February 22, 201115 yr http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358 Need a motherboard that will fit three of those, and has onboard video, and socket 775/DDR2. Will be using with a Norco 4224. I simply cannot afford to buy a $1,100 card with 6x mini-SAS connectors on it. In short, I need 6x mini-SAS connectors... and I don't need some high end controller that supports every RAID, since it will be used with unRAID. Sadly I think I will be stuck buying a high end card with 6x mini-SAS on it... or upgrading to a new socket type and DDR3. My next option is to just buy this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115067 Thanks.
February 22, 201115 yr That's tough to find such an old motherboard with built in video and enough 4-lane PCI-Express slots. As it is, it's getting harder than it used to be to find motherboards for the older socket 1156, but at least with the proper chipset [H55 for instance] they support the integrated video of the i3/i5 cpus. Do you absolutely need 6x mini-sas connectors? You could use reverse breakout cables to go from the NORCO backplanes to normal Sata ports; someone correct me if I'm wrong. The MSI H55M-ED55 can support the i3 530 integrated video and a ton of drives by using the 2 16x PCI-Express slots, then using the onboard sata ports, and a 1x PCI-Express slot for 8+8+6+2 = 24. You can also loop the external sata back internally for another Sata connector to have 25. If push came to shove, throw in a single PCI SATA card to have 26 total. If you can find the full-atx version of it, I think it would allow for even more drives. Here's the NewEgg listing. EDIT: I don't know if anyone has been able to run 3 SuperMicro SAS controllers in a single system. There was another topic recently trying to get them working on a SuperMicro server-based motherboard too.
February 22, 201115 yr About the closets you are going to get is this. You could use 2 of the SASLP's and one of the SAT2's
February 22, 201115 yr Author http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115067 Any idea if this would work with unRAID? It would save me having to buy new ram/processor/mobo. Insanely expensive though...
February 22, 201115 yr http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115067 Any idea if this would work with unRAID? It would save me having to buy new ram/processor/mobo. Insanely expensive though... I am not sure if that would work or not, but I could build you an entire freaking system for that much.
February 22, 201115 yr Why do you need the 3 SASLP cards? Can't you do what BRiT mentioned? That's my planned route. josh
February 22, 201115 yr http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121059 (See my sig). Will get you everything except for onboard video. You can add a very very cheap PCI video card. It should work with 3 SASLP cards as it has 1 x16, 1 X8, and 1 x4 slots. I've only used with with 2 SASLP and 1 Adaptec 1430SA, so it does support 3 controller cards simultaneously. Its major shortcoming is that it is discontinued so you would have to find a used one or old stock. If you are willing to change processors and memory, the Supermicro X8SIL is an excellent choice with X8, X8, X4 slots. Before you decide, you might want to read the following article regarding bandwidth support of the various SAS cards: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10 Regards, Peter
February 23, 201115 yr Why spend $800 on a hardware based RAID card when you won't be using it for its intended purpose? Just buy an entirely new system and save several hundred bucks. It just makes no sense to me.
February 23, 201115 yr This board has 3x PCI-E slots (16x, 8x and 4x) that all meet the requiurements and it is only $70: https://www.serversupply.com/INTEL/MOTHERBOARD/DESKTOP%20BOARD/SOCKET%20775/BLKD975XBXLKR.htm EXPANSION SLOTS : - TWO PCI BUS ADD-IN CARD CONNECTORS - ONE PCI EXPRESS X16 CONNECTOR (ELECTRICAL X16 OR X8) - ONE PCI EXPRESS X16 CONNECTOR (ELECTRICAL X8) - ONE PCI EXPRESS X16 CONNECTOR (ELECTRICAL X4 Downside...no onboard video. However, you can get a PCI vid card really cheap! On a side note, I cannot vouch for unRAID compatibility but everything looks good from the outside. John
February 23, 201115 yr ^^ Looks like $75 shipped to me. I could upgrade my current PC and use the e2160 CPU and 2GB RAM that I'm using now. I'd have to borrow a PCI GPU from the HTPC to setup the server though. Decisions, decisions.
February 23, 201115 yr It also has 8 onboard SATA ports (4x SATA II and 4x SATA I). Now just need a case (an version of unRAID) that supports 32 drives! BTW...I saw that board for $250 elsewhere. John
February 23, 201115 yr I'll point out the obvious that unraid maxes out at 22 drives. That's 1 parity, 20 data, and 1 cache. You could add more disks outside the array using queeg's snap addon, though. Also, you don't need 3 saslp cards to max out a norco 4224 case. You need 2 saslp cards, a 2 port pcie x1 card, and a motherboard with 6 onboard sata ports. The supermicro x8sil-f-o would be a good choice for this kind of system. Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
February 23, 201115 yr You don't need 3 SAS cards. A much easier solution would be to just find a mobo with 2 PCI-E slots for the SAS cards and 8 Sata ports. If you can find this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358 somewhere, that'll be perfect. It's got onboard raid if you ever need it, 8 x SATA, 2 x PCI-E 2.0x16, 3 x PCI-E 1x, 2 PCI (for video card), LGA 775 (for cheapo CPUs ie., $40 for an E3400), and uses DDR2. The only problem is finding some place that still sells them. *Note* This combo has already been confirmed to work by someone on this forum. If that doesn't work, maybe this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223 It's got 4 x PCI-E 2.0x16, 8 x SATA (onboard raid), AM3 (cheapo AMD CPU), 2 x PCI (for video card). Downside is it uses DDR3, but you can get 4GB for like $45 so not a big deal. Also, I'm not sure if this combo has been confirmed to work. Bottom line is you don't need to use 3 SAS cards. Use that $110 you would otherwise spend on the SAS cards and buy a better mobo with more SATA ports.
