10 disk transcoding build

[Mooash]

Hi all! My 2016 FreeNAS build is starting to show its age and its time for me to upgrade.

I'm finding it a lot harder to find hardware this time around including the secondhand market. My requirements haven't changed much, my system will be used to store data and run a few jails/plugins like Plex (including doing some transcoding). I'm considering storing some VM disks via NFS and Proxmox, but not sold on doing this yet.

With this in mind this is what I currently have in mind:

CPU: Intel Core i5-12500 3 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: Supermicro X12STL-F Micro ATX
Memory: Kingston Server Premier 32GB 3200MHz ECC Unbuffered DDR4 x 1 (leaving me room to upgrade)
Storage: Western Digital Red Plus 8TB x 8 in raid z2
Boot: Random NVME drive I find (not yet decided)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Toer Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic GX-750 750W 80+ Gold

I'm keen on the i5 because of its integrated GPU so I can do Plex transcoding via Intel QuickSync, this is one of the main reasons I'm looking at replacing my current system.

I'm not so keen on the motherboard as I'd ideally like one with 10-12 sata ports which this doesn't have. Is there a better motherboard option out there? The reason being is I'd like to make an additional ZFS pool with SSDs in it to run some VM disks off like my 2016 build had. I'm currently capped at the on board ports on this motherboard.

Is this motherboard still a good option with this in mind and I'm best off getting a PCI controller/card or something?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[sretalla]

I'm best off getting a PCI controller/card or something?

Yes.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Any particular reason for using 8 TB disks as opposed to something bigger? In addition to the actual price, the power consumption and presumably cooling (noise and AC power consumption if applicable) need to be factored in here.

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm considering storing some VM disks via NFS and Proxmox, but not sold on doing this yet.

and I'm best off getting a PCI controller/card or something?

If you are planning on running TrueNAS on any Type 1 Hypervisor then you will want to pass through the controller. There are ways around that however they are not the smart way to do things. You would be able to use the motherboard connections for the computer and then pass through the controller to the TrueNAS VM. If you are not looking to use a Type 1 Hypervisor then you could run six 10TB hard drives and use an NVMe as a boot drive (I have not looked at the user guide for this motherboard so you would need to make sure this configuration would work, meaning the NVMe and all SATA ports can be used at the same time) and this gives you the same capacity as eight 8TB drives.

32GB 3200MHz ECC

If you plan to run the Type 1 Hypervisor, make sure you have 64GB RAM or more. Just friendly advice as RAM runs out fast when you create a few VM's.

Boot: Random NVME drive I find (not yet decided)

Find something reliable and 64GB or larger as I just found out that if you have 64GB or larger the boot drive will create a SWAP partition on the boot drive and save a little space on the hard drives in the process. I need to find out more about this feature and when it came into existence and is it for both Core and Scale. But it's something else to think about.

Good luck with your new build.

 

[Etorix]

I'm not so keen on the motherboard as I'd ideally like one with 10-12 sata ports which this doesn't have. Is there a better motherboard option out there?

SATA is falling out of fashion, even for server boards. All motherboards with 10+ SATA ports I can think of are either embedded or Xeon Scalable—so no iGPU for you.

 

[Davvo]

X11SSL-CF 6 SATA + 8 SAS (integrated controller).

 

[Mooash]

Thanks so much for the replies everyone!

Any particular reason for using 8 TB disks as opposed to something bigger?

I just doubled my current drive size, 4 -> 8. I didn't really consider going bigger but I could always drop down to 6 drives in the array and get bigger drives. I thought they'd be hard to find but it appears even 18TB drives would be possible to nab around here which would be pretty fantastic. My current array is 8x4TB drives and nearly full so wanted more headroom so doubling made sense.

If you are planning on running TrueNAS on any Type 1 Hypervisor then you will want to pass through the controller.

Thanks! I considered running Proxmox on the new box and running TrueNAS as a VM using passthrough but I'm not sure I want the hassle. I know I could set it up (I already run Proxmox on another box) and honestly it would make life a bit easier but I already have an Intel NUC I use for VMs, NAS box is just storage. Maybe I'll have a play and see how hard it is to get passthrough all setup and go from there.

X11SSL-CF 6 SATA + 8 SAS (integrated controller).

Thanks! I think I looked at this one but got confused by the SAS cables. Googling shows a SAS -> Sata cable should be pretty easy to get a hold of so I'll see what Mobo I can actually get. Not sure that one will fit my CPU so will check that as well.

 

[Davvo]

Thanks! I think I looked at this one but got confused by the SAS cables. Googling shows a SAS -> Sata cable should be pretty easy to get a hold of so I'll see what Mobo I can actually get. Not sure that one will fit my CPU so will check that as well.

You need a mini SAS HD cable.

 

[Etorix]

Maybe I'll have a play and see how hard it is to get passthrough all setup and go from there.

The main issue is not whether it is "hard" to set up but whether the ZFS storage is safe.

Thanks! I think I looked at this one but got confused by the SAS cables. Googling shows a SAS -> Sata cable should be pretty easy to get a hold of so I'll see what Mobo I can actually get. Not sure that one will fit my CPU so will check that as well.

X11SSH is Skylake. But if you have to add a SAS controller to have enough ports, you may as well use a LSI 9200 or 9300 card in a PCIe slot of any motherboard…
Check carefully whether video transcoding is supported. For earlier Xeon E3/E-2000 generation this required a C236 or C246 chipset, not a C232 or C242, so I have a doubt about your current pick of X12STL (C252) board.

