Newbie, