Asrock E3C224-V+

[starknetwork]

Does anyone have any experience with this motherboard with unraid? Also, does anyone know if it is compatible with VT-d? (I plan to use a xeon e3 1230 v3)

 

http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=E3C224-V%2B

 

for a little more there is also a version with 4 LAN ports (http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=E3C224-4L).

 

I am considering it over the Supermicro X10SLM since it has an extra PCI 1x plus two extra sata ports.

 

I am also considering the Asrock C226 WS, but sadly this lovely board doesn't have IPMI otherwise would be perfect (http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=C226%20WS)

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks, Jake

[Whatever]

I'm pretty sure the E3C224-V+ doesn't have IPMI - only models E3C224 and E3C224-4L do. I would double check the MB's User Manual before ordering.

 

And yes, it's a pitty the Asrock C226 WS doesn't have IPMI or vPro. It would become a clear winner for a home virtualization setup if it did.

[starknetwork]

Ah you're right, E3C224-V+ does not have IPMI, thanks for pointing that out!

 

So I just need to decide between E3C224 and E3C224-4L. Not sure I can think of a good use for 4 lan ports, even with virtualisation with xen.

 

Jake

[sgibbers17]

I have the ASRock C266 WS motherboard and I can confirm that it does not have IPMI but it is a solid board with plenty of PCIe slots for sata/SAS cards and other cards for virtualizing.  It also has 10 SATA 3 ports (6 on the c266 and 2 on each of the 2 Marvell controllers). 

[starknetwork]

Ordered the following:

 

Asrock E3C224-4L - thought I might as well have the extra LAN ports and IPMI was a must have, ruling out the C226 WS

Intel Xeon E3-1245 v3 - I know the graphics will be redundant on the system, ordered this over the 1230 mainly because it was in stock now (UK)

2* Kingston KVR16E11/8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC

Corsair RM650 Gold

Xcase RM 424s

 

Jake

[Whatever]

How did it go?

 

I read a report about AsRock's IPMI not being as good as SM's. Are you happy with the motherboard overall?

 

Thanks.

[starknetwork]

I'm pretty happy with the board so far. I still have a monitor plugged into it so not tested the ipmi that much and have never used supermicro ipmi so can't compare. It works, though once I did have an issue where the keyboard input wouldn't work through the java viewer..

 

I've managed to get pci passthrough working with a couple of vm's in xen after upgrading the bios (the bios update didn't mention anything regarding vt-d but graphics passthrough would crash within a minute or so before I did the upgrade).

 

Biggest issue I have with the board which i didn't realise before buying is that the sata ports are at right angles on the edge of the board which gave me some issues with the case I have (x-case rm 424s).

 

Finally, I have an issue where the bios for my two aoc-saslp-mv8 cards when both plugged in with drives attached hangs on booting, after a couple of minutes it times out and will continue booting into unraid, and drives work fine so just a bit of an annoyance. I have followed the post on the controller card forum board to disable RAID functionality in firmware .21 but this hasn't made a difference.

 

Hope this helps.