I am just getting started with unRAID, so I don't know much right now. However, I know a deal when I see one. This ATX MOBO is running the Intel E7230 NB chipset, ICH7R SB, and comes with a x8 PCI-E slot, a 64-Bit 133 MHz PCI-X slot, 5-PCI 32-bit slots and a IDE slot setup for bootable CF card. I installed unRAID (Trial version right now) on a 8GB high speed CF card I had laying around, and it booted perfectly the first time from the card. I am also using an Adaptec 2810SA 8-SATA port card in the PCI-X slot. unRAID seemed to recognize all my hardware and booted right up. The MOBO comes with the CPU (3.2 GHz Celeron D 351), FAN & 2x512MB matched sticks of Kingston RAM already installed. Seems (so far) to be very compatible with unRAID. I will keep everyone posted on that, but from what I have read, if it boots, you're OK, right? The board also has on board Video, 4 x SATA2 ports, 2 x Intel Gigabit LAN, but no audio. It has 4 x internal USB header ports, 2 x rear USB ports, 6 x 4-pin Fan headers and supports Fan speed control. It does not support any 45nm CPU's only 65nm. Still not bad.

 

For $39.95 I just can't see where you can go wrong for an unRAID type system. The item is listed as USED on ebay, but the one I got looked like it had hardly been touched. Not a speck of dust, dirt or grime anywhere, and it is delivered sealed in the proper celophane bag, in a white box. I live nearby the seller, so I picked mine up in person. The tech there said they have a large quantity of these and every one of them looks brand new, but they just can't CALL them NEW.

 

It seemed like such a great deal, I just wanted everyone to know about it.

 

You can read all about it here:

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/PD/E7230/PDSMA.cfm

 

Here's the ebay link:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/SuperMicro-Intel-E7230-775-Motherboard-PDSMA-1GB-3-2GHz-/390300434486?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5adfb80036

 

-GDog

 

Do you know what speed the PCI-X slot is rated to? I'm curious what the bandwidth is with an 8-port SATA card installed.

This does sound like a great deal.  Care to share the eBay link?

 

...if it boots, you're OK, right?

 

Generally speaking, yes that is true.  The only caveat I can think of is that some older boards that used nForce 4 or older chipsets had some very insidious and hard to detect data corruption issues.  However, I've never heard of any such issues with any Supermicro board.  I would say that Supermicro is the brand of choice for unRAID builds.  This looks like the nice basis for a 12 drive server (using either the PCIe or PCI-X slots, depending on which SATA card is more easily available to you).

Do you know what speed the PCI-X slot is rated to? I'm curious what the bandwidth is with an 8-port SATA card installed.

 

According to an ebay listing that Adaptec card only supports 1TB max disk size. OP, what size drives are you using with your Adaptec 2810SA?

Superorb:

You know, I bought that 2810SA card several years ago and have never used it. I am told that there is a BIOS upgrade (hack?) somewhere that will enable 2TB support, but I have never bothered with it. I was just playing around right now because this is the first MOBO that I have ever had with a PCI-X slot. I believe the bandwidth is 133MHz. I have several other SiI based PCI cards that I actually plan to use for the build mostly because the 2810SA is a power hog RAID card, and I don't need the on-board RAID processor power for this type of build - a Video storage and delivery server. Also, I could just use the x8 PCI-E slot if I really need to. There's a lot of options with this board.

 

Rajahal:

I put the ebay link in the post. Yeah, like I said, I think this is a really great value for a budget build.

 

Thanks guys!

GDog

 

Good point about the power hog, I'd like to build something that draws little power. BTW, have you, or can you, test that board to see what it draws?

Here's the link for the Adaptec 2810SA:

 

http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/raid/sata/aar-2810sa/

 

Looks like the BUS speed is 66MHz, which is the spec speed for the PCI-X slot. The 133MHz speed is what the card operates at internally.

 

I *think* this is right.

 

prostuff1 pointed out to me that this could also be the basis for a budget 20 drive build.  4 onboard SATA ports + 8 ports via a PCIe SASLP card + 8 ports via a PCI-X SAT2 card = 20 ports.

Superorb:

My Kill-A-Watt says 96 Watts with the Adaptec card installed at idle, and 72 Watts without the card. That's with no drives attached. Adding a bunch of drives will put additional loads on the Adaptec. 24 Watts is too much to give away when my SiI 4-port cards pull like 3 or 4 Watts.

 

Rajahal:

All kinds of possibilities when you don't have to break the bank for the MOBO & CPU, eh?

@ Gdog

 

This board also comes with IPMI 2.0 support for total head-less operating and management , thats quite good for this price,, does it work out of the box , or is it optional? on the supermicro website they also mention:

 

Software : Optional IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) 2.0

Super Doctor III

Watch Dog

W83793 Hardware Monitor  

 

Who does this work?

I Want One,,I Want One,

 

it's also supports the 420,430 440 Celeron cpu's with a TDP of 35 watt,, I have a couple of these laying around:

 

The onboard CF-SLOT is also great.

 

Dual GB-Lan,, When i connect both to a GBit Swith? will UnRAID get any performance gain out of this?

 

Will e-mail this ebay seller with the Question? ''Are you willing to ship to Belgium''

Rembro:

"...does it work out of the box , or is it optional?"

 

Couldn't tell you. It's not a feature I have used ... yet. For $39.95 you could afford to take a chance though.

