Recommend me a good motherboard for 20TB WHS2011/flexRaid server?

[Mfusick]

I'm planning a major overhaul of my home media server and need some good advice.

Important Factors:

-Cost. My budget is about $100. I could increase it if I saw the need but currently I'm not convinced I need a "real" server board. I feel like a basic AsRock Z77 might be fine. I've been using a cheap open box AsRock H61 US3S I paid $48 for and it works great with my current G630 CPU.
I am planning on using that board and CPU for another project and plan on getting an i5 for this new server rebuild.

-SATA ports. I'd like to have 8 on the mobo with 4 SATA 3.

- x8 slots for super micro or IBM SATA cards. I plan to install two SATA cards.

I already bought Intel LAN NIC I plan to use instead of cheaper LAN in motherboard. I have this: Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45

Advice ?

 

[Mfusick]

No advice?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No advice?

If you want to use "latest-gen" hardware, that's fine and certainly your choice. How many household users will be logged on to the server at once? That would certainly lead you away from motherboards designed for greater usage.

I'll share my personal choices: I'm using recycled LGA-775 motherboards with C2D Conroe or Wolfdale cores. I can also see how you would prefer more SATA-III ports, but it's probably unnecessary, even for a 20TB storage capacity.

Unless you're going to build that 20TB drive-pool, RAID array or JBOD out of SSDs (which are still relatively expensive and capacity-limited), you don't need "SATA-III" for HDDs. The electromechanical devices will not exceed the throughput limit for SATA-II anyway.

My own drive-pool is only 3TB -- serving three people or workstations. Even with 100GB of audio files, 100GB of movie files and all the other stuff stored in shared, passworded folders on the array, I still have about 2TB of space left. I'm not ready to buy 3TB "Red" drives yet.

It's just hard for me to wrap my brain around your "need" for 20TB. But that's my shortcoming, I suppose.

I'd "recommend" some current-gen motherboard, but not "top-of-the-line." If you don't plan to over-clock the processor, you don't need to spend money for it. I'm not even sure if you need a quad-core system, but then again -- it's my lack of imagination or inability to comprehend your needs.

 

[dclive]

If you want to use "latest-gen" hardware, that's fine and certainly your choice. How many household users will be logged on to the server at once? That would certainly lead you away from motherboards designed for greater usage.

I'll share my personal choices: I'm using recycled LGA-775 motherboards with C2D Conroe or Wolfdale cores. I can also see how you would prefer more SATA-III ports, but it's probably unnecessary, even for a 20TB storage capacity.

Unless you're going to build that 20TB drive-pool, RAID array or JBOD out of SSDs (which are still relatively expensive and capacity-limited), you don't need "SATA-III" for HDDs. The electromechanical devices will not exceed the throughput limit for SATA-II anyway.

My own drive-pool is only 3TB -- serving three people or workstations. Even with 100GB of audio files, 100GB of movie files and all the other stuff stored in shared, passworded folders on the array, I still have about 2TB of space left. I'm not ready to buy 3TB "Red" drives yet.

It's just hard for me to wrap my brain around your "need" for 20TB. But that's my shortcoming, I suppose.

I'd "recommend" some current-gen motherboard, but not "top-of-the-line." If you don't plan to over-clock the processor, you don't need to spend money for it. I'm not even sure if you need a quad-core system, but then again -- it's my lack of imagination or inability to comprehend your needs.

Agreed. Most of the people with an i5 for a "fileserver" are being a bit silly. Synology manages to saturate a gig-e connection with ARM hardware, easily, and Atom hardware too.

I5 with 32GB would make a nice VMWare server, and use 18TB for WHS and 2TB for learning and other stuff. Otherwise, that I5 will be wasted most of the time.