3U Server Build Help

[-MG-]

That makes sense.

My current setup I am more than happy with my access speeds with my WD Reds. I can transfer in and out at around ~100mb speeds which is plenty for accessing 4k videos on my network or movies I have saved. That is my sole driver for speed, other than that I don't care.

So if I look at your at your E5 Xeon build, it has 8 cores. I'm slightly outside of my element, but if I my testing of my VM works on my current setup at the basic level. FreeNas basically dedicates the hardware to the VM and is not 'on-demand' in your scenario if I dedicate 4 cores to the VM, I have 4 left and not much left if I want to expand. Am I thinking about that wrong?

If it involves upping my budget because that gets me my 5+ year life. I am ok with that. What does that look and feel like? I don't currently have a ton of data, but I do see that 4TB SSDs are really expensive. I would have to look at power consumption vs price.

 

[Chris Moore]

So if I look at your at your E5 Xeon build, it has 8 cores. I'm slightly outside of my element, but if I my testing of my VM works on my current setup at the basic level. FreeNas basically dedicates the hardware to the VM and is not 'on-demand' in your scenario if I dedicate 4 cores to the VM, I have 4 left and not much left if I want to expand. Am I thinking about that wrong?

You can put a higher core count processor in the system board I have. The other one I am using (not listed in my signature) has a 10 core processor. FreeNAS usually does not need a high core count so the split 4 and 4 is probably fine.

I do see that 4TB SSDs are really expensive.

The 4TB SSDs are at the top of the curve, $697 each on Amazon right now, but 2TB SSDs are 'only' $300:
https://www.amazon.com/Micron-MTFDD...ocphy=9014040&hvtargid=pla-439394347627&psc=1
The better economy is probably buying twice as many 2TB drives. Not that I am suggesting it is needed in your situation. You said you just need to be able to stream video. Hard disk drives are plenty fast for that, but SSDs use less power and generate less heat and estimates indicate that they last longer before failing, as much as 10 years under 'normal' use. From the right perspective, it might make sense to go with SSD instead, but that formula would probably need to include the "need for speed" to reach a tipping point of feasibility. I know that the management where I work would need a lot of convincing before they would pony up the cash to buy a NAS filled with SSDs.

 

[-MG-]

Ok, so going to start some testing tonight on my current rig to see how it handles. How am I doing based on this list and what we have talked about:

$188 SR1A6 INTEL XEON E5-2680V2 10 CORE 2.80GHz 25M 8 GT/s 115W
$260 Supermicro X9SRL-F
$288 Supermicro 3U 16 Bay SAS RAID Storage CSE-836 Barebone Chassis BPN-SAS2-836EL1
$151 64GB (8) 8GB SAMSUNG 8GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R DDR3-1600 ECC Registered 1.5V RDIMM M393B1K70DH0-CK0
$35 SAS9201-8i: LSI 6Gbps SAS/SATA PCI-e RAID controller

The RAM is on the motherboard's tested list. There were some 16GB Samsung sticks but not on the official list. Might still get those to allow more capacity since I would be filling all RAM slots with the 8 sticks.

Total shipped $912 (likely can do some best offer prices too to lower)

It is amazing to me the price of the cases and if I could find the right Mobo in the case then I end up saving a good chunk, but not a lot of 3U options with the mobo combo and backplane.

 

[Chris Moore]

$260 Supermicro X9SRL-F

You might want to make them an offer at a lower price. I have seen those boards go for as little as $150. I paid around that for mine when they were still new in factory packaging.

That looks like some good selections and I agree about the price of the case. I have seen the 24 bay 4U cases sell for as little as $150, without the drive trays, but they want a lot for the nice ones. Still, you can spend $150 on a regular tower computer case easily enough and this gets you hot-swap bays for the drives, which is a nice feature. Just be sure to block the air flow from the bays that don't have drives in them. I bought a couple used Supermicro chassis before and they don't always come with all the plugs. This is what they look like:

The beige plastic thing in there that takes the place of the hard drive when there is no drive is important to ensure proper air flow over the places where there are drives. I am not saying you need to buy those plastic gizmos, but you need to block the air from the empty bays so it can be pulled through the bays that do have drives.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Supermic...014300049?epid=1400267785&hash=item33ecb02991

 

[-MG-]

Thanks again. I know you aren't a fan of 2U cases, but really curious on this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2U-Supermi...h=item286e7c96b1:g:yusAAOSwJTNbvT6n:rk:5:pf:0

It looks like it has a SAS2 backplane and all I need to do is put in my CPU from above and I'm in for everything under $700? Am I missing something here? All wired up neatly as well. Also looks like the controllers are 'external' and might need to add the $35 controller from above to make this work?

