Went to turn on my second server this morning and nothing.  Checked if it was a bad power supply and that isn't the problem.  It's an old Gigabyte ep45-ud3r mb and I have 12 hard drives connected.  I need a replacement and I have no idea to get.  I use unraid to store and play video files and music.  No docker, VM or any of that other fancy stuff (because I don't really know what it is or what it does ).  I don't want overkill, just something that will meet my needs.  Any help, advice or suggestions is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Your least expensive option is to just buy the same board on e-bay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-Technology-GA-EP45-UD3P-LGA-775-Socket-T-Intel-Motherboard-/182218046709?hash=item2a6d0abcf5:g:sMUAAOSwYqxXi5qA

 

But assuming you want to replace it with something more modern, and less risky (a used board may last a long time; or may die very quickly) ... then there are a variety of options.

 

Personally, for a server I prefer to use a board that supports ECC memory, to provide an extra layer of fault tolerance.  For the basic use you need, you don't need a Xeon processor ... so a server-quality motherboard with an i3 is fine.

 

Something like this:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182996

 

... with this CPU:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3Z96233

 

... and 2 of these:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820242154

... You would, of course, need a card to add the additional SATA ports you need.    The board I suggested has 8 ports; so you could use a 4-port board or larger to get to 12 ports.    Not sure what you're using now -- if it's a PCIe board you could simply move it to the new system;  if it's an old PCI card, you'll need to buy a new board.

 

Thanks Gary, I think I'll go with your suggestions.  Gotta get it up and running.

You're welcome.  One very nice feature of UnRAID is that there's nothing to load or configure on the new hardware. 

 

You just set up the new hardware (motherboard/CPU/memory); connect all of your drives [in this case you'll of course need an additional SATA controller card if you can't reuse the one you have now] ... and then just boot from your current flash drive.  Makes it VERY easy to "... get it up and running." 

 

The new SkyLake Celeron G3x00 processors support ECC memory, saving you $80.