smino Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Have you guys seen the stats on these MB! 10 SATA connectors to start, with lots of expansion ports! 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot at max. x16 link (blue) 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot at max. x8 link (white) 2 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link (black) 1 x PCIe x1 2 x PCI I think I might give this a whirl...unless someone has already tried this mb? I want to get off the nvida chipsets, and reduce the use of existing PCI SATAII cards. All I need now is the norco case and maybe one SUPERMICRO AOC-USASLP-S8i 3Gb/s Eight-Port 142$ on Newegg plus cable... I would be good to go for 18 drives (maybe make my cache drive a raid 0 if unraid supports it) so then I would have the maximum number of hard drives. Please comment on the motherboard. Anyone know the cable product code needed to go from sas(ipass) to 4 Sata II? I know they have a 15cm and a 50cm cable. I am wondering if the 15cm cable is long enough for the Norco case. CPU Intel Socket 775 Processors for Intel® Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Quad/ Core™2 Duo/Pentium® dual-core/Celeron® dual-core /Celeron® Processors Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors Supports Intel® 45nm multi-core CPU Chipset Intel P45 / ICH10R with Intel® Fast Memory Access(FMA) support Front Side Bus 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz Memory 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel memory architecture Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL. Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL. When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended. Expansion Slots 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot at max. x16 link (blue) 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot at max. x8 link (white) 2 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link (black) 1 x PCIe x1 2 x PCI CrossFire Support ATI CrossFireX™ technology, up to Quad CrossFireX Storage Southbridge 6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports Intel® Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10 Marvell 88SE6121 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices Silicon Image Sil5723 (Drive Xpert technology) 4 x SATA 3Gb/s (orange and blue) Supports EZ Backup and Super Speed functions LAN Quad Gigabit LAN controllers Marvell 88E8056® Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET 2, Teaming, and Redundant Audio ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC - Support Jack-Detection, Multi-Streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking - Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O - ASUS Noise-Filtering IEEE 1394 LSI 3227 2 x 1394a ports USB 14 USB 2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 10 ports at back panel) ASUS Unique Features ASUS Exclusive Features: - ASUS 16-Phase Power Design - Express Gate SSD ASUS Power Saving Solutions: - ASUS EPU-6 Engine - ASUS AI Nap ASUS Quiet Thermal Solutions: - ASUS Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution - ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2 - ASUS Fan Xpert ASUS Crystal Sound: - AI Audio 2 - ASUS Noise Filtering ASUS EZ DIY: - ASUS Drive Xpert - ASUS Q-Shield - ASUS Q-Connector - ASUS AI Direct Link - ASUS O.C. Profile - ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 - ASUS EZ Flash 2 Overclocking Features ASUS AI Booster Precision Tweaker 2: - vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment - vDIMM: 64-step DRAM voltage control - vChipset (NB): 55-step chipset voltage control - vCPUPLL: 64-step reference voltage control - vFSB Termination: 40-step voltage control SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) - FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 800MHz at 1MHz increment - PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 180MHz at 1MHz increment Overclocking Protection: - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) Special Features ASUS MyLogo2 ASUS Data Guardian--TPM support Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse combo port 1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output 4 x LAN (RJ45) port 10 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 8-channel Audio I/O Internal I/O Connectors 2 x USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 1 x IDE connector 1 x COM connector 6 x SATA connectors (red) 4 x Drive Xpert SATA connectors (orange and blue) 1 x CPU Fan connector 3 x Chassis Fan connector 1 x Power Fan connector 2 x IEEE1394a connector Front panel audio connector 1 x S/PDIF Out Header Chassis Intrusion connector CD audio in 24-pin ATX Power connector 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector Power on Switch Reset Switch System Panel (Q-Connector) BIOS 16 Mb Flash ROM DMI 2.0 AMI BIOS PnP WfM 2.0 SM BIOS 2.4 Manageability WOL by PME, WOR by PME, WOR by Ring, Chasis Intrusion, PXE Accessories 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable 1 x FDD cable 8 x Serial ATA cable 2 x 2-port Serial ATA power cable 1 x eSATA + 1-port 1394 (4-pin) module 1 x TPM module 1 x Q-Shield 1 x User's manual 1 x Optional Fan 1 x 3 in 1 Q-connector (Retail version only) Support Disc Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS AI Suite Anti-virus software (OEM version) ASUS Update Image-Editing Suite Form Factor ATX Form Factor 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm ) Quote Link to comment
