upgrading mobo of existing server, need tips


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So I'm a casual unraid user for about 8yrs now. Current server is 50TB. No cache drive, 6xST8000DM004, 1 of which is the single parity, 2xWDC_WD40EZRZ, and a single 2TB Hitachi "deathstar" Deskstar (that will be replaced with another ST8000DM004 soon), running on an old recycled GA-MA790XT-UD4P board with a Phenom II X3 710 and 4GB DDR2. It runs great as a home media server and semi-dependable backup of non-critical stuff.

Anyway, I say casual because I don't download directly to the server, my hoarded digital post-apocalyptic archive is very manicured and curated for personal use, so I don't need apps modifying anything, I don't convert/transcode any media that I add, and I don't even know how to effectively setup/utilize VMs for anything. I imagine something I use this passive server for might benefit from some kind of VM, but it's all greek to me. Now I've upgraded my main gaming desktop to a CrosshairVIII Hero/3950x and have my old CrosshairV FormulaZ/FX8350 to move over to the server. I've done a lot of reading here, googling, and duckduckgoing but haven't found the kind of specificity I need to feel comfortable just swapping boards in the server like last time. The last board in the server 4yrs ago was a P5QPro/Q9400 (legendary 12yr old mobo, I've had 5 of them and 4 are still running in gaming rigs btw including the old unraid base), and swapping in the current gigabyte board at the time was a 1hr cake walk since they were similar generations. Now that I have this significantly different-featured CV-FZ board, does anyone have any particular advice/warnings for setting up the bios to minimize setup time/headaches for the swap? I also have an OCZ Vertex4 128GB SSD and a Mushkin (trash?) Callisto 40GB SSD leftover from my desktop that I was was wondering if either or both would be useful in any way as cache drives. I basically just keep a pretty big archive of movies, tv, music, apps, and game isos on there and use plex to access video, and mediamonkey to stream music. Everything works great right now, just looking to boost write times when I move my downloaded stuff to the server from my desktop, and get rid of the little bit of 'lag' when my wife, the kids, and I are all accessing the server at once on rare occasions. Just wanna perk it up a bit, ya know? I know this was a lot to read, so thanks for taking the time, and thanks in advance for any ideas any of you might have. Let me know if you want screens or logs of current setup for reference.

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