I'd like to do a Core i3 build for at least 6 data drives to start.  Are there any popular solid i3 boards that are recommended?

What kind of system are you looking to build? Are you looking for a small overall footprint like a mini ITX board, something to give you room to grow (ATX or micro ATX), or best overall value for cost (probably micro ATX)? There are a lot of good options out there. In the desktop area, Asrock and Asus are my current favorite brands, but there are advocates for any number of different brands around here. One potentially interesting thing about choosing an i3 is that a lot of workstation and server boards support i3 in addition to Xeon processors, so if something like IPMI is of interest to you, Supermicro has a lot of options worth looking at.

 

Overall, I think with a better understanding of what you're looking for we can probably provide more precise recommendations.

Hi,

my appology for hijacking this thread but it seems my question is very similiar to MrFrosty 's one.

I want to build power efficient NAS for home use and it seems  intel i3 2100T could be a good CPU for this purpose. Now I need to choose a good, power efficient motherboard - only requirements apart from power efficiency is 6xSATA (my plan is to have up-to 5 disks) and USB 3.

Could anybody please recommend such a mobo?

Thanks

...and USB 3.

Could anybody please recommend such a mobo?

Thanks

Why USB3?  There is at least one person having problems with it when USB3 flash drive was used as boot flash?  And unless you use a plugin like snap that makes use of it - a boot flash is the only thing unRAID uses USB for.

Thanks,

I only plan to use USB3 for connecting external/portable HDDs....

I'm looking to serve some video.  the IPMS is ok but not a deal breaker.  I'd like to keep cost down.

 

Are the mini ITX boards limited to a certain # of drives? I am guessing that if they are you could add in a controller?

I'm looking to serve some video.  the IPMS is ok but not a deal breaker.  I'd like to keep cost down.

 

Are the mini ITX boards limited to a certain # of drives? I am guessing that if they are you could add in a controller?

 

You need to realize that to add a controller card requires that the motherboard have the right kind of slots (PCI Express are generally preferred for controller cards) and enough of them to allow you to add as many hard drives as you think you are going to need.  Motherboard with more slots are usually larger than ones with fewer slots.  Motherboards with more slots (as a general rule) cost more.  The things you have to define is (1) how many drives will I ultimately be using with this motherboard? (2)  How much I am willing to pay for a board to meet those needs? 

I'm looking to serve some video.  the IPMS is ok but not a deal breaker.  I'd like to keep cost down.

 

  The things you have to define is (1) how many drives will I ultimately be using with this motherboard?

I think 10 data drives + 1 parity +1 cache = 12 drives would be max

(2)  How much I am willing to pay for a board to meet those needs?

I see that the Super Micro boards are $200, if I could go lower that would be great

 

If it were I, I would pick out as couple of boards that have at least 6 SATA II ports and at least one PCI Express 2.0 X16  slot on them that will take a i3 CPU.  You will need the PCI Express slot when you get to the point where you need to add more than six drives on your system.  Post up you choices with links to Newegg and ask for comments.    Hopefully, at that point, some Intel folks will jump in and provide you with some advise.    (I am much more familiar with AMD than Intel...)

Could you suggest an AMD system that is comparable to and I3?

Could you suggest an AMD system that is comparable to and I3?

 

Looking at what you want to do (serve up files), take a look at my signature.  The Media server listed there has all the processing power need to run a simple unRAID server.  It just did a parity check on 3TB wide (11TB total) in just under 7 hours (speed of 122.1 MB/sec).  It can serve up three bluray ISO files simultaneously on a Gb network.  (The hard drives that are 3TB HD's are 7200rpm ones which might be required if you need multiple streams of HD material.)  It  is  now a couple of years old (originally, it run FREENAS server).  Taking a quick look at newegg, today I would probably pick AMD Sempron 145 (~$40), a motherboard like a MSI 760GM-P34(FX) AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD  ($50), and 4GB of Memory ($25).  (Through I would probably go with 8GB which is currently less than $40.  While unRAID doesn't require that much memory but it will use all of the unused memory for caching writes).  So for about $120 to $145, you have a CPU, motherboard and memory to build an unRAID server with five data drives plus parity  that will be every bit as fast as an i3 system running a simple unRAID setup. 

 

Granted this type of system does not have the raw processing power of i3, but unRAID does not require that much of its processor.  More processing power  is only required if you intend to load up with add-on programs and services.  Transcoding of video is an example of one item that will require some real CPU horsepower.

Great feed back, thank you!

 

Would the AMD config you suggested be able to run the following add ons:  Simple Features, unMENU, SNAP, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Plex ?

 

 

 

Great feed back, thank you!

 

Would the AMD config you suggested be able to run the following add ons:  Simple Features, unMENU, SNAP, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Plex ?

 

I am running Simple Features and unMENU.  I do have UPS monitoring software running to shut down the server gracefully in case of a power failure.  (Works perfectly by the way!!!)  I have no other need for any additional add-ons and really don't anticipate the need in the future .  All I want is a simple reliable server that I can tuck away in a corner of the basement.  I basically rip only the movies from the DVD's and BluRay's in my extensive collection.  I really hate sitting there waiting for Blu-Ray disks to load and then watch up to six two-minute trailers before I even get to the menu to start the movie.  After ripping, I use ImgBurn to built an ISO file directly on the server. 

I am running an Asus P8H77-I Mini-ITX mobo, with a Core i3-3220T CPU.  The board has 6x SATA ports (2x SATA3, 4x SATA2) and 1 PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot and can be had for ~$100.  Pretty much exactly what you are looking for by your earlier comments.  Also, I am running all the add-ons you reference above (plus CouchPotato) with no issues whatsoever.  Click the link in my sig for the build thread.