dandirk Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 I am not an expert by any means (ordering my own unraid equipment next week with tax return), but from reading a bunch of posts... I don't think unraid can use multiple nics, every post I see members are suggesting to disable the extras. "Silicon Image Sil5723 (Drive Xpert technology) 4 x SATA 3Gb/s (orange and blue)" From what I have read and understand about these Xpert ports, is that they are tied together in pairs and Unraid can only use each pair as 1 drive. So you can either only use 1 port for 1 data drive or 2 in RAID0 for a cache drive.... (I suppose you can use 2 RAID 0 for 1 data drive but this wouldn't be too smart). Since there are 2 pairs of Xpert ports, you could only use these for 2 data drives, in addition to the 6 onboard the total would be 8 drives supported. Also this post would be better for the Motherboard forum... Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 There are basically four classes of motherboards from an unRAID perspective ... 1 - Motherboards that have been thoroughly tested. These include "standard" motherboards and Level 2/3 certified motherboards. 2 - Motherboards that this user or that user say "it works" or something similar. I'd also put level 1 certified motherboards in this category, although others might think that moves them closer to option 1. Although it is good news for someone to have initial success with a motherboard, it is not a slam dunk that you won't have problems. Some of the known INCOMPATABLE motherboards also appear to work after an initial install. But they have more subtle symptoms that are only apparent after some use. 3 - Motherboards that are known to be problematic. Frequently these are due to inability to boot from the USB. But other times this is due to a some sort of incompatibility. 4 - Brand new motherboards that no one has ever used or tested. If you are looking for the easiest possible unRAID experience, go for option 1. If you have a known compatible motherboard your chances for a successful install are quite good. This doesn't mean you won't have a lose cable or bad memory chip, but that can happen with any system. Users that know little if anything about Linux should realize that this is the easiest path. The situation is not quite a rosy with option 2. You are really dependent on the person (or people) reporting initial success. You should try and follow up with them to see if they are still happy with their choice. Encourage them to document level 2 compatibility if they are willing. It used to be relatively common for people to set up their arrays and NEVER run a parity check. (This is less common now due to forum suggestions that you do them monthly). Some motherboards are not able to ever run a good parity check (although the build appeared to go fine). If you choose an option 2 motherboard prepare to do some testing before you trust your data on the array and delete backups. This is a good choice if you already own a motherboard and want to use it with unRAID. It may also be a more economical choice, although motherboard cost is pretty minimal compared to the overall cost of a system. The situation gets dramatically worse with option 3. Unless you are quite technically inclined, I'd steer clear. If you own one of these motherboards there is little harm in trying it out and seeing if you can overcome the problem the other user(s) experienced. The one exception is USB boot issues. There have been some recent inventions that help people boot their systems when in the past the MB would be flagged as incompatible. If you are confident you can overcome a boot issue, consider this very similar to option 4. Option 4 is the great unknown. Realize that you are entering unexplored territory. Expect that you will have problems (and then be happily surprised if you don't), rather than expect a textbook perfect install and experience. New chipset support in Linux takes longer than for Windows, so if this is not only a new motherboard but also a new chipset, your chances for success on the current version of unRAID go way down. (New chipset are usually supported in the next release). People interested in this route should be comfortable with Linux. It also helps to be a good problem solver and one of those people that sees problems as puzzles to be figured out, and not as frustrating obstacles that are delaying moving on to more exciting things. Be honest with yourself! But Option 4 users are extremely important to the forums. If no one tried a new motherboard, we'd never know what motherboards are compatible. At a minimum, do some research on the kernel and make sure chipsset support is included. Keep backups of everything you put on the array for AT LEAST the first 2 weeks of use. Run frequent parity checks. Practice a drive replacement. TRY TO BREAK IT. I'd recommend sticking with OOTB unRAID and minimize the tweaks and addons for at least a few days. If you do have problems, you'll want to be on the most basic unRAID configuration that you can when you ask for help. Smino, the motherboard you referenced looks excellent based on features and functions. I think it would be excllent if you get one and runs it through its paces. I hope you'll document level 1 and hopefully level 2 compatibility if you do. If it works and especially if Tom would include support for all of those SATA ports, this would be an excellent choice! Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 Wow BJP, Long reply. I figure if this mobo does not work, I will use it for my htpc. Not a big deal. I was planning on doing raid 0 anyways for cache and parity drives. So the smart drive option is great. The chipsets are all intel or marvell so I expect it will work with unraid just fine. The only thing missing in this mobo is remote admin and built in video...but I have tons of old pci and pcie cards for that. Teaming, well if you build your own slackware, then you can team your cards. I think 2 card teaming is also on Tom's List for the future. I think I will give it a whirl. Now I need to find the best memory option and cpu. Although it supports the fast memory, 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory , I think I might pickup the cheapest 800 8 or 16 GB if Caching will help. Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Wow BJP, Long reply. I figure if this mobo does not work, I will use it for my htpc. Not a big deal. I was planning on doing raid 0 anyways for cache and parity drives. So the smart drive option is great. The chipsets are all intel or marvell so I expect it will work with unraid just fine. The only thing missing in this mobo is remote admin and built in video...but I have tons of old pci and pcie cards for that. Teaming, well if you build your own slackware, then you can team your cards. I think 2 card teaming is also on Tom's List for the future. I think I will give it a whirl. Now I need to find the best memory option and cpu. Although it supports the fast memory, 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory , I think I might pickup the cheapest 800 8 or 16 GB if Caching will help. Hehe. No one ever accused me of being short winded! I figure if this mobo does not work, I will use it for my htpc. If only it were that easy. If you have a problem you have to rule out everything else. Sometimes problems are pretty subtle and aren't apparent immediately. When a problem does crop up, I've seen it take days to several weeks to go from problem to "I'm giving up on this motherboard". There is always something else to try ... Not trying to discourage you, but many a user has had your perspective on a new motherboard and had a frustrating month in front of them as they try to diagnose a series of problems. Sometimes it turns out to be the motherboard, sometimes not. Users with known compatible motherboards can also have this experience. It just seems far less common. Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 The board I am using now, is not on the list, and works fine, even with the nvidia chipsets. Do you recall when Tom said he would have Nic Teaming as an option? If slax is 32bit, then there is a 4GB limit on memory right. Has anyone tried it on slam64 or bluewhite64? Quote Link to comment
SSD Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 The board I am using now, is not on the list ... Then why isn't it on the list now? Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Do you recall when Tom said he would have Nic Teaming as an option? Tom never mentioned "teaming" in the context of LAN interfaces. (I did a search, the only person mentioning it is you.) Only mention Tom ever made was possibly getting multiple NIC's recognized, to eliminate the frustration when a person plugs the LAN connector into the wrong connector on the motherboard. Currently, unRAID uses the first network card it finds (/dev/eth0) and eth1 is ignored. Joe L. Quote Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 The board I am using now, is not on the list, and works fine, even with the nvidia chipsets. Do you recall when Tom said he would have Nic Teaming as an option? If slax is 32bit, then there is a 4GB limit on memory right. Has anyone tried it on slam64 or bluewhite64? No, but I enabled PAE in the kernel. I also have 8GB in my system. From what I can see, the system is using the extra memory. I believe it is for the buffer/file cache. Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 The board I am using now, is not on the list, and works fine, even with the nvidia chipsets. Do you recall when Tom said he would have Nic Teaming as an option? If slax is 32bit, then there is a 4GB limit on memory right. Has anyone tried it on slam64 or bluewhite64? Any possibility to get it checked out so that I can get it added to the list? I'm sure you have seen the Motherboard Rating Page here, but if you could verify that your board is level 1 or better that would be great. Just start a post in the Motherboard forum and I can't take it from there. Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 Motherboard qualifications... I will do it for my existing asus board. Of course when I buy the other one, I will also do it. I will have to lookup the testing requirements, to make sure all is good. I am 100% up for testing and helping out unraid and members. I just need a little time! I do not know what parents with 4 or more kids do, because I have 1 and it eats up my time! I will get to it though. Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 Done. I posted my existing MOBO test in the MOBO section... Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 I just called ASUS indiana, and they tell me that the 10 SATA ports are all on the PCI bus. Hmm....This is not good in my book. I guess I will keep searching for a better Motherboard where the SATA controllers are on the PCI-E bus, unless someone here can tell me it will not be a bottleneck between the NIC Card (Assume is on the PCI bus) and 10 SATA Drives, 2 Parallel drives. Quote Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I just called ASUS indiana, and they tell me that the 10 SATA ports are all on the PCI bus. Hmm....This is not good in my book. I guess I will keep searching for a better Motherboard where the SATA controllers are on the PCI-E bus, unless someone here can tell me it will not be a bottleneck between the NIC Card (Assume is on the PCI bus) and 10 SATA Drives, 2 Parallel drives. I do not think this is correct. 6 drives are on the ICH10R. I highly doubt they would design it on the PCI Bus. 4 Drives are on the SIL5723 and and I believe require a Marvel 61xx driver. I really don't see them making raid controllers that would sit on PCI bus. The motherboard would flop and never sell. I would check throughput results in the reviews. Quote Link to comment
smino Posted March 26, 2009 Author Share Posted March 26, 2009 That is what I told the pre-sales tech. I think he really did not know the answer and wanted me off the phone. The other board the is pretty wicked, but not sure if it is supported is the supermicro X8ST3-F. 8 sas/sataII, + 6 sataII, video, ipkvm, bit pricey in the 400$ dollar range, but the 8 sas comes with an LSI SAS1068E controller. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8ST3-F.cfm 1. Intel® Core™ i7 / i7 Extreme Edition, and future Intel® Nehalem processor families (QPI up to 6.4 GT/s) 2. Intel® X58 Express Chipset 3. Up to 24GB DDR3 1333, 1066 & 800 ECC / non-ECC Un-Buffered DIMM 4. Dual Intel® 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller 5. LSI 1068E 8-Port SAS Controller; RAID 0, 1, 10 6. 6x SATA (3.0Gbps) Ports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 7. 3 (x8) PCI-Express 2.0 (1 in x16 slot), 1 (x4) PCI-Express (using x8 slot), 2x 32-bit PCI Slots 8. Integrated IPMI 2.0 with Dedicated LAN 9. 8x USB (2 rear, 2 on-board, 2 headers) Links & Resources Tested Memory List Motherboard Manual Update Your BIOS Download the Latest Drivers and Utilities RoHS 6/6 Product SKUs MBD-X8ST3-F -O * X8ST3-F (Standard Retail Pack) MBD-X8ST3-F -B * X8ST3-F (Bulk Pack) Physical Stats Form Factor * ATX Dimensions * 12" x 10" (30.5cm x 25.4cm) Processor/Cache CPU * LGA 1366 Socket * Intel® Core™ i7-965 processor Extreme Edition (3.2 GHz) * Intel® Core™ i7-940 processor (2.93 GHz) * Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor (2.66 GHz) * Supports future Intel® Nehalem processor families System Bus * QPI (up to 6.4 GT/s) System Memory Memory Capacity * Supports up to 24 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC / non-ECC Un-Buffered memory * Three Channel memory bus * 6 DIMM sockets Memory Type * 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz Un- Buffered ECC / non-ECC DDR3 SDRAM 72-bit, 240-pin gold-plated DIMMs DIMM Sizes * 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB Memory Voltage * 1.5 V Error Detection * Corrects single-bit errors * Detects double-bit errors (using ECC memory) * Supports Intel® x4 and x8 Single Device Data Correction (SDDC) On-Board Devices Chipset * Intel® X58 Express chipset * ICH10R SAS o LSI SAS1068E o RAID 0, 1, 10 support o (Optional: AOC-IButton68) RAID 5 support SATA * Intel ICH10R SATA 3.0Gbps Controller * RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support IPMI * Support for Intelligent Platform Management Interface v.2.0 * IPMI 2.0 with virtual media over LAN and KVM-over-LAN support * Winbond® WPCM450 BMC Network Controllers * 2x Intel® 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controllers * Supports 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T, RJ45 output * 1x Realtek RTL8201N PHY (dedicated IPMI) VGA * Matrox G200eW 8 MB DDR2 Super I/O * Winbond 83627DHG chip Clock Generator * CK505 Input / Output SAS * 8 SAS / SATA ports Serial ATA * 6 SATA ports * 6 SATA hard drives supported Floppy * 1 Floppy controller; 1.44 MB LAN * 2x RJ45 LAN ports USB * 2x USB rear ports * 2x USB on-board * 2x USB internal headers (4 ports) * Total 8 USB 2.0 Compliant VGA * 1x VGA port Keyboard / Mouse * PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports Serial Port / Header * 1x Fast UART 16550 serial port * 1x internal header I/O Panel • Please see this board's I/O Panel Chassis ( Optimized for X8ST3-F ) 2U Chassis * CSE-213A-R900LP * CSE-216A-R900LP * CSE-216E1-R900LP * CSE-216E2-R900LP * CSE-822T-400LP * CSE-825MTQ-R700LPB * CSE-825TQ-560LPV * CSE-825TQ-R700LPV * CSE-826TQ-R800LPV Important Chassis Notes * To ensure system stability, a 550W (minimum) ATX power supply [4-pin (+12V), 8-pin (+12V) and 24-pin are required] Expansion Slots PCI-Express * 3 (x8) PCI-e 2.0 slots (1 using x16 slot) * 1 (x4) PCI-e slot (using x8 slot) PCI * 2x 32-bit PCI slot System BIOS BIOS Type * 32Mb SPI Flash EEPROM with AMI BIOS BIOS Features * DMI 2.3 * PCI 2.2 * ACPI 1.0 / 2.0 * USB Keyboard support * SMBIOS 2.3 Management Software * IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) v1.5 / 2.0 with KVM support * Super Doctor III * Watch Dog * NMI Power Configurations * ACPI / ACPM Power Management * Main Switch Override Mechanism * Wake-On-LAN (WOL) header * Keyboard Wakeup from Soft-Off * Power-on mode for AC power recovery * Internal/External modem ring-on Quote Link to comment
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