Need New Build Advice (First Server Build)

[rivey]

This will be my first server build so I need to make sure I use the right parts and build the best server I can to meet my needs. The server will be used for Plex and to do local backups for the three computers in the house (wife's laptop, my business laptop and my recently built desktop). I have been reading this forum and others a lot to try and do the best job I can. All three of the computers are also backed up to cloud storage.

Obviously I will be using FreeNAS. I am figuring I will need 4 streams for video and some transcoding. I want to finally cut the cord within 1 to 2 years. I have already ripped all movies and TV shows and CD's to a 3TB WD Red that is in my desktop computer for the time being. I will also add any family videos later on. At some point I will want to play around with VMs and other things as I do like to learn. At 68 I am still running my small alarm/AV business when there is work and I still love to play around with new things so expansion capability is what I want.

The build that I am proposing is as follows:

Motherboard Supermicro X11SSM-F. Chose this because on the 8 sata ports and it has dual network and IPMI port and can go to 64meg of ECC memory.

Processor will be the Intel Xeon E3-1275 Processors V6. Not sure if this is not overkill but I want to make sure that I have room for growth in the next few years.

Memory I think will be two sticks of Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 ECC CL17 DIMM 2Rx8 Desktop Memory (KVR24E17D8/16)

Drives will be 6 or 8 8TB WD Reds. I am buying the Best Buy Easy Store 8TB USB3 drives and shucking the case. Have two already and will be getting more soon. Will also be getting 2 Samsung 850 EVO - 120GB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD's mirrored for the boot drive. Again probably overkill but I would rather be safe than sorry later on.

Power Supply I am looking at is the Seasonic X-850(SS-850KM3 Active PFC F3) 850W 80 Plus Gold ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply. Advice on this will be very much appreciated. I have always been a big fan of Corsair PS on my other builds but have never built a server before.

Case is still up in the air. have been thinking about a Fractal 804 but am wondering is the Rosewill U4 rack mount might not be a better approach due to the 12 hot swappable bays. Again, all idea's are welcome. I have room in the rack in the AV closet otherwise if I go with any other type case it will probably have to find space in my office in the garage.

UPS unit will also happen but not sure which one yet.

I want to start putting parts together in a few weeks as I can afford them so any help will be greatly appreciated. Please ask any questions and I will try to answer as quickly as possible. Again, thank to all the experts who give of their time and knowledge.

Bob Ivey

 

[Chris Moore]

Power Supply I am looking at is the Seasonic X-850(SS-850KM3 Active PFC F3) 850W 80 Plus Gold ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply. Advice on this will be very much appreciated. I have always been a big fan of Corsair PS on my other builds but have never built a server before.

You could probably get along with a 550 or 650 at most. This is more than you would need, but it won't hurt anything.
The rest looks pretty good and I think it will do the job.

 

[rivey]

You could probably get along with a 550 or 650 at most. This is more than you would need, but it won't hurt anything.
The rest looks pretty good and I think it will do the job.

Thanks Chris,
Kind of thought that might be the case but I have always tended to go overboard on PSU's. Should I stay with Seasonic or maybe look at a Corsair? Just wondering.

 

[Johnnie Black]

For 8 disks 450W is more than enough, I prefer Corsair over Seasonic but both are good options.

 

[Evertb1]

Thanks Chris,
Kind of thought that might be the case but I have always tended to go overboard on PSU's. Should I stay with Seasonic or maybe look at a Corsair? Just wondering.

I own both Seasonic and Corsair PSU's. But I have been a bit picky about the models. The cheaper lines of Corsair are not realy bad but not very good build either (low budget capacitors for example). The best you can do is decide what capacity you need, and then start comparing models that fit in your budget. Where I live comparable Corsair models -if it come s to build and capacity- might be a bit more afordable then Sesaonic models.

 

[Chris Moore]

One of the reasons I never choose the 450 watt PSUs is because the smaller supplies don't usually have the build quality of the larger supplies.
I will usually try to get a PSU that has twice the capacity that I expect to need so that it will run around 50% load.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Johnnie Black]

One of the reasons I never choose the 450 watt PSUs is because the smaller supplies don't usually have the build quality of the larger supplies.

Never read anything saying that e.g. a Seasonic G-450 has inferior build quality than a G-650, obviously you need to compare same series models

I will usually try to get a PSU that has twice the capacity that I expect to need so that it will run around 50% load.

