Hi.  I'm thinking about setting up a server for NAS/backup/Plex media server.  I want low power consumption as it will be on 24/7 (or, rather, available 24/7).  I also want decent oomph to deal with Plex transcoding.

 

I actually never heard of unraid until I started poking around the Plex forums.  I was going to use freenas, but now I think this will be a better way to go.

 

I was deciding on what mobo to buy (was thiking of Supermicro) when I started reading about the Gigabyte HPA issue.  Reading that reminded me that I have a spare Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H in the closet!  Hey, if I can save money by not having to buy a mobo... great!  It is a "spare" because I was forced to buy something for my main PC when my $400 Asrock failed (nice).  The Asrock was replaced under RMA but I had to have something in the meantime.  So that barely used Gigabyte is in the box and I kind of forgot about it until now.

 

But is it suitable?  Its pretty new, so am I fairly assured it won't have that HPA default issue?

 

Its not a server mobo by any means.  But if you were in my shoes and had it available... use it or buy another one?

 

If I use it, I'll have to sort out what CPU and ram, as I had everything shopped out for the supermicro.  But I thought I'd ask here for opinions before I went any further.

 

Thanks!

 

- Steven

Sure, that's a very nice board => it'll be fine for an UnRAID server.

 

I only see one potential issue:  Support for a lot of newer CPU's requires a fairly new BIOS (F16).

http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4153

 

But to flash a new BIOS requires a CPU installed in the board ... a fairly common "Catch-22".    So unless you know what BIOS is installed, you may need to either buy an older supported CPU ... or remove the CPU from your other system; install it in the board; and flash the latest BIOS so you can then install one of the newer Ivy Bridge models.