C2550D4I Replacement

[rfvgyhn]

I think my third C2550D4I has bit the dust (stuck at system initializing and usb doesn't work) and I'm looking for a replacement. Any recommendations that meet the following?

* At least six SATA ports (or seven SATA/1 m.2 if booting from USB is no longer recommended)
* Low noise/power usage

Nice to have
* DDR3 ECC. I'd love to not have to buy new RAM (Crucial 2x8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800))
* IPMI

Flexible on form factor. The atom processor has been sufficient for my needs, so something similar would be my target. Looking to spend as little as possible. My original cost was around $400. Is that a realistic target to have for a CPU/mobo/ECC RAM now-a-days? I was hoping for sub-$300 if I could re-use my RAM. I'm in the US.

Usage:
* File storage accessed over SMB
* Syncthing
* Plex (direct streaming only)

 

[Davvo]

Knowing your market zone could help.

 

[Etorix]

* At least six SATA ports (or seven SATA/1 m.2 if booting from USB is no longer recommended)
* Low noise/power usage

Usual suspects: X10SDV (Xeon D-1500) and A2SDi (Atom C3000) boards—as well as their equivalents from AsRockRack or other manufacturers. Low power. Add a Noctua NF-A6x25 onto the "passive" heatsink for totally silent cooling without relying on server-style case fans.

Most are mini-ITX. All use DDR4, but if you only have 8 GB of DDR3 there's not much point sticking to it.
Unfortunately, price is going to be an issue.

 

[rfvgyhn]

Knowing your market zone could help.

My original cost was around $400. Is that a realistic target to have for a CPU/mobo/ECC RAM now-a-days? I was hoping for sub-$300 if I could re-use my RAM.

Usual suspects: X10SDV (Xeon D-1500) and A2SDi (Atom C3000) boards—as well as their equivalents from AsRockRack or other manufacturers. Low power. Add a Noctua NF-A6x25 onto the "passive" heatsink for totally silent cooling without relying on server-style case fans.

Most are mini-ITX. All use DDR4, but if you only have 8 GB of DDR3 there's not much point sticking to it.
Unfortunately, price is going to be an issue.

Ouch, those prices are pretty high. I forgot to include the 2x in my post. I have 16GB of RAM.

I'm not married to SoC style boards or mini-ITX. Would there be cheaper alternatives with "regular" CPUs? Are used components a good/bad idea when it comes to always on usage?

 

[Davvo]

My original cost was around $400. Is that a realistic target to have for a CPU/mobo/ECC RAM now-a-days? I was hoping for sub-$300 if I could re-use my RAM.

Definitely not for a SOC. And I was talking about your place (Europe, Noth America, etc...).
If you live in the US this could be a good deal: the X11SSH-F has all what you want (maybe not IPM, it's not really clear in the website); it requires DDR4 but for that price you just buy it and that's it.

About older mobos, it's out of my expertise.

About used components I don't buy used HDDs and fans but everything else is a great option, provided we are talking about server-grade hardware.

 

[Etorix]

I'm not married to SoC style boards or mini-ITX.

I noted that. But it happens that the best "low power" options are these lovely little SoC which largely come in mini-ITX factor. If your case is bigger you just have even more options…

Would there be cheaper alternatives with "regular" CPUs? Are used components a good/bad idea when it comes to always on usage?

Second-hand is an excellent idea for boards, CPU and RAM. But possibly not if one is going back as far as DDR3-era hardware.
For non-SoC systems the situation is difficult:
Current Intel CPU (12/13 gen.) and ECC-enabled W680 boards are expensive.
10/11th gen. Core i3 do not support ECC. The Xeon-tax is mandatory.
9th gen. Core i3 and earlier support ECC in C24x motherboards (or earlier…). But these are running out of stock and motherboards are hard to find and/or overpriced.
That leaves AMD. But server-grade Ryzen boards are few, and not cheap, and ECC support on cheap consumer-grade motherboard is "hope and pray"—not to mention that gamer-focussed motherboards more than likely come with unsuitable Realtek NICs.

 

[Etorix]

If you live in the US this could be a good deal: the X11SSH-F has all what you want (maybe not IPM, it's not really clear in the website)

Pro tip: Supermicro has "cheat sheets" explaining its nomenclature.
X11 is broadly Skylake architecture
S: Single socket
S: Skylake itself/Kaby Lake — I would expect Core i3-6xxx/7xxx to be harder to find and way overpriced compared with Coffee Lake i3-8xxx/9xxx CPUs (for X11SCx boards)
H: High end! price-wise, a 'M' or 'L' here could be welcome (but with a C232 instead of C236 and less features)
-F: IPMI! that's actually crystal clear

 

[Davvo]

Pro tip: Supermicro has "cheat sheets" explaining its nomenclature.
X11 is broadly Skylake architecture
S: Single socket
S: Skylake itself/Kaby Lake — I would expect Core i3-6xxx/7xxx to be harder to find and way overpriced compared with Coffee Lake i3-8xxx/9xxx CPUs (for X11SCx boards)
H: High end! price-wise, a 'M' or 'L' here could be welcome (but with a C232 instead of C236 and less features)
-F: IPMI! that's actually crystal clear

Yeah I was confused because they listed the controller but did not list IPMI as a feature.
Just downloaded the manual, you also have access to all the sata ports and the M2 slot without restrictions.

 

[rfvgyhn]

I'm in the US.

It looks like the E3C236D4U is the AsRock Rack equivalent to the X11SSH-F, does that sound right? It looks like I could get either of those plus a Xeon E3-12xx v5 for about the same price as a X10SDV-4C-TLN2F. All three seem to cover my needs, but are there any pros/cons between them I may have not noticed?

 

[Davvo]

In the E3C236D4U the PCIE slot 7 is shared with the M2 slot. It means you can use only one of the two.

 

[rfvgyhn]

I ended up going with the X11SSH-F + E3-1240L V5. Thanks everyone for your help. :)