Hardware replacement suggestions

[photomatix]

So I have an old Supermicro 24-bay server (Backplane: SAS846TQ) (MB: H8DME-2) (HBAs: SAT2-MV8) I'm wanting to replace the MB and HBAs in. The PSUs and backplane I believe will continue to work as is, but I'm not able to boot into freenas anymore unless I unplug all the storage drives and even when I get it booted up, I see a lot of I/O errors. I'm guessing one of the HBAs is faulty, but I'd rather not risk it and just replace everything post-backplane. It's due for an upgrade anyway.

I have 14 disks in it right now. 2 are mirrored for the system drive and the other 12 are 2 x 6 disk RAIDz2 VDEVs.

With all that being said, just from the limited knowledge I have in the enterprise world of computers, here is the hardware I'm looking at.

MB: GIGABYTE C246-WU4 (10 SATA ports)
CPU: Intel Xeon E-2124G
HBA: Possibly LSI 9211-8i or equivalent. (Do I need multiple HBAs or could I just use a SAS expander? Not really sure where to get one.)

I'm not necessarily sold on this combo of hardware and I'm open for ideas. I don't need anything that's high performance. I'm shooting more for budget. I was really hoping to stay in the $500 range for all the components, but the more I'm looking into it, I'm not sure that's going to be possible with the MB, CPU, RAM, HBA(s) and cabling.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Jonathan

 

[Constantin]

For a SOHO server that does not need to run a billion hypervisors, VM's, whatever, I'd consider the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F.

You get a capable CPU, 4 memory slots, 20 SATA ports (of which 2 are SATADOMs), Two 10Gbit/s SFP+ cages, one PCI 3.0x4 m.2, one mSATA m.2 slot, two PCIe 3.0x8 slots, etc. all in a low-power package. The board can be had for less than $500 and then you have to add RAM.

I wish I'd bought this one instead of the X10SDV-7TP4F I ultimately chose because it likely would run faster in my application and cost $400 less. My only other complaint is the heat associated with the LSI 2116 (under the gray heat sink in the lower left of the motherboard pictures). Those chips really like to run hot and I added a very slim fan to make it stay below 50*C yet accommodate a PCIe card, should I ever fit one.

 

[Inxsible]

Why buy new when you can buy used --

1. SuperMicro X9SCM-F -- $49.98
2. Pentium G2030 - $5.99 OR Xeon E3-1240v2 -- $50
3. RAM 8 GB -- $28 x4
4. HBA -- HP H220 - $34.99 OR LSI 9200-8i - $39.98 x2
5. Mini SAS (SFF8087) to SATA breakout cable -- $4.94 x3

Total Cost -- $ 252 with Pentium or $297 with Xeon

There are a bunch of other LGA1155 processors available. Go for the one that fits your needs. If your application is just a file server, go with the Pentium to save power consumption. If you need a bit more grunt, go with a Xeon. Xeons would usually have VT-d while most Pentiums don't (double check on Intel Ark before you buy). So if you are ever thinking of using this for virtualization, then go for the Xeons -- so that you have passthrough capability.