BUILD Asus P8C WS, Athlon 64 and a Supermicro board

[Thinkcat]

Hello

I am currently running a hackintosh, based on Asus P8C WS. It has 24 GB of ECC memory. I have no idea if OS X supports the ECC or not. I have an Ivy Bridge E3 Xeon in it, and I am very happy with it as a workstation.

I needed a NAS, and quickly set up one using three WD Red hard disks in a triple mirror configuration and FreeNAS. The machine that those are in has an Asus M2N-E with an Athlon 64 X2 CPU. This machine has no ECC memory, and that has me worried.

I would like to rebuild the Athlon machine to a Supermicro Xeon E3, maybe Haswell, but I keep wondering about Skylake. I am also undecided about a couple of things. I would like to switch from FreeNAS to either FreeBSD or linux and run the machine as a general purpose server in addition to being a NAS. But I am not sure. The machine could also see some use as a workstation. I am torn between these three uses. The P8C WS machine will stay a hackintosh, so it is not an option to make it a server or a linux or FreeBSD workstation, to have the Supermicro machine stay a pure NAS forever.

I have trouble deciding between Supermicro E3 Haswell motherboards. There are three candidates. Either a workstation motherboard, say X10SAE or X10SAT. Or a cheap NAS board. Or X10SL7-F, with the extra LSI controller. I currently need four SATA connectors, but that could go up to seven if I decide to add a second pool. Only disadvantage with X10SAE or X10SAT is that I would not have IPMI.

Is anyone else here waiting for Skylake E3 Xeons to appear before moving forward, or should I consider Haswell a tried and tested option and just go for it?

 

[Ericloewe]

X10SAE or X10SAT is that I would not have IPMI.

The additional Marvell SATA controller is also garbage. Forget those boards.

Haswell/Broadwell works very well. Skylake's most notable change is RDIMM support for Xeon E3 (along with the move to DDR4 and Skylake's changes).

 

[Thinkcat]

The additional Marvell SATA controller is also garbage. Forget those boards.

But I would have 6 usable SATA connectors to 2 useless, and could upgrade by adding a card?

 

[Darren Myers]

But I would have 6 usable SATA connectors to 2 useless, and could upgrade by adding a card?

You could add a LSI 9211-8i or M1015 equivalent but that allows you to add up to 8 hdds without the need for an expander to get more hdds

 

[Thinkcat]

http://www.damicon.fi/hinnastot/komponentit/emolevyt/lga1150

Here is my retailer. The prices are in Euro, and I need to pay the 24 % VAT. The letter V on green background means that the motherboard is immediately available. The zero on grey background means that the motherboard must be ordered.

 

[Ericloewe]

amazon.de has slightly better pricing. The X10SL7-F, for instance, would end up at roughly 310-315€ plus shipping. (With 24% VAT)

Any of the boards your guys have in stock are good options. I have a guide to the differences between them. I'd choose either the X10SLM+-F or X10SL7-F.

 

[Thinkcat]

You could add a LSI 9211-8i or M1015 equivalent but that allows you to add up to 8 hdds without the need for an expander to get more hdds

Are either of these compatible with all recommended Haswell Xeon E3 motherboards from Supermicro?

 

[Ericloewe]

Are either of these compatible with all recommended Haswell Xeon E3 motherboards from Supermicro?

If everyone did their work correctly, they'll work on any PCI-e-equipped motherboard.

Nobody's ever complained about compatibility issues with LSI SAS2 controllers on Supermicro boards. That includes SAS2008 and SAS2308 cards.

 

[Thinkcat]

Ok. I want to go for a Haswell Xeon motherboard. I do not want the X10SL7-F yet. I will leave the expansion of my NAS to a separate project and will now do with single RAID 1 volume. Now I want to know the best motherboard from the six remaining models. I exclude X10SLM+-LN4F.

I'd rather avoid X10SLL-F and X10SLM-F because of memory compatibility.

I am left with X10SLL+-F, X10SLM+-F and X10SLH-F. Supermicro's page says about X10SLH-F that it has "7-years life, VHD Supported". What does this mean, and do I need it or would I enjoy it?

