Hardware Recommendations Guide Discussion Thread Rev 2a) 2021-01-24

[Ericloewe]

Probably a good idea.

 

[usergiven]

Oh, you're right! Intel may not have yet officially (re)launched W-1200 CPUs "for servers".
But would that prevent anyone from using the current "workstation" W-1200 CPUs in a NAS or a homelab server?

Supermicro may go strictly by the Intel playbook, and have only "workstation" boards at this stage (X12SCA, S12SAE, and even X12SAE-5 with W580), but at least AsRockRack has not noticed that the chips are "for workstations" (or just ignored Intel marketing…) and has a genuine W480 server board, the W480D4U. 2*PCIe x8 from CPU, 8 SATA, 2*M.2, 2*i210 LAN, Aspeed 2500 BMC, no sound… This sounds like the spec sheet for a yet-unreleased X12SCH-F.

Sorry to dust this up but trying to find a relevant thread. I have an X10SL7 passing through the LSI onboard controller to make Truenas stable in a virtual environment. Looking at the X12SAE-5 right now and don't want to just assume that I can pass along the 6 Sata ports using the Intel W580 chipset because it seems to run a great many different things on the board. Anyone have an experience with this board or passing through intel chipsets to handle Truenas on ESXI?

*edit* went ahead and took a chance on the X12SAE-5 and it does not work for the use case above. The W580 chipset that connects the Sata connection is listed as a device in the hardware section but grayed out so unable to pass through on esxi. Very very fun board to put together and super fast with the W-1370, it's a damn shame. Without the ability to use Truenas along with other VMs on Esxi it's simply too fast of a machine for me. I haven't really come across a reasonably priced more updated board that could operate like the X10SL7 in the time I've been looking.

 

[linus12]

Is this going to be updated for the X12 boards? Seems the X11 boards are in really short supply, at exorbitant prices, or just out of stock. Looking for a X11SSH-CTF, as it already has the 8 drive SAS controller. Combined with another SAS controller, that gives me the 16 drives I need for my new system, plus the on board SATA drives for the OS etc.

Most of the other SuperMicro boards only have a single 8X PCI slot, or have a 16x PCI slot and then 1 or more 4x slots...If there is one that has two 8X or two 16x slots it might work. Oh yea, Single CPU only.

Just wondering.

 

[Etorix]

Looking for a X11SSH-CTF, as it already has the 8 drive SAS controller. Combined with another SAS controller, that gives me the 16 drives I need for my new system, plus the on board SATA drives for the OS etc.

Any possibility of using a chassis with a SAS backplane instead of multiplying controllers?
Or a 16i LBA?

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Is this going to be updated for the X12 boards?

Maybe. Or not.
You may go for a X12, if you understand the bifurcation between C25x X12STx server boards for Xeon E-2300 (derived from mobile Core CPUs) and W480/W580 X12SAx workstation boards for Xeon W-1200/W-1300 (derived from desktop Core CPUs). This generation was less attractive because one could no longer use cheap Core i3 with ECC RAM.
And then X13 is more expensive due to the cost of PCIe 5.0 for no benefit in a NAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

Is this going to be updated for the X12 boards? Seems the X11 boards are in really short supply, at exorbitant prices, or just out of stock.

Unless something changed in the last month or so since I checked, short supply and exorbitant prices apply doubly to X12.
In any case, the go-to board is the X12STH-F.

Any possibility of using a chassis with a SAS backplane instead of multiplying controllers?
Or a 16i LBA?

Pretty much this. The platform is very limited in terms of PCIe connectivity and switches are not cost-effective. However, even a single HBA is plenty for 99%of users.

 

[Whattteva]

Is this going to be updated for the X12 boards? Seems the X11 boards are in really short supply, at exorbitant prices, or just out of stock. Looking for a X11SSH-CTF, as it already has the 8 drive SAS controller. Combined with another SAS controller, that gives me the 16 drives I need for my new system, plus the on board SATA drives for the OS etc.

Most of the other SuperMicro boards only have a single 8X PCI slot, or have a 16x PCI slot and then 1 or more 4x slots...If there is one that has two 8X or two 16x slots it might work. Oh yea, Single CPU only.

Just wondering.

I just lucked out on an X11SPI-TF + Xeon 4210 combo for $600 (used). RDIMM prices suck though. Especially since I'm looking to put at least 128 GB on this with under 4 slots (ideally just 2 slots) for future expansion.

 

[Okeur75]

In any case, the go-to board is the X12STH-F.

And what would be the go-to board if this does not suit my needs ?
I've read your comment on the X12SAE-5 saying it is a workstation and not a server board, and thus you do not recommend it.
So, do you have any recommendation on a server board that would carry the same features ? (I'm looking for dual M2, and possibly one of 2 LAN at 2.5Gb/s)

 

[Etorix]

So, do you have any recommendation on a server board that would carry the same features ? (I'm looking for dual M2, and possibly one of 2 LAN at 2.5Gb/s)

X11SCH-F already had 2 M.2… if you can still find this C246 board, or an equivalent, for a not-totally-out-of-this-world price.
2.5 GbE NICs are not recommended. All of them, including Intel. Best stick with trusted GbE i210 and i350, or go to 10 GbE (onboard or as Chelsio/Solarflare card).

For custom recommendations, please define your needs.

 

[Ericloewe]

2.5GbE really has no place on a server (its only non-risible application is for WiFi Access Points), so you're not going to find any server motherboards that include it*.
Fortunately, 10GbE NICs are readily available to suit the needs of your network - even 2.5GbE, if you insist on it, with something like an Intel X550-AT.

