Haswell vs Avoton for Mini-ITX NAS?

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DBayPlaya2k3

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Nov 9, 2012
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Huh thats very intriguing.

According to that website its shows to be faster than a core i5 3570K.

I assume due to having more cores though i believe cinebench is synthetic definitely peaks my interests.
 

matt_garman

Active Member
Feb 7, 2011
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26 Watt idle and 42 Watt from the wall outlet, while running Cinebench R15. That is with 4x8GB 1.5V memory, the board itself and 1 Intel X25M 80GB SSD.
Just to be clear, no "spinning rust" drives in that config, right?

That seems a little high, I would expect 20 Watts or less at idle (IIRC, Patrick measured 17 Watts? or maybe that was on the Supermicro Avoton board?).

Do you have 120V or 240V mains? I thought most of Europe was on 240V mains. I usually see better efficiency reported from folks with 240V mains.

What power supply?

This thread turned out better than I expected: true to the title, we'll shortly have actual examples of both systems, Arthur with the Avoton, and I expect to receive my E3C224D2I board board on Monday. Always nice to have actual systems to talk about, rather than just speculating.
 

_Arthur

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Nov 23, 2013
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Just to be clear, no "spinning rust" drives in that config, right?
Nope, no HDD's attached during that benchmark, only the bord, memory, the SSD and a be quiet! Straight Power E9 400W powersupply, which was tested here: (in German): PC-Experience Reviews : | be quiet! Straight Power E9 400Watt Netzteil im Test
That seems a little high, I would expect 20 Watts or less at idle (IIRC, Patrick measured 17 Watts? or maybe that was on the Supermicro Avoton board?).
As far as I recon his Watt test was with the Supremicro board.

Do you have 120V or 240V mains? I thought most of Europe was on 240V mains. I usually see better efficiency reported from folks with 240V mains.
240V.

What power supply?
be quiet! Straight Power E9 400W

This thread turned out better than I expected: true to the title, we'll shortly have actual examples of both systems, Arthur with the Avoton, and I expect to receive my E3C224D2I board board on Monday. Always nice to have actual systems to talk about, rather than just speculating.
Let's see what that board does :)

Currently the systems has it's 4x3TB HDD's, a second SSD (M4 128GB) and a 14cm fan running. And does around 50Watts when I am just using the system doing some light work (2 VM's running, copying, etc). 'Just' running, around 42Watt from the wall-outlet.

For me, I targetted to have the system at around 50 Watt on average. With 70 Watts max under heavy use. For me the goal is reached, especially when I compare it with my older server which did a 240Watt average.
 
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_Arthur

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Just a note: don't buy the AsRock C2750D4I because it has 12 SATA ports. The ports connected to the Marvell chipsets are shit. Don't use them. I connected two of my 3TB drives to the 9230 and configured a Raid1 array. Also my Intel X25M OS-SSD was connected to the 9230. And Windows 2012 R2 Bluescreened under heavy load (copy action from a 3TB drive connected to the Intel controller, to the Raid1 array connected to the Marvell controller) when the mvs91xx driver crashed (Request to physical disk 1 is timed out.) Disk 1 = OS disk.

The device 'Marvell 92xx SATA 6G Controller' has the driver version 1.2.0.1039 from 9/5/2013.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Have not tried it under Windows. Were you using the 9230's RAID function?
 

matt_garman

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Feb 7, 2011
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Just a note: don't buy the AsRock C2750D4I because it has 12 SATA ports. The ports connected to the Marvell chipsets are shit. Don't use them. I connected two of my 3TB drives to the 9230 and configured a Raid1 array. Also my Intel X25M OS-SSD was connected to the 9230. And Windows 2012 R2 Bluescreened under heavy load (copy action from a 3TB drive connected to the Intel controller, to the Raid1 array connected to the Marvell controller) when the mvs91xx driver crashed (Request to physical disk 1 is timed out.) Disk 1 = OS disk.

The device 'Marvell 92xx SATA 6G Controller' has the driver version 1.2.0.1039 from 9/5/2013.
Did you happen to check for firmware updates on ASRock and/or Marvell's websites? Also, maybe ASRock/Marvell/Microsoft has newer drivers? Also, is that chip configurable at all? Some SATA chipsets allow you to choose between AHCI and a "native" mode, and sometimes under IDE emulation as well. Maybe there are some BIOS options that might let you use it stably.

Earlier in this thread I posted a "gotcha" with this chip under Linux I read about. That alone was enough to steer me away from the board (for now). I wonder if that Marvell chip is just too new and has yet to have all the kinks ironed out? Or if it's a turd by design? Hopefully the former.

Did you happen to try with the native (i.e. Avoton) SATA chipset instead of the Marvell? I would assume it would be less likely to have problems. At least in my experience, Intel SATA chipsets are usually pretty decent.
 

