Supermicro X8DTL server...

[Dave304]

I've been reading posts and searching the internet for a motherboard....
Can I get some input on this server...
Its Dual socket ATX that will fit the new ATX case I have purchased...

My case has room for up to 10 drives...
I currently have 7 WD Red 2TB NAS Drives.

MrRackables used motherboard $215 includes shipping and 30 day warranty...
Supermicro-Server-X8DTL-iF-Motherboard-2x-Xeon-E5504-CPU-Heatsink-12GB-REV-2-01

Product Description

100% working Supermicro X8DTL-IF Rev 2.01 Motherboard

Supermicro Motherboard X8DTL-IF
2x Intel Xeon E5504 Quad Core CPU
2x Heatsink SNK-P0037P for LGA1366 1U Systems
12GB RAM (6x 2GB) (I think this is unbuffered ECC ram.. So I'll probably just buy 6 REG\ECC 8GB for 48gb ram)
Rev 2.0
Onboard IPMI
Does not come with I/O Shield
Tested 100% working condition with 30 day warranty


Is there anything that this setup doesn't support that I should pass on...
I don't see any negative posts about it.. But not a lot of talk either..
This will be for home use...

 

[tvsjr]

I guess it depends what you want to do with it. That's a decent board, one of the first QPI processors, and will run FreeNAS quite nicely. It is a bit older, and will consume a fair amount of power. It's also fairly slow per core, so single-threaded tasks like Samba might suffer a bit if you intend to load them heavily. It's also three major revisions behind state of the art (X11 being current... the E5504 was released in late 2008).

I would do a little thinking on the total cost of ownership between this board and a newer X10/X11 board running one of the Xeon E3 processors. See Ericloewe's hardware guide: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[bigphil]

I've got a very similar board, the X8DTL-6F. It's a great board and has been rock solid. tvsjr is right about the E5504. I'd dump those immediately. Not only are they a little slow, they also only support DDR3 800. That board supports up to DDR3 1333. You'd be better off with an L5640 or E5640. Those can be found on ebay for about $30.

 

[tvsjr]

I wouldn't say dump them immediately... it depends what the OP intends to do with the system. A decent little home system that's primarily serving up documents and stuff? They'll do just fine - in fact, I might even pull one out just to reduce power consumption a tad (keep in mind this will affect how memory is used, so pay attention to that in the manual). Planning to run 10 Plex streams simultaneously while pulling files from a Samba share via 10gig-E? Upgrade.

Just need to do a bit of cost-benefit after identifying exactly what you want the system to do.

 

[bigphil]

Well, if you plan to spend the extra money for 48GB of RAM, I'd make sure its DDR3 1333, and if you want to take advantage of that and lower the power consumption, $60 for a pair of L5640's would do the trick and not break the bank.

 

[Dave304]

Appreciate the info... I understand the age and limitations....
It will be more for storage.. Was also thinking about using it for Vmware to setup servers for learning...
But I see that Freenas 10 has a hypervisor built into it.. So that could be an option also....

The X8 boards with everything on them is a cost effective measure.. Even if I upgrade the memory and processor..

I don't see many X10s for sale that have a proc and memory included..
So I guess I need to do some more investigating...

Would really like to get a motherboard with dual processors and at least 48/64gb ram...
And wanting to keep this all under $500.00
Not sure if this is possible or in reach using an X10 or X11... But I'm in no hurry to make the purchase..

 

[tvsjr]

The highly-popular SM X10SL7-F will set you back $239 just for the board... then add processor and memory. Unless you stay bottom-end, you aren't going to make it happen for $500.

I'd say pick up the $200 X8, do some playing and learning, then go from there. See if FN is right for you, and determine exactly how much load you intend to place on the system. Down the road, upgrade, and make this system a backup/off-site system.

 

[JohnDigital]

I'm rocking an X8 and its more than capable for a NAS. I do a little minor hypervising, but am mostly serving up and storing media. Ive had an X10 idle in the box, in my office for 6 months because I need the other hardware for it and cant honestly justify it. I also say grab the X8, its going to work out fine for you.

 

[Dice]

I got a X8-DTE (IIRC) in an SC847. Hogged about 2-3x the power. Ran like a champ for 2 weeks. Then I lashed out at the noise levels and returned to my previous X11. Yes I considered the X8 purchase being an upgrade. 144GB RAM was lovely compared to the 48GB on the X11 system in a Fractal Design chassis. I did run the X8 on ESXi 6, putting FreeNAS ontop. I intend getting back into that 847 once I get a 2nd vdev going AND figure out a decent noise to cooling ratio.

 

[pschatz100]

It certainly could be an OK solution if you are serving files, but pre-Sandy Bridge cpu's do not support the AVX instruction extensions. This would impact performance for tasks such as transcoding video streams with a media server such as Plex - or any other "math" based task.

If somebody gave me an X8 board, I would consider using it, but I would not buy anything older than an X9 board - especially if you are then going to buy memory and new processors.