Hi all,

 

I'm trying to decide which motherboard to use in my unraid server.  I already have the A8N-SLI Premium up and running, preclearing some 2TB ears drives.  I just realized that I have another motherboard in my spare parts closet, the P5B Deluxe.  Which MB do you think would give me the best performance and stability?

 

The P5B is intel based while the A8N is AMD and Nvidia.  I know that the P5B has 6 PCIe SATA ports verses the 4 on the A8N so that's a plus.  It also has an Intel sata controller verses the Nvidia chipset.  I have the Supermicro PCIe 8 port SATA card so I don't know if the extra two ports are that meaningful.  I currently have 9 drives but that number will grow with time.  Again, I'm really most concerned with performance and stability.

 

Neither board has Intel LAN or on-board video.

 

If any of you are familiar with these two boards I'd appreciate any input.  I've put links to the manuals below.

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5B%20Deluxe/e2668_p5b_dlx.pdf

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI%20Premium/e2435_a8n-sli_premium.pdf

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

jsdds

 

I am using the P5B deluxe in a windows based PC - very stable for 2-3 years already.

 

I would choose the P5B motherboard (if it is completely compatible with unRAID) just for the 2 extra SATA port.

As you said you have already got 9 drives and still want to expand so the 2 extra ports gives you a little more breathing room.

 

I don't think performance is an issue here.

 

I would choose the P5B motherboard (if it is completely compatible with unRAID) just for the 2 extra SATA port.

 

Thanks for the reply theone.

 

I guess that is the real issue.  Is the P5B Deluxe completely compatable with unraid??

 

Is anyone out there using this board with unraid?  The A8N has been tested and is known compatible according to the Hardware Compatibility list.

The P5B VM DO was the "official" motherboard in Limetech servers while is was available. If that is your MB, you won't find one more compatible with unRaid.

P5B Deluxe  has 7 sata ports and a Esata port (feed the esata port back into the chassis for 8 ports). Got a JMB 363 Micron onboard as well as the 6 intel sata ports. Two PCI-e x16 slots for a pair of Supermicro cards and a PCI-e x1 slot shoiuld you require a couple more sata ports. 

Looks like a winner to me.

 

Cheap PCI graphics card and your are all sorted.

 

P5B Deluxe  has 7 sata ports and a Esata port (feed the esata port back into the chassis for 8 ports). Got a JMB 363 Micron onboard as well as the 6 intel sata ports. Two PCI-e x16 slots for a pair of Supermicro cards and a PCI-e x1 slot shoiuld you require a couple more sata ports. 

Looks like a winner to me.

 

Cheap PCI graphics card and your are all sorted.

 

 

For some reason I didn't think that the JMB 363 was PCIe but it I guess it is.  With 8 SATA II ports on-board I guess it is a winner.

 

While not as good as the officially sanctioned P5B (no intel LAN or on-board video) this board looks pretty good.

 

Given the fact that I'll now have 3 different controllers (Supermicro 8 ports, Southbridge 6 ports, JMB 363) how should I arrange my drives: parity on JMB 363, cache on Southbridge, data on Southbridge and Supermicro?

 

Thanks for the help!

i have a p5b-plus vista running with unraid ... this mobo is close to the deluxe

been stable so far...

still looking for an hba  for the 16x pcie slot

 

 

I've got an A8N-SLI Premium with all 8 SATA ports populated.

 

The nice thing about it is its low power consumption. Where I live, 30 watts saved 24/7 is equivalent to a new 2TB drive/year at current prices 

(...) verses the 4 on the A8N(...)

 

Ahemmm... it's got 8 + 2 PATA ports allowing 12 drives in total. How do you get only 4 SATA ports?

(...) verses the 4 on the A8N(...)

 

Ahemmm... it's got 8 + 2 PATA ports allowing 12 drives in total. How do you get only 4 SATA ports?

 

Hi nia.  Thanks for the reply.  Sorry but I meant to say the P5B has 6 PCIe SATA II ports (but now I know it's really verses the 4 PCIe SATA II ports on the A8N.  I might be wrong but I believe the Silicon Image 3114R controller supports only SATA I (a speed of 1.5  vs 3.0 Gbit/s) and is on the PCI bus and not the PCIe bus.  So as far as my understanding goes, there are 4 SATA II PCIe based ports and 4 SATA I PCI based ports on the A8N.

 

I'm still just learning about all this and if I'm wrong in my understanding, please let me know where.

 

Thanks

Isn't the A8N N-Force 4 based?  Seem to remember that being a Bad Thing^TM

 

 

I'm still just learning about all this and if I'm wrong in my understanding, please let me know where.

 

There is indeed 4 ports of each type, so that's correct. But the network will be your bottleneck in either case by some margin. I would not be too concerned with that specifically.

 

Some seem to agree with Chris Pollard about the NForce being bad. I'm not so sure with recent versions of unRAID. I certainly have had no issues that can be attributed to the chipset, and it seems that others are equally successful running it. I'm not sure if there are any power consumption differences.

 

It's up to you to weigh in pros and cons 

I've got an A8N-SLI Premium with all 8 SATA ports populated.

 

The nice thing about it is its low power consumption. Where I live, 30 watts saved 24/7 is equivalent to a new 2TB drive/year at current prices 

 

I am using the same MobO with Unraid 5v1. Work fine, with two exeptions:

 

Boot is slow, as the MoBo just boots with USB 1.1

S3 does not work

Do you have the same issues?

 

Hi.

 

Sorry for the late reply - didn't see it 'till now.

 

I use 4.7, not 5 like you do

 

I have the same sloooooooow boot as you describe. Its not a major issue though. I tend to boot once every couple of months (or less). 

 

I have never tested Sleep modes. I just spin the drives down.