New FreeNAS build

[Chris Moore]

Now there is the other situations where I have maybe a 1080p TV and/or a 720p TV and an iPad that would need transcoding. Will the Intel Xeon E5-2680V2 be able to handle that? Simultaneously? Or better off pre-transcode?

I have a single socket server and it does just fine for all the content I have. I only have a couple 4k movies stored in my Plex and after watching them and reading this article, and others like it, I don't know if it is worth the extra trouble.
For the past year, I have been converting every new movie I get to 1080p.
https://www.cnet.com/news/why-ultra-hd-4k-tvs-are-still-stupid/

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

For the past year, I have been converting every new movie I get to 1080p.

I know it is in a bit of a different context, but I frequently work with video conferencing gear at my day job. I recall one of the engineers from Cisco (formerly Tandberg) mention that their take on things was that unless the screen was over 48" wide and the person was 4' or closer to the screen, people were unable to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. Everyone has a big woody for 4K, but I suspect some of the same things are still true for 1080p versus 4k.

 

[Chris Moore]

I know it is in a bit of a different context, but I frequently work with video conferencing gear at my day job. I recall one of the engineers from Cisco (formerly Tandberg) mention that their take on things was that unless the screen was over 48" wide and the person was 4' or closer to the screen, people were unable to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. Everyone has a big woody for 4K, but I suspect some of the same things are still true for 1080p versus 4k.

Yes, and the article I linked to has a chart of the distances vs screen size. I have a 55" screen and I would need to sit closer than 7' from the screen to be able to see the difference. I don't sit that close and probably never will, I don't let my kids sit that close either. Maybe it is just social conditioning, but my parents made me sit back and I make my kids sit back... I think the article said that the average viewer is 10' to 12' from the screen when watching a movie.

 

[Valdhor]

I have a single socket server and it does just fine for all the content I have. I only have a couple 4k movies stored in my Plex and after watching them and reading this article, and others like it, I don't know if it is worth the extra trouble.
For the past year, I have been converting every new movie I get to 1080p.
https://www.cnet.com/news/why-ultra-hd-4k-tvs-are-still-stupid/

You've talked me into it you smooth talking character. E5-2680V2 based server it is.

 

[pro lamer]

Will the Intel Xeon E5-2680V2 be able to handle that? Simultaneously? Or better off pre-transcode?

Maybe my English command is too poor but I don't know if you're still awaiting answers to this? My colleagues do some HEVC transcoding but I would need a few minutes to recall the details... is your 4K content HEVC/H.265?

Sent from my mobile phone

 

[Valdhor]

After reading the link Chris Moore provided regarding 4K content I am not too worried about it. My 55YO eyes just won't be able to discern the difference. My wife says she can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on our Samsung 65. If I get HEVC/H.265 items I will just pre-transcode down to 1080p and be done with it. I see no point in getting a 4K TV.

 

[Chris Moore]

After reading the link Chris Moore provided regarding 4K content I am not too worried about it. My 55YO eyes just won't be able to discern the difference. My wife says she can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on our Samsung 65. If I get HEVC/H.265 items I will just pre-transcode down to 1080p and be done with it. I see no point in getting a 4K TV.

I have been transcoding everything to 1080p for about a year now instead of bothering with the larger file size of the higher resolution content. It will save me storage space over time. My vision is not what it once was, I am wearing bi-focal glasses now, but I can still see the difference between 720 and 1080 on the big screen in our family room. Not so much on the smaller screen.

 

[Mikey J]

Chris. I am very soon preparing to build the new system. Are there any similar MB options with an HDMI or DVI output?

 

[Chris Moore]

No, the integrated display controller on all the server boards I have used is VGA.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Moore]

Chris. I am very soon preparing to build the new system. Are there any similar MB options with an HDMI or DVI output?

There is no real reason for it. You can use the remote console from the IPMI interface to do anything you need to. There is no reason to ever connect a monitor to the system board.
For example, this is the remote console output from one of my Supermicro systems that is running Linux:

There is some lag to it, but you are not using it to play video games and the only output from the FreeNAS is a text console like this:

 

[Mikey J]

Chris, My current system uses a SuperMicro X10 SAT-0. Can I use IPMI to access it? I searched through the manual and it references IPMI, but it would seem in a different context

 

[Chris Moore]

Chris, My current system uses a SuperMicro X10 SAT-0. Can I use IPMI to access it? I searched through the manual and it references IPMI, but it would seem in a different context

I am guessing this is the board you are referencing:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c220/x10sat.cfm
It is not a server board. You can tell from the, "HD Audio 7.1 channel connector by Realtek ALC1150" and some other features of the board such as the assortment of slots and the fact the memory is arranged side to side instead of front to back. Supermicro does make other kinds of boards and this one is in the category I would call, "entry level workstation" or desktop computer. It does not included IPMI remote management, but you get a FireWire (1394a) header on the board.
A system board like this would be a good be a good replacement and it includes IPMI so you can remotely mount ISO files for CD/DVD install of software and you get the KVM over IP functionality too:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Micr...GA-1150-Micro-ATX-With-Faceplate/162823344780

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. Your board and the board I suggested are both socket LGA1150, so the processor and memory should swap right over to the replacement board.

 

[Chris Moore]

8x4TB HGST NAS Drives in Raid-Z2 - Storage Dataset

You might need to add a SAS controller to have enough ports for all your drives.
This is the kind I use and it works great:
HP H220 6Gbps SAS PCI-E 3.0 HBA LSI 9207-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID - - US $69.55
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162862201664

Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

You can later add a SAS expander to add more drives to the same SAS controller, it will run up to 256 drives.

 

[Mikey J]

Chris,
Saving cash on a CPU and Memory sounds enticing, But My CPU is limited to 32 GB of RAM. I am looking to roughly double my storage capacity, so I deff need to be at least around 64GB of Memory

 

[Chris Moore]

Chris,
Saving cash on a CPU and Memory sounds enticing, But My CPU is limited to 32 GB of RAM. I am looking to roughly double my storage capacity, so I deff need to be at least around 64GB of Memory

No. It is a 'thumb rule', not a hard requirement. You can run 32 GB of system memory and be fine, depending on what else you are doing with the system. I upgraded my system board and processor so I could upgrade the quantity of my memory, but I did it so I had room to run some virtual machines. Not because of storage. The reason for the rule about memory was to try and keep people from complaining about their system not working well when the whole problem was not enough memory.

If you want to upgrade memory, a replacement system board and processor is called for, but you might want to consider going with a system board like mine that will use Registered DDR3 memory because it is much less expensive than the DDR4 in more modern systems.

 

[Mikey J]

Right, I understand all of that. Both my board and CPU have hard limits at 32 GB of memory. It is unbuffered ECC though

 

[Chris Moore]

Right, I understand all of that. Both my board and CPU have hard limits at 32 GB of memory. It is unbuffered ECC though

Is that what you already had when you were asking about hardware and I made this suggestion:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/new-freenas-build.64095/#post-459293

 

[Mikey J]

Chris, Im not sure I understand your last question.

 

[Chris Moore]

Chris, Im not sure I understand your last question.

I was curious if you had bought any new hardware yet because I thought that was what this discussion was about.
Are you planning to buy a new system?