Help required speccing up a file server.

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I have decided to build my own file server/NAS type system, i have found the case im going to use and have a 200w brick psu.

The part i need the help with is speccing up the motherboard, i have a few certain requirements from it which are as follows...

1) Must be an integrated mobo/cpu such as atom

2) Must have at least 2 SataII ports

3) Must have built in Gigabit Networking capability

Everything else i am easy with, max budget is £75 and so far i have been going round in circles, most of the boards seem to be very similar, what i dont want to do is buy the one board that is an absolute duffer.

As i said above its only for an always on file server so performance isnt really a massive requirement.

Any thoughts?
 
Intel D510MO dual core 1.6. 2 SATA II ports. 10/100/1000 integrated network connection. Although I think I read somewhere it uses the realtek ethernet controller (which is crap) rather than Intels own, which is better.
 
I'm currently in the middle of a build and haven't got round to completing the NAS side but the media side is up and running PERFECTLY :)

IONITX-P-E (su2300) the board + 2.5" sata idles at 20W with a 60W brick + 120W pico PSU so I'm happy with that.

Media - perfect all the way up 1080p including Youtube/mkvs everything I throw at it. Switch off compositing and XBMC is perfect... Boxee in test

Network - I did a basic test linux -> windows without MTU tuning and got 700mbps read 300mbps write ... I'm sure I can get 500 mbps both ways once tuned. Let me know if you want any real life tests as I'll be building the NAS side very soon.
 
out of interest zootfloot, what case have you chosen?? :)

I have one of these http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/ecs-ez-buddie/ its was an ecs ez buddie, but the motherboard had a fault on it when i got my hands on it.

It quite a funky little case but i wanted to do something different with it so im thinking along the lines of painting the full lot white, fitting a hard drive cage and will also see if its possible to keep the functionality of the ez watcher panel.

The motherboard is a non standard size anyways, and im not sure if a Matx board would have fi in, so i decided upon a M-ITX board, its only going to be a file storage system so not big power requirements.

I hope to do a build thread when i get all the parts together.
 
Boy ! That case wins the award for ugliness - Get the paint out asap !

Yep its certainly not the nicest case, but to be fairer to it those images do make it look slightly worse than it actually is. :eek:


Thats the board i was eyeing up earlier today, looks to be a good spec especially as i have seen it priced at less than £65.

I am thinking that white is the way forward though, get rid of some of the covers and maybe do the buttons/trims in some kind of matte grey

Ideas on a postcard people.
 
this motherboard is immense, great specs, really rock solid too, i have one running 24/7 in a fractel array case, sums up to be a real sweet piece if kit, cant recommend enough.

im doubling it up as a remote HTPC, going to slip in a 54xx series card or something newer and then it will sit up stairs with a usb extender and 15m High quality HDMI cable running down stairs to my receiver.

Just noticed this is £15 over budget, there is a itx version without PCIE x16 the NM10-A-E and only 2 Sata II but id say stretch your budget, leave loads of expandability with 6 Sata II ports and the pcie!
 
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this motherboard is immense

Just a shame it doesn't do RAID properly judging by a comment I've seen on a competitor website.

I got this board with a view to using it for a NAS; it is unsuitable as it stands for what I wanted to do with it.

One thing you should know is the 6 SATA ports on the board run on two controllers. The first two ports are full speed, independent channels. The remaining 4 ports are a single channel with a port multiplier. This means the bandwidth for these ports is quartered.

Also, you can only use these 4 ports as either a single port , abandoning the other 3, or all 4 ports in a "FAKERAID" style RAID array. You cannot access more than one drive on these ports without setting it up as FAKERAID.

Otherwise, this is a top little board, but the storage capabilities are not what they might seem so be careful when buying. If you're planning on using this for storage, you'll probably be better off buying a cheaper D510 board and adding a separate PCI-e SATA card.
 
Hmm interesting, i have 3 drives in mine, 16gb ssd boot, 1tb and a 1.5tb. never noticed an issue as i havnt had to add a fourth yet, disappointing to say the least.
 
bet im gutted, damn hope i dont run out of space too soon, looks like ill be investing in 3tb drives as soon as they are ready :(
 
right ive been runing some tests and up to now im happy, all my drives show in windows, i connected every hard drive i had in the house so i have it running 5, bench'd each drive and they all run fine, the newer drives peaking at 70-80mb/s and my older maxtor at 40. this was one of the issues i found someone writing about saying the 4 jmicron ports was shard and bandwidth split between the 4 ports, this doesn't appear to be the case, i dont use raid so all my concerns are laid to rest, i can if required use all 6 sata II ports at full speed with separate drive attached.

im not sure how to test what raid issues there are but i will give it a go and report back but as it stands im more than happy and my money is still well spent :D
 
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