Motherboard confusion

[Brian Milner]

First, thanks for any advice or help thrown my way. I'm planning my first FreeNAS server and I'm stuck on which motherboard to get. I'd like to start with 4 SATA drives but want the ability to expand in the future. I read the sticky post here on hardware recommendations (HERE) and based on that I was interested in the Asrock C2750D4I. Came with processor which meant I'd be saving money. I really liked that this was what is used in the FreeNAS Mini. However, I've read on newegg comments that the two sets of SATA ports can't be linked and used in RAID meaning that you could set up RAID on the 4 set or the 2 set but not on 6. Is this true? If so, this doesn't seem to be a board for the future for me.

What I'm looking for is a board that doesn't waste energy on (to me) useless things like audio, that supports ECC RAM of at least 32GB, has dual lan networking ports, has at least 6 SATA connections that could be used in RAID setups, and has at least one PCI slot for expansion if needed. Doesn't have to come with the processor but I wanted to stay under $400 for both the board and processor. What's the BEST motherboard in your opinion for this case?

 

[danb35]

I believe the Newegg review is talking about BIOS RAID capability, which you would not under any circumstances want to use with FreeNAS. As long as the ports are recognized, you'll be able to use disks on those ports together in a ZFS volume.

 

[Brian Milner]

Well, that would be a relief! I was worried I'd be locked into 4 drives max. This sounds good though. Any reason NOT to select that motherboard?