Motherboard for home server

[Dunadan.F]

I need an advice on the motherboard for home server. (ECC but low power box)
I am planning to build home TruenaScale machine. But i have not decided yet if it will be bare metal or proxmox VM. I will have few more VMs and containers.

Which board for i3-9100, i3-9300 (T version might be an option) will be better?

Asus WS C246M PRO/SE

or

Supermicro X11SCH-F.

 

[Davvo]

T version doesn't actually help.
I would go with the supermicro board.

 

[ChrisRJ]

What do you want to do with this machine? This will be the critical factor to determine what makes sense. Please be as specific as possible. Also, whenever possible, use quantitative measures instead qualitative ones. Many people say something like "I want a lot of storage". Much better would be "I want 20 TB of archive-like storage for photos, movies, etc. In addition I need 5 TB really fast storage for VMs and database servers". Just an example, I am sure you get my point.

 

[cap]

As far as I know, Supermicro is usually not a good choice for very low power consumption. In any case, there are hardly any or no corresponding systems to be found (but this may also be due to the fact that only a few try it out and optimize their system for low power consumption).
SuperMicro X11SCL-IF is perhaps OK but probably not really energy-saving like C246M-WU4 and D3644-B. In a test by c't (German computer magazine), the power consumption was still quite good. I think c't measured 13 watts in IDLE. However, I am not sure. And as far as I know, c't does not measure like the users in the Hardwareluxx forum, so the number might be higher. The users in the Hardware Luxx forum have a set of rules. I think they measure the power consumption with an active network connection in IDLE.

Try to avoid IPMI (IPMI consumes extra power).

Gigabyte C246M-WU4 is a great board. But you hardly get to buy it.

Source: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/105909-mein-10-zoll-server/?do=findComment&comment=1175846

Fujitsu D3644-B is also great in terms of power consumption.

Avoid BSD/TrueNAS Core. With FreeBSD it is impossible to build a real power saving system. As far as I know, you can't really reach deep C-states with BSD. Use Linux and PowerTOP => TrueNAS Scale. Avoid extra PCIe components or make sure they do not prevent deep c-states.

An efficient power supply is important. I prefer TrueNAS but you can find more information about power efficient systems in the Unraid forum. The Hardwareluxx forum is also worth a look.

 

[Dunadan.F]

What do you want to do with this machine? This will be the critical factor to determine what makes sense. Please be as specific as possible. Also, whenever possible, use quantitative measures instead qualitative ones. Many people say something like "I want a lot of storage". Much better would be "I want 20 TB of archive-like storage for photos, movies, etc. In addition I need 5 TB really fast storage for VMs and database servers". Just an example, I am sure you get my point.

It would two windows 2019 servers plus few win10 as a lab + next cloud and maybe 2 or 3 more VMs. Plex or Jellyfin container plus few others like home assistant, adguard or ph-hole.

There will be 6x 4TB (minimum) in RAIDZ-2. Plus it depends which board will choose. 1/2 NVMe for system and 2 SSDs SATA 3 for VMs and containers or the other way around SSDs for system (Truenas or Proxmox) and 1/2 NVMe for software.

 

[Dunadan.F]

As far as I know, Supermicro is usually not a good choice for very low power consumption. In any case, there are hardly any or no corresponding systems to be found (but this may also be due to the fact that only a few try it out and optimize their system for low power consumption).
SuperMicro X11SCL-IF is perhaps OK but probably not really energy-saving like C246M-WU4 and D3644-B. In a test by c't (German computer magazine), the power consumption was still quite good. I think c't measured 13 watts in IDLE. However, I am not sure. And as far as I know, c't does not measure like the users in the Hardwareluxx forum, so the number might be higher. The users in the Hardware Luxx forum have a set of rules. I think they measure the power consumption with an active network connection in IDLE.

Try to avoid IPMI (IPMI consumes extra power).

Gigabyte C246M-WU4 is a great board. But you hardly get to buy it.

Source: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/105909-mein-10-zoll-server/?do=findComment&comment=1175846

Fujitsu D3644-B is also great in terms of power consumption.

Avoid BSD/TrueNAS Core. With FreeBSD it is impossible to build a real power saving system. As far as I know, you can't really reach deep C-states with BSD. Use Linux and PowerTOP => TrueNAS Scale. Avoid extra PCIe components or make sure they do not prevent deep c-states.

An efficient power supply is important. I prefer TrueNAS but you can find more information about power efficient systems in the Unraid forum. The Hardwareluxx forum is also worth a look.

The problem is that i want to have IPMI. I know it draws power. Both boards have it so it would this same. But as i see on the manuals. When ASUS have all SATA ports populated then NVMe is not working. While on SuperMicro all SATA ports populated and both NVMe are available.
On the other hand SuperMicro has PCIE 3.0 x16 (8 lines) and Asus has full x16 PCIE 3.0.

I am not planning to use any HBA card as i want to passthroug the drives itself not the controller.

Thats why i am asking. What do you think about both boards.

 

[jgreco]

I am not planning to use any HBA card as i want to passthroug the drives itself not the controller.

If you're doing a virtualization setup, you do need to pass thru the controller.

 

[Dunadan.F]

If you're doing a virtualization setup, you do need to pass thru the controller.

OK so what would be best cost effective HBA controller for home use and wil PCIE 3.0 x16 (8 lines) will be enough or it have to have PCIE 3.0 x16 (x16 lines)?

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, what disks will you be using in TrueNAS? HDDs or SSDs?

Given that HDDs can, optimistically, push 1.5 Gb/s, any of the recommended SAS HBAs will do (LSI SAS2008 controller or newer, basically). Upgrades are only useful if you're using SSDs, because the SAS2008 has ~32Gb/s (PCIe 2.0 x8) of upstream bandwidth, which is lower than the downstream SAS bandwidth (8x 6Gb/s = 48 Gb/s) but still easily capable of keeping up with several dozens spindles of rust.
Now, for SSDs the story is a little bit different, and if you do want to get extra performance, an SAS2308 or a SAS3008 would both work well (they're both PCIe 3.0).

 

[cap]

Thats why i am asking. What do you think about both boards.

I don't know the boards. Maybe look around in other forums.
There are certainly other good boards that are also power efficient. The problem is that someone has to find out.

 

[Papa]

What's the gain on the power efficiency? I would say the function of the system is primary #1.