Xeon iGPU or not

[schoffman]

Hi,

I've been planning a Freenas build for a while, and pretty much decided to take the plunge to a Skylake Xeon e3 with a Supermicro X11SSH-F or X11SSM-F. I had a question on whether to get a CPU with the iGPU for the case that I might want it available to Windows installed with virtualbox in a Freenas jail. From what I understand FreeBSD doesn't support the iGPU and I know the Supermicro boards have their own graphics. But the X11SSH-F does support Intel VHD which from what I understand is remote desktop graphics using the iGPU, and the iGPU I think can be disabled in the BIOS so it might have an insignificant power penalty if not being used. So its really a question of: Will FreeNAS ever support the iGPU for virtualbox in the future? Does anyone have an idea of the power penalty of the iGPU when disabled in BIOS (assuming that it can be).

I'm specifically comparing a E3-1240V5 and E3-1245V5, there is barely any price difference and I know a few people have the E3-1245V3.

Thanks for your help.

 

[TheKiwi]

I honestly have never heard of the it, but I'm pretty sure that FreeNAS will never support that kind of functionality. It seems like a fairly specialised bit of tech.

 

[Ericloewe]

But the X11SSH-F does support Intel VHD

Source?

AFAIK, the iGPU requires explicit motherboard support to do anything at all- which is nonexistent on a typical server board like the X11SSH-F, since there's no iGPU video output.

 

[TheKiwi]

Source?

AFAIK, the iGPU requires explicit motherboard support to do anything at all- which is nonexistent on a typical server board like the X11SSH-F, since there's no iGPU video output.

It's some form of remote desktop virtualisation gpu-over-network thing. It doesn't involve a physical output. His motherboard claims to support it.

 

[schoffman]

Source?

AFAIK, the iGPU requires explicit motherboard support to do anything at all- which is nonexistent on a typical server board like the X11SSH-F, since there's no iGPU video output.

It's listed under features on the super micro page
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSH-F.cfm

I'm assuming I would have to install a terminal sever such as Windows server or Citrix for it to work. As for now I don't think I'm going to bother with it. I don't think there would be any reason to convert my future freenas server to a terminal server, and I could always add a video card FreeBSD supports if I really needed to and if it helped run Windows. My end all goal is to have one server be the only running computer in my house and serve as my dvr, nvr, media server, and data server. 3 out of 4 isn't bad if I put a lot of value on ZFS. I don't want to virtualize my data server either.

The NvR is what I wanted Windows for because I found software I really liked and affordable but it only runs on Windows. But since it deals with multiple hd video feeds it would need some kind of gpu.

Thanks for taking a look, 1240v5 it is.

 

[Ericloewe]

It's some form of remote desktop virtualisation gpu-over-network thing. It doesn't involve a physical output. His motherboard claims to support it.

Access to any iGPU feature, even if not related with video output, has traditionally required a board capable of video output.

Edit: XenForo seems to have missed the previous post. Either that or I was still sleeping and skipped over it.

 

[TheKiwi]

Access to any iGPU feature, even if not related with video output, has traditionally required a board capable of video output.

As both me and OP mentioned, the Supermicro web page for the board explicitly supports this feature.

 

[Ericloewe]

It's listed under features on the super micro page
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSH-F.cfm

I'm assuming I would have to install a terminal sever such as Windows server or Citrix for it to work. As for now I don't think I'm going to bother with it. I don't think there would be any reason to convert my future freenas server to a terminal server, and I could always add a video card FreeBSD supports if I really needed to and if it helped run Windows. My end all goal is to have one server be the only running computer in my house and serve as my dvr, nvr, media server, and data server. 3 out of 4 isn't bad if I put a lot of value on ZFS. I don't want to virtualize my data server either.

The NvR is what I wanted Windows for because I found software I really liked and affordable but it only runs on Windows. But since it deals with multiple hd video feeds it would need some kind of gpu.

Thanks for taking a look, 1240v5 it is.

Well, if the price difference is really negligible, I'd get the iGPU version if I had any plans for resale/reuse as something other than a server.

 

[snicke]

Hi,
I'm specifically comparing a E3-1240V5 and E3-1245V5, there is barely any price difference and I know a few people have the E3-1245V3.
.

Have you decided what to go with @schoffman? 1240 or 1245 and why?

Could you tell us more about Intel VHD. More about the use case and how the iGPU comes into play? Does FreeNAS need update/support in this field to get it to work on FreeNAS or is it working independently of FreeNAS?

Also trying to achieve that all-in-one thing if possible.

 

[snicke]

Ping @schoffman

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