small and cheap - but is it OK?

[znelbok]

Hi all

Based this on the prototype thread - its just a small system for music and movies.  Will do 6 drives on the motherboard and can have two extras added if needed by a add-on card.

 

AMD Sempron145

Athlon X2 255

Gigabyte Motherboard GA-78LMT-S2P

ASUS M5A78L-M LX

MSI 880GMA-E45

Corsair Value Memory 4Gb

Kingston ValueRam

Intel NIC

Case

Corsair Builder Series 430W PS

 

The case may change and in trying to keepo the cost down the drives will be mounted inside and not in cages - that may come later.

 

The only concern I really have is the processor.  I want to run Twonky on this box as well and one of the devices is a PS3.  I dont know if twonky transcodes the files for the PS3 at all and if it does is the processor up to the job.  If not maybe I just dont use the PS3?

 

The motherboard does allow you to disable the backing up of the bios on the hard drive.  It does have the realtek 8111E NIC - are they still a concern or has the latest beta got all that under control.

 

Thanks

 

Mick

[prostuff1]

The only concern I really have is the processor.  I want to run Twonky on this box as well and one of the devices is a PS3.  I dont know if twonky transcodes the files for the PS3 at all and if it does is the processor up to the job.  If not maybe I just dont use the PS3?

go dual core

 

The motherboard does allow you to disable the backing up of the bios on the hard drive.  It does have the realtek 8111E NIC - are they still a concern or has the latest beta got all that under control.

I think it is better in the latest beta but still not completely fixed.  It can't hurt to try it out and see what happens.

[Rajahal]

Your motherboard link leads to the MSI GF615M-P31, which actually has the Realtek RTL8105E NIC, which is not a gigabit NIC.  This will limit all your transfer speeds to around 11 mb/s.

 

The Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P does have the Realtek 8111E NIC, which is known to be problematic with unRAID.  Even if the latest beta supports it, do you want to run your production server on beta software?  That's for you to decide.  I would suggest finding a motherboard that works with the latest unRAID stable release (4.7).

[znelbok]

Thanks guys

 

Changed to the Athlon X2 - price is not much more.

 

Is there a list of motherboards for 4.7?

 

The problem I am seeing from the list here is that all the cheap AM3 motherboards use the realtek 8111 chipset, so should I just go with an intel plug-in?.  That limits expandability in the future should it be desired unfortunately.

 

Mick

 

Edit1 - Changed the motherboard to an ASUS M5A78L-M LX.  While not on the list on the compatibility page, it would appear that its predecessor is, the M4A78L-M, so hopefully this board is OK.  Its getting harder to find boards as they are all moving forward and the list is not as quick to be updates.  A search here also yeilded no results.  Again the 8111E is used - just can;t get away from it so I have added an Intel NIC

[Rajahal]

Many of the Realtek 8111 NICs are fine.  For example, the 8111C and 8111D both work well.  Only the 8111E is problematic.  As it is the newest NIC, it is found on the newest boards.  You should be able to find a board from last year that works well.  Check my prototypes thread for suggestions (as well as the 'old components' section at the very bottom of that thread).

[znelbok]

Found a M/B that is suitable the MSI 880GMA-E45.  It does not have the 8111E and is only a couple of dollars more that the previous ones with an intel NIC.  ALso shows up as level 1 certified.

 

What a chore it is to find something cheap

 

Mick

[Rajahal]

What a chore it is to find something cheap

 

Amen