Asus P8H77-I w/ Lian Li PC-Q08 build

S

S_T

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 16, 2006
Messages
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Finally, after months of waiting and scouring the world (literally, I was in even in Taipei looking for it) for the elusive Asus P8H67-I motherboard, Asus started shipping the P8H77-I replacement and I got it immediately once available in the US. I chose this motherboard because i needed the 6 SATA connextors, which is very rare in an ITX configuration. I will be using it primarily as an HTPC / Server. Note, that I am using just the I3-2100T (35W) for now until the availabilityI7-3770T (45W). Below is my system configuration:

- Lian Li PC-Q08 Case (http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=480&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=63)
- Asus P8H77-I Mobo (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H77I/)
- Intel I3-2100T (http://ark.intel.com/products/53423/Intel-Core-i3-2100T-Processor-(3M-Cache-2_50-GHz)
- G.Skill 8GB 1333MHz 1.35V (http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=321)
- Scythe Big Shuriken 2 (http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/120/scbsk2000_index.html)
- Hitachi Travelstar 5k750-640 640GB (http://www.hitachigst.com/travelstar-5k750)
- Hitachi 7K300 2TB x6 (http://www.hitachigst.com/ultrastar-7k3000)
- Asus Blu Ray Drive (http://www.asus.com/Optical_Storage/Internal_Bluray_Drive/BC12B1ST/)
- Seasonic SS-350ET 350W PSU (http://seasonicusa.com/80plus.htm)

P_500.jpg



The Hitachi notebook drive and Asus BD Drive will be driven off of USB interface (3.0 for the HDD and 2.0 for the BD). The 6x 2TB drive will be fashioned in a RAID5 configuration. I'll provide pix in coming posts...
 
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I'm guessing you're planning on using the notebook drive for the OS with the raid array dedicated as a storage drive. What OS are you planning on running that will work with a sata to usb adapter?
 
Rob - Yes, I will be using notebook drive dedicated to the OS. I am going to use Windows 7 64bit.
 
My only suggestion is that you get an SSD instead of the notebook drive.
 
@ Sorce - noted and while i have SSDs laying around, OS access is rare and infrequent to really warrant it's usage IMHO. This is by no means a gaming system and will be up 24/7 for at least a few years (as my last system was) with minimal reboots.
 
Here's the Asus mobo again. Reasons I chose this over the Z77 and the others are because it is the only present one with 6 SATA connectors in ITX form that i know of. While I can easily add a PCIe SATA controller, I wanted to keep costs down and things simple and have the ability to have PCIe expansion in the future if necessary. I chose Asus because of their reputation over others like Zotac, since this again will be a 24/7 server / HTPC and I won't be doing any overclocking or tweaking.

asus-mobo1.jpg


The I3-2100T doesn't have the horsepower of my old Yorkfield Quad, but it is rated at an amazing TDP of 35W! While I know that i could conceivably undervolt/underclock a better processor, I'm try to not tweak things too much this time with my system. In the future, when the I7-3770T is available, I will potentially upgrade. But both the CPU and crappy Intel 2000 graphics core are sufficient for its purpose presently.

i3-2100t.jpg


Sorry for the pic size...not sure why its so big when its supposed to be at 320x200 only.
 
As far as the case, it was a no brainer since it offered the capacity of 6+1 HDD and a 5.25" bay to boot. I had read up on the PC-Q08 noise "issues" on SPCR (http://www.silentpcreview.com/lianli-pcq08) so decided to modify it myself.

The top and bottom drive bays were gasketed with some foam to lessen vibration:

q08hdd1.jpg


q08-bd.jpg


q08-hdd2.jpg


I don't know if you can see it well, but i also modified the Seasonic PSU to have it's fan externally mounted. I wanted to do this since I was going to run my CPU HSF passive and wanted the PSU fan to be close to it as possible:

q08-allin3.jpg


Speaking of which, I chose the Seasonic PSU at only 350W, because i reckon i will only be drawing about 100-150W max and wanted to keep the PSU into its peak efficiency range (yes, i know, my load should be higher then, but it was the best i could do to also keep a 120mm PSU fan).
 
I'm planning to build a server using very similar parts! I would love to know how your build worked. In particular, I'm concerned about clearance for the RAM next to / under the Scythe Shuriken. I'm not sure which RAM would fit. I would also be interested in knowing whether the stock fans from the case are quiet, same for the PSU, and then whether cooling is adequate. Looking forward to your updates!
 
