MiniITX with AMD for Storage Server

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Quantumstate
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MiniITX with AMD for Storage Server

Post by Quantumstate » Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:12 am

I am having an awful time finding the mobo. This will be for a storage server in a little Q4 case out in the garage, which will back up my terabyte media server in case of theft or fire. (4 hot-swap 2TB drives)

Must be AMD (as Intel has an atrocious competitive record), and mini-ITX with at least 4 SATA2 ports and one GbE port. That's all I ask. I thought I'd found it in the Gigabyte GA-2AIEV-RH, but this seems to have been withdrawn from the market.

I guess part of the problem is I only trust Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. Never heard of Jetway or Zotac and don't really trust them for the varying temperatures of the garage. This will be running Debian Testing.

Anyone advise?

CPU recommendations also requested. Prefer 45W (tho 65 would be OK) and the fastest speed possible.

dukla2000
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Re: MiniITX with AMD for Storage Server

Post by dukla2000 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:51 am

Quantumstate wrote:Must be AMD ... and mini-ITX
In my recent research that results in 3 options - J&W Minix 780G/Albatron KI780G, the Jetway JNC81-LF/Magic-Pro NC81 and the Zotac GF8200.
Quantumstate wrote:... with at least 4 SATA2 ports and one GbE port. That's all I ask. ... I guess part of the problem is I only trust Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. Never heard of Jetway or Zotac and don't really trust them for the varying temperatures of the garage. This will be running Debian Testing.
Anyone advise?
Methinks you are going to have to compromise somewhere as (AFAIK) Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte don't have socket AM2/3 ITX. Out of the 3 options on my list, the Jetway/Magic-Pro also seemed to have the best lmsensors support and thus the Jetway got my vote. I had my first Jetway mobo in 2001 and had no issues with it - have got to the stage where (for my personal use) I am not bothered by branding as I figure much of our PC stuff is all coming from some faceless factory in China or Taiwan anyway. Whether the Jetway is actually a badge engineered Magic-Pro or vice versa doesn't bother me!

And, BTW, it does have 4 SATA2, 2 eSATA & 2 Gbit LAN. And Propus and Rana core support.

hans007
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Post by hans007 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:26 pm

jetway makes tons of mini itx stuff, and so does zotac.

i think the jetway boards have better bios support it seems.

i have the j&w which is pretty hard to get in the US and that would work too if you could get one.

Quantumstate
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Post by Quantumstate » Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:26 am

Interesting, thanks. Have any large institutions chosen Jetway, J&W, or Zotac?

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:47 am

Off topic, but I'm very interested in your choice of case. May you tell me what ITX case can accommodate up to 4 3.5' SATA HDDs?

As for Jetway, I think they are ok based on my AM2 board experience, Not spectacular, but not worst.

Quantumstate
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Post by Quantumstate » Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:25 am

I bought this case, with a Supermicro 3-to-5 drive cage.

Quantumstate
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Post by Quantumstate » Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:14 am

So Jetway seems to have only one AMD model available, the NC81. This is assuming my inference is correct that Geode is older than 780G.

It's hard to interpret AMD's CPU line. Phenom seems to be the newest, but they're all 65W. Athlon seems to be the oldest, but they're 45W, and I can't figure out whether Sempron has less cache than either or some other limitation? And I can't figure out why an Athlon quad-core and dual-core are both rated at 45W?

My preference would be to go with the highest speed dual-core possible at 45W, rather than the lowest-speed quad.

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:14 am

Thanks for your tip, but I wonder how you can solve the 4 HDDs' vibration that will unavoidably transmit to the case? Frankly speaking, I think it's the Achilles' heel in your project.

As for your 45W question, Athlon II X2 240e is a dual core which bears 45W rating. Generally speaking, Phenom II enjoys better L3 cache compared to Athlon II across the board, regardless of 2/3/4 cores. Were I you, I'd purchase X2 240e/240/245 depending on price and availability.

Quantumstate
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Post by Quantumstate » Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:13 am

Not worried about vibration, as this will be my backup server out in the garage in case of theft or fire.

OK, so Athlon 45W it is.

Quantumstate
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Post by Quantumstate » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:22 am

I'm building a remote NAS backup storage server for the garage, in case of theft or fire at my HTPC my archives will be preserved. I really wanted to go with a trusted Gigabyte or Asus mobo but they simply do not make a miniITX with the mandatory features:
- AMD
- at least 4 SATA ports (pref SATA2)
- Gb ethernet

That's all I ask. I don't care about video as it will be headless. About all I can find are these two candidates:
Jetway NC62K
Zotac GF8200-C-E

I don't know or trust either. Any direct or indirect experience with them?

Crim
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Post by Crim » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:49 pm

I have the Zotac, great little board. I would highly suggest it for this.

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