Is this a good deal?

[Fuganater]

Is this a good deal? I am looking for something cheaper than my X10 for a secondary system.

Supermicro X8DTH-6 with 2x Xeon E5620 and 48GB of ECC R RAM for $325

 

[anodos]

Is this a good deal? I am looking for something cheaper than my X10 for a secondary system.

Supermicro X8DTH-6 with 2x Xeon E5620 and 48GB of ECC R RAM for $325

It's not bad. It'll use more power than a more modern system. You'll want to get an lsi 9211-8i for it.

 

[Fuganater]

Power is not an issue. The onboard would not be good enough? I have a few 9211-8i but would be nice not to have to use one.

 

[JDCynical]

Supermicro X8DTH-6 with 2x Xeon E5620 and 48GB of ECC R RAM for $325

That's cheap, and there is a reason :)

My biggest concern is the CPU's use a front side bus, and a relatively slow one at that, which is a big bottle neck for FreeNAS use. But as you plan on making this a secondary system, it might not be a concern for you.

As for the on-board controller, according to SM's site, it's a LSI 2008 chip, which is what is used on the LSI 9211-8i and IBM M1015, per the confused about that LSI card thread, so it should be fine as long as you flash it to IT mode.

 

[jgreco]

It'll put out as much heat as a small space heater, and won't be particularly fast, but for a secondary system to hold backups and stuff, probably doable. The large amount of RAM will help to offset the FSB bottlenecks and could actually make it somewhat attractive if you had a lot of read activity on the system.

 

[Fuganater]

Well if those are the issues than I think I will pass on it. I was hoping that the dual CPU and butt load of RAM would help since it is an older board. I guess I will keep an eye out for a good deal on a X9 system.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[anodos]

That's cheap, and there is a reason :)

My biggest concern is the CPU's use a front side bus, and a relatively slow one at that, which is a big bottle neck for FreeNAS use. But as you plan on making this a secondary system, it might not be a concern for you.

As for the on-board controller, according to SM's site, it's a LSI 2008 chip, which is what is used on the LSI 9211-8i and IBM M1015, per the confused about that LSI card thread, so it should be fine as long as you flash it to IT mode.

X8DTH-6 / xeon E5620 doesn't have an FSB. Below is a diagram of Nehalem architecture

 

[Fuganater]

Ah well thanks. I'm looking for another board now so if anyone sees a X9 for a good price hit me up.

 

[HoneyBadger]

X8DTH-6 / xeon E5620 doesn't have an FSB. Below is a diagram of Nehalem architecture

Thank you. FSB died with the 5400 series and FBDIMMs, and while the 5600 series isn't going to set any benchmark records versus a modern Sandy/Ivy or Haswell, it doesn't mean that they're useless paperweights.

Does the $325 price include a (quality) case and drive trays/expander/backplane?

 

[anodos]

Thank you. FSB died with the 5400 series and FBDIMMs, and while the 5600 series isn't going to set any benchmark records versus a modern Sandy/Ivy or Haswell, it doesn't mean that they're useless paperweights.

Does the $325 price include a (quality) case and drive trays/expander/backplane?

Supermicro X8 2U with 12*3.5" bays, SAS expander backplane (can't remember the exact model off the top of my head), 2*5620, and 48GB RAM for around $350 a couple of months ago.

 

[jgreco]

Nehalem is still a power Hoover, and I want to say that machines of that era are likely to be 3Gbps SAS, which is "watch yer back" territory.

 

[anodos]

Nehalem is still a power Hoover, and I want to say that machines of that era are likely to be 3Gbps SAS, which is "watch yer back" territory.

I believe mine came with a BPN-SAS2-EL1 backplane. Power-hungry? Yes, but you could certainly do worse at the <$500 price point. :D

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

I have the X8DT6-F which is similar. It's pretty power hungry compared to more modern machines, but the price was too low for me to care. It may be more noticeable of a difference over the course of a year, but not so much if you're only considering the monthly utilities. Like the one previously mentioned it has onboard LSI 2008 which offers 8 port 6Gbps SAS. I also come from the land of the cold so a little extra heat usually doesn't hurt.

 

[HoneyBadger]

It may be more noticeable of a difference over the course of a year, but not so much if you're only considering the monthly utilities.

Yep. Just try to avoid the really power-hungry stuff - avoid the 135W X5680s, buy your RAM as 2x8GB vs 8x2GB, and stay the hell away from LGA771.

 

[jgreco]

stay the hell away from LGA771.

Winning today's Award For Excellent Advice.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

Yep. Just try to avoid the really power-hungry stuff - avoid the 135W X5680s, buy your RAM as 2x8GB vs 8x2GB, and stay the hell away from LGA771.

Exactly. The entirety of my Esxi server was acquired for free, the only thing I paid for was the CPUs which I went with the L5640, 6 cores and only a 60W TDP. Much better than the 95W of the X5650 which was my alternative.

 

[JDCynical]

X8DTH-6 / xeon E5620 doesn't have an FSB. Below is a diagram of Nehalem architecture

I stand corrected, thank you for that. Seems that many sites list it as having a FSB still. My apologies to the OP of that piece of misinformation, my google-fu was flawed.

 

[jgreco]

I stand corrected, thank you for that. Seems that many sites list it as having a FSB still. My apologies to the OP of that piece of misinformation, my google-fu was flawed.

It's still got a crappy architecture by the standards of the last half a decade.

 

[Fuganater]

I tried finding a good X9 for under $200 but I have not found one yet. I might just buy another one of my X10 systems but with CPU and cooler that is about $650 :(

 

[Fuganater]

I was given 2 offers today.

1:
1x BNIB Supermicro x10slm+-ln4f,
32GB (4x8GB) Samsung unbuffered, ECC RAM
E3-1240V3 with stock Intel cooler

2:
1 x SuperMicro MBD X9SCM-F-O
1 x Intel Xeon E3-1260L
2 x 8gb DDR3-1600 ECC RAM - Micron Technology - Part # 18KSF1G72AZ-1G6E1
2 x 4gb DDR3-1333 ECC RAM - Kingston - Part # 9965525-010.A00LF

Asside from the X10 having a newer chipset I don't see too much of a differance. Both CPU are way more than powerful enough. What do you guys think?