BUILD Build Double Check: Painting by numbers

[jerryjharrison]

diedrichg, I see you are using the same motherboard, with the SATA DOM. Anything I need to know as I start this build?

 

[diedrichg]

diedrichg, I see you are using the same motherboard, with the SATA DOM. Anything I need to know as I start this build?

First, If you mirror with two DOMs then you will be limited to (4) drives on your SATA ports unless you use an expansion card.

Second, the Supermicro DOMs are too wide and will cover up the adjacent SATA port as the X10SLM-F-O does not have the dedicated yellow SATADOM port. Consequently, I had to buy two SATA extension cables. I have yet to install them and upgrade to 9.3 - I simply haven't had enough time at home to do this to verify that everything is going to work.

**If I had it all to do again, I'd get a board with more SATA ports and a dedicated SATADOM port - even if that means going to an ATX board and a supporting case like the Define R4.

 

[cyberjock]

I really wish people would get off the dual channel/triple channel/quad channel bandwagon. Unless you are trying to saturate multiple 10Gb network links, you will be unable to realize any kind of performance that is missed because you are missing one (or more) channels.

If someone is buying one larger stick versus two smaller sticks they are almost always making the much smarter long-term solution.

Also, SATA DOMs are pretty darn reliable. I, personally, would never try to do two in a system as a mirror for home use. The odds of seeing it fail before you want to discard the system are pretty small. ;)

 

[titan_rw]

Uhmmmmm... Lack of knowledge. I had no idea that I was wasting performance with only one DIMM. Actually I assumed the opposite.

I probably will just add another 32G Dimm to the build, instead of dropping to two 16's. Not that big of a difference.

Please double check, possibly with supermicro, that that particular 32gb dimm is supported with a e5-16xx series processor. I know at least with the x9 stuff, 32gb dimms are not supported with 1600 processors because the 1600 processors do not support LRDIMM's, and 32 gig dimms are only available as LRDIMMs.

This web page: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10SRL-F.cfm

Specifically mentions "** E5-1600 series CPU does not support LRDIMM type memory". I'm not sure if DDR4 32GB DIMMs are all LRDIMM's or not, but if they are, they won't work with your CPU.

I have a e5-1650 v2 in an x9srh board, and am 'limited' to 16 gig dimms because they're the biggest non lrdimm. This limits me to 128 gig on the board, but that'll be plenty for my needs. I'm at 64 right now with 4 sticks, and can simply add 4 more sticks to make 128.

 

[Ericloewe]

I really wish people would get off the dual channel/triple channel/quad channel bandwagon. Unless you are trying to saturate multiple 10Gb network links, you will be unable to realize any kind of performance that is missed because you are missing one (or more) channels.

If someone is buying one larger stick versus two smaller sticks they are almost always making the much smarter long-term solution.

Also, SATA DOMs are pretty darn reliable. I, personally, would never try to do two in a system as a mirror for home use. The odds of seeing it fail before you want to discard the system are pretty small. ;)

I agree with your point in general, but since we're talking about 8 DIMM slots total, I'd say 2x 16GB DIMMs (which is probably cheaper, since you can get 16GB RDIMMs while 32GB seems limited to LRDIMMs for now) are not going to limit upgrade options.

 

[loch_nas]

I really wish people would get off the dual channel/triple channel/quad channel bandwagon. Unless you are trying to saturate multiple 10Gb network links, you will be unable to realize any kind of performance that is missed because you are missing one (or more) channels.

Lesson learned, thanks!
I just don't know how the difference of the theoretical higher bandwidth affects the performance of FreeNAS. And as FreeNAS uses ram very intensely I thought that this may be an important note.

 

[mattbbpl]

I suspect very few of you will care, but I'm continuing this thread for the 1 or 2 out there who will.

After battling with Best Buy through the nine circles of heck (4 weeks,~12 transactions, and 4 complaint cases later), I have finally gotten my money back from them. I then ordered the rest of my hardware which can be found in my signature, and it will all arrive tomorrow.

After doing some rough cost analysis, I decided to go the i3 route as it will take somewhere between 4 and 5 years to fill my pool barring a move to significantly larger files. I figure at that point A) DDR3 RAM may be prohibitively expensive and B) new technology may make me yearn for an upgrade anyway - and then I'll have the option of a second machine to play with or pass on.

Everything I've read about these backplanes indicate that "they're just a simple circuit board" and I can attach the disks from that backplane directly to the board using standard SATA cables - we'll test this theory shortly.

The hardware arrives tomorrow, but as I have a swim meet to coach I won't get started on the hardware side until at least Wednesday.

