What is the most popular Motherboard for unRAID?

[JP]

I apologize for asking a question similar to this in another post, but it was sort of lost in the dialogue so to get a better answer I thought I would ask something more targeted.  I've been using unRAID very well for the past 5 years, however, recently, I started having intermittent freezes.  The logs would not show any information that could lead to where the issue might be and after a huge amount of troubleshooting, that hasn't led to exactly where the issue might reside, I've elected to basically scrap all the hardware except my drives and rebuild. 

 

From my research on this forum it seems to me almost all good components can be determined once you land on a good motherboard.  I know there are plenty out there, but I would like to know what most people are using nowadays.  My priority is stability and reliability.  Second to that is familiarity.  If I have an issue with a setting in the BIOS it would help me if I'm on the same motherboard that most people are already using for guidance.  I might cut a few corners elsewhere, but I don't want to on the motherboard unless it is really costly.

 

The motherboard I see many people leaning towards is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7.  Is this truly what most people are using and is there some consensus that this might be the highest quality motherboard for unRAID?

[uldise]

I apologize for asking a question similar to this in another post, but it was sort of lost in the dialogue so to get a better answer I thought I would ask something more targeted.  I've been using unRAID very well for the past 5 years, however, recently, I started having intermittent freezes.  The logs would not show any information that could lead to where the issue might be and after a huge amount of troubleshooting, that hasn't led to exactly where the issue might reside, I've elected to basically scrap all the hardware except my drives and rebuild. 

 

From my research on this forum it seems to me almost all good components can be determined once you land on a good motherboard.  I know there are plenty out there, but I would like to know what most people are using nowadays.  My priority is stability and reliability.  Second to that is familiarity.  If I have an issue with a setting in the BIOS it would help me if I'm on the same motherboard that most people are already using for guidance.  I might cut a few corners elsewhere, but I don't want to on the motherboard unless it is really costly.

 

The motherboard I see many people leaning towards is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7.  Is this truly what most people are using and is there some consensus that this might be the highest quality motherboard for unRAID?

 

It depends

first question to answer - what will be typical usage: NAS only or some sort of virtualization too?

[Squid]

For 100% compatibility with the base OS, you'd want to use which ever motherboard / HBAs that LT uses in their prebuilt systems.  Note that LT does not support S3 sleep for instance, so in that case, there is no guarantee that 3rd party plugins such as that would operate correctly.

[JP]

It depends

first question to answer - what will be typical usage: NAS only or some sort of virtualization too?

 

To answer your question, yes, I would want virtualization.  However, admittedly, at the moment I know not a thing about it and so much so I wouldn't have thought that hardware made a difference other than maybe processing power. 

 

I just don't want to close any doors for myself.  When I built the server I have now I thought a Sempron CPU was all the power I would need since the hard drives or the network might be the bottleneck for transferring files.  Along comes PLEX and ruins that for me.   So I'll be installing a CPU that can transcode PLEX well.

[uldise]

It depends

first question to answer - what will be typical usage: NAS only or some sort of virtualization too?

 

To answer your question, yes, I would want virtualization.  However, admittedly, at the moment I know not a thing about it and so much so I wouldn't have thought that hardware made a difference other than maybe processing power. 

 

I just don't want to close any doors for myself.  When I built the server I have now I thought a Sempron CPU was all the power I would need since the hard drives or the network might be the bottleneck for transferring files.  Along comes PLEX and ruins that for me.   So I'll be installing a CPU that can transcode PLEX well.

 

then SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7 you mentioned before will be very good choice in combo with Xeon Processor..

[JP]

For 100% compatibility with the base OS, you'd want to use which ever motherboard / HBAs that LT uses in their prebuilt systems.  Note that LT does not support S3 sleep for instance, so in that case, there is no guarantee that 3rd party plugins such as that would operate correctly.

 

I understand your point, but that wasn't so much my question.  Yes, stability means a lot to me so I can see why you would say this.  However, I've got to believe most serious unRAID users are leveraging plugins...don't you think?  With that in mind is there one motherboard that stands out amongst the rest that most people are using?  I would have to believe whatever motherboard that is would provide good stability and be able to leverage plugins pretty well or maybe there isn't a consensus on this.

[bonienl]

There was a survey done here about two years ago. In that survey motherboards not older than 2 years shows

 

1. Supermicro

2. Asrock

3. Asus

 

Note each brand is represented with different M/B models, but most people here tend to go for Supermicro, though ASrock is a close second.

 

[garycase]

The SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 is indeed an excellent choice [it's also the motherboard LimeTech uses in their 10/4 server]

 

It has 14 SATA ports, supports ECC memory, and supports the latest generation Haswell-based Xeons.    Pair this board with a pair of 8GB ECC modules and a good E3 series Xeon and you'll have an excellent system for years to come.

 

[StanC]

What is the hard drive setup for that motherboard?

