Biostar TA785G3+ with AMD 1055T X6?

[GJones]

I am considering the following setup right now, wondered if anyone saw any red flags.  I will be running HandBrakeCLI on the box as well (hence, the extra horsepower on the X6).  I did not see the motherboard listed anywhere, but seems similar to supported boards.

 

 

CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB ( 2 X 2GB ) PC3-10666 1333MHz 240-pin DDR3

Biostar Micro ATX Motherboard TA785G3+

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8 GHz 6x512 KB L2 Cache Socket

Corsair 430-Watt Builder Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply CMPSU-430CX

 

EDIT:  minor correction to motherboard above.

 

[Rajahal]

No red flags that I see.

[Ken R.]

I don't think UNRAID supports 6 cpu cores, it will only use four as far as I know with the current (4.6) kernel.

 

 

[GJones]

As in unraid does not make use of them or kernel in unraid only reports 4 cpu cores to other applications?  I only want the additional cores for handbrake.  If this is the case, it should be made much clearer in the hardware wiki.

[Ken R.]

The 4.6 kernel is compiled to only use four cores.

 

syslog reports;

 

Dec  4 11:40:45 kingsnake kernel: 8 Processors exceeds NR_CPUS limit of 4

Dec  4 11:40:45 kingsnake kernel: SMP: Allowing 4 CPUs, 0 hotplug CPUs

 

and only initializes four.  (this is an i3-540 so I don't know why it's reporting 8 processors)

 

You could compile a new kernel I suppose.

 

 

[GJones]

Well, that just sucks.  This may mean that I end up with separate unraid and transcode boxes.

[Joe L.]

Well, that just sucks.  This may mean that I end up with separate unraid and transcode boxes.

Or, you can either

A. compile your own kernel.  (not too difficult others have posted instructions)

or

B. politely send lime-tech an e-mail asking the kernel be compiles for a higher max.  (might not happen, but who knows... when originally set, 4 cores might have been all possible with the hardware at the time)

or

C. transcode with as many CPUs as possible with a given kernel...   Yes, it might take a bit longer... (but it sounds like you are impatient, so best focus on "A" or a separate box.)

 

Edit: I see you've already addressed "B"  (you were thinking ahead of me  )

[GJones]

I'm patient, just want to make the best purchase decision.  2 extra cores for about $20 is great unless they would be useless for the foreseeable future.

 

It is on the roadmap now, though, and might be implemented as soon as 5.0 beta3.

[dgaschk]

beta 3 is out with support for 8 cores.

[prostuff1]

beta 3 is out with support for 8 cores.

 

That is correct BUT there are many changes that are causing hurdles right now.  I do not suggest upgrading a production system, unless you are prepared to deal with and help troubleshot the problems.

[GJones]

I pulled the trigger on a lower wattage 605e instead of the six-core.  I am more concerned about stability than the extra cores and it seems it will take a while to get that beta as stable as I would like it to be.

 

Thanks for all the good input, folks.  I am sure I will move on to the X6 at some point in the future.  Its primary purpose was transcoding.  I have temporarily solved that by adding much more storage for now while things settle down.  I'll post the build in the appropriate forum.

[Unqualified Spectator]

I use Handbrake also - I was not aware that it has support for more than 4 cores?  If anyone has encoded some rips with the X6, how about posting some encode times?  Especially with Handbrake. I am getting nearly 1:1 encode time with MKVs - High Quality (17) - (In other words - it takes as long to encode a seasonal rip on a 4 core system as it does to watch the same episode - is a 6 core faster?)  My test video is a season 1 disk 4 for Battlestar Galactica 2005 - 44 mins run takes about 42 mins to re encode to MKV.