BUILD Mini-ITX C226 Haswell build

[underpickled]

Subsonic should run well on the i3. I have found, though that Plex can be very demanding depending on the quality of the video you are trying to encode. I know with my Blu-ray backups it uses over 50% of my E3-1230V3 when streaming, but these are full bit-rate copies. This again will vary depending on the quality at which you are streaming the video also.

I would also check out Madsonic, I use this and really like the features that the developer is implementing. The big difference with Madsonic is that it reads the actual metadata or ID tags of the music files, instead of just your file/folder structure. The developer has also added a new Pandora type feature to Madsonic, which looks promising.

Is there a Madsonic plugin for FreeNAS?

For streaming to an HTPC, I think I would be inclined to just use XBMC on the client so that the i3 doesn't have to encode/decode HD video. For off-site streaming, I only really care about music. If I want video off site I'll just download it over FTP.

 

[raidflex]

Check out this link for installing Madsonic: http://forum.madsonic.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=475

You will need to register with the forums in order to download the software.

 

[underpickled]

Check out this link for installing Madsonic: http://forum.madsonic.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=475

You will need to register with the forums in order to download the software.

Can I assume the instructions are the same for FREENAS 9.1.1?

 

[cyberjock]

Please keep this on-topic. We are discussing the Mini-ITX C226 in this thread. :)

 

[underpickled]

Please keep this on-topic. We are discussing the Mini-ITX C226 in this thread. :)

Yes, you're right of course. But thank you, raidflex, for the valuable information!

I think the takeaway from this thread should be "the ASRock E3C226D2I works with FREENAS 9.1.1". As far as I can tell it's the only server grade mITX Haswell board (other than it's C224 cousin, which I haven't been able to find). Dual Intel NICs and IPMI... strongly recommend! While it only supports 16GB of RAM, that should be fine for most small home NAS setups. If you need more RAM for a larger NAS, you probably won't want mITX anyway.

 

[raidflex]

Can I assume the instructions are the same for FREENAS 9.1.1?

Yes it should be the same. I have not had a chance to move my database to Freenas 9.1.1 since I upgrade. I did a fresh install of Freenas 9.1.1 and created new jails.

 

[JimPhreak]

I'm just waiting on my 1015 card and RAM (still looking for a deal on used RAM) and then I'll have mine up and running. My pool will be 8x2TB drives in a RAIDz2.

 

[underpickled]

I'm just waiting on my 1015 card and RAM (still looking for a deal on used RAM) and then I'll have mine up and running. My pool will be 8x2TB drives in a RAIDz2.

Hmm... I wouldn't try to cut corners on RAM...

 

[raidflex]

Hmm... I wouldn't try to cut corners on RAM...

I agree, I would recommend either Crucial or Kingston, so far the Crucial ram that I have is working great. Although I would say if the used RAM passes a good 24hrs of memtest86 you probably would be fine, but personally I wouldn't chance it.

 

[underpickled]

I agree, I would recommend either Crucial or Kingston, so far the Crucial ram that I have is working great. Although I would say if the used RAM passes a good 24hrs of memtest86 you probably would be fine, but personally I wouldn't chance it.

I have Kingston... no problems so far. I haven't run memtest on it yet though...

 

[JimPhreak]

I'm not trying to cut corners brand wise. I don't really think getting used RAM is cutting corners since they all come with lifetime warranties.

 

[underpickled]

I'm not trying to cut corners brand wise. I don't really think getting used RAM is cutting corners since they all come with lifetime warranties.

Warranties (especially lifetime) are often only for the original purchaser. A warranty replacement service will almost definitely require the original receipt, and good luck getting that from an eBay seller or equivalent. I agree that in most cases, used RAM is probably fine. However, since I don't know how many previous users there were, or anything about them or their system... I mean the RAM could have spent years under heavy load in a poorly ventilated case, maybe ESD precautions were not followed well if at all... and maybe you save $20-$30, but then you probably don't have the warranty backing you up on RAM that you're paying at least $150 for.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[JimPhreak]

Point taken. I'm not buying any used RAM unless it's a significant enough discount. However from the looks of it even used Unbuffered ECC RAM is very hard to come by so I'll probably wind up spending the $170 on 2x8GB sticks.

