Motherboard selection help-Supermicro or intel

[xh90]

Hi all,

Great resources in this forum! I am convinced to have the ECC in the build I am going to do. The build I am going to do is for:
storage
plex (1 4k stream and 1 1080p stream max)
vm (win xp for some legacy software)
owncloud
vpn solution (I am still researching on this)

I plan to start with:
5 hard drive (z2 configuration) to start with.
8Gb ECC Ram
E3-12xx CPU

So now for the platform, I was initially going for new Ryzen 3 platform. But having reading reviews where the stability is still an issue, I am looking for option of used intel parts.

Now I have shortlisted the following:
Supermicro X8SIE-F
Supermicro X9SCi-LN4
Intel S1200BTL

The selection is based on availability not due to feature. Any advises or recommendation on this? Thanks alot!

 

[sretalla]

You will need much more RAM than you have listed to run a windows VM and do a plex jail (+others) properly. I would start from 32 GB.

 

[xh90]

You will need much more RAM than you have listed to run a windows VM and do a plex jail (+others) properly. I would start from 32 GB.

Thanks for the input on RAM. Any input on the motherboard?

 

[sretalla]

The consensus in the forums is that supermicro is what works.

Having taken an alternative myself (ASUS), I have seen the shortcomings play out with things like script control of the fan headers being impossible, meaning a lot of extra time and effort to get it set up like I want it.

I can't specifically endorse one model, but I know the series 10 is seen as good value.

 

[anmnz]

A lot of us run Supermicro X9 or X10 boards very happily. X8 is certainly usable but getting kind of old. For example there are massive improvements in power efficiency between X8 with Nehalem CPUs and X9 with Sandy/Ivy Bridge.

 

[IceBoosteR]

A lot of us run Supermicro X9 or X10 boards very happily. X8 is certainly usable getting kind of old, for example there are massive improvements in power efficiency between X8 with Nehalem CPUs and X9 with Sandy/Ivy Bridge.

Cannot agree more. If you read a lot on the forums, you will see that supermicro is the way to go. No known problems, a lot of recommendations and even RAM guides on specific boards.

For RAM you should go with atleast 32GB.

 

[Trebor27]

I’d be a little cautious with x8 series of motherboards.

I have an x8sti-f and so far I’m unable to boot the installation disk. It keeps crashing. Maybe a bios setting, but at nearly 15 seconds to post, it’s slow progress trying to “brute force” random bios settings to try find if some setting is causing an issue. I’ve not had much luck googling it yet, but won’t give up.
(3 days of total build time so far, delayed by: IPMI not DHCP by default. No VGA lead to connect a monitor to fix this. Now IPMI is working, dealing with this boot issue.)

This is my first FreeNAS build, just a word of caution about going “too old” on the hardware!

Rob

Hi all,

Great resources in this forum! I am convinced to have the ECC in the build I am going to do. The build I am going to do is for:
storage
plex (1 4k stream and 1 1080p stream max)
vm (win xp for some legacy software)
owncloud
vpn solution (I am still researching on this)

I plan to start with:
5 hard drive (z2 configuration) to start with.
8Gb ECC Ram
E3-12xx CPU

So now for the platform, I was initially going for new Ryzen 3 platform. But having reading reviews where the stability is still an issue, I am looking for option of used intel parts.

Now I have shortlisted the following:
Supermicro X8SIE-F
Supermicro X9SCi-LN4
Intel S1200BTL

The selection is based on availability not due to feature. Any advises or recommendation on this? Thanks a lot!

 

[pro lamer]

1 4k stream

Transcoding or direct play? What input: H.265 or H.264? FPS? Bitrate? Target resolution? It may affect CPU needs...

 

[xh90]

Transcoding or direct play? What input: H.265 or H.264? FPS? Bitrate? Target resolution? It may affect CPU needs...

should be 4k direct play and 1080p transcoding (for mobile)

Trying to source for X9 and X10 motherboards on ebay/taobao.com for now.

 

[pro lamer]

Mycolleagues do some HEVC transcoding but I would need a few minutes to recall the details... This is why I asked if your 4K content is HEVC/H.265.

Sent from my mobile phone

 

[rvassar]

Many of the Intel CPU's that fit X8-series motherboards are not getting microcode updates for Meltdown & the early Spectre exploits. This may or may not be an issue in your environment. But if I was running VM's with any public exposure at all, I would avoid those CPU's, and/or turn off hyperthreading. Turning off hyperthreading is one of OpenBSD's conclusions. I don't believe it has been tested as fully protecting from the known exploits, and I do not know how FreeNAS will operate with it turned off. Food for thought...

 

[Chris Moore]

Now I have shortlisted the following:
Supermicro X8SIE-F
Supermicro X9SCi-LN4
Intel S1200BTL

The selection is based on availability not due to feature. Any advises or recommendation on this? Thanks a lot!

Are you still looking, or did you choose?


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[silverback]

I’d be a little cautious with x8 series of motherboards.

I have an x8sti-f and so far I’m unable to boot the installation disk. It keeps crashing. Maybe a bios setting, but at nearly 15 seconds to post, it’s slow progress trying to “brute force” random bios settings to try find if some setting is causing an issue. I’ve not had much luck googling it yet, but won’t give up.
(3 days of total build time so far, delayed by: IPMI not DHCP by default. No VGA lead to connect a monitor to fix this. Now IPMI is working, dealing with this boot issue.)

This is my first FreeNAS build, just a word of caution about going “too old” on the hardware!

Rob

I can’t boot the 11.2 installer on an x9 board. Latest bios, still no joy. I don’t think it is just x8.

 

[Trebor27]

I can’t boot the 11.2 installer on an x9 board. Latest bios, still no joy. I don’t think it is just x8.

Just a small update. After weeks of struggling I am up and running I think. I think there are still some niggles to sort out.

I used the front USB ports to boot the installer usb, and installed to a second USB key in the front port. This seemed to work. Someone else reported problems using the internal USB ports mounted to the motherboard. It conincided with me swapping to the front ports actually. But, read on, I’m not sure the internal ports are the main issue, but I can’t deny installing using the front ports went MUCH smoother.

Right now I am booting from an older 8GB USB key, now plugged into the internal port mounted to my motherboard again and it seems “okay” so far. I’ve left my machine running today performing a hard disk test. We will see when I get home.

I keep getting errors reported to the terminal from the virtual floppy disk (IPMI) so I ideally want to disable this virtual floppy entirely. Certainly I needed to disable SMART for the virtual floppy.

I think I can disable the virtual floppy drive in loader.conf, after reading freeBSD manuals on line, but I’ve not tried it yet.

I initially had much better success installing XigmaNAS, but now I’m back in FreeNAS and prefer the web GUI of FreeNAS, personally. Plus there is a lot more literature online for FreeNAS.

I didn’t want to leave my old post unanswered as things are slowly improving for me with my X8STI-F

Cheers
Rob

 

[xh90]

Are you still looking, or did you choose?


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Still looking, waiting for deals to pop up from ebay.
having read the forums further, I am inclining towards MB that us commonly used among the users heare. Just to have easier time for getting supports.

 

[Chris Moore]

Still looking, waiting for deals to pop up from ebay.
having read the forums further, I am inclining towards MB that us commonly used among the users heare. Just to have easier time for getting supports.

