BUILD Avoton build

[wintermute000]

OK so I read the very helpful newbie PDF / understand ECC= mandatory and RAIDZ is dead, so got the following parts arriving... very excited!

ASRock C2550D4I quad-core
Kingston 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC (KVR16LE11L/8)
Seasonic 450w Gold PSU
Fractal Design Define R2 (8 bays) with 2 front 140mm fans

VDEV 1 / ZPOOL 1 - mass storage
6x 4Tb Hitachi NAS in RAIDZ2

VDEV2 / ZPOOL2 - iSCSI (vmfs for cluster aware FS) for VM storage
2x Sandisk Ultra Plus 256Gb SSD in mirror

The only plugins I plan on running are transmission and plex. I may/may not bother with plex depending on load/performance. Anecdotal evidence is that a single Avoton core ~ Core2Duo performance and that the quad core is able to handle at least 1 plex transcode @ 1080p hi profile.

 

[DrKK]

People have (in general) been reporting good results with the board.

The SuperMicro version of the same board, however, is probably worth considering, as well.

 

[AlainD]

Hi

Are you sure the memory is on asrock approved list?

 

[wintermute000]

It is on the Kingston site

Sent from my LG-D802T using Tapatalk

 

[AlainD]

It is on the Kingston site

Sent from my LG-D802T using Tapatalk

I like to use memory from the motherboards Qvl.

http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2550D4I#Memory QVL

 

[wintermute000]

Kingston says it's compatible http://www.kingston.com/us/memory/s...yperX_Memory_for_ASRock_Server_Board_C2550D4I

Sent from my LG-D802T using Tapatalk

 

[sjieke]

I have the ASRock C2750D4I with 2 x 8GB Kingston KVR16E11/8. Those are working fine :)

 

[no_connection]

What Kingston says is working or reliable isn't exactly what works or is reliable. Not to mention they have been proven to cheat.

 

[wintermute000]

What do you mean cheat?
Well they explicitly say the stick I chose is compatible with this specific motherboard, not much I can do if they lie about it except complain.... fingers crossed

 

[no_connection]

There is a lot of info about that on this forum and on the internet.
Basically they replace components without changing numbers. Meaning what a motherboard manufacturer tested to work with their boards no longer work.
Search for Supermicro and Kingston. Kingston of course refused to acknowledge anything, I can't remember where but someone put the sticks under a microscope and verified that Kingston did indeed change parts.
Then we have the SSD debacle where components where replaced after a while meaning no drives lived up to benchmark performance. Which was apparently fine as they where marked "up to".

The problem with memory manifested itself when running four sticks, which was an unhappy surprise for people upgrading.

*edit* I have also searched for memory for my Dell T20. And sticks on Kingstons compatibility list has been proven to not boot.
Which is a bit sad as they are the only memory in stock.

 

[wintermute000]

well if anyone cares, I got the build up and running, though I haven't build the RAIDZ2 yet as I'm still awaiting 2 more drives to arrive. The mobo and RAM appear to be working fine.

 

[Gnome]

I've been looking at this motherboard: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SA7-2750F.cfm

Although presently it is still pretty expensive.

 

[wintermute000]

I can't really test the rest until I get my RAIDZ2 up and running / rebuild my ESXi environment, but just testing simple CIFs copying to my SSD drives I'm almost saturating gigabit so happy with the performance. Transmission also works fine so thats pretty much covered.
The only real question mark is
- how it performs with plex transcoding
- iSCSI performance

That supermicro looks tasty but I don't need 16 ports lol. Also can't afford C2750.
The good thing about this particular board I used is that many people on these forums have confirmed it works fine.

 

[Ericloewe]

I've been looking at this motherboard: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SA7-2750F.cfm

Although presently it is still pretty expensive.

Looks like a very nice board. Don't think anybody's used it around here, but it should work well.

 

[no_connection]

Have you matched it up to any case/chassis or are you thinking about the Supermicro case it natively fit? Although that is only sold as an assembled kit according to Supermicro site.