What motherboard should I get?

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smidley

New Member
Feb 7, 2011
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Ok guys, I'm going to be building a new server very soon to replace my existing one.

The goal here will be maximum storage with a low price point. Here is what I have planned so far:

Case: Norco 4220
RAID: LSI MegaRAID 9260-16i (PCI-e 8x)
CPU: Intel Core i3 socket 1155
RAM: 8gigs DDR3
NIC: Intel Quad gigabit (PCI-e 1x)

So with that in mind, I'm looking for a motherboard that would have the correct PCI-e slots. It also needs to have onboard video of some kind. I would love to find a board that is micro ATX since those seem to be the cheapest. This will just be used for my home storage server, so it doesn't need to have anything special.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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What OS? Are you going to run ESXi? That will have a big impact on the decision.

From the looks of it you would need an x8 for the controller and an x4 (or larger) for the quad NIC (quad NICs tend to be x4). Also do you need four NICs? Oftentimes you can get a server board with two onboard NICs and add a single/ dual (or make due with two) and spend less.
 

smidley

New Member
Feb 7, 2011
17
0
1
What OS? Are you going to run ESXi? That will have a big impact on the decision.

From the looks of it you would need an x8 for the controller and an x4 (or larger) for the quad NIC (quad NICs tend to be x4). Also do you need four NICs? Oftentimes you can get a server board with two onboard NICs and add a single/ dual (or make due with two) and spend less.
The OS will be Server 2008 R2. I already have the RAID card and the NIC, so I will be using those for sure.