Creating My Own NAS - Part 2:Getting the right motherboard

In part one of this series, I discussed the reasons behind wanting to use FreeNAS as the basis for a DIY NAS solution in my home office/lab.

I finished up the last article by saying I would concentrate on the motherboard component of this project next as I felt that this would probably be the trickiest part of the build.

The specs for the overall system are not mind blowing, they dont need to be as I am not going to be using this as a critical server and I dont need it to be particularly powerful when it comes to the level of compute that I would like it to do. Also, I am trying to keep the costs down here whilst at the same time provide a flexible and dynamic base for the hardware itself.

Going into this build, I already knew I would want a motherboard that would be comfortable in the server role as well as being able to get all of the features associated with server activities built in. My current NAS is supposed to respond to WOL magic packets, but this functionality is shaky at the best of times, I know it works well on the majority of servers I have used in the past so it kind of makes sense that the feature should be more dependable on a motherboard designed for this purpose.

I also wanted to have the ability to have more than one actual CPU, a dual processor based system would again give me more flexibility when it came to the level of compute this thing has once it is up and running.

So, after scouring eBay for a suitable solution, I came across the Gigabyte 8IPXDR. This cost less than £40, so I consider this a pretty good catch for what I intend to do with it and should have the extensibility I need for the build. It is also a server motherboard in the ATX form factor that even came with a back plate, which will be immensely useful for keeping out all the dust and for keeping things quite. The only bad thing I can think of right now is that this is an ATX-E motherboard, the listing didnt mention this fact, and I only have an ATX case. On looking at the case, its pretty huge, so might accommodate this board, I dont know yet as I haven't gutted the case to see if things will fit.

This is also a dual CPU motherboard, so it meets the criteria for providing more flexibility when it comes to the processing power. One other fact that was missed off the listing is that it has two Xeon CPU's sat in both sockets - this is a bargain, although I am not sure what CPU's they are exactly. From Googling the numbers on the CPU's themselves, they may be 6-cored running at 2.5Ghz each. If this is the case, then I have grabbed a bargain indeed.

Sadly though, it doesnt have any on-board SATA interfaces, so I will need to obtain a SATA controller specifically for these drives. Fortunately, FreeNAS is compatible with a large number of SATA controllers out of the box and I have already begun looking for one that will work with this board.

This brings us on to the connections the board has itself. Because of the time it was made, it doesnt have PCI-E slots on board as standard, which is a bit of a shame but nothing that will effect the performance of the system when it is built. Instead, it comes with a mixture of PCI-X and PCI slots, which I think was the practice at the time. This means that the SATA controller I will get can be of the PCI-X format, and can also be a 64bit card - the board has one slot for a 64 bit card.

It also support SCSI RAID, although I dont think I have any compatible drives for this, unless one of the many drives I have in an old SAS array (that doesnt work) is compatible - it isnt important for this build right now as I am trying to make use of my SATA drives. There is also a pair of IDE connectors and an interface for a floppy, I have some old IDE drives that can go in this at some point and who else feels like a computer isnt a computer without a floppy drive?

It has two built in gigabit Ethernet ports, which is great as I will make use of them and on board ATI graphics, so the display should be pretty good as well.

So, what is happening next? Well, I will need to get that SATA controller card for definite, without it the build stops in its tracks. I am going to try and source a 64 bit PCI-X example of one, mainly because I have not used this standard before and I am curious. Also I will need to get some memory for the board, it can support upto  12GB of installed ram - but it needs to be ECC DDR 266Mhz memory. There are six slots available, however I very much doubt I will ever need to go that high for this build, 4GB should be plenty for our needs. Getting a pair of coolers for this board is also on the cards, whilst it came with free CPU's my luck didnt run as far as free coolers and I also need to check that the PSU in the case I will try to fit this to is compatible with this board.

And then there is fitting the board into the case itself, if that doesnt happen then I am going to need to get an ATX-E compatible one, and I am hoping this doesnt happen...

So, the next part should cover the SATA controller once I have bought it and an update on how it went fitting the board into the case.