My original P5B-VM DO with 8 ports is no longer working  :'( and so I need to swap out some parts to sustain my 'array'

It had 2 Promise SATA300 TX4 for 16 drives internal, and I stuck a pci-1x 4 port multiplier to get it up to 20.

It was running on a 3.0gHz Pentium D

 

I'm thinking of running a lower power AMD Sempron system like a 140 or 145

and popping in 2 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

to a Foxconn A9DA-S AM3 board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186198

 

Most of the other recommend boards have become unavailable.

Are there any caveats to a system like this? Would I be better off with something else?

I just need to make sure I can get 16 'onboard' with a 1x pci 'left over'

 

Thoughts?

 

I just need to make sure I can get 16 'onboard' with a 1x pci 'left over'

 

Thoughts?

 

 

There must be any number of boards which can meet this requirement.

 

For instance, the Intel DH55TC which I use:

6 SATA on board

8 SATA on a PCIe x4 or x8 card

2 SATA on a PCIe x1 card,

 

which still leaves one PCIe x1 and one legacy PCI slot free.

 

Then there are offerings from Supermicro, in various CPU socket configurations, which would match your requirement.

You might be able to find a Supermicro C2SEE. It is similar to the P5B-VM-D0 in that it has an x16 and an x4 slot. But the P5B has 2 extra jmicron Sara ports onboard while the C2SEE has an extra x1 slot (where you can add a 2 port Sata controller).  The advantage of this motherboard is you van reuse the CPU from the P5B motherboard, although you will need to buy DDR3 memory.

I like bjp999's idea of recycling your CPU since presumably it is still working.  The C2SEA is also a good option, and it is much easier to find than the C2SEE.  The two boards are substantially the same, and both work with dual Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards for full 20+ drive support.

 

If you do prefer to purchase a new mobo, CPU, and RAM, then consult my prototypes thread for recommendations (link in my sig).  I know that one of the motherboards is now unavailable, but I think the rest are good to go.

All great ideas. Thanks for the heads up. I'm a little wary of reusing the processor incase _that's_ actually the cause (however doubtful because then the board would at least post and yell). I'll still look at everything and price out. The Pentium D is a 90W chip, the Sempron is a 45W chip. If I'm going to redo it, going to the Sempron could save me nearly $60 a year in power, so it may be worth the 'upgrade'.

 

I had not considered a 2 port 1x card. That opens up some options.

Definitely makes sense to upgrade for the power savings.  The i3 is even more efficient and low power than the Sempron when idle, though of course you will pay more up front for it.

Right-

I'm actually considering the Core i3-2100T 35W chip now even though it's 3x the price of the Sempron. While I won't 'make it back' as easily I figure it'll be a solid chip in there and the low idle power could let me leave it on 24x7 without having to play with S3 mode.

 

Of course... that means I'm looking at 1155 motherboards now.

H67M-D2-B3 looks decent. Don't need to worry about SATA 6 over gigabit

I just want to make sure whatever I get supports 3TB+ drives. I'm a little wary of Gigabyte boards with the HPA troubles, but they should be cleared up with these newer revisions.

 

Unfortunately, all of the socket 1155 boards that I know of that would work for unRAID use the Realtek 8111E NIC, which has known incompatibility issues with unRAID.  For this reason, I recommend sticking with the older stock of socket 1156 boards for the time being.  The i3 540 or 550 are both great CPUs, and there's a much wider range of socket 1156 boards that work with unRAID.

Ah, thanks for the heads up. I just ordered... and cancelled it. It did indeed have a 8111E NIC.

Thanks for saving my butt and lots of frustration.

 

Looks like my best bet is going to be to go Sempron and a AM3 board.

 

 

Unfortunately, all of the socket 1155 boards that I know of that would work for unRAID use the Realtek 8111E NIC......

 

The supermicro 1155 server boards are rock solid and are unRAID compatible.

 

If you're willing to give up the IPMI feature, they are decently priced for a stable build.

 

The IPMI feature makes them even more awesome.

 

 

there are a few other companies that have Intel NIC's (like the Intel desktop boards) on a socket1155 board. Be careful, some have Intel 82579LM controllers. those dont work in unraid or ESXi yet (no driver).

I don't know that I need IPMI having never used it, so maybe I won't miss it =)

 

Let's give this a whirl then:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-O

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182252

 

Any warning bells going off?

LAN has a Intel 82579LM in the primary

 

but the second has a: Intel 82574L

 

Same thing? Avoid?

I don't know that I need IPMI having never used it, so maybe I won't miss it =)

 

Let's give this a whirl then:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-O

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182252

 

Any warning bells going off?

Just that like my post in another thread for the X9SCM-f they both use the Intel 82579LM as Johnm pointed out.

Heh... this is a fun game

Alright-

Enough with the newfangled tech.

I'm just going to do a tried and true:

Celeron 430 at 35w

 

in a

SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O

 

I had missed that the Celeron was only 35w

Seems a better option than the AM3 boards

 

 

 

That is a good combo, nothing wrong with that.  While you posted that I was drafting this AM3 combo for you:

 

One of my recommended boards just came back into stock at Newegg:

 

JetWay JMA3-880GTV2-LF

 

Normally I reserve this board for 15 drive or smaller builds, but since you want to re-use your PCI controllers anyway, this is a viable option for you.

