New motherboard and CPU to replace failed C2550D4I

[crackedSTRG]

Hi!

After my C2550D4I died I need to replace the mobo and CPU to reuse my freenas.

Currently besides C2550D4I I have:

• 4 WD RED 2TB
• 2 usb with mirrored boot fs
• 2 x 8GB 2Rx8 PC3 - 12800E 11 12 ECC DIMM modules
• A fractal 304
• Seasonic SSR-360GP, 80 PLUS Gold-certified 360W

My basic usage is file storage/share, some jails (seedbox, backup etc) and plex (transcoding) for movies and music and I want to savage as many as possible ports from the existing setup. Because of wordwide and local COVID situation is hard to buy (no stock) and get (really bad situation of courier services) i would like to get more than one combination/brands in order to find something cheap and easy to get

I understand that mini-Atx can be a very restrictive factor so I'm very positive to change the case too.

 

[Constantin]

I'd still try to get the board replaced by ASRock since this is a known issue and a working board with RAM will help defray the cost of a new system.

I suggest you look at the D-15xx series of motherboards, like the X10SDV-2C-TLN2F if you want to stay mini-ITX and the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F if you have ambitions to expand to a lot more drives. Both boards offer a great performance for home use, SFP+ in case you want to go 10GbE sometime, PCIe 3.0x4 m.2 slots for a SLOG, and so on. Unlike the Flex-ATX model, the Mini-ITX does not feature a separate (but useful) mSATA connector. Also, it has fewer SATADOMs (1 vs. 2).

The Flex-ATX is also available without the built-in HBA, etc. However, the Mini-ITX version offers a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot while the Flex ATX makes do with two 3.0x8 PCIe slots. So Supermicro tried to make use of all those PCIe lanes regardless of board size.

The only caveat here is the transcoding. That may or may not be a problem, depending on what you like to transcode. See the respective passmarks to see if these processors fit the bill. I do my transcoding at the TV with a small PC and try to optimize the server for server-related duties. However, once you get into transcoding, a removable processor might fit your needs better, especially with all the super-competitive AMD systems out there with lots of cores at a competitive price.

If you prefer a removable-processor version, there are ample examples on the Supermicro site to choose amongst. I found Supermicro tech support super responsive, which was a great improvement over what the forum here reported re: ASRock. I thank my lucky stars that my ASRock tech support was via iXSystems, which did a great job supporting me when the C2750D4I in my mini XL broke, replacement boards were DOA, and so on. IXsystems went so far to burn-in my latest replacement overnight before shipping it to verify it works as intended. So far, all is well.

 

[pschatz100]

With regards to transcoding on your server, are you certain you need that capability? If you play your movies through a 4K compatible Roku, Firestick, or PC, then they can consume the content directly and all you need to do is serve the files. If you do need to transcode, do you require support for high quality 4K video? As commented above, that will definitely affect your choice of CPU.

Transcoding music is not an issue as that does not require much cpu power.

 

[crackedSTRG]

With regards to transcoding on your server, are you certain you need that capability? If you play your movies through a 4K compatible Roku, Firestick, or PC, then they can consume the content directly and all you need to do is serve the files. If you do need to transcode, do you require support for high quality 4K video? As commented above, that will definitely affect your choice of CPU.

Transcoding music is not an issue as that does not require much cpu power.

The truth is that I'm reconsidering many things (I have the data backuped so I take better decisions now). I'm mainly playing them from my TV but I was not so happy with the overall experience of plex. The update of the plugin failed many times and I have to reinstall it so I consider taking it outside of freenas. and keep the freenas for hosting and serving the files only.

 

[pschatz100]

I don't use the Plex plugin, so I can't comment on that specifically - but I do like Plex.

Some years ago, I decided to learn about jails. They are efficient tools for separating applications that need their own resource management or networking. Much lighter resource requirement than a VM or Docker in the linux world. I build my jails manually and install the applications I require - such as Plex. Iocage actually makes this all quite straightforward - much simpler than the older Warden jails. I've never had trouble with FreeNAS updates, except one time when Iocage was still beta.

Obviously, there is a bit of learning curve involved and it's not a one click solution like a plugin would be. But it's not that much work and the obvious benefit is that, when something does go wrong, you have the knowledge to trouble shoot and find the issue.

Back to topic...
There is no magic about Plex. Any solution you choose to go with will have similar resource requirements. A big one is whether or not you need to transcode your video on the server. In the early days, transcoding was much more of an issue than it is now. Recent Roku's, Firesticks, and 4K Smart TV's have the ability to handle modern video formats built into their hardware. Even my Samsung phone can handle most of my videos natively - although I do transcode when watching on my phone to reduce the bit rate (which allows them to stream better over public networks.) I have a 4K compatible Roku on every TV, so at the end of the day my server actually does very little transcoding when watching at home. The Roku's do the work.

 

[crackedSTRG]

I'm currently leaning to buy a r720 with h310mini ( 2x E5-2609) as they are really cheap and stop transcoding (most of the times a need transcoding for 1 client so not a big deal)

 

[ddaenen1]

I'm currently leaning to buy a r720 with h310mini ( 2x E5-2609) as they are really cheap and stop transcoding (most of the times a need transcoding for 1 client so not a big deal)

I wouldn't know why you would need transcoding if you stream to modern devices with Plex. Every decent modern piece of multimedia equipment supports at least 1080p nowadays and the majority of TV's support 4K. When i stream a 4K movie to my Samsung TV, the server CPU does zero work. Same if i stream 1080p to any device. The only time it gets tricky is if i want to stream a 4K movie to my 5 year old Macbook Air, which does not have a retina-display but this happenes like....never. There is very little sense in streaming anything 4K to a laptop screen imho.