Building Around The W680 Chipset

[razmspiele]

Hi everyone, I'm currently ready to pull the trigger on a much needed upgrade from an aging FreeNAS server that's still running 11.2-U2.1 code. It has x4 WD Red 10TB in RAID-Z2 and space is running out. Admittedly I'm rusty as I learned on the fly years ago, configured it, and just let it do it's thing.

I'm looking to build a TrueNAS SCALE server based on the Intel W680 chipset since it's more widely available than it was a year ago. It's going to be used to stream movies and music via Plex. This new box will hopefully set me up for another 4-5 years.

I'm hoping for recommendations to build around the SUPERMICRO MBD-X13SAE-F-O and hear what people here think. Proposed parts list is below. The memory selection is based on a compatibility doc from Supermicro's resources page for this board and I believe the HBA card should work based on the boards PCI-Express 3.0 compatibility. The 12600K was selected for it's ECC compatibility, 12th gen support of the board, and it's less expensive than other chips.

SUPERMICRO MBD-X13SAE-F-O
Intel Core i5-12600K
64GB DDR5-4800 ECC UDIMM (MEM-DR532MD-EU48)
x4 Seagate Exos X20 RAID-Z2
LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i

 

[NugentS]

Should work.
Does it have IPMI? A quick glance doesn't show it
What will you do with the PCI slot?

 

[razmspiele]

Should work.
Does it have IPMI? A quick glance doesn't show it
What will you do with the PCI slot?

According to the X13SAE manual (page 38 and page 106), the X13SAE-F is the only model that supports BMC/IPMI with a dedicated IPMI port. I think you just saved me some headache, because from what I'm reading, the 'F-O' variant doesn't include a dedicated IPMI port. Interestingly, I can't even find a X13SAE-F-O product page on Supermicro's website. Only the X13SAE and the X13SAE-F.

My only plan is to connect the 9300-8i to the PCIe slot.

Anything else I should be looking out for before pulling the trigger on the hardware? I'd like some more memory options if possible, but I could only find that one model SKU on the Supermicro page.

 

[Davvo]

Why going workstation board and expensive DDR5?

 

[Jailer]

According to the X13SAE manual (page 38 and page 106), the X13SAE-F is the only model that supports BMC/IPMI with a dedicated IPMI port. I think you just saved me some headache, because from what I'm reading, the 'F-O' variant doesn't include a dedicated IPMI port. Interestingly, I can't even find a X13SAE-F-O product page on Supermicro's website. Only the X13SAE and the X13SAE-F.

The "-O" in the part number denotes retail packaging and it does include IPMI.

 

[Jailer]

expensive DDR5?

It's less than I paid for the 32GB of DDR3 memory in my current rig.

https://memory.net/product/mem-dr53...cc-udimm-pc5-38400e-dual-rank-x8-replacement/

 

[Davvo]

It's less than I paid for the 32GB of DDR3 memory in my current rig.

https://memory.net/product/mem-dr53...cc-udimm-pc5-38400e-dual-rank-x8-replacement/

Yup but if I am not wrong one of the greatest advantage of intel's 12th gen is the ability to use either ddr5 or ddr4 (which should come cheaper).
Glad to see that the prices have normalized a bit... were insane a few months ago.

 

[Ericloewe]

Should work.
Does it have IPMI? A quick glance doesn't show it
What will you do with the PCI slot?

Protip: -F in Supermicro speak means "with IPMI". Typically with a dedicated port, but some oddball models may not have one.

Edit: said oddball models will have additional letters around the 'F', but most letters are just feature codes like NICs and SAS controllers.

 

[razmspiele]

Yup but if I am not wrong one of the greatest advantage of intel's 12th gen is the ability to use either ddr5 or ddr4 (which should come cheaper).
Glad to see that the prices have normalized a bit... were insane a few months ago.

While it may support DDR4, I only see the DDR5 kit listed on Supermicro's site and since getting 64GB of DDR5 is surprisingly inexpensive, I'm thinking the best bet is to just go with what they recommend.

Protip: -F in Supermicro speak means "with IPMI". Typically with a dedicated port, but some oddball models may not have one.

Edit: said oddball models will have additional letters around the 'F', but most letters are just feature codes like NICs and SAS controllers.

Looking at the photos of the 'F' and the 'F-O', it looks like the 'F' does indeed have an additional RJ45 port that the 'F-O' does not have. I'm guessing that the 3rd port on the 'F' version is the dedicated IPMI port and that while the 'F-O' doesn't include a dedicated IPMI port, it still comes with the ability to configure one of the included ports as an IPMI if one wishes.

