February 6, 201412 yr So I got my tax return today, couple weeks before I was expecting it, so now I'm looking for a good motherboard to use for my UnRAID box with VM's for XBMC & others so I'll need to be able to pass through video cards - so known to support IOMMU is a must. Ideally, it would have a large number of PCIe slots. Any recommendations?
February 6, 201412 yr I don't have any specific recommendations, but if you are looking for motherboards with guaranteed IOMMU support, you need to stick to server class motherboards. Most around here use SuperMicro motherboards with Xeon CPU's.
February 6, 201412 yr Asrock seem like the most consistent from the consumer space (wrt offering iommu support).
February 6, 201412 yr If you want a desktop-class motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots and IOMMU support, the Asus Z87-Pro is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979 [7 PCIe slots -- 3 in x16 slots, 4 in x1 slots]
February 6, 201412 yr If you want a desktop-class motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots and IOMMU support, the Asus Z87-Pro is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979 [7 PCIe slots -- 3 in x16 slots, 4 in x1 slots] The only problem with ASUS (who is my preferred MB manufacturer) is they don't guarantee vt-d support. I ended up with the ASrock Z87 Extreme6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it.
February 6, 201412 yr I'm a big fan of Asus boards, but their IOMMU support is iffy at best. Perhaps someone can verify that particular board works? I'm not saying it won't work, but if it doesn't good luck getting any formal support out of Asus specifically regarding VT-d. If you want a desktop-class board with VT-d I'd agree with mattkhan. ASRock boards seem to be the best when it comes to VT-d support. EDIT: ninja'd by bkastner. LOL.
February 6, 201412 yr HTH. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31803.0 Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
February 7, 201412 yr Author http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it. It looks good but the PCI slots is causing a roadblock in my brain. Kinda like not being able to buy a DVD when there's a Blu-Ray available of the same movie.
February 7, 201412 yr Author HTH. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31803.0 Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk I was very happy to see that thread and will be keeping a close eye on it. A lot of the info being asked for seems frivolous to me though. *shrug*
February 7, 201412 yr http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it. It looks good but the PCI slots is causing a roadblock in my brain. Kinda like not being able to buy a DVD when there's a Blu-Ray available of the same movie. Agreed, but they come in handy for extra NIC cards if you need, or they are spaced in-between the PCIE x16 slots so if you have cards that are thicker than a single slot you don't sacrifice any of the PCIE spaces. I was only looking at installing 3x RADEON 6450 cards for XBMC VMs on Citrix XenServer (I decided to not use the machine for UnRAID), but am happy with it. There may be better motherboard options, but if you want hardware pass-through/vt-d then ASrock (or SuperMicro) is likely where you want to focus your attention to minimize the likelihood of issues.
February 7, 201412 yr HTH. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31803.0 Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk I was very happy to see that thread and will be keeping a close eye on it. A lot of the info being asked for seems frivolous to me though. *shrug* Agreed that it's a comprehensive breakdown of info, but it's the only way to avoid the same question 20x's.
February 7, 201412 yr My current server is a Supermicro X9SCM-F with an Intel Core i3 2120T. From what i can find, the X9SCM-F supports VT-d, but the Core i3 does not. If i would replace the Core i3 with a Xeon e3-1220L (17W!) that supports all VT-x extensions as far as i can tell, would that be ok for unraid 6? I have no intentions to run a lot of high-performance vm's, but would like to run e.g. IronicBadger's minimalistic Arch vm's, maybe just a few, or even one that runs all apps? Would the e3-1220L suffice?
February 7, 201412 yr ... Perhaps someone can verify that particular board works? I'm not using it for anything that uses pass-through (it's in one of my HTPCs) ... but I can confirm that the BIOS has a setting to enable or disable Vt-d. It seems a reasonable assumption that this means it's supported
February 7, 201412 yr ... Would the e3-1220L suffice? Yes. http://ark.intel.com/products/53401/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1220L-3M-Cache-2_20-GHz?q=E3-1220L
February 7, 201412 yr Just picked up an Asrock C226 WS for a new build I'm doing. http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=C226%20WS Main points: ECC support and plenty of PCI-E slots. Only thing it doesnt have is IPMI but I can live with that for the cost and the other features.
February 7, 201412 yr My current server is a Supermicro X9SCM-F with an Intel Core i3 2120T. From what i can find, the X9SCM-F supports VT-d, but the Core i3 does not. If i would replace the Core i3 with a Xeon e3-1220L (17W!) that supports all VT-x extensions as far as i can tell, would that be ok for unraid 6? I have no intentions to run a lot of high-performance vm's, but would like to run e.g. IronicBadger's minimalistic Arch vm's, maybe just a few, or even one that runs all apps? Would the e3-1220L suffice? The Core i3-2120T that you already have has VT-x and can run VM's just fine. It will run badger's Arch VM appliance just fine. What it does not have is VT-d. VT-d is not necessary unless you are planning on doing pci passthrough, for example to pass a video card through to an XBMC VM. If you have no plans to do device passthrough, upgrading your CPU is not necessary.