That's why I use 450W for 8 disks, my main FreeNAS server runs at about 15% load at idle, less than 20% load during a scrub with a 450W PSU.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm not being brand specific. I have no idea about the specifics of this model. My statement was about all PSUs , generally.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[BigDave]

Processor will be the Intel Xeon E3-1275 Processors V6

For FreeNAS, you might want to avoid buying a model number ending in an odd
number as these procs have onboard graphics (GPU) which is a waste for running
a server that will never use graphics. Recommend the E3-1270 model...

 

[Evertb1]

For FreeNAS, you might want to avoid buying a model number ending in an odd
number as these procs have onboard graphics (GPU) which is a waste for running
a server that will never use graphics. Recommend the E3-1270 model...

In principle I agree with you, but is it all that important? At this moment I am looking at the site of one of my favorite web shops. The price difference between the E3-1270 v6 and the E3-1275 v6 is less then 9 euro (about 11.68 USD). The 1270 however has a delivery time of 2-3 weeks and the 1275 is on stock. I know what I would do. I bought my own E3-1225 because I could have it for a song.

 

[rivey]

In principle I agree with you, but is it all that important? At this moment I am looking at the site of one of my favorite web shops. The price difference between the E3-1270 v6 and the E3-1275 v6 is less then 9 euro (about 11.68 USD). The 1270 however has a delivery time of 2-3 weeks and the 1275 is on stock. I know what I would do. I bought my own E3-1225 because I could have it for a song.

For a moment, lets forget about the graphics since I am curious about the processing power. As I am not really familiar with the xeon processors, my main concern is how do they compare with the processing power. If this were a desktop build I would know exactly what I would order but this is my first server build so I need all the help I can get. Thanks

 

[Chris Moore]

I am curious about the processing power. As I am not really familiar with the xeon processors

This Xeon is very much like an i7 except that a few additional features are enabled, one of those being support for ECC memory.
There is no exact match (that I am familiar with) but it compares pretty well against the Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.00GHz.
Just to give you an idea of the speed, but the Xeon has other features that make it preferable for a server.

 

[Evertb1]

For a moment, lets forget about the graphics since I am curious about the processing power. As I am not really familiar with the xeon processors, my main concern is how do they compare with the processing power. If this were a desktop build I would know exactly what I would order but this is my first server build so I need all the help I can get. Thanks

As far as processing power goes just Google for the passmark figures. It does not tel the whole story but it gives you some insight. If you want to compare CPU features you can compare CPU's on the ARK site.

 

[rivey]

As far as processing power goes just Google for the passmark figures. It does not tel the whole story but it gives you some insight. If you want to compare CPU features you can compare CPU's on the ARK site.

I did that this morning before leaving for a job.
The E3-1240 V6 has a passmark score of 10869
The E3-1240 V5 has a passmark score of 10368
The E3-1270 V6 has a passmark score of 11153

So basically any one of these three should be fine given a passmark score of about 2000 per stream is recommended as long as there is sufficient memory to process. I am planning to go with 2 sticks of 16gb for 32 to start at this point.

Hard drives
I am assuming that I will start with 6 WD Red 8TB drives and the two SSD,s and that will max out the onboard 8 sata ports so at some point I may have to get a SAS card to accomodate any more drives down the line.

Still have to figure out the case as I think my first 3 purchases will be the case, MB, and processor over a period of a month or two. That depends on Christmas as I have told everyone that I want Amazon gift cards as business slows up a lot this time of year. Any suggestions on case for this build? I do have room on my AV rack for a 4U case or the Fractal 804 in my office but I am open to suggestions. TIA

 

[Chris Moore]

Still have to figure out the case as I think my first 3 purchases will be the case, MB, and processor over a period of a month or two. That depends on Christmas as I have told everyone that I want Amazon gift cards as business slows up a lot this time of year. Any suggestions on case for this build? I do have room on my AV rack for a 4U case or the Fractal 804 in my office but I am open to suggestions. TIA

If you are interested in a server chassis, this one is a pretty decent deal:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4U-SuperCh...-Chassis-Server-2x-PSU-1200-Watt/162780194697
You might want to replace the fans with lower speed fans so they are not so loud, but it has redundant PSU, 24 hot swap bays on a SAS2 backplane. If I were in the market to buy, I would buy this.

