So you want some hardware suggestions.

[jgreco]

The RES2SV240 should be fine IIRC. Be aware that the tradeoff is that you have a single SAS multilane going to the expander; I wasn't able to get wideporting to work with the LSI expanders and the M1015 for whatever reason. So you wind up with 24Gbps out towards whatever drives you hang off the SAS expander.

 

[Oded]

For some reason, the user guide lists 250w or 450w, "depending on the board" (page 2):

ftp://66.226.78.21/manual/1U12LW-C2750.pdf

 

[jgreco]

Right. They put the small supply in for the Avoton version, and the large supply for the Haswell version. In my opinion both need the 450W - at least.

 

[cyberjock]

Are you using the Intel RAID Twenty-four port Expander Card RES2SV240? If not what model are you using? That's the card I want to use. It appears that I can plug multiple expander cards in and extend the LSI's control so I could potentially add in an expansion case for a total of 48 drives. That whole expander concept is completely new to me so please forgive the ignorance.

I am using the RES2SV240.

 

[KempelofDoom]

I am using the RES2SV240.

Do you have photos or info on the way you have it connected to your M1015? I assume that I plug one of the outs on the controller into the first port on the expander? Do you have to configure the expander any? Then with that setup, you would have 6 SFF ports that can connect to 4 drives each.

 

[rocker]

new to raidz. going to have 4 2tb seagate nas hdd. 8gig ram. is a pentuim d 3.00 gig 1150 fine. no addons just for data streaming and storage like vms , storage etc.. would it be enough if i had to rebuild and or upgrade all my drives

thanks

 

[cyberjock]

No.. you need 8GB of RAM _minimum_.

Feel free to get acquainted with our stickies, manual, and my noobie guide so you don't have to ask questions that have been answered 100 times before. ;)

 

[diehard]

Been looking for a motherboard with both 10gb ethernet and a FN compatible SAS controller. I know jgreco has a X9DR7-TF+ , can its LSI 2208 be used in IT / JBOD mode? He has also before mentioned adding a BBU to it but assuming this was what he was connecting his zpool's to.. would that make any difference as its not the ZIL device? What would be the purpose? ...

 

[Tysken]

The 1U12LW is an intriguing bit of hardware. I have one on the bench but I got waylaid by the Elpida RAM issue, and lost several weeks trying to play "find the workable RAM."

Two primary concerns I have are that the power supply is under-spec in terms of watts, see comments in the review. ASRock's response was to show me the math for spinning drive power consumption, which wasn't much of an answer. I read it as "well, that's what we put in, sorry." The length and mounting bracket situation is also a little curious.

Still, I have been very impressed with the Avoton and the ASRock board overall. It would be an awesome selection for a nearline or backup ZFS storage server if one remediated the few issues. I intend to finish up with that review soon, but finding free time recently has been a bit of a challenge.

A little off topic but i dont know if you have seen it, it looks like there is more damage on the backplane in the picture than the bent pins. Looks like a resistor ore some other small part got knocked off from the board.

http://www.sol.net/hardware/avoton/asrock-1u12lw-c2750/page1/img18.jpg

 

[jgreco]

Where are you looking? There are some components that simply aren't there, but that's not exactly unusual for multipurpose boards.

 

[Tysken]

Where are you looking? There are some components that simply aren't there, but that's not exactly unusual for multipurpose boards.

I think it looks a bit strange on the picture. Like a component got knocked off between the blue jumper and the "FAN1 Header" to the right where it says f2.
I bought a nic a time back and with it i got a identical nic whit a low profile bracket whitch had some capacitors knocket of whith looks just like your backplane.

 

[Nick Howard]

Guys I'm struggling finding the recommended SM boards here in the UK but this looks very close to those in the original post. Can you confirm this will be a good choice.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/supe...b-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x8)-d-sub-(vga)-micro-

Or they do have other models and I'm informed they can usually source one within a few days if it's out of stock. Is there a better choice out the others they have listed here?

http://www.scan.co.uk/search.aspx?q=supermicro motherboard

 

[Z300M]

Guys I'm struggling finding the recommended SM boards here in the UK but this looks very close to those in the original post. Can you confirm this will be a good choice.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/supe...b-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x8)-d-sub-(vga)-micro-

Or they do have other models and I'm informed they can usually source one within a few days if it's out of stock. Is there a better choice out the others they have listed here?

http://www.scan.co.uk/search.aspx?q=supermicro motherboard

"The original post" was more than a year ago, and Supermicro now has newer motherboards. I am one of the many people who post here that use the Supermicro X10SL7-F, which has 8-port LSI SAS/SATA on board. The maximum memory (on most of the X10-series boards, if I am not mistaken -- some take only 16GB) is 32GB, whereas some of the older models can use more RAM, so that may affect your choice.

 

[jgreco]

It was intentionally not a specific parts list. Read it for meaning, not part numbers.

 

[Nick Howard]

I did ask and was told those were still the best boards to use even though the OP was over a year ago. But thanks I'll look into the X10SL7-F.

I notice it says it has:

(2x SATA (6Gbps), 4x SATA (3Gbps)
• 8x SAS2 (6Gbps) via LSI 2308)

I have 8 Sata drives to use, I take it I'd need an additional card to run the full 8?

 

[Sir.Robin]

No, the lsi supports both sas and sata :)


Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk

 

[Nick Howard]

No, the lsi supports both sas and sata :)


Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk

Great thanks, I think I've found my board then! : ) Which CPU and memory is recommended with this board? And when it states 'supports Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v3' is that any of the 12xx chips? as in the following?

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/cpus-intel/xeon-socket-1150

 

[Sir.Robin]

You can use any E3 1200 v3 (socket 1150) with this board. Pick the one that fills your needs. The 12X5 ones with integrated GPU is no point though as the board already has integrated video.

For RAM, check out supermicro's supported list. I would buy Samsung (the ones on that list) myself if i were to buy today.

 

[jgreco]

Do note that unless you have heavy transcoding, compression, or other unusually CPU-intensive requirements, the lower end of the Xeons is probably quite sufficient. For the Sandy and Ivy era, few people who picked the E3-1230 were able to find a negative thing to say about the performance they got; wasting money on a faster CPU may not be worth it.

 

[Nick Howard]

Thanks for all the input and help, It's appreciated. I think I'm finally more or less there. Here's what I'm about to pull the trigger on.

Case: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/frac...w-noise-performance-case-usb-30-with-silent-1
System board: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/supe...s-xeon-e3-1200-v3-4th-gen-core-i3-pentium-cel
CPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...e-31ghz-base-35ghz-turbo-8mb-cache-80w-retail
Memory: http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/x10sl7-f/CT4484984
PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w...-plus-gold-92-eff-eps-12v-1x135mm-fan-atx-v24f

So does this look like a good build? and I also have one last question, Is there any performance difference or gain to be had by having a separate Sata controller card as opposed to having them on board as in the one I've chosen?