Jeggs101

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Dec 29, 2010
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I would never use those Marvell controllers in RAID. I thought they were just simple SATA controllers with port multiplier support
 

_Arthur

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Did you happen to check for firmware updates on ASRock and/or Marvell's websites?
The board has the latest BIOS: 1.50 from the Asrock Website, released 5 december 2013. The Marvell website doesn't have any driver-downloads. Those allways goes through their 'partners'. The SATA driver for the Marvell controller on the AsRock website is version 1.2.0.1035. I am already using the newest version 1.2.0.1039.
Also, maybe ASRock/Marvell/Microsoft has newer drivers? Also, is that chip configurable at all?

Some SATA chipsets allow you to choose between AHCI and a "native" mode, and sometimes under IDE emulation as well. Maybe there are some BIOS options that might let you use it stably.
The 9230 has it's own bios and is configurable, to create it's raid-sets. Not much is configurable in the BIOS; AHCI & IDE is, but who wants to use IDe-mode :)

Earlier in this thread I posted a "gotcha" with this chip under Linux I read about. That alone was enough to steer me away from the board (for now). I wonder if that Marvell chip is just too new and has yet to have all the kinks ironed out? Or if it's a turd by design? Hopefully the former.
It's a designed turd :cool:

Did you happen to try with the native (i.e. Avoton) SATA chipset instead of the Marvell? I would assume it would be less likely to have problems. At least in my experience, Intel SATA chipsets are usually pretty decent.
Finally I am going to have 7 drives attached to the board, 3x SSD and 4x HDD. Right now 2x SSD and 4x HDD.

Current config:
1x Intel X25M connected to Intel SATA2 port (OS disk)
1x M4 128GB connected Intel SATA3 port
2x HDD connected to Intel SATA2 ports
2x HDD connected to Marvell 9230 SATA3 port, in non-raid config.

I will move the HDD's to the Intel controller and the OS disk (as the only drive) connected to the Marvel 9230.
The two SSD's and the 4 HDD's connected to the Intel controller will get 'all the load', the OS disk won't be used that heavy, I hope :)

I would never use those Marvell controllers
I deleted a part of your post. These Marvell controllers aren't worth anything. If you need (much) more than 6 drives, use an extra HBA.
 
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silentfox

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Dec 9, 2013
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Matt,

I'm also looking to put a E3C224D2I or E3C226D2I in a U-NAS 400 with an Xeon E3-1220V3. I was between this setup and the AsRock C2750D4I, but I want the extra horsepower and VT-d. It seems you are also interested in VT-d. I was investigating the difference between the C224 and C226 chipsets, and noticed that the Intel website explicitly notes VT-d support in the C226 chipset, but does not mention it for the C224 chipset.

ARK | Intel® C224 Chipset (Intel® DH82C224 PCH)
ARK | Intel® C226 Chipset (Intel® DH82C226 PCH)

My understanding is that in order to run VT-d, you need processor AND mobo support. That being said, have you been able to determine if the C224 AsRock you purchased supports VT-d? Ideally, if the C224 supports VT-d id prefer it over the C226 if I can pass through only the 4 SATAIII while keeping the 2 SATAII for saving VMs and booting. If you have setup your C224 already, does the 4SATAIII and 2SATAII show up as separate controllers to the operating system (allowing you to pass through only one of them with VT-d)? If I get the C226 and pass through the SATA controller with all 6 ports, I will lose the option to keep an HD for saving VM images and booting from unless I buy a separate PCI SATA controller or use an internal USB to boot.

Thanks.
 

_Arthur

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AIDA64 Extreme Edition can read out power values of the CPU Package of the Avoton: currently it's using 7.72Watt.

I've ran a report from within AIDA64, with all kinds of system information, check it here: Report of <HYPAHV2> There are some quick bencmarks at the end.

(The Windows Keys are trial-keys, so don't worry to re-use them :))
 

matt_garman

Active Member
Feb 7, 2011
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I just received my E3C224D2I last night, and only had a minimal amount of time to do some really basic testing.

My understanding is that in order to run VT-d, you need processor AND mobo support. That being said, have you been able to determine if the C224 AsRock you purchased supports VT-d? Ideally, if the C224 supports VT-d id prefer it over the C226 if I can pass through only the 4 SATAIII while keeping the 2 SATAII for saving VMs and booting. If you have setup your C224 already, does the 4SATAIII and 2SATAII show up as separate controllers to the operating system (allowing you to pass through only one of them with VT-d)? If I get the C226 and pass through the SATA controller with all 6 ports, I will lose the option to keep an HD for saving VM images and booting from unless I buy a separate PCI SATA controller or use an internal USB to boot.
I thought about it for a while, but now have no plans for running a VM on this system. That said, last night when I was in the board's BIOS, it does have an option to Enable or Disable VT-d... so I would assume that means it's supported, but I'd look to a more official source before banking on it. Note that the manual lists all the BIOS options, so you could download that and see what else is in there that interests you.