From Germany I can get X10SLM+-F for 205 euros plus postage, X10SLM-H for 245 euros plus postage.

Edit: Got the VHD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHD_(file_format) but still wondering about the 7 years. I do not expect the lesser models to self-destruct before that, but there must be something for it in this one.

 

[Ericloewe]

Choose the chipset you want: C222 on X10SLL+-F, C224 on X10SLM+-F and C226 on X10SLH-F. For details check out the X10 FAQ.

 

[Thinkcat]

Ok. I think I have now ruled out Avoton and Rangeley boards, Xeon D and Xeon E5. Unless someone comes up with something really exciting, I will pull the trigger on X10SLH-F. Then I must decide on the CPU. Contenders are Haswell Pentium, i3 and Xeon E3-1231 v3. Pentium lacks AES-NI. Then it is between i3 and Xeon.

 

[Darren Myers]

I'd much rather have the Xeon now then need/want it later.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Thinkcat]

Listing the whole X10SLH-F memory HCL here, at least 8 GB modules, and their availability now in Amazon.de:

1.5 V 1866 Samsung M391B1G73QH0-CMA --- 83.11 euros + postage & handling apiece
1.5 V 1600 Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CK0 --- none found
1.35 V 1600 Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 --- 70,55 apiece + p & h

1.5 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7MFR8C-PB --- none found
1.35 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7AFR8A-PB --- none
1.35 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7BFR8A-PB --- none
1.35 V 1333 Hynix HMT351U7CFR8A-H9 --- none

1.35 V 1600 Micron MT18KSF1G72AZ-1G6E1 --- none found

Edit: Micron found as
1.35 V 1600 Crucial CT102472BD160B --- 67,62 apiece + p & h

Quite a result. Which one would you take?

 

[ChriZ]

I would take the cheaper ones.
A tiny bit less power usage and 1600 vs 1866 is not some difference you will ever notice..
But if you get 32GB about €50 cheaper is certainly something you will notice, lol...

 

[Ericloewe]

Listing the whole X10SLH-F memory HCL here, at least 8 GB modules, and their availability now in Amazon.de:

1.5 V 1866 Samsung M391B1G73QH0-CMA --- 83.11 euros + postage & handling apiece
1.5 V 1600 Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CK0 --- none found
1.35 V 1600 Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 --- 70,55 apiece

1.5 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7MFR8C-PB --- none found
1.35 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7AFR8A-PB --- none
1.35 V 1600 Hynix HMT41GU7BFR8A-PB --- none
1.35 V 1333 Hynix HMT351U7CFR8A-H9 --- none

1.35 V 1600 Micron MT18KSF1G72AZ-1G6E1 --- none found

Quite a result. Which one would you take?

There's an entire guide on the subject. ;) Check my sig.

The Micron DIMMs can be bought directly from Crucial's web store, at reasonable prices. Though 71€ per DIMM is not a bad price for the Samsungs.

 

[Thinkcat]

Cheapest total with postage and handling is 143 euros for Crucial and 156 euros for Samsung. I think Samsung is the safer choice.

It is cheaper to buy two single Crucial modules instead of a kit. Every time I select a product and add it into basket in Amazon.de, I see the actual price of the product, then some mysterious charge that ranges from 3 to 10 euros and is mentioned nowhere. Then, on a separate line, is postage and handling, adding to a total that has been final this far. The mysterious charge is not VAT. That I can see separately.

 

[Ericloewe]

Cheapest total with postage and handling is 143 euros for Crucial and 156 euros for Samsung. I think Samsung is the safer choice.

It is cheaper to buy two single Crucial modules instead of a kit. Every time I select a product and add it into basket in Amazon.de, I see the actual price of the product, then some mysterious charge that ranges from 3 to 10 euros and is mentioned nowhere. Then, on a separate line, is postage and handling, adding to a total that has been final this far. The mysterious charge is not VAT. That I can see separately.

Never experienced that. What I do know is that they use the destination's VAT rate, instead of 19%, which is the German one and the one used for all product pages.
They only calculate this on checkout or if you use "estimate shipping and handling".