Trying to take as little of your time as possible, and of mine (b/c it's been 1 week, I need help, and this just needs to be over ASAP), so hopefully the title grabs the right folks who basically would know almost off-the-cuff. What Would You Do? BTW, along with a lot of other research to this point, I enjoyed reading THIS RECENT THREAD, but with my needing 8-12 SATA ports, that one's not helping me.
The Story: This home-built NAS has been running for 6yrs and I save just about everything to it from Win machines. When 2 Win clients semi-suddenly started to be unable to obtain shares from it (which may have been unrelated), I suspected maybe a Samba upgrade was in order. So I successfully did a pkg upgrade, which didn't help, so when I rebooted, to my horror, not only did the box not come back up, it kept silently powering on and off and on and off every few seconds ... hopefully not killing my drives!!!!
When stripping it down to mobo/CPU/RAM (and adding a speaker), it stays on and I get 3 short beeps (then 3 short beeps again) -- no post, no video -- whether the RAM is in or not. Putting the RAM in a Win7 system and running memtest86 (and generally using said Win7), the RAM seems fine. So it's either the mobo or the CPU, I don't have a good way to figure out which, but I need this system back up ASAP, so I guess I'll replace both (I may have to do both anyway).
The Core Issue: I've been having a hard time finding either the same hardware available today (though I'm bitter about repeating anyway b/c it failed on a soft boot after working fine) or more modern hardware for a reasonable price that will have enough ports, fit the rest of this system, won't be a step back, and will be compatible with everything that still works, including FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE.
What you've been waiting for, the relevant parts list (with 2012 prices, where I have them):
So, friends, I'm open to any suggestions from anyone who's much better than this I am. I'm open to change, if that's what it takes: 6-SATA + a 2nd controller if I have to, shifting to SAS (would need help), even an Atom (if it's good enough) or switching to AMD! (and I'm really not up on anyone latest CPUs anymore.) I just need this box to be back up and running ASAP -- but also reliable for the future!!
Your assistance will be very much appreciated. Thanks!
WG |^D
The Story: This home-built NAS has been running for 6yrs and I save just about everything to it from Win machines. When 2 Win clients semi-suddenly started to be unable to obtain shares from it (which may have been unrelated), I suspected maybe a Samba upgrade was in order. So I successfully did a pkg upgrade, which didn't help, so when I rebooted, to my horror, not only did the box not come back up, it kept silently powering on and off and on and off every few seconds ... hopefully not killing my drives!!!!
When stripping it down to mobo/CPU/RAM (and adding a speaker), it stays on and I get 3 short beeps (then 3 short beeps again) -- no post, no video -- whether the RAM is in or not. Putting the RAM in a Win7 system and running memtest86 (and generally using said Win7), the RAM seems fine. So it's either the mobo or the CPU, I don't have a good way to figure out which, but I need this system back up ASAP, so I guess I'll replace both (I may have to do both anyway).
The Core Issue: I've been having a hard time finding either the same hardware available today (though I'm bitter about repeating anyway b/c it failed on a soft boot after working fine) or more modern hardware for a reasonable price that will have enough ports, fit the rest of this system, won't be a step back, and will be compatible with everything that still works, including FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE.
What you've been waiting for, the relevant parts list (with 2012 prices, where I have them):
- MOBO: ASRock H77 Pro4-M w/ 8x SATA ports (4x SATA3; 4x SATA2) [$90]
- CPU: Intel Pentium G640T Sandy Bridge [$74]
--- reminder: the rest below seems to work --- - RAM: Patriot Gamer 16GB DDR3 1333MHz DualCh kit (PC3 10666) [$62] {I ack. this must change w/ a new mobo}
- PSU: CORSAIR HX750 [$130]
- case: Rosewill Thor V2 tower of power [$90]
- extra SATA Ctrlr: IO Crest 4-port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x2 Controller [$34 in 2015]
- extra cages: 2x EverCool Dual 5.25 in. Drive Bay to Triple 3.5 in. HDD Cooling Box [$20.50ea in 2015]
- HDDs: various; 12, as stated; 6x 4TB in raidz2; 2x 8TB in mirror; 2x 3TB in mirror; 2x 3TB in mirror (do any more details matter?)
So, friends, I'm open to any suggestions from anyone who's much better than this I am. I'm open to change, if that's what it takes: 6-SATA + a 2nd controller if I have to, shifting to SAS (would need help), even an Atom (if it's good enough) or switching to AMD! (and I'm really not up on anyone latest CPUs anymore.) I just need this box to be back up and running ASAP -- but also reliable for the future!!
Your assistance will be very much appreciated. Thanks!
WG |^D