Media Server Motherboard

Media Server Motherboard Guide

Next we need to choose a motherboard for our Media server build. Depending on your processor, you’ll need to find a motherboard that supports the socket your processor utilizes. There are several different types of sockets, but you can quickly determine the socket of your processor by looking at the processor specifications.

Since our media is built more for storage, you generally are concerned about two things.

  • Number of drives
  • Data integrity

The first is very simple, choose a motherboard with several SATA connectors. The second is a bit more difficult. Most motherboards will come with RAID capabilities. RAID provides drive redundancy and can help save your files during hard drive failure. The other feature of RAID is that it can help increase a single hard drive’s performance. By splitting a file across multiple drives you now overcome the physical read/write limitation of one drive. The thing to remember about motherboard raid offerings is that the generally not compatible from one motherboard to another. If you decide to upgrade you hardware, you’ll have a hell of a time trying to recover your data. To learn more about real data integrity, check out our page on Data Integrity solutions.

If you have picked a E-350 you don’t need to find a motherboard. Essentially the E-350 is an all in one solution motherboard, cpu, and video card.  If you choose a different cpu, you’ll need to hunt for your own motherboard. Don’t hesitate to ask for help.

NOTE: If you read about Data Integrity solutions, and decided to go with a ZFS file system it is imperative that you check your CPU and Motherboard for ECC ram compatibility.

Next we’ll move on to picking some memory!

Check back often for more guides to help you with your HTPC build!