Seeking suggestions for a new Budget Box motherboard


Rajahal

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What do you guy think of the Power consumption of a motherboard? I think this is also important.

I concur - recommendations on how to build and later run (probably different thread) as energy efficient as possible. This would most likely include the idle consumption and maybe even WOL (sorry - got carried away there  ::) ).

 

It can easily be, that an energy inefficient but slightly cheaper platform (Mobo/cpu combo) will become much more expensive over 3 years than a more expensive to build rig that can idle at very low watts.

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It can easily be, that an energy inefficient but slightly cheaper platform (Mobo/cpu combo) will become much more expensive over 3 years than a more expensive to build rig that can idle at very low watts.

 

The problem with that is it depends on where you live, since power costs vary.  I agree that we should always strive the most energy efficient build we can, but I wouldn't get too caught up in the power usage of the motherboard itself.  Using a low power CPU, a good quality PSU, large fans, and green drives will more than make up a motherboard that uses a few extra watts.

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The problem with that is it depends on where you live, since power costs vary.  I agree that we should always strive the most energy efficient build we can, but I wouldn't get too caught up in the power usage of the motherboard itself.  Using a low power CPU, a good quality PSU, large fans, and green drives will more than make up a motherboard that uses a few extra watts.

I agree. I was trying to say the same ("energy efficient build").

 

As far as price is concened, where I live (Demnark) a reduction of just 30W consumption converts to savings over 100USD per year!  :o So total consumption is a real parameter...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, I want to close this thread out and update the wiki, this has been going for too long (which is largely my fault, I've been a bit busy at work).

 

I propose we settle on this board:

 

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

 

At $65 the price is right and it meets all the basic requirements for a budget board.  It takes DDR3 RAM, so I would suggest this Kingston 2GB DDR3 1066 stick, which is also pretty cheap at $44.

 

This board is not on the hardware compatibility list, so I expect that it hasn't been proven to be compatible with unRAID.  While I don't see anything that would make it incompatible, it would still be best if we could test it before recommending it to others.

 

On that note, I'm also considering the ASUS M4A78L-M.  It only costs $5 more and it has been Level 1 tested.  It also takes DDR2 RAM, so we wouldn't have to change that bit on the wiki.

 

Thoughts?

 

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You could also consider the M4A785-M referenced earlier which is Level 1 tested.

Comparison

 

 

One concern with the LE board is the Atheros NIC chip.

(Not the exact model, but another Asus "LE" board, which shares the same NIC chip as the M4A78LT-M LE

 

Related forum posts about the "LE":

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6304.0

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6281.0

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Noob here and I actually am preparing to build my first system so I would consider myself to be in the category of the people you are trying to help.  I'd like to use a Sempron 140 and Gigabyte board (GA-MA785GM-US2H) that I already own.  Earlier in this thread it was mentioned that Gigabyte boards have issues with HPA and are incompatible with unRAID.  The default setting in my BIOS for HPA is "Disabled" meaning I should have no problems using this board.

 

That said, why would you summarily exclude or include any MB mfg? Shouldn't each board be evaluated on a case by case basis looking at the merits of each one individually?  I would argue that by excluding Gigabyte boards you did not consider the board I have, which in my opinion seems to be a good canidate.  Right now you can get it and the Sempron 140 for $93 at Newegg as a combo.  Plus it takes DDR2 memory which a lot of people would likely have laying around.  Also it is an AM3/AM2+/AM2 chipset so it would be compatible with more older chips than the ASUS M4A78LT-M LE that you suggested.  The only advantage I see to the ASUS board is that it has 6 SATA ports vs. 5 SATA & 1 eSATA on the Gigabyte board.  Anyhow, just my 2 cents.

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I actually have that exact same board, wsume99, I use it in my desktop PC.  It is indeed a great board.  However, 5 SATA + 1 eSATA is not ideal for an unRAID server, 6 SATA makes things simpler.  For the recommended board we want things as simple as possible.

 

Since you are aware of the HPA issue and you have confirmed that your board does not exhibit those problems, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you building your server around that board.  Go forth and conquer.

 

Here's my rationale for excluding Gigabyte entirely:

 

1) Saved time - researching each motherboard on a case-by-case basis is time consuming and can be difficult.

2) Avoiding generalizations - if a newbie sees that the recommended board is a Gigabyte board, they may generalize to think that any Gigabyte board will work.  This is a dangerous assumption.  Therefore, I think it is prudent to avoid Gigabyte altogether for the recommended board.

 

If Gigabyte were the best option, then I would probably recommend it.  However, I feel that Biostar and Asus both makes boards that are comparable or sometimes even better.

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I'm only aware of the HPA issue because of this forum.  I wanted to reuse something I already had so I did a little research.  Even with all that research I overlooked the note in the Motherboard section of the Hardware Compatability Wiki page and the Gigabyte HPA link provided there.

 

You should also be aware that some people might purchase the recommended board because they think that their board is not suitable, which was my initial thought.  However most of the recommended options in the MB chart are unavailable now for retail purchase - which forced me to do a little more homework on my exisitng MB options.  Now I know I can use my existing MB (while not ideal, but acceptable for a smaller system) and save my money for an ATX board with 8 SATA ports and 3+ pcie slots when I need to expand.

