Hardware availability for $1500 buiild

[Crusher21]

I already have 8 14TB drives ready to go. The other day I was able to snag a 15-bay Rosewill 4U RSV-L4500U. Overall my budget is flexible but I'd prefer to stay under $1500.

For parts, I'm looking at
CPU: Xeon W-1350P - $300 MSRP
Motherboard: Undecided, ~$300
Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G5 - $260
RAM: 2x Crucial 16GB DDR4 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered 2666 - $232

I'm having a hard time getting my hands on this CPU or really any of the new Q2 2021 Xeons.

1. Where can I acquire this processor for around MSRP?
2. Any specific recommendations for a motherboard? I'm not exactly sure what to look for besides ECC support

 

[Constantin]

Have you had a look at the recommended hardware lists in the resources section?

what is your use case?

 

[jgreco]

Silicon availability generally hits channel partners before the wholesale channel that feeds the retail market, so look at Dell/HP/etc to see if the CPU is even available yet. If it isn't even available from them, then the product is highly constrained, and you probably won't find it for sale elsewhere.

Having the latest and hottest CPU is not really an advantage for your NAS. Older gear, up to stuff as old as Sandy Bridge, is extremely capable and serviceable.

Do be sure to get an actual server mainboard, from the likes of Supermicro, rather than just picking some random one. Servers, workstations, gamers, and PC's might all seem to be the same things, but they differ in the details, such as a server mainboard will have ethernet chipsets that are designed for heavy load (i.e. Intel -- not Realtek) and IPMI/BMC.

 

[Constantin]

I totally agree. The main advantage for more recent CPUs is a gradual increase in energy efficiency - more work for less watts. But use case is important - how much cpu do you really need vs. $$$

For example, supermicro makes a embedded d1508 and a d1537-based version of my motherboard. I bought the latter, thinking I might run VMs or a bunch of jails.

However, I could have saved $500 and likely gotten better performance out of the D1508 for my use case since neither jails nor VMs ended up working for me. The D1508 may have fewer cores but it features a faster clock and SMB is single-threaded.

 

[Crusher21]

Appreciate the responses!

I'd prefer to have a newish procesor, no later than 2019, due to power efficiency improvements. I'm willing to spend a few extra bucks to get it new. I was planning on grabbing one of the Supermicro motherboards.

I will be running proxmox/ESXi (haven't decided which) with FreeNAS in a VM, want to dedicate 4 cores to FreeNAS and 2 cores for a Windows VM (plex).

Should I really be looking toward embedded, or separate CPU + motherboard?

 

[Constantin]

If your system is not set in stone, then a separate processor makes more sense to me. That gives you the opportunity to expand in the future if transcoding and the like is desired.

Embedded processors are potentially more efficient but in my use case the biggest consumer is the hard drive array (8x7W plus another 15W of SSDs). My rig consumes about 106W at the wall plug, of which the cpu is likely around 10%, if not less, during idle.

Power conversion, fans, and other BOP on the motherboard (such as the screaming hot LSI HBA) make up the rest. This is another area worth a bit of study - Ie what difference a platinum or titanium PSU might make in the long run. After all, my rig is loafing along at ~20% of its PSU capacity and that part loading is precisely what the platinum and titanium standards try to address.

 

[Crusher21]

@Constantin Alright so I had to sit on it for a few days, but I'm really thinking about getting the E-2236 ($340). I also looked at the Xeon 4210 (10 core) for $500, but seems overkill. Looking to buy all the parts by end of day tomorrow/Sunday.

Everyone recommends those Supermicro motherboards, would anyone be able to suggest a specific one?

@Constantin Now about that PSU...I considered grabbing a titanium or platinum one but those things are $300+. Seems like PSU prices have risen a lot in recent years, I remember grabbing a 1000W EVGA G3 4 years ago for $120. Regardless of price, what are the recommended PSU's in the Titanium/Platinum arena?

 

[Constantin]

Apologies, I haven't been on all weekend. The motherboard question comes down to what you want to achieve with the rig.

For example, I chose a motherboard that has a built-in HBA, allowing lots of disks to get attached. You may decide it is wiser to have a separate HBA. Similarly, I have a embedded CPU, you are choosing (a likely wiser) approach. So have a look at the resources section, there are at least 3 hardware guides from Chris Moore and others that describe in detail what motherboards are popular and why.

If it was up to me, I would go with something that has a SFP+ port or two built in to future-proof the thing. SFP+ gives you a lot of freedom to choose among many transceivers and optical is the still the cheapest / least power hungry / least costly approach out there other than DAC twinax.

Power supply choices will always vary... how much of a premium to pay for a Seasonic or other high-quality power supply over what else is out there is always a good question. Don't overlook the possibility of buying a inexpensive older supermicro case on ebay and retrofitting it with a newer power supply. The supermicro gear doesn't tend to fluctuate as much as the rest of the market because server boxes are usually not popular with gamers. May have changed thanks to Chia, but in the past, wiredzone could offer power supplies for SuperMicro cases for much less than top-of-the line consumer stuff.

I run a Seasonic 650W Titanium (SSR-650TD) in my rig. It's less than 25% loaded per the plug meter, though loading on individual voltage busses (12V, 5V, etc.) may be a different question. Amazon is currently selling a used 750W version of this power supply for ~$230.

 

[Crusher21]

@Constantin No worries!!! I ordered most of the stuff over the weekend, let me know what you think!!
Chassis: Rosewill 4U RSV-L4500U Rackmount Server Chassis ($187, already arrived)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 P2 850W ($259)
RAM: 2x Kingston KSM24ED8 ($264)
CPU: Intel Xeon E-2236 Hexa-core ($332)
Motherboard: Supermicro Motherboard MBD-X11SCA-F-O ($367)

Hope you guys support this build. Originally planned to run TrueNAS in a Proxmox VM, but I think I'll just run bare metal instead.

I still need to choose an HBA for my drives

 

[Crusher21]

Could have a delimma. My case says it supports PS2 power supplies, what on earth is that?
https://www.rosewill.com/download/rsv-l4500u-user-manual/?wpdmdl=59141&ind=1623742079654