BUILD X9SCL

[Tomas Liumparas]

Hello folks,

I've finally decided on my hardware. Special thanks to jgreco for starting the light in the dark :)

MOB:
Supermicro X9SCL
CPU:
Xeon E3-1230v2
RAM:
Kingston 8Gb DDR3, 1600MHz, ECC
HDD:
WD Green 3TB
Case:
Fractal Design Define Mini

I do not made my mind on PSU yet, I will use some sort of 400w PSU from home for a month.
I will buy 5 more WD greens, let's say one per month, in the future + RAM sticks when I will need them.

I have one question regards the Supermicro mini, it could be adresse to jgreco or anyone who knows the answer:

BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600.

How can I upgrade the BIOS if my CPU will not be supported until the upgrade?

 

[Tomas Liumparas]

Also could some one suggest CPU cooler? At least a brand?
One more question a lot folks suggest Pentium G2020. My question is a bit theoretical - what would be an impact in performance when using this processor instead of Xeon? Let's say I have 3TB drive at first, would I see any difference with Pentium and Xeon(model is posted in the above post)? If I would, where this difference would be?

Thank you!


Damn I just realised my build looks the same as this one!

 

[cyberjock]

2.o came out over a year ago. Your board should already have that BIOS version or newer.

 

[DrKK]

Agree with CJ, more than likely, your board will ship with the updated BIOS, probability 98.11%.

Also, as for CPU cooler, the stock cooler Intel ships with the retail boxed G2020 is *more* than sufficient for any conceivable use case. I am not sure what they ship (if anything) with the server CPUs, but if they do ship something (All "boxed" Intel CPUs ship with cooler, AFAIK), then I promise you, it'll be sufficient.

 

[jgreco]

All "boxed" Intel CPUs ship with cooler, AFAIK

No, not.

Happened to snap a pic of that due to the crushage, Ingram Micro apparently feels it is fine to ship processors in bubble bag. Perhaps if Intel had packaged a big heavy heatsink in there with it ... loverly eh.

 

[Tomas Liumparas]

Hey guys,

I thought it would be a better idea to get Xeon 1200v3 series processor, the thing is that it appears that there are no Supermicro distributors in my country.
So I decided to give a chance to Intel server line.
Intel® Server Board S1200V3RP Family

I think that Intel should make some reliable hardware too. Any opinions?

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah.. google that model. There's been a few people with problems with that board. I like Intel CPUs and SSDs but their motherboards leave something to be desired.

 

[jgreco]

Intel makes good boards. Definitely a viable option.

 

[JohnK]

Also could some one suggest CPU cooler? At least a brand?
One more question a lot folks suggest Pentium G2020. My question is a bit theoretical - what would be an impact in performance when using this processor instead of Xeon? Let's say I have 3TB drive at first, would I see any difference with Pentium and Xeon(model is posted in the above post)? If I would, where this difference would be?

Thank you!


Damn I just realised my build looks the same as this one!

Whether you see differences between the Xeon and Pentium all depends on what you are using your NAS for. As a rule of thumb I will say you want to look at the Xeon if your are transcoding using Plex and have many users. If you are just doing simple streaming, the Pentium is more than enough. I can stream 1080p to 4 devices using xbmc/openelec and Cat6. Also I can move saturate my connection moving files.