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You might want to take my advice with a grain of salt - remember I overlooked the HPA comment when it was right under my nose.  BUT ...

 

I'd suggest that you put it in the Motherboard section of the Hardware compatability Wiki page.  The first bullet point actually indicates the need to confirm MB compatability if you're planning to use a board you already have.  So I'd suggest that you place a compatability assessment guide/tool there, which BTW I think would be VERY USEFUL.  The first bullet seemed to be pointing me to the MB table just below.  The only problem was that my existing board was not listed.  So I thought well how about one of the official boards maybe I'll just buy one of them if they're not too expensive.  Then I discovered that the official boards were not available retail - dead end there.  So I went back searching the forums (which led me to this post) for info on gigabyte boards to see what people were saying and maybe I could determine if my board was acceptable.  Worst case is that I'd be unsucessful using h/w I already own so it's not like I was going to loose money and if it worked the I'd avoid having to buy an 'official' board.  My plan is to start with the basic version and get up and running using my existing h/w, then upgrade to the pro version and add a cache disk, then upgrade to a better MB when needed.

 

That was my noob perspective.  Hope that helps.

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Looks good.  I especially like the What makes a motherboard suitable for unRAID? section.  I think you captured most of the things I was considering.

 

Not to beat a dead horse but another question with regards to HPA.  Let's assume that the builder checks his BIOS and decides that his board is not impacted by HPA, but in reality it is and it's enabled.  I'm assuming that the compatibility check you outlined will not flag this as a problem because as I understand it HPA does not cause a problem until you start adding disks to the array.  I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think you can underestimate the importance of checking for HPA.  Because if the builder misses it then they are in for a big headache.

 

Also, I own two different Gigabyte boards and both have HPA and it's disabled by default on both of them.  Also I find the HPA setting in the exact same menu on both boards.  The HPA setting is located in the Advanced BIOS Features section.  The setting is titled Backup BIOS Image to HDD.  I don't know if it's in the same location in all Gigabyte BIOSes (is that even a word) but I'd say it probably is on many.  So you might want to revise that part of the section to include this detail for Gigabyte boards since the problem is mostly isolated to them and it'll probably help people to find it.

 

One last thing ... in another post about this topic a member told me that it seems as though Gigabyte has got the message and stopped enabling HPA by default.  This seems to be a valid statement as my boards, purchased in Feb 2009 and July 2010, both are disabled by default from the factory and you mention that loading the newest BIOS for the board may correct the issue.  So you may want to mention this fact that it looks as though Gigabyte is recognizing this problem and the newer boards and/or BIOS releases appear to correct the issue.

 

Bottom line - great job.  It's users like yourself that give me confidence that I can make unRAID work.  I feel like there's nothing that I can't get answered in this forum.  Sure unRAID is a wonderful product but it's the online support that gave me (and probably many other users) the confidence to try it.

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Glad you approve, and thanks for the extra feedback.  I've made a few more changes.

 

Not to beat a dead horse but another question with regards to HPA.  Let's assume that the builder checks his BIOS and decides that his board is not impacted by HPA, but in reality it is and it's enabled.  

I'm not sure I follow here.  Why would this user assume he/she doesn't have HPA but actually does?  Oversight?

 

I'm assuming that the compatibility check you outlined will not flag this as a problem because as I understand it HPA does not cause a problem until you start adding disks to the array.  

This is correct, and this is why it is important to check for it before installing hard drives.  HPA will be written to your hard drive(s) as soon as the computer/server boots, even if you are running some OS besides unRAID.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think you can underestimate the importance of checking for HPA.  Because if the builder misses it then they are in for a big headache.

Agreed.  I can see one or two options here.  1) We can make the HPA text big and red and scary.  2) We could add an HPA 'follow-up test' in which we instruct the user how to search their syslog for HPA issues.  While this is simple to do, by the time HPA makes it into your syslog it may be too late.  The other problem is that a drive may have an HPA from a previous motherboard even if the current one doesn't have any HPA problems.  This is my current situation - I still have HPA on one or two of my drives from my first server (which used a Gigabyte board).  I have since upgraded to a Biostar board, and later to an Asus board.  So HPA shows up in my syslog even though it is no longer a problem.  Basically, option 2 here could throw up a few false alarms, though I suppose that is better than false positives.

 

Also, I own two different Gigabyte boards and both have HPA and it's disabled by default on both of them.  Also I find the HPA setting in the exact same menu on both boards.  The HPA setting is located in the Advanced BIOS Features section.  The setting is titled Backup BIOS Image to HDD.  I don't know if it's in the same location in all Gigabyte BIOSes (is that even a word) but I'd say it probably is on many.  So you might want to revise that part of the section to include this detail for Gigabyte boards since the problem is mostly isolated to them and it'll probably help people to find it.

Added.  My old board (probably circa 2006-2007) called it something slightly different, so I left both descriptions in.