EDIT.
The only bad part, which isn't that bad, is it makes you need that SAS controller to start, but you can get a good used one from eBay for $55 ish.

 

[rivey]

If you are interested in a server chassis, this one is a pretty decent deal:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4U-SuperCh...-Chassis-Server-2x-PSU-1200-Watt/162780194697
You might want to replace the fans with lower speed fans so they are not so loud, but it has redundant PSU, 24 hot swap bays on a SAS2 backplane. If I were in the market to buy, I would buy this.

EDIT.
The only bad part, which isn't that bad, is it makes you need that SAS controller to start, but you can get a good used one from eBay for $55 ish.

I will have to consider this option as the price is not that much more given the cost of the Rosewill and the power supply. Also having dual power supplies would be a good thing. That is a good thought Chris. Any recommendations for the SAS controller that would be required. Will this case work well with the MB and CPU that I have listed?

 

[BigDave]

Still have to figure out the case as I think my first 3 purchases will be the case, MB, and processor over a period of a month or two. That depends on Christmas as I have told everyone that I want Amazon gift cards as business slows up a lot this time of year. Any suggestions on case for this build? I do have room on my AV rack for a 4U case or the Fractal 804 in my office but I am open to suggestions. TIA

I own two supermicro chassis, one 16bay SC836 and one 12bay SC826.
Knowing what I know now, I would START out with the smaller SC826, and replace the PSU with the much lower decibel levels of the Supermicro SQ models.
The SQ stands for SuperQuiet and they are SQ when compared to the older models. Research this and decide for yourself, but it made a big difference to me.

You may also want to look into the heat produced by a multiple drive server and how there could be issues with keeping the whole install cool enough in the SoCal summer season. Heat is the number one enemy of electronics, so have things worked out before making purchases.

 

[Chris Moore]

Any recommendations for the SAS controller that would be required. Will this case work well with the MB and CPU that I have listed?

This chassis should work fine with the system you were looking at. Like any used chassis, some standoffs may need to be moved to accommodate a different system board. I have put three second hand server chassis to new purpose with my FreeNAS servers and it takes a little more work than using brand new but if you are willing to put a little work into it, it can be a good deal. I have been using mine for almost two years now.

I would suggest this model SAS adapter because most of the work is already done, you should be able to plug it in and start using it immediately:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-...ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-High-Air-Flow/162729848324
This is the same model I use in my FreeNAS servers. Just make sure it has some air moving past the heatsink to keep it cool. I had one overheat and fail when I first started using them but I have been using the ones I have now for over two years with no problems.

Hard drives do put out some heat. The more drives, the more the heat. Just be sure there is enough airflow to keep the drives below 40°C. The hotter they get, the faster they die. I try to keep my hard drives closer to 30°C and I manage that just fine with my house set to 77°F and the fans in the server running between 1000 and 1500 RPM. You can make a server chassis fairly quiet but it will never be silent. Mine are quiet enough that I can tolerate having them in my office, less than 8 feet from my desk.

Note: The fans in my server chassis, when I bought them, were 5000 RPM monsters that I had to replace to be able to live with the sound.

 

[Evertb1]

I own two supermicro chassis, one 16bay SC836 and one 12bay SC826.
Knowing what I know now, I would START out with the smaller SC826, and replace the PSU with the much lower decibel levels of the Supermicro SQ models.
The SQ stands for SuperQuiet and they are SQ when compared to the older models. Research this and decide for yourself, but it made a big difference to me.

You may also want to look into the heat produced by a multiple drive server and how there could be issues with keeping the whole install cool enough in the SoCal summer season. Heat is the number one enemy of electronics, so have things worked out before making purchases.

What about the fans? The one time I used a (second hand) supermicro chassis for a couple of weeks in my home office space, the noise was killing me. No more rack chassis for me. They are hard to domesticate. And the WAF is about zero.

 

[BigDave]

What about the fans? The one timeI used a (second hand) supermicro chassis for a couple of weeks in my home office space, the noise was killing me. No more rack chassis for me. They are hard to domesticate. And the WAF is about zero.

The fans at full speed are indeed noisy, but my machines don't have any trouble keeping the internal temps at acceptable levels when running at 50% during most of the hottest weather here in the southern US.

I must admit however that I don't spend hardly any time in the same room with them, so my tolerance level is certainly not typical. In my case, my two Dell 10GB switches (together) make more noise than both of my servers at 50% fan speeds.