P4 Motherboard for File Server

Satin Knight satinknight at gmail.com
Tue Nov 9 02:42:15 UTC 2004


I need a motherboard suggestion. I've a Pentium 4 / 2.4C GHz 800MHz
CPU sitting aorund and want to build a file server using a SATA RAID.
I've already got four WD SATA 250 GB drives, a nice 3Ware Escalade
9500S-4LP controller and a beautiful Chenbro RM311 case.

Motherboard Requirements
Must Have:
- Stable
- On board SATA (Don't need RAID I have a real harware card for that).
I'm going to run the OS off a 36 G raptor.
- USB2 ports
- 64 bit PCI slot (for the RAID card)
- Stable
Nice to have:
- 1 Gb LAN

I thought a nice Inter server board would fit the bill. But couldn't
belive the prices for them. The S875WP1-E is $200. I'm looking for a
nice stable system, what do these boards have that my Abit IC7-MAX3
don't?

As for slots, I don't need a lot many PCI. I need one for the RAID
card, and two others for LAN cards (even if the Motherbaord has built
in NICs I've had them die). So what Motherboard do you suggest?

I really like that SuperMicro P4SCT comes out and states that they
support Operating Systems other than Windows. I will be loading Fedora
Core 2, well probably 3 by then.  It looks like SuperMicro's support
for Linux is only partial though. The P4SCT+ and P4SCT+II use a
Marvell SATA controller for four of the six ports which does have a
GNU license

However, it looks like the board is ~$220. Ouch! Now I think the Intel
S875WP1 for $200 looks pretty good. But then again it only has three
32-bit/33MHz PCI slots <sigh>.

Paul




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