 

[Mooash]

Check carefully whether video transcoding is supported. For earlier Xeon E3/E-2000 generation this required a C236 or C246 chipset, not a C232 or C242, so I have a doubt about your current pick of X12STL (C252) board.

Any hints on how to check this? I understand what this all means but don't understand how to correlate it all. I thought pairing CPUs and Motherboards was more about sockets and the TDP which this set does match. I also assumed X12 meant 12th gen Intel CPUs which the i5-12500 is.

Again, thanks for your help!

Edit: I've just managed to confirm the C252 doesn't have QuickSync support and I do need a chipset ending in 6 so back to the drawing board for a mobo choice!

 

[Davvo]

Having a C2*6 doesn't necessarily mean iGPU support.

FAQ Entry | Online Support | Support - Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Frequently Asked Questions

www.supermicro.com

Issue with E3-1245 v6 iGPU on X11SSM-F

I bought a new setup the other day primarily so I could have more power to transcode HEVC content, but I am having issues with Intel iGPU being detected. Motherboard - X11SSM-F X11SSM-F | Motherboards | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc. CPU - Xeon E3-1245 v6 Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1245...

forums.servethehome.com

Supermicro's X12 boards with C256 and iGPU support only offer up to 8 SATA ports.
X11SSH-CTF doesn't seem to support iGPU, and it's the only X11 board with C236 that has as many ports as you need.

You will have to concede on something (server-grade since workstation boards might have better luck on this, having all the ports on the motherboard without an external HBA, or iGPU support).

EDIT: inserted Supermicro's FAQ response.

 

[Mooash]

Thanks, that makes sense. Number of drives is definetly something I'm happy to concede on since thats something I can fix with a PCI card or alternatively just buy bigger drives and use less of them like was suggested earlier. I think thats what I'll end up doing, getting either 10 or 12TB drives and only using 6 of them instead.

 

[Davvo]

I don't understand why you seem to loathe the idea of using an HBA so much.

 

[Mooash]

I don't understand why you seem to loathe the idea of using an HBA so much.

Not against it or loathe it. Was just one less thing I’d have to buy but if it’s what I need for my build then happy to get one

 

[Etorix]

The i5-12600 will work in the X12STL board—tough without support for proper scheduling on P and E core in TrueNAS.
Transcoding depends on support in Plex and this is the part you should check carefully.

 

[Mooash]

Hi all, apologies for bumping an old thread. Happy to post a new one if more appropriate.

I've come back around to this and think I've finally found some hardware in stock that should fit my build. Does the below seem reasonable?

Mobo	SuperMicro X12STH-F
CPU	Intel Xeon E-2378G
Memory	2x32GB Kingston Server Premier 3200MHz ECC Unbuffered DDR4 (leaving 2 slots to upgrade in the future)
Storage Disks	6x 12TB WD Red drives in RaidZ2
Container Disks	2x ~1TB SSDs in a mirror for containers
Boot Disk	Small NVMe drive (undecided)
Power	SeaSonic GX-750 750W 80+ Gold
Case	Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case

I realise this is much the same as my original build but with a smaller HDD count and a different motherboard/CPU combo.

I believe this CPU/Mobo combo should work for my requirements still since its powered by the C256 chipset which I believe supports iGPU transcoding. I'm also considering the E-2324G CPU because I plan on running a few containers for other things (backups, internal services etc) so figure the extra threads + cores aren't a bad idea. I believe this mobo should also give me the option to put a expansion card in in the future if I need or a NVMe card as well (though I'm doubtful I'll ever need the latter of the two).

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[nabsltd]

Memory

2x32GB Kingstom Server Premier 3200MHz ECC Unbuffered DDR4 (leaving 2 slots to upgrade in the future)

I hope "Kingstom" is a typo for "Kingston" and not some name-alike Chinese RAM that shouldn't be put in any system, much less a server.

As for transcoding, note that the motherboard does not have any way to display video from an iGPU, so there is no way to know if the iGPU is even visible as a device...the BIOS might disable it completely to save power. The back panel VGA port is not connected to the iGPU, but likely uses a Matrox chip on the motherboard. I would contact SuperMicro support and ask if the iGPU is accessible as a compute device before you spend the money on the board.

 

[Mooash]

Whoops, should be Kingston not Kingstom yep! My bad.

The product page on SuperMicro says it supports Gen 12 iGPUs and I’ve seen quite a few reports around of people running similar setups specifically for Plex. I’ll reach out to SuperMicro support all the same, thanks for your help!

 

[Davvo]

The back panel VGA port is not connected to the iGPU, but likely uses a Matrox chip on the motherboard. I would contact SuperMicro support and ask if the iGPU is accessible as a compute device before you spend the money on the board.

The VGA on the back is connected to the BMC chip as shown in page 17 of the manual.

 

[nabsltd]

The VGA on the back is connected to the BMC chip as shown in page 17 of the manual.

But, it's not dedicated to the BMC...it can be used to display the output of an installed OS. Windows and Linux sees a Matrox VGA on most of the SuperMicro boards with a BMC, so there is a standard VGA controller somewhere in the hardware of the board. It might be that the BMC chip emulates it, but it shows up as a device to the OS.

Code:

# lspci
...
08:04.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)
...