Help determining motherboard compatibility

[imhotep531]

So I opened the FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE Hardware Notes in hopes of finding out if a mobo I want to buy for a FreeNAS box is compatible with FreeNAS. This is the mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130305

I'm at a loss as to how to confirm all of the devices on any given motherboard without pasting the entire document into Word or a text editor and literally searching the text string for every single device (disk controller, ethernet controller, audio, etc etc).

Are the odds pretty good that if I choose a newer mobo like this that's made for a compatible CPU (in this case socket LGA775 Pentium D) that it will be okay with FreeNAS?

Or do I need to confirm every single device one at a time? Hopefully not because a lot of this stuff isn't listed on mobos so it's hard to know whether it made the list in that document.

Thanks for your help.

 

[imhotep531]

Sorry for the general question. Here it is more specifically....

The motherboard I linked groups the following:

Intel® G41 Chipset
- Supports FSB 800/1066/1333 MHz.
- Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (Intel® GMA X4500)
- Supports Microsoft® DirectX 10

Intel® ICH7 Chipset
- Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec, up to 8 ports.
- 4 SATAII ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s.
- 1 channel Ultra ATA 100 bus master IDE controller.
- PCI Master v2.3, I/O APIC.

After searching the FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE Hardware Notes I can't find any mention of the G41 chipset, so I"m wondering if that means there's no possible way to use that motherboard with FreeNAS??? This seems crazy that such a prolific chipset would be excluded wholesale.

 

[Bohs Hansen]

The network chip and the sata controller are kinda the only important things. You'll prolly have more luck over at the BSD forums when it comes to this, unless you're lucky someone has the same here.
Your mentioned board uses this NIC: Realtek 8111DL and I'm pretty sure the onboard SATA shouldn't be a problem (though it aint mentioned)

 

[cbray]

The ASUS P5G41T-M

You might want to compare it to the ASUS P5G41T-M for your own preferences.
I can tell you for sure the ASUS works because I'm running one.
The ASUS has a different layout of SATA ports and more pci slots to work with.
I'm using an add-in SATA/PATA card in a pci slot. That gives me the ability for 10+ hard disk drives now. I'm only using 5 so far.
They have similar memory ability (8GB DDR3 max. @1333/1066/800) and similar chipsets, if not identical.
The ASUS board has no floppy drive connector and less rear panel audio options, which I will never need anyway.
My ASUS board does have an HDMI port.
It also has headers for LPT and COM ports.

The DDR3 memory and layout are the reasons I chose the ASUS.
Some people prefer ASUS. I use both MSI and ASUS boards and only MSI and ASUS.

I hope this helps you.
CB:)

 

[imhotep531]

cbray, thank you that is extremely helpful. Your ASUS board has the same chipsets as the MSI I linked so I'm comfortable assuming it will work as well. Thanks again.

 

[globus999]

You might want to compare it to the ASUS P5G41T-M for your own preferences.

CB:)

The way my troubleshooting is going, it would seem I'll be in the market for a new mobo/cpu. I looked through the specs of this mobo and have two questions. If you would be so kind:

1 - Can the mobo do WOL on the on-board NIC? The manual says WOL on PCI but there is no info on on-board interfaces.

2 - Did it work for FreeNAS out-of-the-box or did you have to tweak FN 8.0?

Tx!

 

[survive]

Hi imhotep531,

Here's my thoughts:

Bohs is right about the NIC & SATA controller being the only things that really matter....you won't be using the audio & the video will only be displaying text so you shouldn't have any problems there. The G41 chipset is older & it's from Intel so you can be pretty darn sure that everythings going to work out of the box.

Since you are buying a board that's been out for a couple of years I assume you already have a CPU & RAM, if not I would strongly consider looking for something DDR3 based simply because you can get about double the RAM for the money. I'm partial to the AMD 790GX & 890GX boards with the on-board video & "sideport" RAM so I don't have to worry about adding a card or using other on-board video that uses a chunk of the system ram to drive the text-mode display. I also look for PCI-e slots over PCI so I don't have to worry about the shared bandwidth on the PCI bus.

-Will

 

[globus999]

Hi imhotep531,

I'm partial to the AMD 790GX & 890GX boards

-Will

But these boards use the Southbridge AMD SB850 as SATA controller.
Is this chipset supported by FreeNAS?

Personally, I like the GA-890GPA-UD3H

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3420#sp

 

[cbray]

The ASUS P5G41T-M

1 - Can the mobo do WOL on the on-board NIC? The manual says WOL on PCI but there is no info on on-board interfaces.

The BIOS supports Wake-On-LAN. I don't know if FN8 does or not, but I'd like to.