* I believe Avoton/Rangeley supported 2.5GbE, but the ecosystem was not in place in 2014 to justify such a feature in production boards. Someone, however, may have a semi-custom or fully custom board that supports it.

 

[Okeur75]

I have a hard time looking into all the MB provided by Supermicro to be honest...
The X11SCH-F you propose would be good, but the mini-ITX format implies the PCI slot being really close, and I need to connect a GPU as well as a SAS card, so I have to exclude this one.

Copy for the 2.5Gb, I have no need for 10, but the internet box came with 2.5Gb port so I wanted to take advantage of this, but I honestly don't have the need on my LAN for such speed...

Regarding the needs, it depends ! Does it help

I initially sticked to the 1GB of RAM per TB of storage (I have 8*16TB in raid-z2, that means I would need 96GB). However, as I'm reading some posts here, some people are going for old motherboard (X9, X10) for their basic needs. And I do have basic needs! My server is 90% a media server with 3 concurrents streams at max.

So if I stick to the doc:

1. I need 96GB of RAM + 8 for TrueNas + some for VM, so let's round up to 128GB, which excludes some motherboard.
2. I also need a PCIe x16 (running at x16) slot for my GPU
3. I need at least 10 SATA ports. So either the MB offers this amount, or I need another PCIe x16 (running at x8) for the SAS card. And this PCI slot must not be closed to the GPU slot, because the GPU is 2 slot wide.
4. I need 2 M2 slot
5. Must fit in a consumer tower

If I go out of the lane as some are doing on these recommandation :

1. I can probably live with 64GB
2. It allows me to go for older board handling 64GB max
3. Previous point 3 and 4 stay the same

So I was thinking :

1. X11SCA
2. X11SRL-F

I cannot go (if I understand correctly) for X12-SAE-5 (or SAE) because the PCI lines are x16/NA or x8/x8

 

[Ericloewe]

The X11SCH-F you propose would be good, but the mini-ITX format implies the PCI slot being really close

Agh, the lower slot is a closed type. Bummer.

X11SRL-F

The platform is going to be a cut above - in both capabilities and price. It's fine, but keep that in mind.

I cannot go (if I understand correctly) for X12-SAE-5 (or SAE) because the PCI lines are x16/NA or x8/x8

Why is that a problem? If you have a card in the lower slot, both get cut down to x8, but there's no avoiding it on low-end platforms.

 

[Okeur75]

Why is that a problem? If you have a card in the lower slot, both get cut down to x8, but there's no avoiding it on low-end platforms.

Wouldn't it be a bottleneck for tanscoding to have the GPU at x8 ?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Wouldn't it be a bottleneck for tanscoding to have the GPU at x8 ?

A single PCIe 3.0 lane is capable of 1GB/s - you'd likely be fine with even that much bandwidth.

Transcoding is usually limited by the number of available video decode/encode engines on the card itself.

 

[Etorix]

The "1 GB RAM per TB data" relaxes for big pools, so you'll probably do fine on 64 GB.
I doubt that transcoding video makes use of a full PCIe 3.0 x16 bandwidth (few workloads do), so x8 should not be a problem either. But if you can find a X11SRL-F for a good price and the full ATX size is not an issue go for it! It uses RDIMM, and second-hand RDIMM is a very effective way to have LOTS of RAM.

 

[Okeur75]

Ok, so x8/x8 would be good for GPU + SAS card given this speed then. And I read some articles with the same conclusion.

Thanks for confirming the RAM need.

Thanks to all of you for your inputs, here are my findings :
On the X11SCA (with LGA1151 running 16 PCIe lines) the 2 PCIe slot are running at x8/x8. So how would behave the 2 M2 which are supposed to run at 4x each ? Are both x8/x8 links shrinked to x4/x4 to let some lines for the M2 ? Or are the M2 slots condemned ?

Depending on the answer, I think of 2 setup:

1. X11SCA + Xeon E-2136
2. X11SRA-RF + Xeon W-2223

• I have excluded X11SR1-F since it has only one M2 slot
• I have excluded all board with LGA3647 since none seems to have 2 M2 slots.
• I have excluded X12 and X13 boards

Shall I go back to X10 with LGA2011 socket or are the X11SRA-RF and all its twin sisters (X11SRA, X11SRA-F) a fair choice ?

Best regards,

 

[Davvo]

Ok, so x8/x8 would be good for GPU + SAS card given this speed then. And I read some articles with the same conclusion.

That's what I was wondering for the RAM needs.

Thanks for your inputs to all of you, I will work a bit on my own to set up a good rig and come back with my findings.

I think that creating a topic dedicated to your system in the most appropriate section would benefit you a lot.

 

[Okeur75]

Well I hesitated because the sub-forum is already flooded with "my new setup" topics, and then I found this very thread, so I did not really know where to post

 

[Davvo]

Well I hesitated because the sub-forum is already flooded with "my new setup" topics, and then I found this very thread, so I did not really know where to post

Here. Please be as detailed as possible and do tell your use case.

 

[Okeur75]

Here. Please be as detailed as possible and do tell your use case.

Done, thank you :)

 

[consideringTrueNAS]

Hi, I am considering to build a NAS to run TrueNAS. I went to Resources to get the Hardware Recommendations Guide but it was made two years ago. Is there a more up-to-date guide?