GA-Z97X-UD3H i7-4790K 32GB DDR3-1600 Fractal R5 Plex Server

[MacMarshall]

GA-Z97X-UD3H i7-4790K 32GB DDR3-1600 Fractal R5 Plex Server

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Components
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H (rev. 1.2) LGA 1150 ATX Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128710

Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell 4.0 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler
http://www.amazon.com/noctua-NH-U12S-Noctua-CPU-Cooler/dp/B00C9EYVGY/

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148800

Samsung 850 EVO MZ-75E250B/AM 250GB SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372

4x WD Red WD60EFRX 6TB 5400RPM SATA 6.0 3.5" Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236737

HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL RAID Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100

Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-ray Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129075

Fractal Design Define R5 Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352049

Corsair HX850i Platinum Modular Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139083

Comments

I am about to embark on my second hackintosh, planning to use this one as a Plex server. Seemed like very few of the Z97 boards in the buyer's guide are available, for Gigabyte maybe the UD3H the only one that seems to be fairly widely available and seems like that is a preferred board here. R5 case is pretty huge, I looked at the Node 804 (my first hackintosh is in a 304), but too hard to get drives in and out and this thing will go in a closet, so size not a problem. SSD for OS and 6TB WD Reds in a (RocketRAID) RAID array, I will probably get a few of the 8TB Seagate drives for backup. Good processor and lots of memory as I will be ripping things and transcoding. Went with memory in the buyer's guide, I hope I don't regret not getting G.Skill. Probably will not over clock, but I like the Noctua coolers, so have one of those. Shouldn't need a GPU as server will be headless, but got a PS with plenty of oomph should this box end up somewhere else.

More pics and comments as I get the thing put together!

01/10/16 Update:

OK, pretty much have it together.

Tested motherboard before assembling everything. Came with F8 BIOS, I updated to current version which is F9. Did this with two of the memory modules installed (2x8GB). I read some reviews the power supply that complained about the cables and difficulty of plugging them in. No such problem for me, easy to connect and to disconnect.





Then I installed components in the case, adding the SSD. The case has a couple of places to mount a SSB and the back of the motherboard but the SSD didn't fit, so I put it in the top tray. Then into the BIOS again, set to optimized defaults, and set VT-d to Disabled. Also upped the memory multiplier from 13.33 to 16. Followed the installation guide and no problem getting OSX 10.11.2 installed.

Powered down and then installed the RocketRAID card and the 4x6TB drives, and also the two additional memory cards to bring to 32GB. Powered up and got a RocketRAID BIOS screen before OS loaded. I think I got some unrecognized drive messages in OSX, just cancel out of those. Downloaded WebGUI from HighPoint web site, from downloads for the 2722 card (which I think is the same as the 2720 with external SAS connections). Fired up the WebGUI and set up a 24TB array with RAID0. The erased/initialized in OSX, and all good.

During this noticed that BIOS on the 2720 was 1.5, circa 2012, and current version is 1.14. Looked like they made a few improvements so went for it. To update BIOS for this card you need to do it from MS-DOS, so created bootable USB drive using Rufus, and then copied the BIOS flashing executable and the update to the USB drive. I was a little confused by all of the boot options, picked the one that is highlighted in the following picture to get to MS-DOS.



Flash went smoothly:



System Information is reporting memory as 1333MHz, while in BIOS it shows as 1600MHz, not sure what is up with that.



System performance is pretty good without any overclocking.



USB 3.0 ports are not working, ones on the motherboard or via the header. Did a little poking around here and added a couple of kexts, but that didn't work either. Will sort out later ...



Here are pictures of the complete build.



Oh, and the performance of the RAID array seems pretty good (5400 rpm drives):



Now I need to load up Plex server and some media.

 

[trs96]

*GA-Z97X-UD3H i7-4790K 32GB DDR3-1600 Fractal R5 Plex Server

Good choices of hardware, the UD3H-BK has been rock solid for me for over a year now. That is a serious amount of storage too.

If I had a large budget for a server, I'd choose the CM Cosmos II for the hinged side panel and ease of
access to the HDDs. Still that is a very pricey case to use as a media server. $310 weighs in at 47.3 pounds and that's just when it's empty.

The one thing I don't like about my R4 is when I have to take off and replace the side panel to swap out drives. Another hinged side panel option is the Evolv ATX case from Phanteks. Would only require a few extra HDD brackets to fit all the mechanical drives. Case choice all depends on how much drive swapping will be done.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811854021
Also not as huge as the Cosmos II. (or nearly as heavy)

 

[MacMarshall]

*GA-Z97X-UD3H i7-4790K 32GB DDR3-1600 Fractal R5 Plex Server

More pics and comments as I get the thing put together!

Build completed and post updated!

 

[MacMarshall]

During this noticed that BIOS on the 2720 was 1.5, circa 2012, and current version is 1.14. Looked like they made a few improvements so went for it. To update BIOS for this card you need to do it from MS-DOS, so created bootable USB drive using Rufus, and then copied the BIOS flashing executable and the update to the USB drive. I was a little confused by all of the boot options, picked the one that is highlighted in the following picture to get to MS-DOS.

Or you can update BIOS through the WebGUI, much easier ...

 

[builtospill]

I got my USB 3.0 ports working from levy's build here:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...-970-256gb-ssd-bcm94360cd-wifi-bluetooth.html

Guide for USB

• 1. Open Clover Configurator (Mount EFI and open your config.plist)
• 2. Go to Kernel and Kext Patches
• 3. Add patch:
  
  Name: AppleUSBXHCIPCI
  Find: 83BD8CFEFFFF10
  Replace: 83BD8CFEFFFF16
• 4. Install 2 attached kexts with Kext Wizard

The kext files are linked in his post above as these zip files

• FakePCIID_XHCIMux.kext.zip
• http://FakePCIID.kext.zip

My USB 3.0 ports work before patching/kexting but at USB 2.0 speed. I did the patch above in clover configurator, then installed the 2 kexts with Kext Beast and restarted.

The only issue I have with this system is if it falls asleep automatically from Energy Settings (which I since disabled). If it happens the system usually shuts down or restarts with error after restart. I usually don't have issue with manually sleeping the computer, unless sometimes after a long overnight sleep the computer will not resume and restarts.