Hi Hearts - Using the Shuriken, I did not have any problems with clearance of the RAM. However, it is offset a bit to the right so it overhangs the PCIe slot. I forgot to mention that I had actually replaced all the stock fans in the system with some old school low speed Yate Loons. They run phenomenally quiet even at full speed and still keep the system quite cool. In fact, I actually don't even run the supplied fan with the Shuriken HSF and instead run it passively with only the chassis fan for airflow:

q08-mobo.jpg


But, if you want to know the noise floor of the stock fans, you can check out the review on SPCR with the link above. I think it was okay, but not great. Also, here are pics of all the parts in the case. It's a bit crowded in the case and the cable routing is a bit more difficult then i would like it, but everything fits nicely thus far.

q08-allin2.jpg
 
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Interesting build.
I've just finished a build for a friend with the P8H77-I and an i7-3770S.
I like the board a lot, so I've been thinking about a setup similar to yours.

There's one storage change I'd suggest.
If you look at the cost/GB of the 4TB Hitachi 7K4000, it's identical to the 2TB version of the 7K3000.

On the assumption that you'll be implementing a RAID5 array, three of the 4TB drives will give you 8TB usable capacity vs 10TB with six of the 2TB drives at a $90 premium and gives you 3 free drive bays for future expansion.

If you're not implementing RAID5, the capacity would be identical.
 
Hi,

I'm looking at building pretty much the same as a replacement for my aging HTPC and I was eyeing up the ASUS board.

Can you let me know if it's possible to use all 6 SATA ports for RAID-5 ?

I know Windows 7 has no RAID5 implementation and I would thus be relying on the intel chipset to do the job, which is fine by me, but I wonder if it's really available on all of the ports, or just some.

Other similar boards have 2 and 4 SATA ports, I'm not sure if ASUS is using an additional controller for the extra ports, and if they do would it play nice with the Intel RAID5 in the BIOS.

Thanks!
 
@dpajour

The H77 chipset supports 6 SATA ports and the spec list for the motherboard does not mention an additional controller.

All those internal ports should be of the Intel controller.
 
Sounds good, now all I have to do is find a non-deluxe version of it!

They only sell the deluxe here, which has 4 sata ports and a bunch of other stuff that I won't use, like wifi, bluetooth etc. :(
 
Hi S_T,

I am currently building a similar system with the PC-Q08 and the P8H77-I. I am planning on replacing the stock fans with some BeQuiet Silent Wings. The case has two fans (front and top) but the Mobo has only one case fan connection. How did you hook-up the two fans? I was thinking of runnning the front fan continuously from a fan controller (potentiometer) and hooking up the top fan to the motherboard and using the Q-fan to control it. Any thoughts?

-Eric
 
Hi,

Great post ! Thinking of building the exact same thing, but just wanted to confirm:

1.) you can have a raid 5 array across all 6 * 2tb drives ?

2.) what / how did you use for the os drive, as there are no more data ports ???

Thanks,
 
Anyone knows if this board supports the adjustment of the CPU multiplier? Upwards, i mean.
 
Got this one to update my HTPC...

No, it cannot OC CPU, not even Turbo...

I faced some serious RAM issues. I tried a few RAM sticks and this board wont run with memory higher than 1,333 MHz - tested Corsair Vengeance 1,600 MHz, Corsair Dominator GT 1866 MHz
At boot it says:

Overclocking failed! Press F1 blah blah blah

Tried bump the voltage - same thing... Googled that ALL users experiencing same issues... No steps to resolve this has been found...

CPU is 2600K.

Any ideas?
 
Well, my fist suggestion would be to replace the CPU.

Besides, you have an ivy bridge motherboard, so why not pair it with an ivy bridge CPU.
 
Well I run mine with a 3570K and I can't overclock. I haven't updated the BIOS for a while though...
 
I just got that Motherboard and am struggling to fit the io shield, I usually buy Gigabyte but the Asus has loads of tabs that seem to catch on the ports. Any tips?

Thanks
 
<iframe src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=77C49A0936BA3955&resid=77C49A0936BA3955%214545&authkey=AEuUyJHiH80BIGg" width="165" height="128" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
 
I came across this thread while looking up PSU's to match, and found it pretty informative. Many thanks for posting the pictures, they describe it so much better than words. At least I verified that the PSU fits in this case and someone's used it before in a htpc/nas-type use. I DID also look at the asus board.

I'm just starting out on a similar build..
Case: Lian Li Q08B
PSU: Seasonic SS-350ET 350W or PC P&C Silencer Mk3 400W
CPU: Core i3-3225 or a core i5-3570k (depending on power-draw and how serious I want to run VM's)
Motherboard: Zotac Z68ITX-A-E Mini ITX (for the 6-SATA ports as you mentioned)
Hard Drives: a mismash of SATA's: 1TB, 500GB, 320GB.
RAM: Mushkin 16GB ddr3-1600 (no clue if this works)

My uses were primarily:
- headless NAS fileserver running either freenas or windows.. trying to fgiure out RAID options with such a messed up drive config.
- potentially use as a VMware ESXi server for multiple VM's
Since I wasn't going to game, or even use much as an HTPC.

So my questions:
- would the seasonic be OK to run a core i3 + up to 6 drives cool & quiet?
- has anybody tried vmware on this type of setup?
 
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