MSI H55-GD65 (8x SATA)

[dlmh]

Hi all,

 

Since my Atom build was unable to fully use my internet connection (120 MBit), I wanted to replace it with a socket 1156 based system. The h55/h57 seemed the most logical choice, since I could then use the onboard GPU of the Clarkdale CPU.

 

I currently have 6x Samsung F2 1.5TB + 1x Samsung F2 500GB running and I was insistent on finding a motherboard with 8 onboard SATA ports, so I could expand in the future. I also wanted two slots for expansion cards, either PCI-e x4 or x16, giving a whopping total of 24 possible drives (if unRAID would ever support that).

 

Finally, I was able to pickup a MSI H55-GD65 really cheap, that met with all my requirements.

 

- H55 chipset

- 7x SATA + 1x eSATA  (6 from Intel ICH10, 2 from JMicron JM383 controller)

- 2x PCI-e 16x

- 2x PCI-e 1x

- 2x PCI

 

Also, the motherboard was known for it's power saving options, so this was really a no-brainer. I also was able to pickup a Intel Pentium G6950 (2.8GHz Clarkdale) and 4GB DDR3-1066 dirt cheap.

 

I had the system up and running in no time, and the greatest thing about it: it consumes EXACTLY as much energy as with my Atom build (32W without HDD's, 48W with all drives spun down). This is an awesome feat, since it is waaaaay faster now than before. The only thing is that the onboard Realtek RTL8111DL NIC has the same issues as I had with all previous iterations: after a periode of intense network traffic, the unRAID server will disappear from the network, to never come back again. So I had to replace it with a Intel PRO 1000/GT (PCI) and everything works like a charm!