Is the Supermicro A2SDI-8C+-HLN4F still a good choice?

[keylevel]

My current system has started showing CRC errors on a couple of disks when scrubbing, and it looks as if this is down to the SATA interfaces - so time to replace the existing hardware.

I am currently looking at using the Supermicro A2SDI-8C+-HLN4F, which has more than enough performance for my application (basically a backup target). However, that board is quite old now, so I though it would be worth asking if it's a good choice or should I be looking at something else?

My main requirements are to keep the power draw as low as possible and to have everything integrated on a single board.

Chris

 

[NugentS]

I've just built one wih a A2SDi-H-TF. Initial performance is good - but the drive temps are too high so I am going to have to look at airflow improvement.

 

[Etorix]

Embedded boards have long market life, and A2SDi is still pretty much current for NAS use. A3 boards have less SATA ports, and X11/X12 boards are higher power, for higher compute requirements.
If having everything integrated on board is important (and, with mini-ITX, it should!), think hard about A2SDi-H-TF—unless you actually want 25 GbE, or absolutely require SFP+ for 10 GbE.

 

[Ericloewe]

Hard to go wrong with the A2SDi boards - apart from the ultra-cut-down 2C version. The -4Cs are a bit annoying for NAS use because the PCIe slot and SATA ports share IO lanes, but fine for a small NAS. The C3758 and up models are pretty neat, since they can easily handle 12 disks, plus an M.2 NVMe SSD for boot, plus quad-10GbE, plus an extra NIC.

The X11SDVs are a massive pain in the ass because they don't have M.2 slots because Supermicro ran out of space.

 

[NugentS]

The A2SDi-H-TF: https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/a2sdi-h-tf

1. 4 RAM Slots
2. 12 SATA Ports
3. 1 PCIe 3*4 slot
4. 1 PCIe 3*2 M.2 - which to me screams boot or L2ARC (Metadata only)
5. Dual 10Gb (BaseT Unfortunately)

I have one with 6 HDD's in Z2 and was replicating a large dataset to it. My old QNAS was 1Gb and this dataset takes days normally (from scratch). The new one managed overnight. Disks got a bit warm though (I like < 40 and they were knocking on 40 overnight during the replication - so I need to review the airflow through the case.

 

[Ericloewe]

The A2SDi-H-TP4F is absurd in all the right ways:

• 16 cores
• Dual 10 GBase-T
• Dual SFP+
• Plus everything the A2SDI-H-TF has

 

[NugentS]

I think I decided I just couldn't afford that one - or rather couldn't justify the significant price increase over what I did buy. Would have loved the SFP+ though

 

[Etorix]

The A2SDi-H-TP4F is absurd in all the right ways:

Plus one wrong way (price…) and one infuriating way, namely proving that Supermicro can fit SFP+ cages on these motherboards without going SO-DIMM as in the network-oriented A2SDi-TP4F.

 

[Ericloewe]

You have to keep in mind that the A2SDi models have a decent chunk of their I/O panel area blocked by the DIMM slots, which limits connectivity.

 

[mrpasc]

A nice alternative (although hard to source) is the AsrockRack C3758D4I-4L.
I like them even a little more than the SM A2SDI cause:
1. comes with AST2500 BMC, so fully HTML5 KVM including virtual CD, USB, HDD support. Bye bye Java…
2. To save the last 6W power usage the BMC can be disabled via jumper for those not need it.
3. Has PCIE x8 slot and still 9 usable Sata (can be changed to x4 and 13 Sata). Nice for 8 Bay builds as one internal sata left for boot device and a PCIE x8 (think one of those M.2 and 10G Nic cards with PCIE switch from Synology or Qnap…)

 

[Ericloewe]

1. comes with AST2500 BMC, so fully HTML5 KVM including virtual CD, USB, HDD support. Bye bye Java…

That's not actually down to the AST2500, but the software running on it. Supermicro cheaped out and did not buy the HTML5 virtual media option until they upgraded to the newer version of MegaRAC for the X12 boards (A2 boards are X11 generation for most purposes, A1 are X10). X11SP* boards, for instance, use the AST2500 but do not have virtual media over HTML5.

2. To save the last 6W power usage the BMC can be disabled via jumper for those not need it.

I know that's available on the X10s and X11s, I assume the same applies to A2, but haven't checked.

Nice for 8 Bay builds as one internal sata left for boot device

I much prefer M.2, especially given current prices of NVMe M.2 SSDs. It's just so much cleaner.

 

[keylevel]

I do like the idea of being able to save some power by being able to disable the BMC on the C3758D4I-4L. I'll have to see if I can find a source in the UK who can actually get one.

The A2SDi-H-TF is worth a look too as it has the 10Gbase-T ports - I'm only using 1000base-T right now, but it would make sense to go with something faster as I'm sure I'll upgrade everything at some point. Just to confirm - am I right to think that 10Gbase-T is backwards compatible and will work ok with a 1000base-T switch?

I'm a bit confused over the IPMI support for the A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F. This review shows the BMC as an ASPEED AST2500 with HTML5 and the "Virtual Media" menu, but the Supermicro page shows it uses an ASPEED AST2400.

 

[Ericloewe]

The A2SDi-H-TF is worth a look too as it has the 10Gbase-T ports - I'm only using 1000base-T right now, but it would make sense to go with something faster as I'm sure I'll upgrade everything at some point. Just to confirm - am I right to think that 10Gbase-T is backwards compatible and will work ok with a 1000base-T switch?

Yes, but it's more expensive (switches in particular are ludicrously expensive, even used), slightly higher latency and higher power than SFP+ with either DACs or optics. Plus, it's a dead end, with no real 25GBase-T on the horizon.

 

[keylevel]

Yeah, I see what you mean about the prices! There are some about that aren't too crazy that have a couple of 10G ports and a number of 1G/2.5G ports, which is more than enough for my home-office setup.

 

[Etorix]

Something like a QNAP M408 should be fine for a home office.

I'm a bit confused over the IPMI support for the A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F. This review shows the BMC as an ASPEED AST2500 with HTML5 and the "Virtual Media" menu, but the Supermicro page shows it uses an ASPEED AST2400.

2400 or 2500, it has HTML5 anyway. The Virtual Media thing seems to be hit-or-miss.

 

[Ericloewe]

All Supermicro X10+ boards, including A1, support the HTML5 iKVM viewer. However, only X12+ (which menas A3+) support virtual media over HTML5.