BIOSTAR A760G M2+ passes Level 1


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I would like to report that this motherboard works with unRAID (Newegg link: BIOSTAR A760G M2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard).  I'll be honest, I've been busy lately and I haven't run any rigorous tests, I haven't looked at my syslog, hell, I haven't even looked at the BIOS screen yet...the first time I booted into unRAID my server was headless, and has been ever since.  Still, for normal operation, it works fine.  I've been running the server for a few weeks now.  If I have some free time, I'll post my syslog.

 

I coupled the Biostar board with this CPU:

AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor

At first I wasn't sure if the board could handle an AM3 CPU (since its only supposed to work with AM2+/AM2), but it booted up the first time with no problems.  I'm glad, since the 45W CPU should save me a bit of power usage.

 

As far as features go, the best thing the board has going for it (for unRAID, at least) are the 6 onboard SATAII slots.  The onboard graphics are decent (I used to use this board in my HTPC), but of course that doesn't matter for unRAID.

 

Edit: Recommended BIOS settings described here.

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Two questions regarding the Motherboard Rating System:

 

The description of Level 1 reads:

1.  The first level should require at least 3 drives (limit of free license)' date=' [b']should have successfully computed parity[/b], and should have successfully checked parity.  A syslog should be posted to make sure there are no nasties that might point to compatibility issues.  (The syslog will also document parity check performance).

 

Since I migrated my intact unRAID array from a different mobo to this one, I never had to recalculate parity.  I simply assigned each drive to its correct slot, and started the array.  I certainly have no problem with running a parity check, but do I also have to throw away my good parity data and rebuild it?  I suppose I will do this if I must, but I would rather not since it seems to me to be putting my data at unnecessary risk.

 

Also, the description of Level 2 reads:

2.  The second level should be a user with at least 6 drives (limit of Plus license) that has run for a month without a power down' date=' had a successful parity check at the beginning and end of the month.  A syslog should be posted here for that period.  During this period at least 10% of the array size should be copied to and from the array.[/quote']

 

This may actually be easier for me to accomplish given my time constraints...am I allowed to skip Level 1 and go straight for Level 2?

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  • 6 months later...

Oops, no, I guess I never got around to it.  I currently have three unRAID servers in my house all based off this board and Sempron 140s  :P  I'll hit 'restore' on my test rig, let the parity build finish, then run a parity check and post the syslog here.  That should be enough for Level 1.

 

Level 2 is a pain just because I always forget to not turn off my unRAID server for the entire month.  I'm also moving in a week or so, so there's going to be some necessary downtime coming up.  Level 2 will have to wait until after my trip to Europe, most likely.

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Since I now have my third drive up and running (and boy am I glad I read about the 4.5.3 "unformatted" bug first!), I went ahead and hit "check parity" and that's running right now.  I'll let it run while I'm at work today, and it should be done by the time I get home.  Then I can get a Syslog and we can at least get it rated for level 1 compatibility.    Aside from my BIOS settings resetting when my unRAID is unplugged, my build based on this board has been problem-free.  I'll be contacting NewEgg today about getting another of these boards to replace it.

 

 

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    Aside from my BIOS settings resetting when my unRAID is unplugged, my build based on this board has been problem-free.  I'll be contacting NewEgg today about getting another of these boards to replace it.

 

Please describe the sequence of events and what gets reset.  Thanks.

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    Aside from my BIOS settings resetting when my unRAID is unplugged, my build based on this board has been problem-free.  I'll be contacting NewEgg today about getting another of these boards to replace it.

 

Please describe the sequence of events and what gets reset.  Thanks.

 

He described the problem and his attempts to solve it in detail here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just confirming that the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 does work with this board's PCIe x16 slot.  Between the 8 ports there and the 6 onboard ports, that's an easy 14 SATA ports between the two.  Getting all the way up to 20 ports with this board will require the use of the PCI slots, so I don't recommend it.  Consider the max of this board to be 16 drives (since the PCIe x1 slot can support 2 drives with a cheap monoprice card).

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Just confirming that the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 does work with this board's PCIe x16 slot.  Between the 8 ports there and the 6 onboard ports, that's an easy 14 SATA ports between the two.  Getting all the way up to 20 ports with this board will require the use of the PCI slots, so I don't recommend it.  Consider the max of this board to be 16 drives (since the PCIe x1 slot can support 2 drives with a cheap monoprice card).

