How long did your ASROCK c2550d4i or c2750d4i last

DaveY

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Dec 1, 2014
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141
Lately I've seen a lot posts about ASRock Avoton boards failing < 2 years. Just wondering how long yours has lasted and whether anyone has a board that went past the 2 year mark?

Considering FreeNAS minis run off these boards, I question the longevity of it and whether I should start looking for a new miniITX solution?

My C2750D4i lasted 13 months and just then suddenly won't POST
 

nojohnny101

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Dec 3, 2015
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I have been thinking the same thing. I have a c2550D4i in a custom build.

Purchased mine in December of 2015 and haven't had any problems as of date (knocks on wood). I sure hope all recent posts are just a coincidence.

I do tell myself that people only post when they have problems. That has to count for something.:(
 

CraigD

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I think I got lucky the kind people here steered me away from ASRock, and recommended SuperMicro, time will tell
 

Pitfrr

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Feb 10, 2014
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I am using the same motherboard in a custom build and so far it's working great.

I purchased it around October 2015 and I have it (fully) running since March 2016 in my test set up.

It's not that long so I can't tell much.... I'll see how it goes but I've been following this thread closely (https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/45209). ;-)
 

sremick

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Sep 24, 2014
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I think I got lucky the kind people here steered me away from ASRock, and recommended SuperMicro, time will tell

I would'vc gone with SuperMicro for my FreeNAS build, but SM didn't have a part with the necessary specs. So I was forced to go with ASRock for the 2nd best choice and still get a "server" MB.

That said, my FreeNAS server has been going strong for almost 2 years now. I only had 2 issues that were somewhat user-created, and each time ASRock tech support was extremely helpful, providing personally-crafted replies to my emails that were extremely helpful and demonstrating the tech sincerely trying his best (and succeeding!) to help me out.

I did opt for SuperMicro for my desktop workstation since I run Linux and the things that make SuperMicro good for servers made it good in that situation as well.
 

DaveY

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Dec 1, 2014
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@sremick, thanks for posting. That sounds promising for my replacement board since it only comes with a 3 month warranty now! I think heat might play a big issue in the life of these boards. My old board always hovered around 60c idle and goes up to 80 under load. The new board also did the same so I added a fan to manage it.

I'd be curious if any FreeNAS Mini owners have servers over 2 years old. It would suck to pay a grand for a server that lasts only a year or 2.
 

colmconn

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Jul 28, 2015
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@sremick, thanks for posting. That sounds promising for my replacement board since it only comes with a 3 month warranty now! I think heat might play a big issue in the life of these boards. My old board always hovered around 60c idle and goes up to 80 under load. The new board also did the same so I added a fan to manage it.

Would you mind detailing how you added a fan to it since there's no where on the MB to secure the fan (at least as far as I recall)?
 

DaveY

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Dec 1, 2014
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@colmconn, I bought a kit that had long screws and they bolt on to the heatsink directly. It does leave a scratch mark on the heatsink where the screw contacts it, but it's not a big deal for me. Cools way better than not having a fan at all.
 

nickt

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Feb 27, 2015
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Hi all,

My C2750D4I lasted 15 months. If you're interested, the gory details are here. In short, my issue appears (symptomatically) to have to do with the BMC flash RAM being rewritten very frequently (and dying). My server is well ventilated and in a cool environment, board and drive temperatures were always very low. (Drives have never exceeded ~32, but typically sit in the low 20s. CPU / board, I can't remember well, but were in the 50 - 60 range, never more).

Interestingly, when the board first failed, the only hint of anything gone wrong in the BMC logs were CPU temperature alarms (all the way up to critical). I strongly doubt that they were legitimate, as it was cool and there was no CPU / IO load at the time. I think instead it was evidence of the BMC losing its mind.

The even bigger frustration for me is - being an Australian - the completely non-existent support from ASRockRack global. The US support seems good, but global (out of Taiwan) are doing almost nothing. 3 weeks later, I still haven't been able to start the RMA process.

All rather disappointing.
 

Miles

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Oct 27, 2015
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I have a FreeNAS system running on the ASRock c2550 board since sometime December of 2015. So far no problems with the board itself. I've just ensured that the BIOS watchdog and software watchdog have been disabled....but I have no idea how much "damage" the software watchdog has caused.

I'm using a Fractal Node 804 with all of the fan slots used. So far the board and cpu under idle are ~39C with no alerts from my PSU (Seasonic 450 watt).
 

demon

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Dec 6, 2014
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I'm coming up on 22 months, and my FreeNAS box (with an ASrock Rack C2750D4I) is still running stable. I've not had any stability issues, with only occasional reboots for OS updates and the occasional BIOS update. It lives in my office, and currently it's reporting as running at 54 C (with 6 drives). Keeping my fingers crossed.
 

fta

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Apr 6, 2015
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I'm coming up on 20 months. My system runs hot: drives in the uppers 30s to low 40s due to being in a closet. I'm also using all 12 SATA ports. No problems so far.
 

Miles

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Oct 27, 2015
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@colmconn, I bought a kit that had long screws and they bolt on to the heatsink directly. It does leave a scratch mark on the heatsink where the screw contacts it, but it's not a big deal for me. Cools way better than not having a fan at all.

Mind sharing the kit you purchased? I'm thinking about adding a fan for a little more peace of mind.
 

Murac

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Mar 18, 2015
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My C2550 has been running 24/7 since March of 2015. It's still running strong, albeit hot, but it always has. Incidentally I decided to upgrade to a rackmount server anyways, but what I've read somewhere on these forums is that it had to do with the watchdog setting in BIOS? Anyways, I went to check it out and it had already been disabled. Presumably since I first built it. So maybe I'm just lucky. I'll probably find another use for it. Let's see how long she lasts!
 

Johannez

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Jan 25, 2016
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Purchased august 2015 and still running.
 

Jbx84

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Sep 20, 2016
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My C2550 made it a month shy of two years. Came home to find it locked up one day and after a reboot it would stay on for a couple seconds, then power off. Hopefully the replacement does better.
 

JeffSelf13

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Feb 11, 2016
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I built my system back in April and my C2750D4i failed to post. Had to replace it. It ran until July when we had a storm that knocked the power out. System failed to post after that until I discovered that the bios got reset. Pulled the battery out for the night and then put it back in and was able to configure the bios to boot from the USB drive and it worked after that. Bought a UPS after that. Lost power tonight and the UPS kicked in. iMac never lost power. FreeNAS server never seemed to lose power either. However, I was unable to connect to it. Now it won't post again. Guess I'm going to have to pull the battery out again and then reconfigure the bios. This is absolutely ridiculous.
 

JeffSelf13

Cadet
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
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4
So I pulled my battery and left my server unplugged for about 30 minutes. Put the battery back in and plugged it in. Booted up and watched it through the Remote Console in IPMI. Had to configure the boot option to used the USB thumb drive. Now its up and running again. But I guess I need to budget for a new SuperMicro motherboard. I'm tired of this.
 
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