On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 4:43 PM, gnomad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Like many others, I am looking to put together a SOHO NAS based on ZFS/CIFS. > The plan is 6 x 1TB drives in RAIDZ2 configuration, driven via mobo with 6 > SATA ports. > > I've read most, if not all, of the threads here, as well as sbredon's > excellent article on building a home NAS, yet I still have a number of > unanswered questions. > > I was leaning heavily towards the M2N-E for a while, but it has a number of > strikes against it: > > - Discontinued, not likely to be available to build additional rigs > - No longer available via Newegg > - MCP55 copy/fs lockup problem still unresolved > > Although the Nvidia 750a chipset seems to be supported by the sata_nv driver, > I have read several open bug reports which indicate it may not be a good > choice. Likewise, I have read several negatives on the entire line of AMD > southbridges under Solaris. As it stands, the only compelling reason to go > with an AMD CPU seems to be support for ECC in inexpensive motherboards. > > On the Intel side of things, there seem to be plenty of good reports of the > ICH 7/8/9 chipsets that support AHCI and no negatives. The only negative on > the Intel side seems to be the lack of ECC memory outside of expensive server > mobos. > > As things stand, I am leaning towards a P35/ICH9 or P45/ICH10 setup. In > particular, I am considering either the P5E-VM HDMI for a small integrated > solution or the GA-EP45-UD3P for something with greater expandability. > > So, my questions: > > - Has the MCP55 copy/fs lockup bug been fixed yet? > > - Have the Nvidia 750a driver issues been resolved? > > - Are the AMD southbridges still in the not-recomemded category? > > - Are there any downsides to going with with an ICH controller with the AHCI > driver? > > - Are there any performance issues to be aware of with the ICH vs the MCP55? > > - Are there any inexpensive Intel mobos that do support ECC memory and the > latest Intel 45 nm CPUs? > > - Any comments on the P5E-VM or GA-EP45 boards? > > Many thanks in advance! > --
I'm going to be somewhat rude and bypass your list of detailed questions - but give you my thoughts on a motherboard recommendation (and other hardware). a) related to the 1Tb disks, I'd highly recommend the WD Caviar Black drive. Its fast and the firmware does a great job on different workloads that vary between large file sequencial read (workloads) to (workloads that demand) lots of small random reads/writes. Their "dual processor" controller architecture really works. b) If I were building a system today, I'd go Intel - even thought I'm an AMD fanboy - but I can't recommend AMD today ... unfortunately. c) RAM is the most important attribute of a ZFS based server. Think lots of RAM. Unfortunately, Intel has turned the market into a two-tier market, with the lower (price) tier limited to 4 DIMM slots. So, pick a board that has been tested with 4 * 2Gb or 4 * 4Gb DIMM configs and plan on building a system with at least 4*2Gb DIMMs today. c1) If you have a choice, based on your budgetary constraints, between (for example) 4*1G of "performance" RAM and 4*2Gb of "value" (main stream performance) RAM - go with value RAM. Whatever you do, PLEASE maximize system memory capacity. d) The P45 based boards are a no-brainer. Great performance, good pricing, reasonable power consumption and highly mature. e) If the board is going to be *only* used as a NAS, the current CPU "sweet spot" is, IMHO, the Intel Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (45nm, 2.53 GHz, 3MB L2 Cache). Plenty of "horsepower", low-power consumption, nice cache capacity and priced to go! f) If you intend to use the box for other demanding tasks (for example, running other OS under VirtualBox) and need more CPU power, I'd pick the E8400 (dual core). But remember, the priority is RAM capacity first, upgraded CPU second. I really think that the E7200 will work well in your application. f) Look at the following reviews and pick a motherboard from any of them: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/energy-efficient-motherboard,2067.html http://techreport.com/articles.x/15737 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-p45-motherboard,2001.html I really don't think you can go wrong with any Intel based system that has had a halfway decent review report card. There has *never* been a better time to buy/build a system. HTH. Email me offlist if I can help. Regards, -- Al Hopper Logical Approach Inc,Plano,TX [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voice: 972.379.2133 Timezone: US CDT OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Apr 2005 to Mar 2007 http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/ogb/ogb_2005-2007/ _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