 

One last thing ... in another post about this topic a member told me that it seems as though Gigabyte has got the message and stopped enabling HPA by default.  This seems to be a valid statement as my boards, purchased in Feb 2009 and July 2010, both are disabled by default from the factory and you mention that loading the newest BIOS for the board may correct the issue.  So you may want to mention this fact that it looks as though Gigabyte is recognizing this problem and the newer boards and/or BIOS releases appear to correct the issue.

Added.

 

Bottom line - great job.  It's users like yourself that give me confidence that I can make unRAID work.  I feel like there's nothing that I can't get answered in this forum.  Sure unRAID is a wonderful product but it's the online support that gave me (and probably many other users) the confidence to try it.

Glad to help.  These forums are the primary reason I started using and trusting unRAID as well.

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If you haven't settled on a recommended "budget" board, I'll confuse the issue a bit more by offering another alternative to consider - one that I'm considering after much searching and readin.

 

ASRock M3A785GXH/128M which is currently $80 on newegg.  A bit pricer than some of the other budget board nominees (by $10 to $20 or so), but has the decided advantage of 3 PCIe x4 or faster slots (at least two should be capable of running even with onboard graphics enabled).  Same ATI HD4200 graphics as many of the ASUS nominees, Realtec GigE, 6 SATA ports. 

 

In fact, it could qualify for the 20+ drive beast.  How much is future expandability worth?  I'd say $80 plus $40 Sempron CPU is still a budget compared with many of the $200-$250 Supermicro and other "server" boards people often look to when planning for 20+ drives.  Start cheap and still have the sky as the limit... pretty attractive.  But it definitely blurs the lines between budget and beast.  And I can't find anyone else using it currently, so who knows about compatibility or reliability?

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Definitely a good find, osli, and one that warrants discussion.  I see no reason that we can't add more recommended builds as well - as you mention, this board would be perfect for something like a 'Budget Beast'.

 

Perhaps we could find a cheaper ($60ish) board for the basic budget box, then list this one as an option for those who think they may outgrow 12-15 drives.

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  • 2 weeks later...

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

 

So is this known to be a safe board then?

or should I stick with.......ASUS M4A78L-M

 

I will be just getting parts as I can (my first unraid build) and so I know it will be more than 30 days beofre it is finally up and running and will prob be well past return time so whatever I order I will be stuck with...lol

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Does anybody have any updates on the ASUS M4A78LT-M LE?  You can get it for about $73 at Newegg right now with a Sempron 140 and free shipping (combo deal) http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.510589.  I really want to make that board work and I'm tempted to give it a try since it's so cheap with so many great features, but it's not worth it if it's just going to cause headaches.  Has anyone gotten it to work without adding a separate NIC?

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You could also consider the M4A785-M referenced earlier which is Level 1 tested.

Comparison

 

I'm using the ASUS M4A78L-M and the reason I didn't pick the M4A785-M  was price at the time I purchased and at the time I wanted to spend even less.  Now that both are the same price I'd probably get the M4A785-M.

The difference most importantly being the M4A785-M has 4 ram slots, while the M4A78L-M is narrower by 1 inch.  That 1 inch can make a good bit if difference when squeezing the board into a smaller case (something I like to do).  But I'm also about to migrate my unRAID server into one of my TinyTen cases and I'm using a BIOSTAR A760G M2+ which is another 1 inch narrower than even the M4A78L-M.  

So, I'm about to move my unRAID onto it's 4th motherboard in less than 1 year.  I never anticipated that I would move it this much.  I would rather my about-to-be-freed-up M4A78L-M had 4 ram slots so I could use it with a 6-core without buying expensive 4GB ram sticks.

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any suggestions for an LG775 compatible intel board that can take an old e2180 cpu i have lying around....i have unraid pro so far on a gigabyte ds3r board that doesn't have any settings for HPA in the bios, but i just loaded my fourth disk and noticed that the space allocation for the last drive ended in 496 as opposed to all the others at 552 which i believe indicates that some bios data might have been written to that drive...before i actaully put data on the array, i wanted to upgrade/replace my motherboard...any suggestions?

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  • 2 weeks later...

ASRock M3A785GXH/128M which is currently $80 on newegg.  A bit pricer than some of the other budget board nominees (by $10 to $20 or so), but has the decided advantage of 3 PCIe x4 or faster slots (at least two should be capable of running even with onboard graphics enabled).  Same ATI HD4200 graphics as many of the ASUS nominees, Realtec GigE, 6 SATA ports. 

 

In fact, it could qualify for the 20+ drive beast.  How much is future expandability worth?  I'd say $80 plus $40 Sempron CPU is still a budget compared with many of the $200-$250 Supermicro and other "server" boards people often look to when planning for 20+ drives.  Start cheap and still have the sky as the limit... pretty attractive.  But it definitely blurs the lines between budget and beast.  And I can't find anyone else using it currently, so who knows about compatibility or reliability?

 

Just purchased this.  One other factor I liked is that it has HDMI for video... why you may ask.  Well I have no Monitors at my apartment.  Laptop, iPad, and HTPC/XBMC box.  At least I can plop the sucker behind my TV stand, and if need be, use on of my many HDMI inputs on the AV receiver for setup/maintenance.

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