Top (currently available) motherboard choices for an unRAID server?


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I built my first unRAID server about 2 weeks ago but I'm having issues with long boot times (like it only sees USB1.0 even though 2.0 is enabled in the BIOS) and my network transfers are slow. The board I'm using Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H.

 

I'd prefer a board with a lot of SATA connectors. 8 would be preferable. I already have 2 SATA cards with 4 ports each so a MOBO with 8 ports would get me 16 total for my system.

 

I'd prefer a board with on board video (VGA, DVI, or both).

 

ATX or microATX doesn't matter.

 

I'd like the onboard LAN to be fully supported by unRAID and be on the PCI-E bus. A board like the Abit AB9 Pro looks nice but it's LAN is on the PCI bus, not the PCI-E bus which could/will limit traffic to an extent.

 

Of course, it must be USB 2.0 and be able to boot from a USB hard drive :)

 

So... what's the best board currently on the market? Preferably something I can purchase from newegg.com.

 

Also, I'm willing to lose a couple of the above things as long as there is an alternative. For example, I can lose the on board video and just get a PCI card for that (but in this case the MOBO most likely must be ATX because I already need 2 PCI slots for my SATA controller cards). Also, if the built in LAN is sub-par or not compatable with unRAID then a recommendation on a PCI-E NIC would be fine too. In fact, I've been thinking about just doing that anyways since it seems like a card based NIC is almost always better then what's built into the MOBO.

 

I have AMD AM2 and an Intel 775 cpu's at home so I'm not stuck to either an AMD or Intel based board.

 

What's you choice? What is the best MOBO on the current available market to run unRAID with?

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i bought a gigabyte p35-ds3r a few weeks ago, works perfect with unraid

 

of all the current chipsets, the p35 is the second best in low energie consumption, so its a good choice

(the best chipset only has 4 sata ports, so not really an option)

 

it has 8 sata ports on the pci-e bus, lan also on the pci-e bus, 8 usb 2.0, 3 pci-e 1x, 3 pci, 1 pci-e 16x

i get about 52 mb/s, with a 5 disk array, during parity check

 

it doesnt have onboard video, but i run it headless anyway

this way it saves even more energy compared to onboard video

 

hf  ;)

 

 

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I'd like the onboard LAN to be fully supported by unRAID and be on the PCI-E bus. A board like the Abit AB9 Pro looks nice but it's LAN is on the PCI bus, not the PCI-E bus which could/will limit traffic to an extent.

 

I double checked the documentation and it says

On the AB9 (not the pro) it is on the PCI Bus.

On the AB9 PRO the Dual Gigabit Lan is on the PCI-E Bus.

 

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