Seeking suggestions for a new Budget Box motherboard

[Zer0x123]

I Vote the Asus M4A785-M for the new budget build motherboard. They can be had for roughly $60 and when matched with a dirt cheap Sempron you have Mobo and CPU for less than $100.

[Rajahal]

I Vote the Asus M4A785-M for the new budget build motherboard. They can be had for roughly $60 and when matched with a dirt cheap Sempron you have Mobo and CPU for less than $100.

 

Looks good to me.  Any dissenters?  If not, I'll update the wiki and such.

[queeg]

I Vote the Asus M4A785-M for the new budget build motherboard. They can be had for roughly $60 and when matched with a dirt cheap Sempron you have Mobo and CPU for less than $100.

 

Looks good to me.  Any dissenters?  If not, I'll update the wiki and such.

 

I'll submit the BIOSTAR TA785G3HD for consideration ($10   $5 cheaper).  It's all your fault Raj, if you hadn't suggested the Biostar A760G M2+ I never would have even looked at Biostar boards.  Now I have three of them.   The BIOSTAR TA785G3HD is just like the Asus except for the audio chipset, DDR3 instead of DDR2 and placement of the sata ports and the 24pin psu connector on the board.  It has DDR3 which might matter looking forward if you might want to repurpose the board.

[mbryanr]

Biostar TA785G3HD  and Asus M4A785-M comparison

 

This combo deal gets you the Sempron 145 and M4A785-M for $90.98

 

or the

Biostar combo for $85.98

 

 

 

 

 

[unRaidMe]

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?

 

Did you go with the ASRock mobo? I like the idea of future expandability that the PCIe x4 slots give you. But is it compatible and reliable?

 

Is the Realtek 8111DL compatible with unRAID? The Hardware Compatability List says,

Realtek - RTL8169S, RTL8111B, RTL8111C, probably others too

The 8111DL isn't explicitly stated but it says it's probably supported. Can anyone confirm the 8111DL?

 

I've also seen some mobos with the Atheros AR8131M NIC... is this compatible with unRAID?

 

Other boards with at least 2 PCIe x4 slots:

JetWay JHZ03-GT-LF AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $75

JETWAY JMA3-79GDGEXL-LF ~$80

ECS BLACK SERIES A790GXM-AD3 AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Open Box ~$83

 

There are also some Open Box MSI boards for around $50 that have the extra PCIe slots but they use the Atheros NIC, which I'm not sure is compatible. Also, they don't have any onboard video so that nixes those boards.

 

Any opinions on these mobos?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[mbryanr]

 

Is the Realtek 8111DL compatible with unRAID? The Hardware Compatability List says,

Realtek - RTL8169S, RTL8111B, RTL8111C, probably others too

The 8111DL isn't explicitly stated but it says it's probably supported. Can anyone confirm the 8111DL?

 

The Biostar TA785G3HD has the RTL 8111DL NIC

Level 1 Tested

[mbryanr]

The Atheros AR8131M uses the L1E driver (The L1C is supported by unRAID - Release Notes 4.5, but all Atheros drivers are supposed to be supported (see link below)

 

Some have had issues with some Atheros NICs based on the driver used.

 

Here is an older forum post with Tom's response:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5897.msg58043#msg58043

[unRaidMe]

Thanks, mbryanr!

 

Is there anything else I should take into consideration with the choices listed above? I've not heard of Jetway before, don't know much about ECS, and I believe ASRock is a subsidiary of ASUS.

 

Has anyone built an unRAID with any of these motherboards?

 

Thanks!

[mbryanr]

Here is one comment on the ASROCK M3A when adding multiple MV8 (thread is from 4/10..YMMV)

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5720.0

 

[Rajahal]

Biostar TA785G3HD  and Asus M4A785-M comparison

 

This combo deal gets you the Sempron 145 and M4A785-M for $90.98

 

or the

Biostar combo for $85.98

 

OK, now I like the Biostar better as well.  All the same important specs, but cheaper.

 

 

unRaidMe: I like boards with two or more PCIe x4 slots just as much as anyone, but I haven't used any of the ones you listed.  Plus, I don't think we need to consider them for the budget board since this server is only supposed to support 12-15 drives.  However, if any of those are proven to work with unRAID, I would be happy to list them as alternates that offer more expandability.

 

 

Edit: I've updated the wiki and included both motherboards.  I figure that if someone is buying new, then the Biostar board and DDR3 RAM makes sense.  However, if someone has some DDR2 RAM laying around, then the Asus board will allow them to save some money.  Therefore, both are good options for the Budget Box.

 

[unRaidMe]

I wasn't aware that there were requirements for the different builds... my bad.

 

With regards to the 6 SATA port mobo setups, how do you then get 12-15 drives? 12-15 drives should be plenty enough for me Do you use the PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot? I'm not sure if I am understanding correctly but I think I've read somewhere that some motherboards only allow video cards in the PCI Express 2.0 slot... is this true?

 

Thanks for helping me to understand.

[unRaidMe]

Found another candidate, I think:

 

BIOSTAR TA790GXB3 AM3 AMD 790GX ATX AMD Motherboard $59.99 after $10 MIR or

[urlhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.538541]with Sempron 145 Combo[/url] $80.98 after $10 MIR

[Rajahal]

Yes, that one will work fine too.  Still, I would probably go for the other as it is microATX and you don't have to bother with a rebate.

 

To get up to 14 drive support, you will use this card in the PCIe x16 slot:

 

SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

You'll also need breakout cables.  Most likely two of these unless you are using a case with backplanes like the Norco 4220.

 

For up to 16 drive support you can use the above card as well as one of these in a PCIe x1 slot:

 

SIL 3132

 

While it is true that some older motherboards will only accept video cards in the PCIe x16 slot, I haven't seen that problem crop up on any modern motherboards whatsoever.  If you want to be extra sure, you can always call the manufacturer and ask them.

 

By the way, there's currently an amazing deal on an official LimeTech board.  This board is really more than you need for a Budget build, but it is actually cheaper than all the boards we are considering in this thread!  This is really a no-brainer - just buy it, your search is over.  If it were always that price, I would just make that one the recommended motherboard for every recommended build.

[unRaidMe]

What CPU goes with the Supermicro mobo? Is it worth getting a dual core vs the single core Celerons?

 

Also, is this motherboard one of the "picky" ones?

Certain motherboards' date=' such as SuperMicro boards, are very picky about the RAM and CPU that they use. [/quote']

 

Thanks again!

[Rajahal]

No, I don't think it is one of the picky ones.  It doesn't list requirements for ECC or registered RAM, so I think any DDR3 will do.

 

I would pair it with the Celeron 430 CPU, but if you need more power for add-ons then a dual core is fine too.