Thinking about upgrading, anything I should be wary of?

[MadDiplomat]

Hello all,

 

My current (and 1st) UnRAID build served me completely error-free since 2011:

- Asus AT3IONT-I

- Patriot 2GB DDR3 1333MHz

- 3xWD20EARS, 1xWD15EADS

- Corsair Flash Voyager 2GB

- Corsair TX650W (52A 12V)

 

I am contemplating upgrading the motherboard and CPU, because I intend to finally upgrade my old clunky midi tower to Xpredator X3 big tower:

- G1.Sniper A88X (AMD A88X Chipset)

- AMD A6-5400K

 

Is there anything special that I should be worried about or would you suggest a different (better) configuration around the same price range? I chose this motherboard because it has 8 SATA ports, the CPU doesn't really matter much to me, because I don't use CPU intensive tasks (so far, the Atom was sufficient for all my needs).

 

Thanks for your replies! 

[bkastner]

With the beta release of 6.0 and the introduction of virtualization as an option with UnRAID I would suggest you peruse some of those forums and see if there is any value there for you before investing in upgraded hardware. The potential configuration looks quite different than what we've historically considered for UnRAID.

 

 

[mrow]

Go with an Intel based system. They may cost slightly more but AMD is just so far behind in terms of performance it's worth the small cost. Intel systems are going to be more power efficient as well. Plus that AMD has a powerful GPU built in that will just be completely wasted and sucking down electricity.

[MadDiplomat]

Thank you both for your comments. I've been checking out different Intel Z87 boards with 8 or more SATA ports. Does UnRAID work well with the ASMEdia ASM1061 controller? Any problems or just plug and play? As far as I can see, the chipset provides 6 ports and then one or more ASM1061 controllers are added for additional ports, at least in the case of ASRock boards, and I'd like to know if that influences stability at all, etc.

 

Thanks!

[mrow]

Yes, quite a few people on here have hardware with that SATA chipset.

[MadDiplomat]

Thank you. I think I might go with the ASRock B75 PRO3-M and Intel Celeron G1620. Combined they cost less that the GA-G1.Sniper A88X I was considering, LOL

[Necrotic]

Thank you. I think I might go with the ASRock B75 PRO3-M and Intel Celeron G1620. Combined they cost less that the GA-G1.Sniper A88X I was considering, LOL

I have that mobo with G2020. It works great.

[MadDiplomat]

Thanks! After considering the alternatives again (for my intended use of UnRAID, of course) I decided to order it, along with the Celeron G1620. I also threw in a Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600/1.5v memory stick for good measure. I'll report how everything worked out once I'll have set everything up and tested it in practice ... Based on your replies I don't expect any problems

[MadDiplomat]

I finished the upgrade. I can't believe how easy it was. I just swapped it into a new case, connected the HDDs to the ports in the same order as with the old motherboard and it worked out of the box like nothing changed. Even speedstep worked from the start. Awesome.  Next month I think I'll start adding some much needed additional HDDs to the array.

[mrow]

I finished the upgrade. I can't believe how easy it was. I just swapped it into a new case, connected the HDDs to the ports in the same order as with the old motherboard and it worked out of the box like nothing changed. Even speedstep worked from the start. Awesome.  Next month I think I'll start adding some much needed additional HDDs to the array.

 

 

Glad everything worked out for you.