a little help in choosing the right mobo

[Gog]

Hi

 

I'm trying to decide of the best components for my build and while this forum has a lot of good info, I decided to go through the list of mobo here:

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility#Motherboard

 

The list was nice but to choose I wanted to have the number of SATA ports onboard, the gigabit LAN capability and the CPU type.

 

I took the liberty of adding the table view with the results from my web searches.

 

My head still spins a bit, but I think I'll go with Asus P5B-VM DO.  7 SATA, 1eSATA, 1 gigabit port and on-board video.  Not sure what CPU, it'll depend what I can find on the cheap side.

 

Gog

[Fountainhead]

I chose that motherboard for my build. There are plenty of motherboards that will work fine, but I figured that if Limetech uses this one then I couldn't go wrong using the same. I paired it with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz CPU, and Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300). In retrospect I only needed 1 GB since unRAID only supports 1 GB, but 2 GB wasn't exactly expensive (about $65 I think) and now I have it should I ever re-purpose the box. The on-board video is a bonus. Who wants to go out and buy a video card for a headless box?

 

It's a solid choice.

[teamhood]

wow.. went with Core 2 Duo E6400 eh!! I believe that is a bit over-kill for an unRAID box, but if you do ever decide to reuse the box, you will have a very nice CPU!

[Fountainhead]

wow.. went with Core 2 Duo E6400 eh!! I believe that is a bit over-kill for an unRAID box, but if you do ever decide to reuse the box, you will have a very nice CPU!

 

Exactly. I've yet to have a PC (or "server") that finished its life in the same capacity that it started. They always get used for something else down the line. 

[RobJ]

Exactly. I've yet to have a PC (or "server") that finished its life in the same capacity that it started. They always get used for something else down the line. 

 

My thinking exactly.

 

I've also considered dual booting my unRAID server as just another workstation during the day, since it is one of my faster machines, and is rarely accessed during the day.  That way I could take advantage of its wasted power.  Its media server talents are only used evenings and weekends, and backup server tasks are very early morning, so that leaves all day to earn its keep.  I've never gotten around to adding its dual boot needs to the Requested Features list, but I believe it would probably need some adjustment to the way the date and time are handled, possibly a way to guarantee ignoring (except to spin it down) a bootable Windows drive, and maybe some slight changes in the actual booting process.