terminaldawn Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 It seems that there are an abundant of threads here pretty much asking the same question…. “What MOTHERBOARD should I buy?” I too have this same question as there doesn’t seem to be a safe bet. For instance the ASUS M4A785-M is not compatible with Sata Expansion in UnRaid. This is beginning to make me question UnRAID and perhaps just go with a safer solution like WHS, however I really don’t want to lose 50% of my drive space to data duplication. I can easily pick hardware compatible with Windows Home Server but it seems impossible with unRAID. Considering this is a PAID product with more than 3 drives this to me is unnaceptable. What MotherBoard should I go with that is GOING to work that I can CURRENTLY buy? If UNRAID is really this picky about hardware is this really a safe solution to be storing data on? What happens a couple years down the road when my motherboard craps out, will I be able to find a motherboard that will work with the system so I can recover the data? I am challenging LimeTech to confirm hardware that I can currently buy that is GOING TO WORK, I am also hoping that someone from the community can maybe point me to a motherboard that will certainly work (And can still be purchased) to me if I have missed it. Thanks!!!! Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 unRAID is the most hardware independent (least picky) OS that I have ever used. My personal server has seen at least four swaps of motherboard, CPU, RAM, etc and it didn't even seem to notice. Every time it would boot right up as if nothing had changed. I may have had to reassign my disks into the correct slots (parity, disk1, disk2, etc.), but that's it. Try doing that with any Microsoft OS... I understand your concern about choosing a motherboard that is guaranteed to work. Unfortunately we are at an awkward cross-roads in the history of motherboard manufacture. Many Gigabyte motherboards should be avoided because of HPA issues (this is Gigabyte's fault, not LimeTech's fault, and HPA issues will affect any RAID system, not just unRAID). Many of the big name motherboard manufacturers are turning out unreliable or finicky motherboards, such as the Asus M4A785-M that you cited. Even more, every version of motherboard BIOS available on any motherboard that you can buy today cannot natively support drives larger than 3 TB. At this point in time no one, not even LimeTech, has any idea how this is going to pan out. Perhaps we can all just update the BIOS on our current motherboards and get 3 TB support. Or perhaps we'll all have to physically replace our motherboards with new ones that have UEFI instead of BIOS. It will be at least a few months before we'll know what the future will hold. Despite all of that, I do consider your challenge to LimeTech to be valid. Whether or not LimeTech weighs in on this issue, I can personally vouch for this motherboard as being one that I would recommend to you today with absolutely no hesitation: SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O It is expensive, I know. But it has a LOT of nice features: IPMI, tons of expandability, support for i3 CPUs, etc. I've built several large (20+ drive) servers out of this board and an i3 CPU and each one has been flawless. Full compatibility with dual Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards too. The only other motherboard that I can personally vouch for having a flawless record is the Biostar A760G M2+. However, this motherboard has been discontinued and is hard to find. I recently found a couple on eBay sold by chipsdigitalPC.com, a small vendor out of Northern California. It looks like they have only 2 left in stock: link. Pair this board with a Sempron 140 and you have the nice basis for a smaller 3 - 15 drive server. This board is also fully compatible with the Supermicro SASLP card, though it can only support one of them. I've also had great success with the Supermicro C2SEE, but alas it is also discontinued and nearly impossible to find. In a couple of years when your motherboard craps out you can rest assured that you will be able to replace it with a new and better motherboard without unRAID throwing a tantrum, like most other systems would. Hopefully that motherboard will also be able to support drives larger than 2 TBs. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I can easily pick hardware compatible with Windows Home Server but it seems impossible with unRAID. Considering this is a PAID product with more than 3 drives this to me is unnaceptable. terminaldawn, just try to pull out your motherboard on your Windows Home Server and install another different and boot it up! That's what you will have to do unless you buy replacements and keep them on the shelf. With unRAID you CAN replace a motherboard without doing a full reinstall. That is what you are paying for. That is something worth paying for. Hardware independence. Let's say you bought the Asus board and later find out it's not happy with the sata controller. Replace the motherboard and unRAID doesn't care. Every 9 months or so a particular problem arises. The motherboard makers want to come out with new features and new lines of boards. But first the have to empty out the silos and warehouses of the old boards. They drop prices and offer rebates. It's buyer heaven for a couple months but then the flood of good deals drys up. The remaing inventory is wholesaled out to ebay stores and 3rd tier online sellers. That's happening right now and the pickings are pretty slim. It's that time again when people have to buy a board that isn't currently on the hardware compatibility list and get it certified. Here's an Asrock 880GM-LE that I think might even be a good candidate to replace the Biostar A760G M2+ if it turns out to be a decent board. Raj, I agree that Asus boards are picky. I bought two Biostars and they are great. But the silly Biostar folks have suddenly started making all their micro-atx boards with 3 expansion slots instead of 4. It's almost as if they really don't want to be in the mobo business anymore. And what's with Gigabyte destroying it's reputation with that dreaded HPA feature? It seems the mobo makers can't seem to help shooting themselves in the foot! I'm building a machine for my son and I'm using the MSI 880GM-E43 motherboard. If I have some time I'll try to test it with unRAID before he takes it away. Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 I am currently using 2 TB of storage and dont foresee myself in the near future to grow past 10 drives. At least by the time I fill up 18 TB I am sure Storage will have changed (IE bigger drives, different tech, etc..) That is all I really planned on building for so I am definitely looking for a budget board that will give me the least amount of issues... So between the two Asrock 880GM-LE and the Biostar A760G M2+ which should I get? I am guessing the Biostar A760G M2+ due to its REP? BTW here is the response I got from Tom Mortensen Why do you say ASUS M4A785-M is not compatible? If linux can see hard drives attached to the motherboard and any controllers you plug into the motherboard (with certain exceptions, see below), then unRAID will see those hard drives. Your question should be, "is this motherboard supported by linux". It's hard to imagine any motherboards NOT supported by linux - I guess the exception here would be if the video chip did not have linux support. But unRAID does not care about video - it just uses it in text-mode as a console. Certain disk controllers, typically expensive RAID controllers with their own drivers, may or may not work correctly with unRAID. This is because unRAID uses standard drivers included with the linux kernel. Often a controller manufacturer will get their driver working with a particular kernel version and call it done. When I try to build these drivers for latest kernels, often they get build errors. Debugging LSI drivers to get them to build with newer kernels is not something I have time for. Quote Link to comment
Beer40oz Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The Biostar A760G M2+ I found 192 of them from this seller on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOSTAR-A760G-M2-SOCKET-AM2-AM3-MOTHERBOARD-AMD-CHIPS-/370478094229?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5642371795 Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Awesome, thanks. This seller is located in Texas. I am a fan of Texas considering my favorite vodka is mad there (TitosVodka) Cheap and better than Gose and Kettle, etc.... and also my Packers just won the super bowl there. I think this is an omen. This may be the mother board for me. Any objections??? Quote Link to comment
Beer40oz Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Awesome, thanks. This seller is located in Texas. I am a fan of Texas considering my favorite vodka is mad there (TitosVodka) Cheap and better than Gose and Kettle, etc.... and also my Packers just won the super bowl there. I think this is an omen. This may be the mother board for me. Any objections??? Well I am in the same boat as you...... maybe this mobo is for us and pair it with a Sempron 140 CPU. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 What happens a couple years down the road when my motherboard craps out, will I be able to find a motherboard that will work with the system so I can recover the data? Isn't one of the great advantage of unRAID is that you actually don't need unRAID to recover your data if hardware other than your drives goes kaput, unlike for example hardware raid solutions. All you need to do is install an OS that can mount a reiserfs partition and you have access to your data. I think more important question in terms of long run investment is which motherboard brand or model has a reputation for reliability. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 unRAID boots from a flash drive. So when you change the motherboard, you can still boot from the same flash drive. When unRAID boots up in that situation you will re-assign the drives so it knows which is the parity drive and that's about it. I am on my 3rd motherboard. They never broke, I just decided to change for reasons of my own. The first was a Gigabyte and after learning about HPA I got rid of it. The second was an Asus. My third is now a Biostar A760G m2+ which I chose because it's physical dimensions are really small and it fits into my TinyTen case. With unRAID, swapping out the motherboard is almost trivial. Yes, the drives can be accessed individually as you described. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The Biostar A760G M2+ I found 192 of them from this seller on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOSTAR-A760G-M2-SOCKET-AM2-AM3-MOTHERBOARD-AMD-CHIPS-/370478094229?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5642371795 Great find! I recommend this board to all! Quote Link to comment
timefora_j Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The Biostar A760G M2+ I found 192 of them from this seller on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOSTAR-A760G-M2-SOCKET-AM2-AM3-MOTHERBOARD-AMD-CHIPS-/370478094229?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5642371795 Great find! I recommend this board to all! Anyone fancy sending one to Ireland pretty please Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 As long as you are willing to cover all shipping and paypal fees, I'm happy to help you out. PM me. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The Biostar A760G M2+ I found 192 of them from this seller on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/BIOSTAR-A760G-M2-SOCKET-AM2-AM3-MOTHERBOARD-AMD-CHIPS-/370478094229?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5642371795 Great find! I recommend this board to all! Anyone fancy sending one to Ireland pretty please People tend to get that board because it's a low cost budget board (nothing special). There are many other equally suitable boards available to you locally. I recommend you get one of them instead. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Almost any AMD with a 740,760,780,785 chipset would work. In general, find a cheap board with onboard video and 6 SATA ports and the PCIe slots to add the expansion cards you want then give it a try. Sadly, this is one place where you do have to take some risk. Motherboards change so often it's almost impossible to come up with a short list of working 20 drive server candidates. Heck, I have a motherboard here I used for HTPC duty and it was both reasonable priced and a well optioned board with the Nvidia 8200 graphics (which got a bunch of hype for HTPC use at one time) but it still was only for sale a few months. You just never know, a great candidate board might only survive on the market for a few months and be gone literally weeks after the qualification testing is completed. Now, you should do some searching because others will often list their combo's and you might come up with something suitable there. Peter Quote Link to comment
