New mobo Gigabit Lan please help...

[Gregster]

Hi there, first of all please excuse my ignorance, I have Googled but I'm still confused :P

I'm wanting to upgrade my Freenas 8.03 box, currently running like a dream on a 65G PCChips MOBO (1155) to run Gigabit lan. (http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P65G)

The mobo has 2 PCI express slots and only 4 SATA-3 slots. I've looked into getting a PCI-Express 1000 adapter but the cost is such that getting a newer mobo with more SATA ports and a 1000 LAN seems to make more sense.

The problem is: I have no idea what Mobo I'm able to use that will be compatible with the lan, I did try a Gigabyte B75M-D3H only to discover the NIC was not supported.

I've looked at the FreeBSD documentation but frankly it confuses the hell out of me.

Can you reccoment something that I might be able to use in the $100 or less region? Or even how to decipher the FreeBSD documentation so I can give that a blast once more?

I've also read about recompiling FreeNas to include drivers but have noooo idea how I'd do that... I'm willing to give it a blast though.

Thank you.

G

 

[cyberjock]

Im not sure what deciphering you are wanting...

If you searched the forums you'd find lots of people with working configurations as well as So you want some hardware suggestions

If you look at the FreeNAS manual it has a section called 1.4 Hardware Recommendations. In that section it provides a link to the hardware compatibility list for FreeBSD. If you use that list to verify your hardware you should be able to figure out compatible hardware on your own.

If in doubt, just follow that forum post I linked. It really is the best way to build a server for cheap while getting excellent performance and reliability. I'm not sure where you got the $100 budget limit from, but if you are expecting a CPU, RAM, and a motherboard you definitely are underestimating the cost of your build.