This system board is almost identical to the X9SCM-F that I used in a previous build:

System Board: Super Micro X9SCM-F Motherboard w/ Heatsink/Fan & I/O Shield - US $75.00
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273350608871

I know it will work with this CPU because it is the same model I used:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor Socket 1155 - US $84.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202364378009

This is the right kind of memory to put with it, if you win the auction:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-4x-8GB-32G-total-DDR3-1600-ECC-UDIMM-CT102472BD160B/163169885911

 

[xh90]

This system board is almost identical to the X9SCM-F that I used in a previous build:

System Board: Super Micro X9SCM-F Motherboard w/ Heatsink/Fan & I/O Shield - US $75.00
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273350608871

I know it will work with this CPU because it is the same model I used:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor Socket 1155 - US $84.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202364378009

This is the right kind of memory to put with it, if you win the auction:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-4x-8GB-32G-total-DDR3-1600-ECC-UDIMM-CT102472BD160B/163169885911

Thanks! I got the motherboard and CPU.
Questions on RAM, is it preferred to get the RAM on the tested list? would there be any trouble if I just get the RAMS outside of the list.

Also, I read some where that for Z2 configuration, it is preferred to start with 6 drive configuration. My intention was to have 5 drive Z2 with one spare port for resilvering/OS/SSD/L2ARC. Can anyone provide input on that?

 

[Chris Moore]

Questions on RAM, is it preferred to get the RAM on the tested list? would there be any trouble if I just get the RAMS outside of the list.

If you know the right kind of memory, the brand isn't really that important, as long as it is good quality memory that will actually work.

Also, I read some where that for Z2 configuration, it is preferred to start with 6 drive configuration. My intention was to have 5 drive Z2 with one spare port for resilvering/OS/SSD/L2ARC. Can anyone provide input on that?

I use 6 drives in RAIDz2 myself but you can do 8, the more drives in a single vdev, the lower the effective performance. I have two vdevs of 6 drives each in my main pool and the reason I did that was to get greater performance. Generally speaking, more vdevs equates to more IOPS / performance in general. Many variables involved.
I like to use one of these for all the data drives. A single SAS controller can run as many as 256 drives by using SAS expanders. This way I have reliable connectivity and more ports so I don't need to worry about system board limitations:
Drive Controller: LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCI-E-Internal-HBA-Both-Brackets-IT-MODE - US $59.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152937435505

Then I use a set of these for connecting the controller to the drives:
Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

 

[rvassar]

I use 6 drives in RAIDz2 myself but you can do 8, the more drives in a single vdev, the lower the effective performance. I have two vdevs of 6 drives each in my main pool and the reason I did that was to get greater performance. Generally speaking, more vdevs equates to more IOPS / performance in general. Many variables involved.

The character of the requested IOPS is a large factor. In particular, writes to a parity RAID vdev (not a mirror, or a stripe) result in writes being issued to every device in the vdev. So you end up with the effective write performance equal to the speed of the slowest single device in the vdev. Reads may only get issued to enough devices to reconstruct the data in memory, as it's often faster to do the math than it is to wait for that last parity stripe to seek/rotate into position. So you often see a read performance advantage with a parity RAID vdev, with no bump in write performance. Adding additional vdev's gives the system the ability to issue requests in parallel, and round-robin back and forth between them.

As with anything in storage, you have a weigh the need for speed vs. the need for redundancy.

 

[xh90]

If you know the right kind of memory, the brand isn't really that important, as long as it is good quality memory that will actually work.
I use 6 drives in RAIDz2 myself but you can do 8, the more drives in a single vdev, the lower the effective performance. I have two vdevs of 6 drives each in my main pool and the reason I did that was to get greater performance. Generally speaking, more vdevs equates to more IOPS / performance in general. Many variables involved.
I like to use one of these for all the data drives. A single SAS controller can run as many as 256 drives by using SAS expanders. This way I have reliable connectivity and more ports so I don't need to worry about system board limitations:
Drive Controller: LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCI-E-Internal-HBA-Both-Brackets-IT-MODE - US $59.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152937435505

Then I use a set of these for connecting the controller to the drives:
Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

I would forsee my long term needs to be capped out at 12 drive.

say if I get the sas controller with breakout cables (ie 8 ports ) for my 6 drives.

if I get a sas expander in future for the subsequent 6 drive. would I need to do any data migration?