BUILD Is this build good enough?

[sremick]

My problem is the bios on my board was shipped with 1.6 so I cant run any haswell-r processors. Asrock is sending me a new bios chip with 2.1 on it, but until then I am stuck.

I worried about this too, but I lucked out and got a board with a 2.0 BIOS. Luckily these boards have a socketed BIOS so swapping out just the chip is an option.

I too am debating the red vs green. I think I am going with the greens and will run wdidle. However, as I was reading through that thread it seems that there is some question on weather or not the new green firmware doesnt work with wdidle.

At the end of the day I decided if nothing else, the Red was worth it for the extra warranty.

 

[Jailer]

I too am debating the red vs green. I think I am going with the greens and will run wdidle. However, as I was reading through that thread it seems that there is some question on weather or not the new green firmware doesnt work with wdidle.

good luck!

I just put my new rig together yesterday and all 6 of my 3TB green drives were successfully updated with wdidle3. 3 of the drives were manufactured in June and 3 in September.

 

[derekzchu]

I am looking at almost the exact same build. ASRock E3C226D2I but i'm still deciding on the processor. The Pentium G3258 vs. i3 4130. I don't expect to transcode more than 2 streams at any time. @jimmyt is there a way to know which bios version is on the mobo before I buy it? Would i need 2.0 bios for the i3 4130 or just for the g3258? the benchmark numbers put them pretty close so I'm leaning towards the g3258 for the cost savings.

 

[Fraoch]

Deleted.

 

[jkh]

Go with the Core i3 - there are nasty rumours around that future FreeNAS versions may not support the Pentium.

Go for the Core i3 for whatever reason that makes you happy, but not because of "nasty rumors" - there are no current plans to change the CPU requirements for FreeNAS-10 and I have no idea how those rumors start, but you should always refer to the ReleaseNotes for any given release on hardware limitations, recommendations (that have changed), and so on. Reading the Forum for definitive information is like trying to find out if UFOs really exist by going to a meeting of Roswell fanatics. You're not going to get particularly balanced information that way!

 

[cyberjock]

Go for the Core i3 for whatever reason that makes you happy, but not because of "nasty rumors" - there are no current plans to change the CPU requirements for FreeNAS-10 and I have no idea how those rumors start, but you should always refer to the ReleaseNotes for any given release on hardware limitations, recommendations (that have changed), and so on. Reading the Forum for definitive information is like trying to find out if UFOs really exist by going to a meeting of Roswell fanatics. You're not going to get particularly balanced information that way!

The issue was potentially related to bhyve support and things "not going well" without certain instruction sets. But that was determined to be something that can't be predicted until/when it happens. The problem "was/is" that if you load the bhyve kernel driver and a CPU doesn't have the instruction sets required then it causes a kernel panic. Pentiums (and obviously above) appear to have the required instruction sets though.

 

[jkh]

Yeah, but "potentially related" is not the same as "definitive", particularly where it comes to making hardware recommendations. We don't have to load the bhyve extensions on HW that doesn't support it, just as we can simply not present that UI on such machines. There are a lot of possible approaches to take, and given that FreeNAS-10 is not coming out for a full year, it's a bit premature to even speculate on what HW will be required. :)

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, but "potentially related" is not the same as "definitive", particularly where it comes to making hardware recommendations. We don't have to load the bhyve extensions on HW that doesn't support it, just as we can simply not present that UI on such machines. There are a lot of possible approaches to take, and given that FreeNAS-10 is not coming out for a full year, it's a bit premature to even speculate on what HW will be required. :)

Right, this was a discussion that took place like 2 months ago and is long over. He just somehow missed the update that it's a non-issue anyway.

 

[jimmyt]

I doubt there is any way to tell before you order. The Board comes with the a bios sticker with the version on it - thats how I figured it out. As of last month, newegg was on 1.6. I did read that someone recieved a board with 2.0, but I am not sure of their vendor. Either way, it took about a week for the new bios chip to arrive and has been great ever since.

I am looking at almost the exact same build. ASRock E3C226D2I but i'm still deciding on the processor. The Pentium G3258 vs. i3 4130. I don't expect to transcode more than 2 streams at any time. @jimmyt is there a way to know which bios version is on the mobo before I buy it? Would i need 2.0 bios for the i3 4130 or just for the g3258? the benchmark numbers put them pretty close so I'm leaning towards the g3258 for the cost savings.

 

[sremick]

I doubt there is any way to tell before you order. The Board comes with the a bios sticker with the version on it - thats how I figured it out. As of last month, newegg was on 1.6. I did read that someone recieved a board with 2.0, but I am not sure of their vendor. Either way, it took about a week for the new bios chip to arrive and has been great ever since.

Mine arrived with BIOS 2.0 but I got it from SuperBiiz, not NewEgg. Luckily the BIOS chip is socketed (unlike most consumer boards these days) so if ASRock will send you a new chip all you have to do is wait a bit longer.

 

[derekzchu]

I have almost an identical setup with similar purpose except I wont transcode.. node case, same mobo, however I went with a pentium G3258 processor and crucial ram. My problem is the bios on my board was shipped with 1.6 so I cant run any haswell-r processors. Asrock is sending me a new bios chip with 2.1 on it, but until then I am stuck. You will be ok since your chip is good on all bios. I even tried to source an older haswell locally, but no one carries them any more. I went with the a seasonic g360 - gold non modular. Its a nice power supply but its not modular so cable management was a ***** in that case :) Hindsight being what it is, I would have spent the extra $$ for the modular. I too am debating the red vs green. I think I am going with the greens and will run wdidle. However, as I was reading through that thread it seems that there is some question on weather or not the new green firmware doesnt work with wdidle.

good luck!

@Paul MacDonald and @jimmyt were you able to fit the E3C224D2I in the node 304 case? I read that the extended mini-ATX required some additional drilling to get it to fit.

 

[marbus90]

the E3C224D2I is a standard ITX board and fits in the Node 304.

I presume you mean the E3C224D4I-14S, which is closer to mATX than to ITX. It fits in the Lian Li Q26 easily and trough using a smaller PSU you could probably squeeze one into a Silverstone DS380. That board was primarily build for their 12x3.5"-in-1U-case.

 

[jimmyt]

marbus is correct.. the e3c224d2i fits very well, its tight with the power supply, but it fits fine with room for airflow and power cables. The d41-14s will be too large. As I said before, the only issue I have is I would have gone with a modular power supply. I used a SeaSonic SSR-360GP, but might consider moving that to my HTPC since its an atx desktop case and putting a SeaSonic SSR-450RM which is partially modular - 24 pin and 12v are hard wired. Everything else is modular. Its 3/4" longer but since you put it in sideways and as long as you don't have a large graphics card you should be fine.