abq-pete Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Why not get a Supermicro C2SEE off of eBay? http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Supermicro-C2SEE-MBD-C2SEE-MOTHERBOARD-/300393090316?pt=Motherboards&hash=item45f0d2cd0c#ht_5296wt_907 I ordered one from eBay yesterday and received it today. It is new in the box. I am burning it in right now and it seems fine. Since this is the same or similar to the one that Lime Tech currently uses, I assume you'll have the least amount of problems. The seller still has 9 more left as well as one or two C2SEA versions. Regards, Peter Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thanks for pointing out the BioStar A760G M2+ I ended up ordering it from the ebay vendor. I am looking at the memory compatibility page and I can’t find anything officially supported by this board available to buy. Normally I wouldn’t ask but to be on the safe side what RAM is recommended for this board? I don’t plan on running any add-ons just straight up file serving… so 1 GB should be good right? Lime-Tech should maybe think about buying out these BioStar boards and selling them with RAM and CPU as a build your own box bare bones kit… Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thanks for pointing out the BioStar A760G M2+ I ended up ordering it from the ebay vendor. I am looking at the memory compatibility page and I can’t find anything officially supported by this board available to buy. Normally I wouldn’t ask but to be on the safe side what RAM is recommended for this board? I don’t plan on running any add-ons just straight up file serving… so 1 GB should be good right? Lime-Tech should maybe think about buying out these BioStar boards and selling them with RAM and CPU as a build your own box bare bones kit… Like the cheap value ram I'm using (see my signature line below). Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thanks for pointing out the BioStar A760G M2+ I ended up ordering it from the ebay vendor. I am looking at the memory compatibility page and I can’t find anything officially supported by this board available to buy. Normally I wouldn’t ask but to be on the safe side what RAM is recommended for this board? I don’t plan on running any add-ons just straight up file serving… so 1 GB should be good right? Lime-Tech should maybe think about buying out these BioStar boards and selling them with RAM and CPU as a build your own box bare bones kit… Like the cheap value ram I'm using (see my signature line below). seems i can only find KVR800D2N6K2/2G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134635&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Memory+(Desktop+Memory)-_-Kingston+Technology+Corp.-_-20134635 seems as though the only differnce I can tell is that the one you have says ECC the other doesnt. Not sure if this means the 2g doesnt have ECC. ? Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 This is what I have. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134488 2GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC DIMM (Kit of 2) Retail http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/PartsInfo.asp?root=&LinkBack=&ktcpartno=KVR800D2K2/2GR It's just run of the mill value ram. That motherboard isn't very picky. It won't matter if it's a single stick or a pair. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134581 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148235 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145239 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134635 Quote Link to comment
Beer40oz Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thanks for pointing out the BioStar A760G M2+ I ended up ordering it from the ebay vendor. I am looking at the memory compatibility page and I can’t find anything officially supported by this board available to buy. Normally I wouldn’t ask but to be on the safe side what RAM is recommended for this board? I don’t plan on running any add-ons just straight up file serving… so 1 GB should be good right? Lime-Tech should maybe think about buying out these BioStar boards and selling them with RAM and CPU as a build your own box bare bones kit… Hey I just ordered that same mobo too and all the parts for the server. I will be using this ram.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 I just put in my order to newegg for the rest of the parts. Thanks for those that helped with pointing out the mobo! Beer - out of curiosity what case did you go with? Quote Link to comment
Beer40oz Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I just put in my order to newegg for the rest of the parts. Thanks for those that helped with pointing out the mobo! Beer - out of curiosity what case did you go with? Well I am building two of them. One is a Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 my friend likes (window on it). I am still trying to decide on mine but I think it will be the Antec 300. How about you? Quote Link to comment
terminaldawn Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 I just put in my order to newegg for the rest of the parts. Thanks for those that helped with pointing out the mobo! Beer - out of curiosity what case did you go with? Well I am building two of them. One is a Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 my friend likes (window on it). I am still trying to decide on mine but I think it will be the Antec 300. How about you? Cool, i went with CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced. I like the side mounted hard dive slots that comes with the case. This should last me a while before I need to worry about dropping in a card and a 2 in 3. Quote Link to comment
Beer40oz Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I just put in my order to newegg for the rest of the parts. Thanks for those that helped with pointing out the mobo! Beer - out of curiosity what case did you go with? Well I am building two of them. One is a Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 my friend likes (window on it). I am still trying to decide on mine but I think it will be the Antec 300. How about you? Cool, i went with CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced. I like the side mounted hard dive slots that comes with the case. This should last me a while before I need to worry about dropping in a card and a 2 in 3. Sweet man.... I do like this one for me doh.... I love green. RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156098 I could fit a Micro ATX board on here right? New egg says ATX.... but there website says micro atx also..... http://www.raidmax.com/product/smilodon_black.html Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I like the smilodon Any ATX case also works with micro-atx. Quote Link to comment
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