February 24, 201115 yr You don't need 3 SAS cards. A much easier solution would be to just find a mobo with 2 PCI-E slots for the SAS cards and 8 Sata ports. If you can find this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358 somewhere, that'll be perfect. It's got onboard raid if you ever need it, 8 x SATA, 2 x PCI-E 2.0x16, 3 x PCI-E 1x, 2 PCI (for video card), LGA 775 (for cheapo CPUs ie., $40 for an E3400), and uses DDR2. The only problem is finding some place that still sells them. *Note* This combo has already been confirmed to work by someone on this forum. This Gigabyte motherboard has HPA implemented so it is completely a no go with unRAID.
February 24, 201115 yr You don't need 3 SAS cards. A much easier solution would be to just find a mobo with 2 PCI-E slots for the SAS cards and 8 Sata ports. If you can find this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358 somewhere, that'll be perfect. It's got onboard raid if you ever need it, 8 x SATA, 2 x PCI-E 2.0x16, 3 x PCI-E 1x, 2 PCI (for video card), LGA 775 (for cheapo CPUs ie., $40 for an E3400), and uses DDR2. The only problem is finding some place that still sells them. *Note* This combo has already been confirmed to work by someone on this forum. This Gigabyte motherboard has HPA implemented so it is completely a no go with unRAID. Hmmm, I thought I saw someone on this board said he was using it just fine. Is there no way to disable the HPA on that board? I ask because my current Vista machine is using a Gigabyte board that I might eventually use to run an unRaid machine. It's perfect because it's got 8 SATA ports and 2x PCI-E 16x slots. It's really too bad that MBs don't have nearly the same amount of features that they used to. I think I bought my MB for less than $150 at the time when it first came out too. :'(
February 24, 201115 yr Hmmm, I thought I saw someone on this board said he was using it just fine. Is there no way to disable the HPA on that board? I ask because my current Vista machine is using a Gigabyte board that I might eventually use to run an unRaid machine. It's perfect because it's got 8 SATA ports and 2x PCI-E 16x slots. It's really too bad that MBs don't have nearly the same amount of features that they used to. I think I bought my MB for less than $150 at the time when it first came out too. :'( Yes, you can disable HPA on some boards (like mine), but if for some reason it gets reset you're SOL. I think it's better to not have that possibility, and if that means avoiding Gigabyte boards with that feature than so be it.
February 24, 201115 yr Hmmm, I thought I saw someone on this board said he was using it just fine. Is there no way to disable the HPA on that board? I ask because my current Vista machine is using a Gigabyte board that I might eventually use to run an unRaid machine. It's perfect because it's got 8 SATA ports and 2x PCI-E 16x slots. It's really too bad that MBs don't have nearly the same amount of features that they used to. I think I bought my MB for less than $150 at the time when it first came out too. :'( Yes, you can disable HPA on some boards (like mine), but if for some reason it gets reset you're SOL. I think it's better to not have that possibility, and if that means avoiding Gigabyte boards with that feature than so be it. You're right. I'll probably just junk my existing Vista machine and build one from scratch if I ever decide to build a new media server. I don't understand why MBs don't have more SATA ports like they used to.
February 24, 201115 yr You're right. I'll probably just junk my existing Vista machine and build one from scratch if I ever decide to build a new media server. I don't understand why MBs don't have more SATA ports like they used to. My main system has a Gigabyte DS3L board on it. There's 3xPCIe ports, 4 SATA + a PCIe x16 slot that I was going to use for a small 8 drive or so setup. But now I'll have to scrap it and build two new systems. I was hoping to save some money, but it doesn't look like that's the case.
February 25, 201115 yr You don't need 3 SAS cards. A much easier solution would be to just find a mobo with 2 PCI-E slots for the SAS cards and 8 Sata ports. If you can find this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358 somewhere, that'll be perfect. It's got onboard raid if you ever need it, 8 x SATA, 2 x PCI-E 2.0x16, 3 x PCI-E 1x, 2 PCI (for video card), LGA 775 (for cheapo CPUs ie., $40 for an E3400), and uses DDR2. The only problem is finding some place that still sells them. *Note* This combo has already been confirmed to work by someone on this forum. This Gigabyte motherboard has HPA implemented so it is completely a no go with unRAID. Hmmm, I thought I saw someone on this board said he was using it just fine. Is there no way to disable the HPA on that board? I ask because my current Vista machine is using a Gigabyte board that I might eventually use to run an unRaid machine. It's perfect because it's got 8 SATA ports and 2x PCI-E 16x slots. It's really too bad that MBs don't have nearly the same amount of features that they used to. I think I bought my MB for less than $150 at the time when it first came out too. :'( That would be me The GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P is awesome for the 4224. 8 onboard SATA and 2 SASLP cards gets you 24. HPA is disabled by default. If you can pick one up cheaply, a good option.
February 25, 201115 yr ^^ Oh well there you go. Disabled by default ftw. Now I just need to find some place that sells one... :'(
February 25, 201115 yr ^^ Oh well there you go. Disabled by default ftw. Now I just need to find some place that sells one... :'( Yeah, I really wish I had picked up 2 while they were still being sold. Let me know if you find a source.
February 25, 201115 yr The GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P is awesome for the 4224. 8 onboard SATA and 2 SASLP cards gets you 24. HPA is disabled by default. If you can pick one up cheaply, a good option. HPA on my board was definitely enabled by default.
February 25, 201115 yr The GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P is awesome for the 4224. 8 onboard SATA and 2 SASLP cards gets you 24. HPA is disabled by default. If you can pick one up cheaply, a good option. HPA on my board was definitely enabled by default. Interesting. Mine is Rev 1.6, latest firmware, and it is disabled by default.
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