Hey all, Looking to get a replacement socket 1155 motherboard, it needs to have onboard VGA/DVI out, and as many SATA 2/3 ports as possible (size isn't an issue, nor is overclocking ability as it's going to have a 2500 in it and never be OC'd) Any ideas of what I should get?
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H87PRO/#specifications would that fit the bill? Only sad bit is that it isn't an Intel network card :/
That is Socket 1150, not 1155. For 1155, maybe http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H77 Pro4MVP/ ? 8 SATA, VGA, DVI, HDMI; true, only Realtek NIC.
just noticed that - thanks for seeing it too! It's late :/ There's this too maybe ? http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/P8C_WS/#specifications
P8C WS is fine, but maybe a bit overkill for your needs ? Why would you pay £165.50 for a board with support for ECC, VT-d, internal USB port, when you can have that ASRock H77 for £61.85 ? Or do you demand ASUS ? You can still choose from the plenty of B75/H77 boards ASUS makes, you don't have to get board with a workstation chipset for the price of a highend OC board.
Fair enough - it would just be nice to get 6 SATA ports on the same chipset if I'm going to RAID 6 disks over it :/
Huh ? You get that with the ASRock board too. The 6 SATA ports on the left side are all from Intel SATA controller - the black ones are SATA2, the grey ones are SATA3. The remaining 2 grey SATA3 ports next to the 24-pin power connector are from the ASMedia SATA controller.
oh right cool - even though they're SATA6 / SATA3 mix it should all be ok to make one large RAID over it?
It is still the Intel controller - and ALL Z77/H77/Q77/B75/Z68/P67/H67/C21x/C20x boards will have it the same way - one or two SATA3 connectors plus one to four SATA2 connectors from the Intel controller, which can be all put to one big RAID; plus separate controllers for anything more than the standard 6 SATA ports. If all you need is the basic 6 SATA ports from the Intel SATA controlle, then pretty much any Z77/H77/Q77/B75/Z68/P67/H67 mATX/ATX board will do fine. I know only about one mITX board with 6 SATA ports, and that one is AFAIK EOL.
8 would be preferable for SATA ports, other than that, having an Intel NIC would be good but not a show stopper if it's not the case. That ASRock one looks like it would probs fit the bill though.
Be aware that in any case, you can only make RAID up to 6 drives with pretty much any board, as that is the usual number of SATA ports from the internal controller. If you need to HW RAID more than that you will have to get a standalone RAID card anyway. The extra 2 ports on that ASRock board (and any other board providing extra ports through extra SATA controllers) cannot be combined to a RAID with the Intel ports unless you do SW Raid in Linux or Windows.
Aye that's totally fine, I've got a decent hardware raid card too - just can't use certain disks with it (yay LSI!) - hence needing 6 for those.
