BUILD Home server hardware recommendation

[petr]

Hi!

I am a happy FreeNAS user since version 9, and I am looking to upgrade my main machine. My current spec are:

• consumer-grade motherboard
• i5 CPU
• 12GB RAM (no-ECC)
• 4x3TB WD RED
• 2x2TB regular HDD

On the side, I've got a Mac mini running multiple VMs in vmware (mainly dropbox and backup software). I am looking to upgrade the main machine, add more RAM and migrate the VMs to the VirtualBox functionality provide on the NAS. I would also love to have IPMI and virtual keyboard and mouse to not have to fiddle with cables when I need to do any more serious maintenance/setup.

To sum up, my functional requirements are:

• VirtualBox VMs (around 8gb memory needed)
• FreeNAS plugins
  • Plex, CouchPotato, Transmission, etc.
• ability to support the current 6 hdds with breathing room for future expansion
• (optional) hot-plug support (my current board takes a while to detect if I unplug hdd)

My idea of the hardware is following so far:

• motherboard with ECC and IPMI support
• 32GB ECC RAM
• quad-core CPU (Xeon?)
• existing case and PSU
• IBM ServeRAID M1015

I know there is a plethora of threads of hardware recommendation and they mostly point to SuperMicro - but I've been out of the hardware game for a while so I have no idea which model to choose to support all the above, and if it's worth getting a Xeon etc etc.

Help would be extremely appreciated!

Also, is there any recommended toolkit for the basic hardware burn-in testing to get the RAM and CPU tested? Any linux live CD that I can just pop in and let it run for a month? (found http://www.stresslinux.org/sl/ so far)

 

[Ericloewe]

Take your pick of the more common Supermicro X10s. If you plan on having more than 32GB of RAM in the future, you're better off buying Xeon E5 stuff. Avoton Atoms do support 16GB UDIMMs, but they're rare, insanely expensive and of dubious quality. Xeon E5 gives you at least twice the DIMM slots, so you can easily do 64GB with 8GB DIMMs in the future (more with Registered DIMMs if supported by the motherboard).

Do you have the M1015? If not, the X10SL7-F is probably the motherboard for you, since it's cheaper than a separate motherboard and HBA, yet includes an LSI 2308 controller onboard.

 

[petr]

I think that 32GB should be more than enough - I've already incorporated some headroom into the figure. Is there any other reason for getting E5?

The board you are suggesting looks great - I've not yet purchased the M1015 yet, waiting after I've got all of the items on the list together. Also, it only seems to list E3 as the supported CPU.

I think that looking at a cost, the E3 would be probably a way to go.

 

[jgreco]

There's no reason a typical home server would require E5, which is a different socket than E3, and a lot more expensive to get in that game.

For a typical home server, skip the M1015. Get the Supermicro X10SL7-F instead of an X10mumble plus M1015. Everyone loves it and it gives it all to you onboard.

To reduce cost you could get 16GB of ECC memory in the form of 2 x 8GB sticks. This means you're spending less money on memory you might not need but leaving yourself the option to expand in the future at minimal cost (i.e. not replacing four 4GB sticks). You'd basically have an opportunity to determine if that performance was acceptable to you.

The Xeon thing is a complicated call. If you are transcoding with Plex, and running other loads, the smart money is probably to get a low end Xeon (1231v3) and then not have to worry about it.

 

[TXAG26]

X10SL7-F.