 

[mattbbpl]

Well, I feel sheepish.

I went to install the hard drives in the bays. I screwed the first one into the bay sleeve, slid it into the bay, and met resistance.

It turns out that the screws that come with the hard drives are unacceptable. They're rounded, but they need to be flat so that they are flush with drives.

Two days of searching for them in computer shops and hardware stores proved to be useless, so I broke down and ordered some. That will delay the installation of the drives further.

Lesson learned: Even when it comes to something as simple as screws, servers are not desktop machines. If you are using a Supermicro case, ensure you have a supply of Supermicro screws on hand.

I can still proceed with setting up the motherboard, SSD, PSU, and testing RAM. I'll attempt to get through that this weekend while I wait. I'm not sure if I can get anywhere installing and configuring FreeNAS without the drives.

 

[Darren Myers]

I ran into the same issue with screws on my 4U 24 bay 3.5 supermicro, and my 2U 24 bay 2.5 inch supermicro. The flush screws into the caddies allowed them to squeeze everything they could out of it.

 

[mattbbpl]

I hit another odd snag while installing the motherboard. The power supply cords from this Supermicro case won't reach the receptacle on the motherboard. Frankly, I don't see how the cords at this length could reach almost any motherboard.

Do I need to get some kind of "extension cord" or something? That isn't something I would think Supermicro would want to encourage, but I'm not seeing how else this would be accomplished.

 

[Darren Myers]

I hit another odd snag while installing the motherboard. The power supply cords from this Supermicro case won't reach the receptacle on the motherboard. Frankly, I don't see how the cords at this length could reach almost any motherboard.

Do I need to get some kind of "extension cord" or something? That isn't something I would think Supermicro would want to encourage, but I'm not seeing how else this would be accomplished.

Do you/can you post photos? All my cords reached my board without issue, and a few other users havent reported this issue either.

 

[Ericloewe]

I hit another odd snag while installing the motherboard. The power supply cords from this Supermicro case won't reach the receptacle on the motherboard. Frankly, I don't see how the cords at this length could reach almost any motherboard.

Do I need to get some kind of "extension cord" or something? That isn't something I would think Supermicro would want to encourage, but I'm not seeing how else this would be accomplished.

You can buy those, but it's weird that they're that short.

 

[mattbbpl]

Do you/can you post photos? All my cords reached my board without issue, and a few other users havent reported this issue either.

Sure, here it is. The cords in that picture are stretched out almost as far as they'll reach with the necessary downward bend. I could maybe another half inch out of them with some tension.

 

[Darren Myers]

Sure, here it is. The cords in that picture are stretched out almost as far as they'll reach with the necessary downward bend. I could maybe another half inch out of them with some tension.

That's a far reach for supermicro to put there 24 and 8 pin... Here's an 8 pin and a 24 pin

 

[mattbbpl]

Thanks guys. I don't have time to order those right now (I told a swimmer I'd swim a 1 mile IM with him today at 4:00 pm), but I'll place my order this evening.

Thanks for linking those, I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out what I'd search for to find them.

 

[mattbbpl]

For what it's worth, the backplanes on these Supermicro QT cases are indeed just a simple passthrough of the sata connections to the mainboard. FreeNAS can see each of the 10 bare drives as well as the boot SSD. I did run into a few build snags here and there during the build process, and I've documented those within my first post as a case study. If nothing else, the screw fiasco might save someone time should they read about it.

 

[Ericloewe]

For what it's worth, the backplanes on these Supermicro QT cases are indeed just a simple passthrough of the sata connections to the mainboard. FreeNAS can see each of the 10 bare drives as well as the boot SSD. I did run into a few build snags here and there during the build process, and I've documented those within my first post as a case study. If nothing else, the screw fiasco might save someone time should they read about it.

Ouch, individual SATA connectors? That must be painful to work with.
There's a version that bundles them up into SFF-8087 ports, for easier handling.

 

[mattbbpl]

Ouch, individual SATA connectors? That must be painful to work with.
There's a version that bundles them up into SFF-8087 ports, for easier handling.

Maybe? It's all I've ever known, so it's hard to compare. The one big benefit to it is that it all but guarantees compatibility.
I initially thought it was going to be pretty difficult due to space constraints, but the fans slide right out so you can run the cabling underneath them. And unless a SATA cable dies, I should never need to mess with it again as the drives interface directly with the backplane.
All said and done, I wouldn't hesitate to go this route. I'm really quite pleased with the setup, although I wouldn't mind trying out the SFF-8087 ports either.