 

[Ericloewe]

ooking at the photos of the 'F' and the 'F-O', it looks like the 'F' does indeed have an additional RJ45 port that the 'F-O' does not have. I'm guessing that the 3rd port on the 'F' version is the dedicated IPMI port and that while the 'F-O' doesn't include a dedicated IPMI port, it still comes with the ability to configure one of the included ports as an IPMI if one wishes.

No, that is an incorrect photo wherever you're looking at it. The final -O means retail packaging, -B would be Bulk packaging.

 

[razmspiele]

No, that is an incorrect photo wherever you're looking at it. The final -O means retail packaging, -B would be Bulk packaging.

I was looking at two different Amazon listings. X13SAE-F-O and X13SAE-F. The 'F-O' listing that's shipped and sold by Amazon must be using the wrong photo then as that's the one that appears to be missing the 3rd port.

 

[asap2go]

Yup but if I am not wrong one of the greatest advantage of intel's 12th gen is the ability to use either ddr5 or ddr4 (which should come cheaper).
Glad to see that the prices have normalized a bit... were insane a few months ago.

That would depend in what the motherboard supports though. If he is going with that motherboard then he can only use DDR5 with it - afaik.
One advantage other than speed is support for larger memory sizes like 48GB instead of 32GB.

 

[Davvo]

That would depend in what the motherboard supports though. If he is going with that motherboard then he can only use DDR5 with it - afaik.

Sure, my point was entirely made in order to change the motherboard.

 

[Z0eff]

I was looking at two different Amazon listings. X13SAE-F-O and X13SAE-F. The 'F-O' listing that's shipped and sold by Amazon must be using the wrong photo then as that's the one that appears to be missing the 3rd port.

Amazon isn't the only one, was shopping on a few dutch websites and the photo clearly showed a missing BMC chip.
I've learned to double check everything

 

[a.dresner]

I would say NO to this build, already tried it.

You are better off with the Supermicro X12 build in my signature. For your Plex and other containers, you can run them in Proxmox on a separate 1ltr PC with iGPU. You will connect storage from the Truenas to the LXC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylKpDmwaFA

 

[razmspiele]

I would say NO to this build, already tried it.

You are better off with the Supermicro X12 build in my signature. For your Plex and other containers, you can run them in Proxmox on a separate 1ltr PC with iGPU. You will connect storage from the Truenas to the LXC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylKpDmwaFA

Thanks for the link. That was a fun video to watch. That 1ltr packs quite a punch for it's size. What would be the reason to use Proxmox rather than just installing the Plex app in TrueNAS SCALE?

I checked out some of the parts on your build and am I seeing it correctly when I'm showing the E-2378G sell for $800-$900 on eBay and sites I've never heard of? I don't think I can stomach that for a CPU.

 

[a.dresner]

I got my gear on Newegg.
For many reasons that I don't have time to list but the main one is that Plex on TrueNas Scale has a tough time seeing libraries in the datasets. I tried over and over again and while it's possible, its not worth it and I prefer to run an LXC anyway, its easy to backup, restore, modify, etc.

 

[asap2go]

Thanks for the link. That was a fun video to watch. That 1ltr packs quite a punch for it's size. What would be the reason to use Proxmox rather than just installing the Plex app in TrueNAS SCALE?

I checked out some of the parts on your build and am I seeing it correctly when I'm showing the E-2378G sell for $800-$900 on eBay and sites I've never heard of? I don't think I can stomach that for a CPU.

You can get a used AMD EPYC 7302p + Mainboard for that price or even cheaper.
Giving you 128PCIe Lanes, IPMI, twice the cores, potentially up to 1024GB Ram and a solid electricity bill.

 

[a.dresner]

You can get a used AMD EPYC 7302p + Mainboard for that price or even cheaper.
Giving you 128PCIe Lanes, IPMI, twice the cores, potentially up to 1024GB Ram and a solid electricity bill.

I don't know this hardware but those specs sound good! Just stay away from using workstation class hardware to build a TrueNAS server pls.

 

[asap2go]

I don't know this hardware but those specs sound good! Just stay away from using workstation class hardware to build a TrueNAS server pls.

EPYC is usually server hardware while Threadripper is AMDs workstation lineup.
Is there a reason not to use workstation gear?