Recommendation for cheap NAS motherboard

[blastingcap]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a cheap AMD mobo that supports ECC RAM that would do well in FreeNAS, preferably with at least four SATA 3Gbps connectors? This isn't going to be a particularly high-end system or anything. I'm hoping for something under $75.

I already have a spare, roomy case capable of housing up to an ATX mobo so space isn't an issue.

 

[dac7nco]

How cheap is cheap?

 

[greenhawk]

when I last looked about 2 months back, the Asrock B75m looked the winner.

cheap price, 8 sata ports (3 x sata3, 5 x sata 2)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B75M/?cat=Specifications

Did not find a similar AMD one though.

Though it appears a few other Asrock with similar sata count are on offer.

 

[blastingcap]

How cheap is cheap?

Preferably $75 or less but that's pushing it even though I'm more than happy to use an older motherboard without all the fixings.

when I last looked about 2 months back, the Asrock B75m looked the winner.

cheap price, 8 sata ports (3 x sata3, 5 x sata 2)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B75M/?cat=Specifications

Did not find a similar AMD one though.

Though it appears a few other Asrock with similar sata count are on offer.

Pretty good suggestion, I am going to up the ante by needing ECC RAM support though. Which probably means going AMD for CPU and mobo ECC support.

 

[greenhawk]

Pretty good suggestion, I am going to up the ante by needing ECC RAM support though. Which probably means going AMD for CPU and mobo ECC support.

looking at atx and ECC on a local price checking site, I think you will not get it as the starting costs is easily twice your budget.

Will have to be looking second hand I suspect.

 

[AE-Ruffy]

good luck, ive been planning my nas on a esxi server forever, went from (I'll just use a cheap z68 mobo!) to (holy shit, vt-d gets expensive! lets just make the nas) to (fuck maybe I should get a supermicro board) to, (nah too much money for the nas) to (fuck it i quit)


still don't know what im going to do. I have a asus z68 board gathering dust. if im going to step up to supermicro($160-200) then I need more expensive memory($80 for 8gbs?) + either a i3 2100 base($110), or a freaking i5 2400 to support VT-D($180, which is more than I paid for my freaking 2500k) or a Xeon E3-1220 to support the ECC properly ($209)

 

[blastingcap]

looking at atx and ECC on a local price checking site, I think you will not get it as the starting costs is easily twice your budget.

Will have to be looking second hand I suspect.

You are mostly right. I got a new ASUS M5A97 board (for USB 3.0 and a bunch of 6Gbps SATA ports) with a coupon and credit for about $83. For those willing to gamble, Newegg has a few AMD boards with ECC capability (mostly ASUS) refurbished or used for less. I didn't try to save money buying used for obvious reasons, but it's doable.

For those who don't want to make their own file server, Newegg has the Fujitsu MX 130 S2 micro server on sale today for $140 after coupon Fuji91112US Should be good for 4 HDDs, 2GB DDR3-1333MHz ECC memory, and an energy-efficient PSU, but lacking in USB 3.

Btw for those who laughed at my cosmic ray comment, read this: http://lambda-diode.com/opinion/ecc-memory I won't need to replace my gaming rig for a while, but as processes shrink more and more and become ever more susceptible to soft errors due to lower voltages, I am betting that eventually all memory will be ECC, not just server memory.

good luck, ive been planning my nas on a esxi server forever, went from (I'll just use a cheap z68 mobo!) to (holy shit, vt-d gets expensive! lets just make the nas) to (fuck maybe I should get a supermicro board) to, (nah too much money for the nas) to (fuck it i quit)


still don't know what im going to do. I have a asus z68 board gathering dust. if im going to step up to supermicro($160-200) then I need more expensive memory($80 for 8gbs?) + either a i3 2100 base($110), or a freaking i5 2400 to support VT-D($180, which is more than I paid for my freaking 2500k) or a Xeon E3-1220 to support the ECC properly ($209)

If I were you, I'd just sell your old mobo for whatever you can get, and buy the N40L or something like that. It's hard to build a ECC-capable file server for cheap, as I discovered the hard way. And that's just for NAS/HTPC, not for any virtualization or anything.

