSD1: 240Gb Corsair Force 3 $309 (Cache Disk) SSD2: 256Gb Corsair Performance Pro (ESXi Datastore) SSD Bracket: 2x Startech 2.5" PCI hot swap drive bays Hard disks: 4x 2Tb Seagate 5900rpm $122 ea plus 4 existing 2Tb Seagate 5900rpm from my old Netgear ReadyNAS NV+, passthrough to unRaid VM off the SASLP Cables: 6x SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 1m SAS cables Fans:3x120mm and 2x80mm Arctic F PWM's NIC: Intel PRO/1000 PT PCIe x4 Quad Port Gigabit NIC, teamed to a HP Procurve 1810G-24 in Etherchannel mode - LAN access for all VM's Expansion Card:NEC 5 port USB 2.0 PCIe 1x card (1 internal, 4 external ports.) Internal port for unRAID flash, external port for UPS. Card passed through to unRAID VM. Total price, minus storage: ~$1000 AUD (few parts in USD, based on current exchange rate) - Parity drive will be one of the above 2Tb and recycling an old 500Gb WD green for cache. Undecided on cache, may forgo one of the 2Tb as I don't need that much space yet (only have 5Tb to transfer from the old NAS) and put the cache drive on the SASLP, or raw mount it. - 2 extra 4 in 3's because $17 ea is cheap and they match the case - and I don't want to fall into the trap of being unable to get them down the track when I want to add more drives - The case is an absolute monster - fits E-ATX, L-ATX, HPATX motherboards, so with the mATX supermicro board in there, there will be a TON of space. Also has really good cable management (check out the photos in the link above). I am thinking if/when I hit 16 drives in the unRaid setup, I might look at some sort of custom mount to add another 4 drives in the space usually reserved for a waterblock (at the bottom). - Case also has a SATA 3.5"/2.5" dock on top, which should be useful. - Would have preferred 32Gb RAM, but the Kingston 8Gb chips don't make sense at the moment - $420 for 32Gb or $120 for 16Gb.. hmm.. take the 16Gb and upgrade when the prices drop! Anyways, just waiting for my case and for Mr UPS man to deliver my bits from superbiiz and I'm good to go! They're on their way, but to save on shipping, they're coming on Express Saver (still $85 odd dollars for shipping! ugh) Will post photos etc once it's all up and running. EDIT: Couple of changes, hopefully will have all parts late this week or early next. - Ordered 2x M1015's preflashed with latest IT (will sell or keep the MV8 as a backup) - Changing the USB sticks to 8Gb Patriot Xporter Rage ($14 ea) - Changing the datastore drive to a Corsair Performance Pro 240Gb for the much better Marvell-based garbage collection ($399) - Likely use the Force 3 as the cache drive now - Ordered 2x StarTech PCI hotswap 2.5" mounts for the SSD's. With 11 card slots in the Elysium and only using a Micro ATX board, should be plenty of room for them. Unfortunately it's the one downside to the Elysium in that it doesn't have any 2.5" mounting points/cages.. but I kinda like this idea better anyway and it means I keep all my 5.25" bays for 3.5" cages. http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-2-5-Inch-Removable-Expansion-S25SLOTR/dp/B002MWDRD6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333946172&sr=8-1 Getting itchy feet, hopefully everything rocks up soon! EDIT 2: Was advised the Xigmatek wouldn't be available until 8th May and that there is a nationwide shortage of them (tried to get one everywhere with no joy.) So after some research into Techbuy.com.au (sole Norco reseller in Aus), I've jumped on the Norco bandwagon and ordered: 4224 120mm fan wall bracket 1x reverse breakout cable ball bearing rails ..and from Monoprice: 6x SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 1m SAS cables NEC PCIe x1 5 port USB card (1 internal, 4 external) - hopefully I can pass this entire card through to the unraid VM with no issues. Will have the unraid USB stick mounted on the internal port of the card, and the ESXi stick on the internal port on the motherboard, so all external USB ports will be available too. Shipping was $37 as they only ship internationally via UPS... racking up the costs, but oh well. Things we do for our hobbies