ASRock Motherboard with 12 SATA ports

[armandocerna]

Anyone have any thoughts on this, specifically regarding the sata controllers?  Thinking of buying this as an upgrade to my current unraid box. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157475

 

[garycase]

That's a VERY nice board -- ECC support, 12 SATA ports, and a nice 8-core Avoton CPU.

 

Tough to beat for up to 12 drive support ... and with the PCIe x8 slot you could easily add another 8 port controller should you need even more drives 

 

[JoreLack]

There were some issues with the Marvel sata-controller. Would be interesting to hear from some of the users about the current state of this issue. Also read that SST-CP11B are the sata-cables to go with...

 

Thinking about getting this board to go with latest Unraid 6 beta.

[t33j4y]

 

I have been warming up to this mobo for some time, and a sudden windfall my way has made it possible to acquire now.

 

Can someone verify if there are issues with the Marvel controller or not?

 

Thanks!

 

/Thomas

[garycase]

I don't have this board, so can't say for certain.  But I do know that the SYBA SI-PEX40057 add-in card works fine with UnRAID, and it uses the same Marvel 88SE9230 chip that's on this card, so it would certainly seem that there wouldn't be any issues.    The 2nd Marvel chip on the board (SE9172) is essentially just a 2-port version of the same controller, so it should also work fine.

 

 

 

 

[garycase]

Found the thread where this was discussed.

 

Note that the thread was about the C2550D4I (the quad-core version of the board), but the next-to-last post is from a user who was using the C2750D4I octa-core version you're looking at, and it also works fine.

 

As I recalled, there were some early issues with the Marvel chips; but they've been resolved, and the last post notes that the board has been working just fine for almost a year now.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32647.msg360724#msg360724

[t33j4y]

garycase,

 

thanks for the reply! I have gone ahead and ordered now!

 

Actually found it at reduced price too, so there were no more valid excuses 

 

Thanks again!

[dmacias]

 

 

garycase,

 

thanks for the reply! I have gone ahead and ordered now!

 

Actually found it at reduced price too, so there were no more valid excuses 

 

Thanks again!

 

Just make sure you update the bios 2.80.  I just download it to the unRAID flash and flash from the bios.  And the bmc/ipmi to 00.23.00 which you can upgrade from the ipmi webpage. Someone mentioned an update for the Marvell firmware also but I haven't looked into that yet. Also the only problem I've had in the past year was when I switched from XEN to KVM virtual machines.  The memory I was using wasn't adequate (caused crashes). I upgraded to 2 x 8GB ECC and problem solved.  Also this board will only work with unRAID 6. The kernel/drivers are too old on version 5.

[t33j4y]

 

 

garycase,

 

thanks for the reply! I have gone ahead and ordered now!

 

Actually found it at reduced price too, so there were no more valid excuses 

 

Thanks again!

 

Just make sure you update the bios 2.80.  I just download it to the unRAID flash and flash from the bios.  And the bmc/ipmi to 00.23.00 which you can upgrade from the ipmi webpage. Someone mentioned an update for the Marvell firmware also but I haven't looked into that yet. Also the only problem I've had in the past year was when I switched from XEN to KVM virtual machines.  The memory I was using wasn't adequate (caused crashes). I upgraded to 2 x 8GB ECC and problem solved.  Also this board will only work with unRAID 6. The kernel/drivers are too old on version 5.

 

Thanks! Will update ahead of booting unRaid on it. I really appreciate the last part about no kernel support for the mobo in unRaid 5. I am on 5.05 and headed towards v6 - but I actually planned on moving my 5.05 to the new mobo and then take the jump to v6. I will most definitely do it in the reverse order :-) (there's a project for the weekend while waiting for the board to arrive 

[garycase]

Definitely good to know about the lack of v5 support => just added that to my list of "Misc Notes for UnRAID builds" 

[Smitty2k1]

I'm looking for a mitx board with integrated CPU and IPMI for a very basic unraid server. Is there any reason to get anything else? Definitely don't NEED 12 data ports

[garycase]

I'm looking for a mitx board with integrated CPU and IPMI for a very basic unraid server. Is there any reason to get anything else? Definitely don't NEED 12 data ports

 

Cost??

 

There's a quad-core version of this board that would work very nicely for a basic server [it still has 12 SATA ports  ]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157419

[DigitalDivide]

I have to ask, because I really don't know, what would be the benefit of the octa core vs the quad core?  I'm only using my server for storage of blu ray movies, music, and photos.  Would I seen any benefit using the octa core?

[dmacias]

 

 

I have to ask, because I really don't know, what would be the benefit of the octa core vs the quad core?  I'm only using my server for storage of blu ray movies, music, and photos.  Would I seen any benefit using the octa core?

 

No I don't think you would see any benefit but if you even think you might run some dockers (like transcode those blurays in plex) or vm's I would get the 8 core.

[garycase]

For basic NAS functionality there's NO reason to get the octa-core.  Even for a single transcoded stream it's not going to provide any tangible benefits.

 

But if you think you'll want to run multiple transcodes, a couple of VM's, etc. it certainly wouldn't hurt to have the extra "horsepower".

 

For what you've outlined, however, the quad-core unit is fine.

 

The PassMark ratings for the two are 2329 (quad) and 3929 (octa).  Note that 2329 is roughly equivalent to a fairly good Core 2 Duo of a few years ago or a low-end Core i3 today.    In general, you need about 2000 "Passmarks" to do a transcode.

 

[DigitalDivide]

Thank!  Good to know!

[t33j4y]

As there seems to be people in this thread who have the C2750D4I running, I'm going to try to get some advice here first.

