MSI K8N Neo4 (nforce4 controller)

[Fred]

Hi to everyone,

 

Last night I moved my WHS hardware in a Norco RPC-470 case and got Unraid running in minutes.  I only have 2 brand new 5900rpm Seagate 1.5tb discs installed for the moment.  It's transferring data so smoothly I'm impressed.  I was used to WHS transfer speed crawling down sometimes, but I moved 350gb to the server (53mb/sec average) and verified (59mb/sec average) with Teracopy and no error showed up.  I now feel this could stream blu-ray rips to my media player.

 

I keep my finger crossed as I know NF4 and 5900rpm seagates are dreaded.

 

Oh on the good side, I'ts using a 650W corsair.  Once it's neatly cabled I'll keep post updated with pictures and proceed with more testing.  I just had to try this motherboard before getting another, as it has 8 sata ports and it served me good as a WHS for the past 2 years.

 

Fred

 

p.s.: this disk/case combo is running very cool.

Disk status  Model / Serial No. Temperature Size Free Reads Writes Errors

parity Not installed

disk1 ST31500541AS_6XW0LTH0 24°C 1,465,138,552 1,041,152,196 582,420 1,115,594 0

 

[Joe L.]

Hi to everyone,

 

Last night I moved my WHS hardware in a Norco RPC-470 case and got Unraid running in minutes.  I only have 2 brand new 5900rpm Seagate 1.5tb discs installed for the moment.  It's transferring data so smoothly I'm impressed.  I was used to WHS transfer speed crawling down sometimes, but I moved 350gb to the server (53mb/sec average) and verified (59mb/sec average) with Teracopy and no error showed up.  I now feel this could stream blu-ray rips to my media player.

 

I keep my finger crossed as I know NF4 and 5900rpm seagates are dreaded.

 

Oh on the good side, I'ts using a 650W corsair.  Once it's neatly cabled I'll keep post updated with pictures and proceed with more testing.  I just had to try this motherboard before getting another, as it has 8 sata ports and it served me good as a WHS for the past 2 years.

 

Fred

Good that you are verifying the data... (in light of the issues with some NForce chipsets.)

 

It sounds as if you have not yet assigned the parity drive.  (Your write speeds will drop to between 30 and 40 MB/s once you do)  8 SATA ports sounds really nice.

 

Joe L.

[Kode]

I think the issues with nforce chipsets are down to old drivers, i'm not sure there are any issues with current drivers.

 

I have an MSI K8N Diamond nforce 4 motherboard. 

 

I transferred about 3TB over the network with Teracopy, verifying it all with no errors. 

 

I've done several parity checks, no errors.

[Joe L.]

I think the issues with nforce chipsets are down to old drivers, i'm not sure there are any issues with current drivers.

 

I have an MSI K8N Diamond nforce 4 motherboard. 

 

I transferred about 3TB over the network with Teracopy, verifying it all with no errors. 

 

I've done several parity checks, no errors.

No, they were not driver related.  The nforce4 chipset introduced random bit errors when under heavy use with multiple disks. 

 

It showed itself when parity checks (reading from all your disks at the same time) produced occasional random errors.  Every other parity check might result in an error...  or, it might just be a few errors on a check of 1TB, but it will cause you all kinds of hair-loss.  (You'll pull your hair out trying to resolve it only to eventually replace the MB)

 

If your motherboard is not one affected, great... but at least you are going into this informed of the risk, and knowing what to look for.

 

Joe L.

[Fred]

After transferring 1,5tb (all verified with Teracopy), activating the parity disc, and doing 3 parity checks while getting files in/out, I must say this looks promising.  I just added a third 1,5tb (WD Green) and it's being cleared right now.