Hi everyone,

 

Been lurking around here for a bit and I’m finally ready to build. I only plan to use my Unraid system for media/file storage so I don’t think I’ll be after anything with lots of grunt. I am interested in the possibility of expansion in terms of capacity. I’m buying all new parts so here's the list:

 

Power: Antec Neo Eco 520 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16290 - Chosen because of recommendations in the forum. Also might consider the 450.

 

MB: Asrock B75M - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=B75M - I’ll be using the latest RC if the final hasn't been released to cooperate with the 8111E and the 3TB hard drives below. I also like that this board has 8! SATA ports. This is the item that I’m most apprehensive about.

 

CPU: G530 - http://ark.intel.com/products/53414/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G530-2M-Cache-2_40-GHz Chosen because I get power (over the 145) and get the flexibility of a motherboard that supports 1155.

 

HD #1: Seagate Barracuda - http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/barracuda/ - Cause its 3TB

HD #2: WD Green 3TB http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=780 - Cause its 3TB and a different brand to the above.

I also have a Seagate 1.5 TB that I will transfer from my PC that is currently serving my media. One of the above two 3TB's will be my pairity.

 

Case: Fractal Design R4 http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2∏=99 - It looks awesome and the system is going to sit in a visible spot. Also performs well.

 

I have no idea what memory I’m going to buy. I think I’m just going to pick up the cheapest (decent band) compatible 4BG of 1333 I can find when I order.

 

Any feedback on my shopping list would be much appreciated.

 

I'm interested to know what people think also. My build idea seems to be almost exactly the same, the G540 is only like $1 more so I was thinking of going with that. I had not seen this mobo with 8 SATA ports, think I may switch over to that. I ahve an Asrock A75M in my HTPC so should be very similar.

I did get a reply over at the Motherboard section for the B75 pro3 m.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22739.0

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B75%20Pro3-M/

 

Only $5 more, still comes with 8 sata ports and at least 1 other person has got it up and running with Unraid.

 

I'll post again once I have mine up and running.

I've been debating if the G540 is enough power.

It'll be more than the sempron that everyone seems to be doing a lot with. Guess it depends on what addons you'll be running.

 

Youll have plenty of options with the intel socket if it's not powerful enough. I'm just using mine for serving media and backups but I'm pretty sure I've read others using the 145 for Couch Potatoe and other resource hungry addons.

As for your senerio why the 530 vs the 540?

Initially inwas Just trying to keep the power consumption to a minimum. My local is actually out of 530s ATM so I might just end up with the 540. Either will be fine for my purposes. Probably little difference in power consumption anyway. The more I look at it the more I'm leaning towards the 540.

 

I was paying more attention to selecting the right mb because that's were things seem to go wrong for most people. I'm committed to the b75 pro3 m now.

If the priority is low consumption then try G460 (http://ark.intel.com/products/63913/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G460-1_5M-Cache-1_80-GHz).

The new Ivy Bridge core in the new Pentium G2120 is also really low power while still being a very fast CPU. IMO though it's worth the extra $30 bucks for the Core i3-3220 for the hyper threading support while using the same amount of power.

I ended up going with the 540 and Asrock Pro3 M. I figure I can add a beefier or more efficient CPU later if I need to. Ill put it all together tomorrow and let you all know how I went.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

Just an update. All going well.

 

Preclear drives takes about 31 hours for the 3TB 5400 drives and 24 hours for the 3TB 7200 drives.

 

I get about 85MB transfer speed through my Gigabit network and everything seems to be running fine. I would recommend this motherboard.

NO WAY!!!  After almost a month since your last post I had the following all typed out and when I clicked "preview" it warned me of a new post....  Lol haha.

 

I ended up going with the 540 and Asrock Pro3 M. I figure I can add a beefier or more efficient CPU later if I need to. Ill put it all together tomorrow and let you all know how I went.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

How'd it go?  How's it been going?  I'm looking to get a new MOBO myself and am fairly well decided on the G850/LGA1155 for CPU, and have been looking at the same MOBO you mentioned you were thinking about (the Asrock B75M).  The only difference between that and the Pro seems to be memory slots and audio channels so I may want to go with the simpler board vs your Pro.

 

Anyhow, any issues with the 3xSATAIII ports or anything?  Do you have a way to measure your power consumption?  I'm also curious how fast parity checks run for you.

 

My Atom board tops out around 20-25 MB/s and I'm hoping that can take a big leap up.  (In fairness to the Atom CPU, that MOBO only has 2 onboard SATA so 4 of my 6 drives share a lone PCI card - yuck!)

 

Thanks for posting!

 

Jacob

 

Anyhow, thank you again.  Would you please also write how many drives you're using and what ports they're using if you have a chance?  Is it just the 3 drives and are they only using the 3 SATAIII ports then?