February 7, 201412 yr ... Perhaps someone can verify that particular board works? I'm not using it for anything that uses pass-through (it's in one of my HTPCs) ... but I can confirm that the BIOS has a setting to enable or disable Vt-d. It seems a reasonable assumption that this means it's supported Reasonable assumption and as I stated it may work. There are a number of Asus boards that "support" VT-d in the BIOS. The problem is Asus themselves do not guarantee support, nor do the guarantee it will work. The option is in the BIOS and if it works, great. If it doesn't, you're on your own. So, if you already have an Asus board and want to try VT-d, great. But I personally wouldn't point someone to an Asus board on the assumption that it will work, since Asus themselves don't even guarantee it will.
February 7, 201412 yr My current server is a Supermicro X9SCM-F with an Intel Core i3 2120T. From what i can find, the X9SCM-F supports VT-d, but the Core i3 does not. If i would replace the Core i3 with a Xeon e3-1220L (17W!) that supports all VT-x extensions as far as i can tell, would that be ok for unraid 6? I have no intentions to run a lot of high-performance vm's, but would like to run e.g. IronicBadger's minimalistic Arch vm's, maybe just a few, or even one that runs all apps? Would the e3-1220L suffice? The Core i3-2120T that you already have has VT-x and can run VM's just fine. It will run badger's Arch VM appliance just fine. What it does not have is VT-d. VT-d is not necessary unless you are planning on doing pci passthrough, for example to pass a video card through to an XBMC VM. If you have no plans to do device passthrough, upgrading your CPU is not necessary. Thanks! i almost ordered a xeon...
February 7, 201412 yr If you want a desktop-class motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots and IOMMU support, the Asus Z87-Pro is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979 [7 PCIe slots -- 3 in x16 slots, 4 in x1 slots] The only problem with ASUS (who is my preferred MB manufacturer) is they don't guarantee vt-d support. I ended up with the ASrock Z87 Extreme6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it. With this mobo, I've noticed that there is an internal usb port. Have you tried using that for unraid and setting up rear USB ports for passthrough? I've been looking around at boards that I can keep the external USB ports for VM usage.
February 7, 201412 yr If you want a desktop-class motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots and IOMMU support, the Asus Z87-Pro is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979 [7 PCIe slots -- 3 in x16 slots, 4 in x1 slots] The only problem with ASUS (who is my preferred MB manufacturer) is they don't guarantee vt-d support. I ended up with the ASrock Z87 Extreme6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it. With this mobo, I've noticed that there is an internal usb port. Have you tried using that for unraid and setting up rear USB ports for passthrough? I've been looking around at boards that I can keep the external USB ports for VM usage. Good question. No, I haven't tried that, but I will. I actually decided to use this board for a pure XenServer/XBMC server, not for UnRAID, but I do have a spare UnRAID key I can try this with. I will see if I can do this later today and will post the results.
February 7, 201412 yr If you're replacing the CPU why not give yourself the option going forward of vt-d?
February 10, 201412 yr If you want a desktop-class motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots and IOMMU support, the Asus Z87-Pro is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131979 [7 PCIe slots -- 3 in x16 slots, 4 in x1 slots] The only problem with ASUS (who is my preferred MB manufacturer) is they don't guarantee vt-d support. I ended up with the ASrock Z87 Extreme6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157371 3xPCIE x16 slots, 1 PCIE x1 and 2 PCI slots. I can confirm pass-through works great with Xen on it. With this mobo, I've noticed that there is an internal usb port. Have you tried using that for unraid and setting up rear USB ports for passthrough? I've been looking around at boards that I can keep the external USB ports for VM usage. I confirmed I was able to boot UnRAID off the internal USB connector, and Xen does show multiple USB controllers, so what you are asking should be doable, however as I mentioned I am not using this server for UnRAID (I was going to originally but changed my mind), so I can't confirm 100% that the USB passthrough will work properly in UnRAID.
February 11, 201412 yr Author Just picked up an Asrock C226 WS for a new build I'm doing. http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=C226%20WS Main points: ECC support and plenty of PCI-E slots. Only thing it doesnt have is IPMI but I can live with that for the cost and the other features. That looks like a nice board. Let us know if it supports PCI passthrough
February 12, 201412 yr It certainly does support passthrough and very well might I add. So far I've thrown ESX, Xenserver, Proxmox and unRAID 6 at it without issue
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