Hardware Recommendations for new build

[PeterSM]

Thinking of replacing my current system (details in signature) with a new system to run Scale. My current setup is a file and media server plus 2 VMs (Windows 10 and Ubuntu (Zoneminder)) plus 10 Jails Jackett, Lidarr, Plex, Prowlarr, Radarr, Reverse Proxy, Sabnzbd, Sonarr, Transmission and Wordpress (For development only!). The Plex server usually only has 2 clients but might be transcoding 4k files.
What do you think of this hardware list:

Motherboard	1​	Supermicro X11SSL-CFT
CPU	1​	Intel Hex Core Xeon E Series 2146G
Memory	2​	32GB DDR4 PC4-21300 2666MHz 288-pin UDIMM ECC Unbuffered
HDD	5​	WD Red Plus 8TB NAS 3.5" SATA HDD/Hard Drive
Case	1​	SilverStone SST-CS380 V2
PSU	1​	Seasonic Focus PX 650 650W Modular 80+ Platinum PSU/Power Supply
Boot device	1​	250GB WD Green SN350, M.2 (2280)
PCIe	1​	ASUS HYPER M.2 PCIe x16 Gen 4 NVMe Card with 4x M.2 Slots
NVMe	4​	Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD/Solid State Drive

The SSDs would be used for the VMs and Docker containers to replace the jails on my current system.
Thoughts and comments are appreciated!

 

[Davvo]

How are you planning to configure your pools? 32GB feel tight for the amount of jails you need to replace considering it's SCALE (kubernets? VM with docker?).

Check if the PSU is powerful enough and if your motherboard (X11SSL-CF?) has enough lanes for both the hard drives and the full PCIe slot.

Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance

I've seen about 1,000 threads like this one where people decide that they can power a dozen hard drives off a 360 watt supply. DO NOT DO THIS. I've seen another 1,000 threads where people decide to buy the cheapest power supply that they can...

www.truenas.com

 

[NugentS]

Looks good.
The only words of warning I might have are the the 4 M.2 in the Asus Hyper. We have had more than one individual on here saying their NVMe pool isn't performing well. I am not sure I have seen a solution yet, or even a good reason.

Doesn't seem to have IPMI - according to my swift read

 

[PeterSM]

Many Thanks for the comments.

32GB feel tight for the amount of jails

Sorry it isn't clear column to the left is a quantity so that is 2 x 32 GB

The only words of warning I might have are the the 4 M.2 in the Asus Hyper

Is there a better PVIe card?

Doesn't seem to have IPMI - according to my swift read

That made me check as it is one of my requirements!
According to Supermicro it does under Management > Software.

if your motherboard (X11SSL-CF?) has enough lanes for both the hard drives and the full PCIe slot.

I am afraid this has foxed me how do I check?
I have uploaded the manual for reference.
Many thanks for your help.

 

[Davvo]

Sorry it isn't clear column to the left is a quantity so that is 2 x 32 GB

My bad, that's enough then.

According to Supermicro it does under Management > Software.

Can confirm the board X11SSL-CF has indeed IPMI.

I am afraid this has foxed me how do I check?
I have uploaded the manual for reference.
Many thanks for your help.

Page 18 of the manual. You don't actually have a full PCIe x16 but a x8 in a x16 slot (all 3.0).

Also, you do not have space for your OS SSD.
Finally, check the CPU compatibility... I don't think you can fit that CPU on that motherboard.

• Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v6/v5, Intel® 7th/6th Gen. Core™ i3 series, Intel® Celeron® and Intel® Pentium®

 

[PeterSM]

Page 18 of the manual. You don't actually have a full PCIe x16 but a x8 in a x16 slot (all 3.0).

Aah I see. Might consider a different motherboard then.
The idea was to have the OS SSD on the M.2 slot on the motherboard and the data on the HDD (1 pool) and VMs/Docker/kubernets (I have not done the research yet!) on a pool on the NVMe SSD.