 

Good to hear that.  Thanks Rajahal.  How long until the level 2 test?

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Thought I'd mention I installed this mobo to replace a GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 rev 1.1 which had no bios's that allowed for turning off hpa.

 

No issues, and everything run well so far with this mobo! Very happy I made the change.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a question about the BIOS settings for this board.

My unRAID has been running *just fine*, but I've had the OnChip SATA Type set to "Native IDE" instead of "AHCI".

I was just looking over the recommended BIOS settings and made changes to match the recommended settings, but when I change OnChip SATA to AHCI, then when I reboot I get a brief "AHCI Drive Init" screen, followed by the Hardware Monitor, and it just stays at Hardware Monitor and doesn't boot into unRAID. 

 

If I change that setting back to "Native IDE" then it boots correctly into unRAID.

 

How critical is the OnChip SATA Type setting, and what is different with it set to either AHCI or Native IDE?  -Is there anything I can do after setting it to AHCI to get it to boot correctly?  (Do I need to reinstall unRAID on my USB drive or something?)

 

TIA,

-Mark

 

 

 

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Theoretically, AHCI should give you slightly better performance, but in practice I don't notice any difference.  I ran my server on 'Native IDE' for at least a few months and had no problems with it.

 

What I still don't understand is why I still have some drives that show up as 'hdX' instead of 'sdX'.  I thought that using AHCI should make all drives appear as SATA drives.

 

Edit: In case anyone finds this thread out of context, the BIOS settings we are talking about are described here.

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Theoretically, AHCI should give you slightly better performance, but in practice I don't notice any difference.  I ran my server on 'Native IDE' for at least a few months and had no problems with it.

 

What I still don't understand is why I still have some drives that show up as 'hdX' instead of 'sdX'.  I thought that using AHCI should make all drives appear as SATA drives.

 

Edit: In case anyone finds this thread out of context, the BIOS settings we are talking about are described here.

It might affect you later as the IDE emulation might limit you to two drives, a master and a slave on each of two emulated cables.  Others have posted wondering why only 4 of their 6 SATA ports were usable and it was that exact setting.

 

Joe L.

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It might affect you later as the IDE emulation might limit you to two drives, a master and a slave on each of two emulated cables.   Others have posted wondering why only 4 of their 6 SATA ports were usable and it was that exact setting.

 

Joe L.

 

Well, I was able to use all 6 onboard SATA ports while using IDE mode on this mobo, but I have heard about the issue you describe with other motherboards.

 

Joe, any ideas about this part?

 

What I still don't understand is why I still have some drives that show up as 'hdX' instead of 'sdX'.  I thought that using AHCI should make all drives appear as SATA drives.

 

My server still works just fine, so I'm not overly concerned about it, just curious.

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It might affect you later as the IDE emulation might limit you to two drives, a master and a slave on each of two emulated cables.   Others have posted wondering why only 4 of their 6 SATA ports were usable and it was that exact setting.

 

Joe L.

 

Well, I was able to use all 6 onboard SATA ports while using IDE mode on this mobo, but I have heard about the issue you describe with other motherboards.

 

Joe, any ideas about this part?

 

What I still don't understand is why I still have some drives that show up as 'hdX' instead of 'sdX'.  I thought that using AHCI should make all drives appear as SATA drives.

 

My server still works just fine, so I'm not overly concerned about it, just curious.

If you are emulating legacy IE drives, then they'll show up as /dev/hdX

 

On the other hand, I read on another forum that in very recent kernels the /dev/hdX name has been replaced with /dev/sdX.  It was in conjunction with disk partitioning, since scsi emulated disks (sdX) can have at max 16 partitions, but Legacy IDE disks can have up to 64 partitions.  They were lamenting that they could no longer partition the disk  as they would like to boot multiple versions of operating systems... or rather, they were limited to 16 per physical disk.

 

Joe L.

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If you are emulating legacy IE drives, then they'll show up as /dev/hdX

 

Right, so using AHCI should make all drives appear as /dev/sdX, correct?  For some reason, I still have a few drives on my server that show up as hdX despite my using AHCI (and the rest of the BIOS settings detailed in the link above).

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