 

Parity Drive - SATA3

Cache Drive - SATA3

Data 1-4 - SATA2

Data 5 - 12 - SAS

[JP]

The SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 is indeed an excellent choice [it's also the motherboard LimeTech uses in their 10/4 server]

 

It has 14 SATA ports, supports ECC memory, and supports the latest generation Haswell-based Xeons.    Pair this board with a pair of 8GB ECC modules and a good E3 series Xeon and you'll have an excellent system for years to come.

 

Thanks Gary.  I've been out of the loop on hardware for a while and is why I'm asking these questions.  I'm starting to learn more about the SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 motherboard, which appears to have onboard video.  However, I guess if you go with a Xeon processor you have to add a video card...is that right?

[garycase]

The SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 is indeed an excellent choice [it's also the motherboard LimeTech uses in their 10/4 server]

 

It has 14 SATA ports, supports ECC memory, and supports the latest generation Haswell-based Xeons.    Pair this board with a pair of 8GB ECC modules and a good E3 series Xeon and you'll have an excellent system for years to come.

 

Thanks Gary.  I've been out of the loop on hardware for a while and is why I'm asking these questions.  I'm starting to learn more about the SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 motherboard, which appears to have onboard video.  However, I guess if you go with a Xeon processor you have to add a video card...is that right?

 

No.  The board does not depend on a Xeon with integrated video.    It has an on-board Aspeed AST2400 video chipset.

 

 

[danioj]

The SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 is indeed an excellent choice [it's also the motherboard LimeTech uses in their 10/4 server]

 

It has 14 SATA ports, supports ECC memory, and supports the latest generation Haswell-based Xeons.    Pair this board with a pair of 8GB ECC modules and a good E3 series Xeon and you'll have an excellent system for years to come.

 

Thanks Gary.  I've been out of the loop on hardware for a while and is why I'm asking these questions.  I'm starting to learn more about the SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7 motherboard, which appears to have onboard video.  However, I guess if you go with a Xeon processor you have to add a video card...is that right?

 

No.  The board does not depend on a Xeon with integrated video.    It has an on-board Aspeed AST2400 video chipset.

 

+1 for the Supermicro X10SL7-F. It is a great board. With a  little care you can get cheaper memory than on the QVL (see my build thread in my sig) and with 14 SATA ports, onboard video (but really no need for it with IPMI), no need to flash LSI controller to IT mode anymore and IPMI. Awesome board. Couldn't be happier. Everything you want, nothing you don't. IMHO.

 

 

[JP]

Thanks for the help.  Some of this is starting to come together for me now.  Going with a Xeon processor and the Supermicro will increase my budget and the Xeon processor probably won't give me the speed say something like an i7 would for Plex transcoding, but I guess what is the point of having all the extra "cycles" if you can't do something with them like virtualization. 

 

I'm sorry for turning this thread in to something else, but let me just ask.  Virtualization is new to me.  I think I understand it conceptually, but I don't know how it is typically used with unRAID.  Let me ask a real-world example as it might apply to me and see whether this is even possible.

 

I do some video editing on my somewhat antiquated Desktop PC.  It has a Core 2 DUO E8500 processor in it.  It works OK, but the Xeon would eat its lunch.  Could you possibly install a Windows 7 Virtual OS on unRAID and run my video-editing software within it?  This would allow me to take advantage of the processor for rendering, which is very CPU intensive. 

 

Finally, where does the Virtual OS like Windows 7 reside within unRAID?  Is it typically installed on the cache?

[HellDiverUK]

T  Going with a Xeon processor and the Supermicro will increase my budget and the Xeon processor probably won't give me the speed say something like an i7 would for Plex transcoding,

 

Depending on the Xeon you buy, it's either an i5 or an i7. 

 

I have two Xeons, one is a E3-1225v3 which is basically an i5 with VT-d and ECC support.  It has a GPU (P4600), and it's quad core.  My other Xeon is basically an i7, it has no GPU and it's quad core with Hyperthreading.

 

I must say I'm pretty happy with my rig - I only got it last month.  The board was new, but it was cheap.  The CPU was used off eBay.  I had change from £200 for both including delivery.  It's very, very fast.  The old E3-1240 is 3.3GHz, 4 core with HT (so 8 logical cores).  It turbos to 3.8GHz.  It was excellent value for money.

[Cessquill]

I'm looking to do exactly the same thing (6 year old low spec server that now needs replacing to migrate all apps over and have one machine running).  Therefore keeping an eye on this thread.

 

I don't necessarily need a micro-ATX motherboard, but the onboard SAS of that looks intriguing.  I'm looking at replacing my case to one that has 2 mini-SAS connectors built in (that uses an on-board expander to feed 24 drive bays).  The cheaper case does without the expander and has 6 SAS backplanes.  Currently not sure how you'd go about connecting this up, and the manual doesn't say much.  Reverse breakout cable (4xSATA to mini-SAS)?

[garycase]

...  the Xeon processor probably won't give me the speed say something like an i7 would for Plex transcoding ...

 

A Xeon E3-1241v3 will match the performance of an i7.    For example, the 1241v3 scores 10026 on PassMark and an i7-4790 scores 10074.