Which motherboard?

[F. Gabe]

Hi everybody, I am building my first server / NAS on a budget and I would like an advice for on which motherboard I should choose.

The cheapest mobos with ECC that I have found are:
Gigabyte GA X150M PRO ECC
Gigabyte GA X150 PRO ECC
Gigabyte GA X170 Extreme ECC
Asrock X99 Extreme 4/6


Which would you choose?
Are there others for maximum 200€?
Thanks in advance,
Gabe

 

[Ericloewe]

None of these are good choices. The X99 board, in particular, has extremely dubious ECC capabilities.

If you increase your budget slightly, boards such as the X11SSL-F or X10SLM+-F are readily available around 210€ and provide a much more pleasant experience.

 

[darkwarrior]

Hi there,

What will be your use case ?
Are you considering CPU heavy usage like with Plex transcoding ?
If not, you could check out the HP Microserver Gen8.
Quite a few members on the forum are using it happily , and I'm currently thinking about getting one for myself as a backup system.
Build HP Microserver Gen8

It :
- is quite compact
- has 4 hotswap bays
- has integrated ILO/IPMI fo headless and painless operations
The entry model comes with a Intel Celeron G1610T CPU and 2/4GB of RAM for around 200€ (+ $$ for the RAM upgrade).

The box is Powerfull enough for most use-cases, when just serving up files and not thinking about VMs, bhyve or heavy plug-ins/Jails etc.
If you don't need more than 4 disks it could be a valuable alternative, since you are on a budget.

Have fun ;)

 

[F. Gabe]

@Ericloewe Firstly thanks for the advice, I won't buy by any chance the x99.
Unfortunately the Supermicro motherboards in my country cost (like in many others countries) much more. Both the X10SLM+-F and the X11SSL-F go for 260 €. I have already gone over budget by 100 € so I can't really get them.

@darkwarrior - Thanks very much also to you for the answer. I will use Plex but never with more than one user at the same time and not always with transcoding.
I have thought about the Microserver many times but I have two problems with it:
-First of all it I already have 4 Disks so I would fully load the bays. Also I am planning to get other 3/4 disks in the next year.
-Secondly, the server would be in my server rack so it would use a huge amount of space!

Thanks again!
Br,
Gabe

 

[darkwarrior]

@darkwarrior - Thanks very much also to you for the answer. I will use Plex but never with more than one user at the same time and not always with transcoding.
I have thought about the Microserver many times but I have two problems with it:
-First of all it I already have 4 Disks so I would fully load the bays. Also I am planning to get other 3/4 disks in the next year.
-Secondly, the server would be in my server rack so it would use a huge amount of space!

Thanks again!
Br,
Gabe

Ah yeah, if you have 4 disks, you consider expanding by 3/4 disks and you want rack mounted gear, the Microserver won't cut it :p
I don't know in which country you're living in, but did you consider 2nd hand server gear to avoid buying a new supermicro MB ?