 

[74m]

the_tox, can you confirm that your i3 + c226 board is definitely working in ECC mode?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't think there is a known test to verify that the c226 boards are in ECC mode. But for most of the recent prior generations of Intel, you can check http://forums.freenas.org/threads/s...ck-and-some-questions.14484/page-3#post-71843. I can't help with AMD at all since I don't use AMDs and we didn't discuss it at all in that thread.

 

[underpickled]

the_tox, can you confirm that your i3 + c226 board is definitely working in ECC mode?

There are no options in the BIOS to set ECC on or off... I just assumed it would be on, since the board only supports ECC RAM.

I don't think there is a known test to verify that the c226 boards are in ECC mode. But for most of the recent prior generations of Intel, you can check http://forums.freenas.org/threads/s...ck-and-some-questions.14484/page-3#post-71843. I can't help with AMD at all since I don't use AMDs and we didn't discuss it at all in that thread.

I do think the newest version of memtest at least detects ECC on Haswell... they might even have put in ECC checks as well.

 

[Nomad]

I don't think there is a known test to verify that the c226 boards are in ECC mode. But for most of the recent prior generations of Intel, you can check http://forums.freenas.org/threads/s...ck-and-some-questions.14484/page-3#post-71843. I can't help with AMD at all since I don't use AMDs and we didn't discuss it at all in that thread.

From NewEgg Review:

It is unclear whether the advertised ECC support works at all. I have a Xeon E3-1220v3 and ECC memory. The BIOS does not show any ECC support at all. I have a known defective ECC DDR3 DIMM that I use for testing. With other motherboards, linux clearly reports that memory errors are corrected when I use the defective DIMM. With this motherboard, I don't see any message at all.

The only reason to buy this "workstation" board is for ECC support, otherwise cheaper alternatives exist. Until a BIOS update comes out that clearly shows ECC support, I would not recommend that anybody buy this board.

Can't you dun

Code:

dmidecode -t 16

or will that only tell you that your ram supports ECC not that you are using it.

 

[Dusan]

From NewEgg Review:


Can't you dun

Code:

dmidecode -t 16

or will that only tell you that your ram supports ECC not that you are using it.

The problem with dmidecode is that it only displays what the SMBIOS reports. And unfortunately many BIOSes are broken and report nonsense. Real world example: I have a Supermicro X9SCL with two sets of Kingston KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G (four 4GB modules for total of 16GB of memory). The Kingston modules are the same product number just one set is using Hynix chips and the other uses Elpida chips. I verified by reading the E3 Xeon memory controller registers that ECC is active. However, this is what the Supermicro SMBIOS reports:
dmidecode -t 16
[PANEL]...
Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
...[/PANEL]
dmidecode -t 17
Hynix modules:
[PANEL]...
Total Width: 128 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
...[/PANEL]
Elpida modules:
[PANEL]...
Total Width: 8 bits
Data Width: 8 bits
...[/PANEL]
Huh? 128bits? 8bits?! ECC modules have, of course, 64 data bits (+8 ECC bits) for a total of 72 bits. The module information is crazy, but it at least reports some ECC correction in dmidecode -t 16. I already saw SMBIOS reporting total garbage on some motherboards.

 

[underpickled]

Is that a Newegg review for the board in the OP? Newegg wasn't even selling it when I bought it 2 weeks ago.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[JimPhreak]

Is that a Newegg review for the board in the OP? Newegg wasn't even selling it when I bought it 2 weeks ago.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

It's not the same board as it's not a mini-ITX board. However I am now interested to know how we can confirm ECC is indeed working on our E3C226D2I boards.