 

[Davvo]

The idea was to have the OS SSD on the M.2 slot on the motherboard

There is no such thing on the X11SSL-CF.
Look into the X12STH-F.

X12STH-F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/X12/MNL-2367.pdf

 

[Etorix]

Thinking of replacing my current system (details in signature) with a new system to run Scale.

Why change from an E3v6 to the next generation E-2100? You won't get much more in CPU power.
I would just put bigger drives in the old server to increase space.

X11SSL supports your current Kaby Lake E3v6, but not a Coffee Lake E-2100, that would be a X11SC motherboard.
E3/E-2000 platforms cannot bifurcate x16 all the way to x4x4x4x4. You'd need a more expensive card with a PLX switch to run 4 M.2 in a PCIe slot—but then it would work in a x8 slot.

What is your current motherboard?

 

[PeterSM]

Thanks for all the comments.

What is your current motherboard?

Supermicro X11SSL/M-F. Sorry, I thought it was in my signature.

I would just put bigger drives in the old server to increase space.

I want to commission the new server whilst running the old server and then use the old server to mirror the data on the new server as an off-site backup.

My thinking is that the speed of the NVMe SSDs gives me an advantage when running the VMs and Docker images and their related data.

My thoughts are now going towards Supermicro X13SRA-TF with an Intel Xeon W3-2423 although this is pushing my budget!

Once again any advice is appreciated.

 

[Davvo]

That's a workstation motherboard.

 

[Etorix]

My thoughts are now going towards Supermicro X13SRA-TF with an Intel Xeon W3-2423 although this is pushing my budget!

Latest generation + PCIe 5.0 + DDR5 can only push the price way up for no actual benefit.
I see nothing fundamentally wrong with using a good workstation motherboard as a server, but actual server boards (X13SP_ rather than X13SR or X13SW) for Xeon Scalable are the natural solution. And earlier generations (X12SP, X11SP) could meet your needs with DDR4 RAM and at a lower cost.

How much CPU power (cores, clock) are you looking for? Depending on the answer, you might even look at Xeon-D boards (X11SDV, X12SDV) to host 4 NVMe and half a dozen HDDs. (Not necessarily lower cost than a socketed Xeon Scalable, but lower footprint and lower power.)

 

[jeffself66]

Do you know if the IPMI is HTML5 or is it still the old Java interface? My current system (7 years old ASRock motherboard) has a Java-based IPMI and since I don't have Java installed on my Mac, it's useless to me.

 

[Etorix]

Do you know if the IPMI is HTML5 or is it still the old Java interface?

The IPMI of what?
Supermicro X11 boards and newer (ASP2500, 2600), but also A2SDi boards (ASP2400), as well as X10 boards with updated BMC firmware, have HTML5 IPMI. For AsRockRack it might be that the cut-off is strictly ASP2500.

Generally, it would be better to open your own thread and present your own question(s) in detail rather than high-jacking a random thread.

 

[PeterSM]

How much CPU power (cores, clock) are you looking for?

Not Sure! I can currently hit above 85% usage for short periods so I would like a bit more headroom there. My 2 WMs run slowly but this is not currently an issue.
I do need more memory with 25GiB of the 32 in use for services.
I have done some more research and now looking at a SUPERMICRO MBD-X12SPO-NTF-O with an Intel Xeon Silver 4310, S FCLGA4189 and 2 off 32GB DDR4 PC4-21300 2666MHz 288-pin UDIMM ECC Unbuffered.

What do you think?

 

[Etorix]

X12SPO ??? By the name of it, that's a motherboard for eight CPU systems. Massive overkill on this front.
And massive underkill in the RAM department as you'd be running an 8-channel CPU on just 2 channels.

If you want to go for Xeon Scalable, look at what you can find second-hand/refurbished for 1st/2nd generation (X11SP_ boards) and CPUs (1st gen. Gold reportedly goes for less than $100 by now), and fill these RAM sockets (6*16 GB or 6*32 GB). That should work out to more headroom for less money.