 

[Chris Moore]

It looks like it has a SAS2 backplane and all I need to do is put in my CPU from above and I'm in for everything under $700? Am I missing something here? All wired up neatly as well.

That system uses 2.5" drives internally and, from the photos, they appear to be cabled to the SATA connections on the system board. It was not (by itself) used for storage. All those expansion cards, but one, are external SAS controllers. The one card that is not a SAS controller is a dual port 10Gb network card. This unit would have been connected to an entire rack full of disk shelves, possibly two racks. We have one kind of like this over at our main datacenter that has two 42U racks full of disk shelves all cabled back to a redundant pair of head units like that. It is a great item, for someone that wants to take it apart and sell the components. Each of those SAS controllers should fetch about $50.
I would not suggest using a 2U chassis because of the fans. They normally run very fast (loud) do get enough air through the chassis to cool the components. You could buy it, part it out and keep the parts you want, like the system board and RAM, even that 10Gb network card would work with FreeNAS. You just don't need all those SAS controllers and they are external connector units. It is up to you.

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. 2.5" drives have worse performance and cost more per terabyte of storage. I thought about doing it for the power and heat savings, but I would need a lot more drives to get the speed, unless I went to SSDs.

 

[-MG-]

PS. 2.5" drives have worse performance and cost more per terabyte of storage. I thought about doing it for the power and heat savings, but I would need a lot more drives to get the speed, unless I went to SSDs.

Literally caught the 2.5" part just now too. Thanks again for helping so much on this.

 

[Chris Moore]

Literally caught the 2.5" part just now too. Thanks again for helping so much on this.

Check this chassis out:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro...s-NR40700-Emac-MTW-5820V-P-S-NEW/163444574100

 

[-MG-]

To give closure to my post. I ended up getting a 1U server from work that wasn't in use and they weren't going to do anything with. It will require me to connect to a DAS which I bought a Lenovo one on Amazon that has 12 bays. It did have 2.5" drives as an option, but that looks like a big pain and would limit my expand-ability long term.

As a side, I did get my current system to start up a Win10 VM and so far my software is not having any issues with NTP:

05-01-2019 20:11:08 |GENERAL| Your local time is in sync with 1614.4298 milliseconds compared to NTP Time.

Thanks @rvassar for thinking about that issue as I would have had no clue.
Thanks @Chris Moore for the help

 

[rvassar]

To give closure to my post. I ended up getting a 1U server from work that wasn't in use and they weren't going to do anything with. It will require me to connect to a DAS which I bought a Lenovo one on Amazon that has 12 bays. It did have 2.5" drives as an option, but that looks like a big pain and would limit my expand-ability long term.

As a side, I did get my current system to start up a Win10 VM and so far my software is not having any issues with NTP:

05-01-2019 20:11:08 |GENERAL| Your local time is in sync with 1614.4298 milliseconds compared to NTP Time.

Thanks @rvassar for thinking about that issue as I would have had no clue.
Thanks @Chris Moore for the help

Appreciate the follow up. Out of curiosity is the 1U server Supermicro? I'm not as familiar with the 1U's, but many of the 2 - 4U ones use semi-standardized motherboards. You might be able to buy a larger chassis on eBay, use the 1U as a donor, and swap all the parts over. But you'd have to do some homework.

 

[-MG-]

Appreciate the follow up. Out of curiosity is the 1U server Supermicro? I'm not as familiar with the 1U's, but many of the 2 - 4U ones use semi-standardized motherboards. You might be able to buy a larger chassis on eBay, use the 1U as a donor, and swap all the parts over. But you'd have to do some homework.

It is not. It's a Dell R640 with some beefy specs to it.

 

[Chris Moore]

It is not. It's a Dell R640 with some beefy specs to it.

You could say that. Keep in mind you can add more drive shelves to that system and it should easily last eight to ten years.