ASUS A7N8X Deluxe - Possible Motherboard for UnRaid?

[Bernard]

I currently own 2 ASUS A7N8X Deluxe- Can this motherboard be used for  UnRaid?

If so what changes were needed and how well is the setup running.

 

Thanks

 

Bernard

 

 

 

[limetech]

Another customer got this to work, but if I remember correctly, it would only boot in USB1.1 mode (slow).  That was with the original Lime Tech flash which looked like hard drive to the bios.  It's a pretty easy thing for you to try & post back your results.

 

Also - I believe that board has 2 on-board network chips: 10/100 and GigE.  You may have to disable one of them in the bios.

[Bernard]

Thanks for the reply. Here is an update on how the MB is doing.

 

I purchased the 512 MB Lexar Jump Drive.

Formated, ran the files per your site.

Unplugged all the HD's on the machine.

Setup the Bios to boot from the Lexar.

PWR up and the system did find and boot from the Lexar...... Was able to see the //tower via network etc... Shutdown via interface. I was impressed.

 

However,  when I added Seagate 400gig HD and set the bios accordingly, I spent many hours trying to figure out why it would not boot from the Lexar. It appeared that none of the USB ports were active. Only after I pulled the pwr cord from the PS and removed / returned the Lexar did it all work again.

 

Next formated the 400gig, all ok, then hooked up 2 300 gigs, one to the primary IDE Channel slave (Parity drive on the Master) and the second drive on the Secondary Master IDE. No go again. Similar behavior to the first time. Have since got it all back with only the parity drive. Multiple reboots and shutdowns and the drive is still on line. Now about to hook up the first data drive to the primary IDE Channel slave.

 

I will keep you posted on the results.

 

[mutant_matt]

People have reported that on some m/boards, when you add a drive/make a change to the drives, the BIOS sets the boot order to something different (probably, to boot from the Primary Master Hard Drive (which won't work)).  If that is the case, you have to save changes, reboot, go back in the BIOS and set the boot order properly again.  I don't know if this helps in your case or not though...

 

Matt

[TCIII]

mutant_matt,

 

Good observation mutant_matt.

 

I had a similar problem occur and I had to go into the BIOS and reset the boot-up order.

 

Regards,

TCIII

[mutant_matt]

I remembered someone had that problem, but I couldn't remember who!

 

Call me Matt, BTW

 

Matt

[Bernard]

Update-

 

I have been running UN Raid V3 beta 2 without further incidents. Just Purchased the Pro version. Going to move MB and components into a new quieter case. When I have all this done I will post the final configuration / settings to the forum. I will be traveling for a while, so might be a few weeks for that new information.

Thanks for all the help.

 

 

[Bernard]

Update:

 

Upgraded from Basic to Pro with out any issues.

 

This motherboard is working very well. Able to transfer files in 1/2 the time it takes for the same files to be stored on a Buffalo TerraStation.

 

Going to move MB and components into a new case. Considering a Stacker.

 

 

[parnelli]

Bernard- Thanks for the update, I've been checking in on this thread the last few weeks to see what happened.  I finally registered so that I could post a reply and let you know that there are people who are interested in your findings.

 

P

[Bernard]

Just a quick thank you.

 

Purchased a new Antec Nine Hundred Case + 500 PS

Installed A7N8X Deluxe with AMD Athlon 2400 running at 2600 speeds

2 Gig of Value Ram (2x1Gig)

Using onboard Primary IDE for one CD Rom.

Secondary for the Parity and 1st Data drive.

Pci IDE controller both ide1 and ide2

 

All drives Seagates.

500 gig parity

3 x 500 gig for data

2 x 300 gig for data.

 

Flash is 512MB.

 

Moved MB and 3 drives (Parity 500 gig and 2 300 gig) to new case.

Pwrd up and was able to see the tower on the network.

Re Assigned drives to new order. Rebooted Tower.

Had an issue that has happened before. The tower would not be seen on the network, eventhough it was up and running. Had to reboot, and play with bios/ pwr cord/ switch promise ide controler to a new pci slot / and simulate a boot without the flash in the usb slot.

 

Finally booted up. New drive setup seen and accepted. Formated the 3x 500 gig Seagate drives, new from Fry's.....

Establishing parity at this time.

Was able to stream music and view files while the parity is running. All appears well at this time. Will post as I get more experience.

 

I would like to ask a member that has more experience with Linux/ logs and troubleshooting, to assist me with figuring out why I have occasional issues on startup, and if there are any tweaks to improve reliability and or performance when using this motherboard. Thanks.

 

Bernard

[Bernard]

Please Help- Thanks

 

Good News/ Bad News

 

I have increased the storage to just short of 3 terabytes.

As long as I had only 6 HD's- 2 on MB IDE (Secondary) and 4 on Promise 133TX2- All worked well.

 

Since I added a second Promise 133 TX2 the system has become a bit less reliable when it comes to being seen on the network.

I have tried many settings in the Bios, moving the Promise cards to different PCI slots, increasing the PS to 500 ANTEC NEO, replaced one 300gig seagate that would not report temp.,downgraded video card to 64mb ATI 7200.

 

Symptoms: Different combinations- PWR up.

-No problems all works and visible on the network in both IE and via network neighborhood. Shutdown properly via browser. PWR up no problems, but when it fails....

 

-PWR UP-Fails to get video. Hit reset (not pwr button) 3 seconds later, full boot. reads mem, 2 drives on secondary.

Promise and all the other 7 drives, either reads the flash or not - if it does, then it boot and I can log into the root. Go to the browser, able to see the unraid configuration. Attempt to via windows explorer/ network neighborhood. No go. Go to console for unraid and type poweroff. Use pwr button. Reboot still not working.

 

Temporary solution I have found is to pull power cable to PS, pull and reconnect network cable, sometimes reseat the flash, then power back up. If the boot and network  comes up good, UNRAID works like a charm. All the parity stuff works well, data transfers are great etc...

 

 

 

Questions:

1. Is there a way to reset all the network settings for the Unraid via Windows Terminal?

2. Is there a better version of Unraid 3.0 beta 2 available?

3. Using the Nvidia network port, MB has  3COM and NVidia 100mbit network ports. Appears that the drivers are in Unraid for the Nvidia only- Possible to use #COM instead?

4. In your opinion is this a hardware issue,  IRQ/ DMA conflict, software UNRAID?

 

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe BIOS 1007

2 GIG Corsair Value RAM (2x1gig -400mhz mem)

ATI 7200 64mb video

2 Brand new Promise 133TX2 cards - new flat cables.

All drives Seagate

4x500gig (Parity is on of the 500gig)

5x300gig

Using the NVidia onboard network port.

Bios has both network ports and firewire set to AUTO.

Boot set to CDROM (None Installe) / ZIP.

 

 

I just need to not have a worry around the ability to see the tower on the network.