2 - Did it work for FreeNAS out-of-the-box or did you have to tweak FN 8.0?

The ASUS P5G41T-M with an Intel E5400 worked right out of the box.
With FN8 Release. with AMD64 Betas. No Problems with the board at all.

I got it because I already had the E5400, and 4GB DDR3 1066.... I have since upgraded to 8GB and can say that the 8GB was really worth it.

I don't think this will be my final FN8 'Toy Box' but like I said I had the CPU and RAM so I just looked for boards that accepted those, and then finalized my decision on Layout, then MFGRs and then Price$.

I hope this helps, sorry it wasn't a quicker reply. Good Luck :D

 

[survive]

Hi globus999,

Well I might be a little biased, but I think that's a great board, but then that might have something to do with the fact I updated to one of those from a GA-MA790GP-UD4H in my workstation. I use a GA-MA790GP-DS4H in my FreeNAS box, which is the board I was using before the UD4H. The SB850 is just a tweaked SB750 and it should work just fine in FreeNAS, I know I don't have any problems with my DS4H.

-Will

 

[cbray]

Bias...

My only Bias is that I prefer ASUS and MSI motherboards from experience, I have had the least problems (failures) with these two brands (not 100% perfect, but I have built easily 1000+ computers since 1976. 17 Machines in my office right now, and EVERY ASUS and EVERY MSI board is still working. There is an HP with ASUS in it, and SONY VAIO that has a SONY board in it as far as I know. But all 17 machines work.
Some are way more than 10 years old.
Power Supplies are by far the weakest link in most PCs. Especially here in South Florida where most of our electricity flows through the 'Lightning Capital' of the U.S.(north central Florida).

Like I said, my 'Toy Box' for FN8 was a close toss between the MSI and ASUS.

That be my piece, for what it's worth.

CB :D

 

[joeschmuck]

My ASRock MB is G41 and works great for the NAS.

 

[cbray]

They are by no means the only good boards.

I guess I got set in my ways a few years back. Sorry Joe, I've actually never tried an ASRock board that I can remember (reeeeel good frugs I guess )

Thinking of adding a reeeel looong disclaimer to my sig...

Peace,

CB

 

[survive]

Hi cbray,

I think Asrock was actually spun off from ASUS a couple of years back and is actually run by one of the founders of ASUS.

-Will

 

[joeschmuck]

Last year I needed to replace my system due to issue with my ASUS MB that was sent to repair 2 times in the first 2 years and failed a few months after the second repair. Bad onboard power parts, likely capacitors. I've never had an ASUS MB issue like that. ASUS is still my favorite MB manufacturer but I'm really liking this Gigabyte MB. Also I've come to the realization that with todays CPUs, you don't need to overclock, they fly right now. We need faster HDD throughput hence my two SSD's and they are fast. Sorry, a bit off topic but I'm proud of my system. You can't hear it at all and it runs very fast.

Because of the failure type I didn't trust any components so I bought a new i7 processor, Gigabyte MB, RAM, the whole works to replace it as my main computer.

Since I wanted to create a new server and I had a fast CPU that I hoped worked, I bought the ASRock to go with the E8500 CPU and RAM. The ASRock MB was not expensive and since FreeBSD works on almost everything I didn't think I had anything to fear. If the CPU or RAM were dead then I had options to buy a less expensive CPU and RAM for home server, the E8500 is really overkill for this project but since it works I'm using it. The other thing to note is FreeBSD runs on just about everything, and I was also looking at WHS. There are many ways to create a home server, FreeNAS just happens to be my choice at this moment.

As a note: My ASRock board is particular about how you configure the RAM speed, if you want to run stock then this board is okay, if you want to OC it, don't buy this model MB. (G41M-LE)

-Mark

 

[cbray]

And for games ?

What do you play games on Joe ? Inquiring seniors want to know...:p

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm using a TRS-80 computer for gaming these days. That sucker is FAST... You know it takes only a few minutes to load a game from the analog medium. You wouldn't believe the amount of RAM this thing has either, it's a serious upgrade that cost close to $500.00. The 16K RAM adds great expandability to the system. :p The Core i7 950 and 12GB of RAM is for normal things like finances, surfing the internet (like now), email, simple documents, and general stuff like that. I also use to scan my snail mail bills and save those electronically. It's a good i7 system for this type of work.

-Mark

 

[cbray]

Trs-80

LOL your killin' me man, killin' me...

Joe... er... Mark, Just be careful and go north from the hall of the mountain king and watch out for those damned bees when you hear a buzzing noise!

;)

CB

I feel another thread move comin', but so soon ? lmao

 

[joeschmuck]

Thought you would like that.