Anyone have any thoughts on this MOBO?

[yukonhijack]

I am starting to gather parts for a new unRAID server.  I recognize that there are higher end mother boards out there, but I am looking to keep on a tight budget.  Can anyone tell me whether this board will work?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=IpW9fJ1aEeKdq9ZjVhxZEgO5Z5_8IoV3_0_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16813128581&cm_sp=

 

Looks like it is $38 bux with the rebate, which is attractive for my budget

 

Thanks in advance.

[dirtysanchez]

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.  That said, unless someone around here has used this mobo and can verify it works with no issues, you'll never know until you try.

 

A few things, Gigabyte boards in general are avoided around here due to the HPA issue, do a search for it.  If you do decide to use this mobo you need to disable HPA in the BIOS.  HPA can not be disabled on all Gigabyte mobos and I don't know if all newer mobos for sure have this ability.  Maybe someone here with more knowledge of Gigabyte boards can chime in.

 

The board only has 4 on-board SATA ports, so as long as you're not looking to run more than 4 drives without adding an expansion card, it should be sufficient.

 

EDIT:  I did a quick search on both the unRAID forums and google regarding that mobo and didn't find anything, so if anyone has a successful unRAID build with that mobo they haven't posted anything about it.  Looks like you'll be the test case.

[yukonhijack]

Sounds iffy.  I knew boards from this manufacturer were touchy with unRAID, so maybe I will hold off and look around for another deal on other boards, unless I hear otherwise   Thanks for your help!

[hwilker]

I have two Gigabyte boards, one of which was used, until recently, as the board for an unraid system. Both of them had what Gigabyte refers to as a "Backup BIOS Image to HDD" option, but on both boards the default option is disabled.

 

As far as I know Gigabyte, some time ago, shifted this option to default "disabled" which is what you want for unraid. I never had any problems with it. The problem would arise with boards that had this enabled by default, so that, even if you were aware of the problem and disabled it prior to installing unraid, some problem that damaged the bios or restored a bios from a default image could re-enable this option and cause a  problem.

 

I took a quick look at the manual for this board and I can't even find the option which suggests to me that they have eliminated the "feature" entirely, since it was named exactly the same on the two boards I do have. 

 

But I'm not even close to an expert so a closer look at the manual for the board is probably warranted before purchasing it.

[yukonhijack]

Thanks for all that work and the explanation!  I think I will probably bail on this deal and wait for something else more well received by the unRAID community.  Thanks for all your help though.