Need a Mini-ITX motherboard


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Going to start on my first Unraid build soon.  Wanting to use the Lian Li PC-Q25B case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339

 

That case supports a maximum of seven 3.5 drives so I need a motherboard that has at least 6 SATA ports.  Would love to find one that supports 8 however.

 

Any ideas?  Really don't care what platform it is (e.g. AMD, Intel, Atom, etc..) so long as it is compatible with Unraid.  This has been my biggest problem, trying to narrow down what to get but also make sure it is compatible with Unraid.

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@ ford. have you seen any of those for less then $675? a bit expensive..

 

 

@ weebo http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=16622.msg152330#msg152330

NIC is not compatible without a hack. but the hack works because it is only a single nic.

 

@Biggen, the X7SPA's are nice for only file serving, but in my opinion are at end of life. if you can find one on sale maybe.

Also check out the HP microserver (N40l or N54L). it is not the case you want, but is the best deal in a SFF server.

search the forums for that case and see what what others have used..

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@Biggen, the X7SPA's are nice for only file serving, but in my opinion are at end of life. if you can find one on sale maybe.

Also check out the HP microserver (N40l or N54L). it is not the case you want, but is the best deal in a SFF server.

search the forums for that case and see what what others have used..

 

Wow!  What a cool little MB!  This Unraid box will be exclusively for hosting all my ripped Blu-Ray content for plackback to my HTPC in the living room.  Does this little board have the horsepower to feed ~25Mbps .mkv's to my HTPC with no problems?

 

Are all atom boards compatible with Unraid?  The hardware compatibility page looks to be a bit dated as most of the motherboards listed on it are EOL.  Are there any hardware configurations I need to NOT look for or is Unraid fairly compatible across the board?  I just want to make sure what I buy works without much tinkering...

 

I'll look around for a better price on that X7 you listed.  Newegg has it listed for $220 which seems high for an Atom board to me anyway.

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@ ford. have you seen any of those for less then $675? a bit expensive..

 

yes, i know...haven't even bothered to look further because of that price.

 

@ weebo http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=16622.msg152330#msg152330

NIC is not compatible without a hack. but the hack works because it is only a single nic.

Oh...wow...forgot about that one...thanks for digging that up again!

 

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Wow!  What a cool little MB!  This Unraid box will be exclusively for hosting all my ripped Blu-Ray content for plackback to my HTPC in the living room.  Does this little board have the horsepower to feed ~25Mbps .mkv's to my HTPC with no problems?

 

About that mobo and unRAID see here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5133.0

Speed will depend on your disks as well. The ATOM will do fine and delver up to GB-NIC speed.

I am running a Solaris system with it ATM.....internal scrub of my array runs on almost 400MB/sec and the CPU does not even sweat.

File access/transfer is good for 70MB/sec to my HTPC.

That should do for a couple of clients with bluray  material at the sime time.

 

Are all atom boards compatible with Unraid?  The hardware compatibility page looks to be a bit dated as most of the motherboards listed on it are EOL.  Are there any hardware configurations I need to NOT look for or is Unraid fairly compatible across the board?  I just want to make sure what I buy works without much tinkering...

 

I'll look around for a better price on that X7 you listed.  Newegg has it listed for $220 which seems high for an Atom board to me anyway.

 

It's a real server board....the CPU is not a matter to compatibility....it is the NIC that need careful selection....Intel NICs are safe.

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I am running several of those Atom boards. i did get most of them though sales or open box deals.

I have 1 running unread just fine. but I know it cant handle a lot of plug-ins or transcoding on the fly.

 

the IPMI feature is great on the HF boards. That saves having a keyboard. mouse and monitor for the server.

 

the DDR3 version i have (D525 I believe), I did actually double the max ram to 8GB without any issues (if you find the correct ram, it will support 8GB at 667Mhz).

I have that one also running a software based raid at speeds comparable to Ford. I believe i am getting slightly better NIC speeds though.

 

 

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I am running several of those Atom boards. i did get most of them though sales or open box deals.

I have 1 running unread just fine. but I know it cant handle a lot of plug-ins or transcoding on the fly.

 

the IPMI feature is great on the HF boards. That saves having a keyboard. mouse and monitor for the server.

 

the DDR3 version i have (D525 I believe), I did actually double the max ram to 8GB without any issues (if you find the correct ram, it will support 8GB at 667Mhz).

I have that one also running a software based raid at speeds comparable to Ford. I believe i am getting slightly better NIC speeds though.

 

Great.  I think I will look into getting either the 510 or 525 model.  I checked the memory compatibility list but I am having trouble finding the exact Micron memory that Supermicro is recommending.  Did you just put in any well know brand of SO-DIMM's in your boards?  I can't imagine that I would need more than 4GB since all this will be doing is streaming HBR .mkv files to my HTPC.

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Great.  I think I will look into getting either the 510 or 525 model.  I checked the memory compatibility list but I am having trouble finding the exact Micron memory that Supermicro is recommending.  Did you just put in any well know brand of SO-DIMM's in your boards?  I can't imagine that I would need more than 4GB since all this will be doing is streaming HBR .mkv files to my HTPC.

 

Just noticed an X7SPA-HF D510 with 4 GB ram for sale $97

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25170.0

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Asus P8H77-I is the perfect Mini-ITX motherboard, as long as you don't need a full server class mobo (i.e. ESXi passthrough and IPMI), and can be had for $100.  I also use it in the Lian-Li PC-Q25B case you are looking to use.  It is a great combination and would highly recommend it.  Click the link in my sig for the build thread.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Any thoughts on the X9SCV-Q-O MB from Supermicro, it would be more expensive in the long run,

but I am looking more for  low power and reliably than any thing else.

 

 

I like it.

Would I use it, possibly. Only thought is, if I retired it, could I use the parts somewhere else?

Would the CPU be of any use?

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