AM3 Mobo 6x SATA 6 Gbps without Realtek 8111E?

[jearlosky]

Hi all!

 

New to the unRAID community looking to build my first unRAID rig.

 

I thought I had my build all sorted out until I read all the issues with the Realtek 8111E chipset.

 

Was intending to purchase http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131654 until I realized it has a Realtek 8111E chipset.

 

So I'm looking for the below features:

 

-AM3 socket for Sempron 140 (although will use Intel if there is a better M/B)

-mATX preferably  (will use ATX if there is a better M/B)

- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s

- onboard video

- non Realtek 8111E

-had a budget of about 100$ for the M/B

 

I cannot seem to find any motherboard on newegg that fill this critera.

 

Any recommendations? Or would this board be ok as long a I use an different NIC?

 

Thanks in advanced.

 

 

 

 

[Johnm]

I'm not sure why you would need an extreme overclocking mobo for an unraid fileserver.

that would be a waste of cash on crazyness you wont use.

 

the sata600 is honestly a waste in unraid unless you had an SSD cache drive and even then the gigabit network would not get it noticeably above about what a sata300 SSD drive would get you.

I have tested 7200RPM vs agility2 vs agility3 cache drives. they are all pretty close in unraid.

 

normal mechanical drives cap out at less then sata150 speeds.

 

If you wanted to use that board, you can pick up a cheap Intel CT card like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033 . those work awesome in unraid and ESXi. they can be found on sale often..

 

Edit:

the problem with cheaper mobos is usually cheaper componates like the NIC and audio.

 

You didn't list your max build goal or add-ons you want.

If you just wanted to go semperon 140, have you considered an atom combo? you can find them for $120-$200 range with 6 sata and a PCIe slot to build a 14 drive server.

[jearlosky]

Thanks for the reply, made me remember SATA 6 Gbps is pretty much unneeded and your point of mechanical drives not getting near those speeds gave me better perspective about the build.

 

Wasn't intending to overclock, just happened to be a 'feature' of that board.

 

Anyway, I am currently testing unraid on an old AMD Athlon Socket A 1Ghz w/ an PCStats board (I forget the model # off the top of my head at this moment).  Addons include subsonic, transmission and ps3 media server. So far I have subsonic and transmission working great and am ready to go 'full scale'.

 

I am looking to get 2x 2TB Seagate 5900 RPM drives, 1 for parity and 1 for data and migrate over my existing 2 Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB drives for data to start with, allowing an extra 2 slots for future upgrades.

 

I haven't really looked into atom, wasn't quite sure if it would handle streaming of HiDef video.

 

Thanks again for the point in the right direction.

[Johnm]

There in lies your problem.

 

I dont think either the atom nor the semperon 140 will be able to handle the PS3 media server since that is a re-encode on the fly server-side. a streaming 1080p re-encode is beefy processor power.

 

If you were using a set-top media player, XBMC or Microsofts mediacenter. both CPU's would be plenty strong.

 

For what you are looking at is a bit outside my knowledge since i have not used PS3MS in a while.

 

My guess is that you will need a stronger dual core or better. I would guess an I3 (I5?) or AMD equivalent would be minimum then.

I would see what others are using for that service. (better to be a little over powered then under powered in this case)

 

Your build plan and strategy sounds solid though.

[Rajahal]

An i3 will work just fine for you.  Check my prototypes thread (link in my sig) for some recommendations on i3 builds.  They are generally a bit more expensive, but for PS3MS you will need the extra horsepower.  You'll probably want 4+ GBs of RAM too, for Transmission (lots of torrents use lots of RAM).