As far as how the C224 SATA ports show up under a HyperVisor, unfortunately, I have no idea. What little I've read suggests that VT-d works for PCI devices. But the block diagram (in the manual) for the E3C22xD2I doesn't show those SATA ports as connected via PCIe; they are integrated into the PCH itself.

For those who are interested, some preliminary power usage numbers. These were all taken with the CPU fan (Noctua NH-L9i) set to "full on", and no other fans. No disks, except a cheap no-name USB thumb drive for booting into CentOS. Mains power is 120V, readings taken with a Kill-a-Watt. Power supply is the Seasonic SS-300M1U. RAM is two 4 GB (8 GB total) Kingston 1.5V modules (don't recall speed offhand).

In BIOS: 40-42 Watts
Linux idle: 22-23 Watts (20-21 watts with no fan)
Running prime95: 88-90 Watts.
 

silentfox

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Dec 9, 2013
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As far as how the C224 SATA ports show up under a HyperVisor, unfortunately, I have no idea. What little I've read suggests that VT-d works for PCI devices. But the block diagram (in the manual) for the E3C22xD2I doesn't show those SATA ports as connected via PCIe; they are integrated into the PCH itself.
Interesting, thank you for the insight. For what it's worth to anybody, intel has a series of mobo's using the C224 chipset that claim VT-d support. Check out the S1200V3RP.

Matt, if you have linux setup would you mind providing a lspci dump?

Those are good numbers on power.
 

MikeBuzz

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Dec 10, 2013
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Hi Matt

I have just ordered a NSC-800 and looking for a motherboard for it, how do you find the cooling in the case, is the Noctua NH-L9i up to the job? also how are you finding the 120mm case fans. I was thinking of switching these to Noctua NF-S12A, do you have a build thread?

Cheers
Mike
 
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matt_garman

Active Member
Feb 7, 2011
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Matt, if you have linux setup would you mind providing a lspci dump?
Code:
# lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3 Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 0c08
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c3a
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        Memory at f7307000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [8c] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+

00:16.1 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #2 (rev 04)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c3b
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
        Memory at f7306000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [8c] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c2d
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at f7304000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
        Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
        Memory behind bridge: d0000000-d01fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0200000-00000000d03fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
        Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c10
        Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
        Memory behind bridge: f7200000-f72fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
        Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c14
        Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: f7100000-f71fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
        Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c16
        Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #8 (rev d5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
        Memory behind bridge: f6000000-f70fffff
        Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
        Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c1e
        Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c26
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
        Memory at f7303000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
        Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features
        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation C224 Series Chipset Family Server Standard SKU LPC Controller (rev 05)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c54
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>
        Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c02
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 30
        I/O ports at f070 [size=8]
        I/O ports at f060 [size=4]
        I/O ports at f050 [size=8]
        I/O ports at f040 [size=4]
        I/O ports at f020 [size=32]
        Memory at f7302000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
        Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA v1.0
        Kernel driver in use: ahci
        Kernel modules: ahci

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 8c22
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 18
        Memory at f7301000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        I/O ports at f000 [size=32]
        Kernel modules: i2c-i801

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 1533
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
        Memory at f7200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=32]
        Memory at f7280000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
        Capabilities: [70] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=5 Masked-
        Capabilities: [a0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number bc-5f-f4-ff-ff-e6-c9-b4
        Capabilities: [1a0] Transaction Processing Hints
        Kernel driver in use: igb
        Kernel modules: igb

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 1533
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
        Memory at f7100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
        Memory at f7180000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
        Capabilities: [70] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=5 Masked-
        Capabilities: [a0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number bc-5f-f4-ff-ff-e6-c9-b0
        Capabilities: [1a0] Transaction Processing Hints
        Kernel driver in use: igb
        Kernel modules: igb

04:00.0 PCI bridge: ASPEED Technology, Inc. AST1150 PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=04, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
        Memory behind bridge: f6000000-f70fffff
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [78] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [80] Express PCI/PCI-X Bridge, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [a4] Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 1150
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Kernel modules: shpchp

05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 21) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device 2000
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
        Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at f7000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at c000 [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Let me know if you want more verbosity.

I forgot to mention earlier that I had to disable USB 3.0, otherwise Linux would not boot. This is CentOS 6.4 with kernel 2.6.32-358.18.1.el6.x86_64. Not sure if 6.5 and/or a newer kernel would support USB 3.0; it's not an issue for me as I don't have any USB 3.0 devices.