 

6 drives onboard

8 drives on Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (via PCIe slot)

4 drives on first Promise TX4 (via PCI slot 1)

4 drives on second Promise TX4 (via PCI slot 2)

22 drive support

I think if you can, I'd go with the supermicro boards and intel nic if you can.

 

AM3 boards with dual PCI x4 or above slots are hard to find

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=13826.15;topicseen

 

If you are happy to play with a bit I'm running an Asus M4A89GTD PRO USB3 motherboard. It has plenty of slots except 2 issues which for me have been solved:

Option ROM: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9488.0

Apparently a newer BIOS works but I'm trying to learn to leave well alone.

NIC: some haven't had problems with the realtek nic but this board has enough slots to just stick in intel nic.

 

I'll run level two testing one day but I've parity + 9 drives and a cache. I believe Pras is running 2 supermicor's in this board. Mine has run fine since.

 

Josh

I don't know that I need IPMI having never used it, so maybe I won't miss it =)

 

Let's give this a whirl then:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-O

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182252

 

Any warning bells going off?

LAN has a Intel 82579LM in the primary

 

but the second has a: Intel 82574L

 

Same thing? Avoid?

 

Actually...

that's a nice board..

you just use the second nic in unraid.

It is the little brother of the boards I am using.

 

The only thing different then my board is the "extras"

 

That one has 3 PCIe slots for lots of expansion.

the Intel 82574L NIC is quite solid. one of the best NICs you can get right now.

6 Sata

Onboard USB for your unraid key.

 

You can always put a Xeon on it if you re-purpose it in the future and need more horsepower.

 

EDIt:

I missed you had PCI cards already. Rajahal has a nice low cost solution if thats the route you wish to to with.

Thanks for all the input.

I think I'm going to avoid the PCI cards and go PCI express with the supermicro cards. This should help with my parity times (Though with a 4bay case hanging off the 1x port I don't know how much it will help). I have some ideas...

 

Basically it looks like a Core i3-2100T (35W) SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-O

vs a Celeron 430 (35W) SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O build will cost about $130 more.

I don't know that there's any real advantage to the the i3 in an unraid beyond some 'idle' power savings.

 

 

So here my latest idea

Celeron 430 (35W)

SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O

2x1GB 1066 ECC RAM

2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8

and some breakouts

 

What I figure I can do then

Take 4 ports from the motherboard

8 from card 1 (4x2)

4 from card 2 (4x1)

There's my 16.

 

At that point I could plug in my 1x PCI card and be done with it.

 

If I wanted I could run, then I could potentially run a single multi-lane cable out to my

Sans Digital 4-bay

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111164

This should remove any bottle neck that the 1x slot on it's own might be causing (I'm unsure how negligible this is)

 

This leaves me 2 ports on the motherboard that I can use to add 2 drives (a cache, and a 2nd parity drive when available

 

I will now take a moment to pause and reflect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that sounds like a plan...

 

I will agree the I3 is probably wasted horsepower in unraid without any add-ons running.

I consider it "future-proofing" I know I can throw anything at it and be ready.

I am sure Rajahal would call it a "beast"

 

as far as power savings. My I3 build is about on par with my supermicro Atom build.

The real reason i upgraded from the atom to the I3 was the lack of PCI expansion slots.

I wanted to break the 14 drive barrier.

 

I think what you picked out will run for a long time and have room to grow.

Now the hard part, waiting for UPS...

 

EDIT:

You might want to google a little, see if anyone is using 3TB drives on that board. I don't see an issue but it would be nice to know before puchase.

Excellent point.

I know 3TB drives can be run off the Supermicro cards with the latest firmware, so worst case it's the onboards that will do me in.

 

So here my latest idea

Celeron 430 (35W)

SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O

2x1GB 1066 ECC RAM

2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8

and some breakouts

 

What I figure I can do then

Take 4 ports from the motherboard

8 from card 1 (4x2)

4 from card 2 (4x1)

There's my 16.

 

 

@ CiXel

 

I see you've written down ECC RAM for that C2SEA-O , i think you wanna change that 

2x1GB 1066 ECC RAM

 

@ CiXel

 

I see you've written down ECC RAM for that C2SEA-O , i think you wanna change that 

 

Well crap. It's ordered. Will ECC not work at all, or did I just pay a premium for it?

2x1GB 1066 ECC RAM

 

@ CiXel

 

I see you've written down ECC RAM for that C2SEA-O , i think you wanna change that  

 

Well crap. It's ordered. Will ECC not work at all, or did I just pay a premium for it?

 

When i read this below on their website, i'am pretty sure that ECC RAM wil not work at all !

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core/G45/C2SEA.cfm

 

3. Up to 8GB dual channel unbuffered,

   non-ECC DDR3 1333/1066/800 SDRAM  

 

Tested memory list says KVR1333D3N9/2G

 

availability is good combined with normal / low NON ECC price

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134812&Tpk=KVR1333D3N9%2f2G

 

check also this topic for recommended builds with this C2SEA-0 and parts by Rajahal

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7998.0

All good. Thanks for the heads up! At least I won't open it now. I had it left over in my cart from an earlier build and didn't much think about it. Just ordered 2x2 of 1066 to throw in instead, so should be in good shape.