Motherboard/Chip Options

Tom:

We all appreciate your efforts to bring us a stable (albeit older) platform.  I also applaud the efforts you took to avoid problems with the Gigabit/PCI bus (data exchange), however, as I requested in a private email, it appears that Intel has discontinued this Motherboard (D865GLCLK) and while you may still have it available, I (perhaps others) am concerned with future protection.  My daughter is an Intel Engineer and stated that Intel really doesn't support obsolete technology (despite protestations), so it leaves me a bit uncomfortable to pin my UnRaid Server on this particular Board.

     I know that others have suggested and you even acknowledged several other options in  the early AVS Thread, but have you looked (or is it too soon) at alternatives that address the same problem?

     Also, note from my Intel Product Dealer Program (3/1/06) - "The Sudden Death of the Single Core" - Intel is now pricing to OEM's a Pentium D 805 (533 FSB) Chip at <$ 150 @ which is below the older P4 (Prescott/Celeron) Chip prices.  This might also provide an incentive to update to a newer MB and resolve some of the problems w/Reading-Writing at the same time.  Several boards also include dual Gigabit + PCI-E + SATA (x 4 or 8 ) and might offer some additional capacity to UnRaid. 

Summary - Question remains, are we going to have an alternative to the D865GLCLK Board that might give us some futureproofing?

Thanks for responding with "I'm alive and well" we are all appreciative of your efforts !

Dave

Archivist

We are evaluating a number of replacement boards the D865GLCLK.  Actually, a lot of boards work just fine.  The particular set of features you need is this:

1. Gigabit Ethernet, either Intel or Marvell

2. Two Parallel-ATA controllers (for PATA version)

3. On-board video (so you don't need a separate video card)

4. Reliable USB2.0 boot

It's #4 that separates the pretenders from the contenders 

Tom/Limetech

Thanks for response, have been evaluating my options, still pondering. 

Do I remember from AVS Forum and your response to my questions, that Realtek Lan is not supported (10/100/1000) in your Linux UnRaid Release 2.4?

Dave

Archivist

The current shipping UnRaid Flash only supports Intel PRO/1000 and Marvell Yukon.

Next release also includes Realtek 8169 support.

A cursory look at the Realtek support download page looks like all their GigE chips are supported by the same linux driver, so the built-in Realtek support might work for you.  What motherboad do you have in mind?

Hi Tom,

I had couple of questions:

You had mentioned once in avs-forum regarding the next supported motherboard being: Intel D915GAG (although, you never officially confirmed it).

1. Will this motherboard work (and/or is going to be supported) with this newer version of unraid software?

2. If I buy the USB flash today, does it come with the latest updated version of the unraid software that you released couple of days back. I would like to know this as I don't have a Windows machine to flash the USB drive later-on.

3. What is your experience/thoughts on Promise Fasttrack 100 TX4 card? Do you forsee any problem?

1. Yes the D915GAGLK is what we use in the SATA development.  This card has 4 SATA ports, but only 1 IDE port (2 disks).

2. Currently shipping Flash now includes the latest code.

3. Never used the "Fasttrack" card.  We have used the SATAII150-TX4 and the newer SATA300-TX4.

Tom, I see you've enabled SATA support for the Intel D865GLCLK motherboard.  Since that board supports both SATA and PATA, can we use a mix of PATA and SATA drives (i.e., four (4) PATA with the onboard IDE ports + two (2) SATA with the onboard SATA ports + PATA/SATA on plug-in controllers, as desired)? If so, what is the drive number order for the onboard ports under this arrangement?

Thanks!

kevin

Yes, you can use the on-board SATA ports as well as Promise SATAII150-TX4 or SATA300-TX4 add-in cards.  We'll be posting a document to the website soon which describes how to set this up.

Hi Tom,

What about the  SATA 150 TX4 version of the promise card? I have already ordered from a retailer today... If you can advice in time, may be I can cancel my order.

Thanks a lot for a great product.

We have not tested that exact card.  However, according to the following link, it's supported by the same driver that supports SATAII150 and SATA300.

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

Hey Tom:

Just got a D915GAGL, thought I was ordering the 10/100/1000 but vendor shipped the 10/100 version and refuses to replace GigE, oops.  Will this work with UnRaid?  What do I lose in performance?  I haven't opened yet so still looking for some other option.

Dave 

We are evaluating a number of replacement boards the D865GLCLK.  Actually, a lot of boards work just fine.  The particular set of features you need is this:

 

1. Gigabit Ethernet, either Intel or Marvell

2. Two Parallel-ATA controllers (for PATA version)

3. On-board video (so you don't need a separate video card)

4. Reliable USB2.0 boot

 

It's #4 that separates the pretenders from the contenders 

Is anyone aware of a Socket 478 Pentium Mobo that fits all these requirements?  I have a Socket 478 Pentium4 (Prescott) 3.2Ghz CPU spare that I would like to use in an unraid. 

The alternative for me is to use my current (Suse 9.1) server's Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo with an Athlon3.2 and  a gfx card.  I'm quite happy to do this but am unsure of the USB2 Boot capability.

Many thanks,

Mark.