Questions about GA-EP45-UD3P

[ch33zw1z]

I'm looking to extend the life of my 775 platform for 3 more years, and I'm wondering AT's opinions on this mobo. I'm particularly interested in compatibility with Linux. I would be upgrading from an Asus P5K.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

 

[elconejito]

why the upgrade? Did the old board kick the bucket or is there a feature you're looking for?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Extra SATA ports really. The JMicron controller is crap and I'm looking to add some storage, maybe a RAID1 with some of my older drives. I'd rather have a P45 chipset to pair with my Q9550 also and OC a bit. The P5K isn't a bad board aside from the JMicron chip, solid under some big OC's on an E2180, E6600, and E8400...and great since I haven't pushed the Q9550 at all. Although, I may just stay with the P5K and do a platform change Q1 2011. In that case, I'd just stick with the backup solution I'm using and leave out the in between online "backup", RAID1, for another year. Right now I've got a 250GB and a 500GB I dump family pics and stuff to. Also keep the same stuff on two separate 750GB drives in the rig.

 

[lopri]

How many SATA ports does the P5K have? UD3P is a great board, but its auxiliary SATA controller is also JMicron-based. I use those for optical drives in IDE mode and leave ICH10R for hard disks, and haven't had an issue to talk about. I would advise against RAID1 on ICH10R unless you have done it before and know what to expect when something goes wrong. Also please be aware "pushing" CPUs doesn't always get along with RAID arrays.

 

[ch33zw1z]

How many SATA ports does the P5K have? UD3P is a great board, but its auxiliary SATA controller is also JMicron-based. I use those for optical drives in IDE mode and leave ICH10R for hard disks, and haven't had an issue to talk about. I would advise against RAID1 on ICH10R unless you have done it before and know what to expect when something goes wrong. Also please be aware "pushing" CPUs doesn't always get along with RAID arrays.

The P5K has 4 SATA ports+2xJMicron ports. That's sneaky on the JMicron-based controller, because I haven't seen where they state that specifically. I used mine for the optical drive, and fought a system freeze issue and about 70% bad burns for more than a year until I finally disabled it and bought a SATA optical instead. After a reinstall I've been issue free since April 09. I tried everything possible to make it work but no dice. In fact, I couldn't get any versions of Linux to even boot right off it either. Thanks for the advice on "pushing" the cpu...My old RAID1 didnt care but it's wasn't an Intel RAID setup. What's special about the RAID1 on the ICH10R regarding failed drives?

 

[lopri]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187723

 

[ericlow]

could always try an hardware add-in card for the SATA,

i'd stick with your MOBO

 

[hclarkjr]

i am doing what you are thinking about ch33zw1z except i am going from a gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600 to a EP45-DQ6 with a Q9450 in a cooler master HAF932 case. the new intel socket doesn't appeal to me at the momment so i want to run 775 for the foreseeable future. i got real good deal on the DQ6 for $100 for just the board with nothing else

 

[ch33zw1z]

i am doing what you are thinking about ch33zw1z except i am going from a gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600 to a EP45-DQ6 with a Q9450 in a cooler master HAF932 case. the new intel socket doesn't appeal to me at the momment so i want to run 775 for the foreseeable future. i got real good deal on the DQ6 for $100 for just the board with nothing else

Sweet board. I figure the longer I wait the longer I'll have 775 under warranty. I'm going to hold off for now.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm not sure if they've fixed it when coming out of sleep mode.

 

[Muadib]

I just got this board, an I have an issue. I'm not using raid, but I have 2 hard drives plugged into the purple SATA connectors, so it searches for them during the POST when it get to the JMicron controller part of the post. It can take around 3 minutes before it shows one of the drives, and continues to boot. I have no problems with Windows seeing either drive.

Other than moving them to one of the orange SATA connectors, is there a way to stop it for looking for drives? I have the controller set for AHCI, as I don't need raid.