 

€ 39.95 + Shipping + import-taxes will more then doubles or tripple the price for me.

 

If the ebay-seller wants to Ship to Europe though.

 

They sold this mainbord over here for 225 to 250 Euro when it was still available.

 

BTW

 

GDog : You speak about the SuperMicro PDSMA+

 

but on the photo's and in the add on ebay it is the version without the +

 

this one  http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/PD/E7230/PDSMA.cfm

 

You picked it locally you said? DO you got the + version?

Rembro:

You got me wondering exactly which version I really do have now. When I first got the board, I looked at the pics on SuperMicro's site, and my board looked more like the + version when I first looked at it, so I just thought the seller forgot the + in the listing. Wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened I can assure you. Anyway, I went back and looked more closely. Here's what I see:

 

Similarities of my board to the + version:

- Narrow little heat sink above the CPU (Missing on the non +)

- White label across the 2 LAN ports (Missing on the non +)

- Bright blue RAM slots (2) (Aqua blue on the non +)

- brown x8 PCI-E slot (white on the non +)

- Brite blue IDE slot (purple on the non +)

- Brass color screw holes (silver on the non +)

- The NB Heatsink has the bright red dot next to the word "SuperMicro" instead of black on the non +

 

Similarities of my board to the non + version:

- The Video chip in the upper right corner of the board looks like mine not the + version

- The spacing of the caps above the heat sink strip are more like mine

- The number of caps below the heat Sink are 4, not 3 like the + version

- The little chip below the IPMI socket on mine is short not long like the + version

 

That's all I can see, but how can I be sure? Do you know a way to test for it? The two versions use different NB chipsets, but they both are covered with a large heatsink and cannot be physically read.

 

On closer inspection of the chip in the upper right corner of the board, it appears to be an ATI Rage Video chip. The specs say that the + uses XGI Z7 16mb Graphics, while the non + uses ATI Rage 8mb Graphics. I tried several times looking and pausing the POST so I could read the Graphics POST, but it never came up at all.

 

All in all however, upon closer inspection, I will have to say I mis-labeled the board as a + instead of a non +. My Bad - sorry guys. I will go back and change my original post. Looks can be deceiving for sure.

 

OTOH, maybe at this price, I really don't care that much, since it seems to work very nicely with unRAID. I would still buy the board in either version. The + version supports a couple more CPU's so if you plan to change the CPU (which I do not), then maybe this would be material to you.

 

-GDog

 

 

It seems the buy it now option has ended

GDog

 

No Problem,

 

The one thing to make sure which type of board you have is the labeling on the board itself.

if your board has no + behind the PDSMA on it,,, no matter how it's looks , you are pretty sure you have the PDSMA NON + .

 

Most of the features are the same though ,, and its still a good price.

 

but for me the most important thing why i was interested:

the support for the Low power Celeron 420/430/440 cpu,  and the non +  will not support these series

 

How the board looks or color it is: i really don't care :-)

It seems the buy it now option has ended

 

Rajahal:

You can call Silicon Salvage directly at 714-523-2425 (USA), 8am-5pm PST. Ask for the guy that handles the ebay sales - can't remember his name. He is a super nice fellow though, that I am sure will help you any way he can. You can also email directly at [email protected].

GDog

 

 

The one thing to make sure which type of board you have is the labeling on the board itself.

<snip>

but for me the most important thing why i was interested:

the support for the Low power Celeron 420/430/440 cpu,  and the non +  will not support these series

<snip>

 

Rembro:

Really sorry Dude.   Didn't mean to waste your time. The first time I went looking for the board labeling, I didn't find it, which is not uncommon. Lots of boards I have looked at have no labeling whatsoever - especially older ones. BUT, I just gave it a cursory glance (obviously) and made a hasty, presumptuous ASSumption based largely on irrelevant criteria. Feeling a bit STUPID right now. I've been doing this a long time and I know better.

 

I am really glad, however, that you brought this out. Also glad you were carefull enough to not pull your trigger before you were SURE. I would have felt a whole lot worse if you had already spent your money.

 

I'll just go back in my hole now ...  

-GDog

 

@Gdog,, again,,no Prob,,you did'nt do it on purpose!! no big deal,

 

and btw ; i never waste time here,, 

 

No Label? or printed model-number on mainboard with your model?

 

take a closer look at the Ebay auction photo's, there you see PDSMA printed ,,but without the + ,,

 

But oke,, whatever! ,, up to find the next good deal,, :-)

 

 

 

@Gdog,, again,,no Prob,,you did'nt do it on purpose!! no big deal,

 

Hey, I'm OK. I shouldn't have made a mistake like that, but I'm OK. I was just having a little fun with it on that last line.

 

No Label? or printed model-number on mainboard with your model?

 

take a closer look at the Ebay auction photo's, there you see PDSMA printed ,,but without the + ,,

 

I didn't say it wasn't on THIS board, just that I didn't see it. Didn't see it in the Ad either obviously. I didn't look that closely because I knew some boards aren't labeled and I bought it always intending to use the CPU that came with it.

 

Regardless, we're getting off topic, so let's end this now before the Mod locks the thread. I'm OK. I corrected the error and supplied everyone with direct contact info so they can get a board if they want one.

 

'nuff said.

'nuff done.

 

See ya,

GDog

 

This item has been relisted. I didn't notice it before, but shipping is listed at $17 which brings the total to ~ $57 shipped.