 

[RaiderJ]

My advice is that you shouldn't skimp in any way on a proper NAS motherboard. Whatever money you spend will be worth it in the long run when everything just works, and works well. Cutting corners I haven't found to be worth the hassle.

 

[blastingcap]

My advice is that you shouldn't skimp in any way on a proper NAS motherboard. Whatever money you spend will be worth it in the long run when everything just works, and works well. Cutting corners I haven't found to be worth the hassle.

What's your opinion on the Fujitsi MX 130 S2? I am probably going to end up buying that anyway and keeping the M5A97 as a backup or something. Though I am looking into a low-power Athlon II X2 250U processor replacement and possibly a RAM upgrade if 2GB turns out to be insufficient for my (very modest) needs.

 

[Phantomaniac]

Used server gear is cheap on ebay. Dirt cheap. Check out my sig. ATX Supermicro motherboard with dual processor slots, 6 DDR2 slots, and 14 total SATA ports (8 are SAS but compatible with SATA)? 75 bucks. Quad core E5430? 25 bucks. 16GB DDR2 ECC? 50 bucks. Of course if you need the reliability of a warranty you probably shouldn't go this route. But what I got for the money is nothing short of amazing.

 

[blastingcap]

Used server gear is cheap on ebay. Dirt cheap. Check out my sig. ATX Supermicro motherboard with dual processor slots, 6 DDR2 slots, and 14 total SATA ports (8 are SAS but compatible with SATA)? 75 bucks. Quad core E5430? 25 bucks. 16GB DDR2 ECC? 50 bucks. Of course if you need the reliability of a warranty you probably shouldn't go this route. But what I got for the money is nothing short of amazing.

Not only that, but I've been burned too many times by people sending me their defective secondhand hardware. I even had a guy send me defective RAM for $6. Seriously, guy? You'd sacrifice your reputation for $6? Well it happens.

 

[RaiderJ]

What's your opinion on the Fujitsi MX 130 S2? I am probably going to end up buying that anyway and keeping the M5A97 as a backup or something. Though I am looking into a low-power Athlon II X2 250U processor replacement and possibly a RAM upgrade if 2GB turns out to be insufficient for my (very modest) needs.

Don't have an opinion on it, looks just like desktop system?

My comment was more geared to buying proper hardware for what server software you're running. For myself, having a proper hardware setup for running ZFS makes life easier. My current setup isn't ideal, but I wanted to stick with a mini-ITX setup.

Honestly, for something simple and reliable, those N40L systems are pretty nice. Haven't used one myself, but I see a lot of traffic about them for people running ZFS setups. That's the path I would go if I were going to build a 4 drive setup.

 

[_Rick_]

I'm currently looking at Q77 mainboards for my next NAS.
Sure, I won't get ECC, but being able to troubleshoot via LAN is quite convenient for a headless system.

Otherwise, I am considering the i5 3470T on an ASUS P8C WS to get ECC "on the cheap" while also having AES acceleration and integrated graphics.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'm currently looking at Q77 mainboards for my next NAS.
Sure, I won't get ECC, but being able to troubleshoot via LAN is quite convenient for a headless system.

Otherwise, I am considering the i5 3470T on an ASUS P8C WS to get ECC "on the cheap" while also having AES acceleration and integrated graphics.

Unfortunately Intel desktop Core i3/i5/i7 does not support ECC, you need a Xeon for that. Fortunately they do not cost -that- much more. Take a look at the Xeon 1220v2, 1225v2 if you need onboard graphics or the 1220Lv2 you need lower power consumption...

If you need a cheap Xeon-board the Intel Serverboard S1200KP is worth a look...