 

I can't for the life of me get the mobo to boot an unRAID USB stick!

 

I have two Sandisk Cruzers which have worked well for me before, but the combination of unRAID 6, those sticks and this mobo just doesn't work. The sticks are definitely bootable as I can slap a FreeNAS installer on it and boot with that.

 

The mobo has the latest BIOS, I have removed all other boot options so that there is only the stick present in the boot order. Mobo boots, BMC wait of 15-30 secs passes and after POST screen, it just stops after displaying a dash in the top left corner - the dash I am so looking forward to start spinning. But it never does :-(

 

Any advice?

[garycase]

The sticks may be bootable, but are you certain you've got UnRAID installed correctly on them?    ... did you run the "MakeBootable" utility?

 

Are you seeing the initial UnRAID menu where you choose between UnRAID and MemTest ?  If not, the stick is NOT booting.  ... and at this point UnRAID hasn't even started booting.    If you're not seeing this, you either don't have the boot order set correctly in the BIOS or the flash unit itself isn't bootable.

 

[t33j4y]

garycase,

 

thanks for the reply. I did run the Make_Bootable utility and tried both 5.06 and 6.0. After a lot and trial and error I found a measly give-away USB stick I once received at some expo, and lo and behold - it actually worked. So now I can get on with familiarizing myself with 6.0 before making the big move :-)

 

Must be that after some years using a Kingston MobileLite G2 with an SD card, I had forgotten how picky unRAID is when it comes to USB sticks.

 

I should probably remedy that situation going forward - the G2 has become a unicorn item by now, so is there another USB-based SD card reader that is the recommende solution these days? I have a G3 and that seems to be no good (tried it, wouldn't boot).

 

Cheers,

 

Thomas

[garycase]

There have been several discussions about a good SD card reader to use in lieu of a flash drive; but nobody's found one that will work as reliably as the good old G2. 

 

I'm surprised you had problems with the SanDisk units ... I've not had any issues with the many Cruzer's I've tried over the years.    But I know some systems can be pretty "picky" about just what they'll boot with.

 

[dmacias]

garycase,

 

thanks for the reply. I did run the Make_Bootable utility and tried both 5.06 and 6.0. After a lot and trial and error I found a measly give-away USB stick I once received at some expo, and lo and behold - it actually worked. So now I can get on with familiarizing myself with 6.0 before making the big move :-)

 

Must be that after some years using a Kingston MobileLite G2 with an SD card, I had forgotten how picky unRAID is when it comes to USB sticks.

 

I should probably remedy that situation going forward - the G2 has become a unicorn item by now, so is there another USB-based SD card reader that is the recommende solution these days? I have a G3 and that seems to be no good (tried it, wouldn't boot).

 

Cheers,

 

Thomas

Are you using one of the 2 fixed rear usb ports? I had some trouble using the front ports on the ds380 and a usb2 to usb3 adapter from my lian li q08 plugged in to the motherboard. I have since added a rear 2 port adapter.

[t33j4y]

dmacias,

 

yes, I am using one of the two rear ports that are provided by the mobo.

 

What annoys me is that the Cruzers work fine in other scenarios that require USB boot, like FreeNAS, ESXi - but unRAID is probably just a bit more picky :-)

 

Thanks,

 

Thomas

 

 

[garycase]

dmacias,

 

yes, I am using one of the two rear ports that are provided by the mobo.

 

What annoys me is that the Cruzers work fine in other scenarios that require USB boot, like FreeNAS, ESXi - but unRAID is probably just a bit more picky :-)

 

Thanks,

 

Thomas

 

That really sounds like they're simply not prepared correctly, since the initial boot (to the option selection screen that displays UnRAID or Memtest) is NOT booting UnRAID, but just the Syslinux boot loader.    If these boot FreeNAS, ESXi, etc. they should absolutely boot UnRAID.    What file system are you formatting the flash drives with?

 

[t33j4y]

Garycase,

 

I've tried to sum up my efforts below.

 

1. Got the latest 5.06 and 6.0 beta from the download section on Lime-technology.com.

2. Completely wiped the USB stick using MiniPartition Tool to make sure there were no other partitions than the one I wanted.

3. Formatted the USB stick using FAT32 file system, labelling as "UNRAID" (all capitals)

4. Transfered the contents of the downloaded archive to the USB stick

5. Ran the make_bootable.bat file from an elevated command prompt under Windows 8 (also tried in W7) with the script returning the expected responses

6. Ejected the stick and tried booting the C2750D4I with the stick in one of the native, rear ports.

 

Did this with:

1. Sandisk Cruzer 8GB - reports as Sandisk Cruzer Rev.7.01

2. Sandisk Cruzer 8GB - reports as Sandisk Cruzer Rev.2.01

3. Lexar 4GB - reports as Lexar USB Flash Drive v1100

 

I did not at any point download the packages again. When it finally worked with the give-away stick I found in my laptop bag, it was using the same process and the same files as for the Cruzers and the Lexar.

 

Sandisk 1. was tested with FreeNAS on the very same mobo, and booted flawlessly. Sandisk 2. was an ESXi5.5 install media stick - also booted. The Lexar was an Win7 install media stick - didn't test that one out in the C2750D4I prior to trying with unRAID.

 

Cheers,

 

Thomas

[garycase]

Very interesting.

 

Do the Cruzer's boot okay when prepared with UnRAID on a DIFFERENT system?  [You can try this on ANY PC you have -- as long as you don't assign any disks to it you won't hurt anything ... for that matter, you don't even need to let UnRAID actually boot => just see if you get the choice [unRAID or MemTest] menu.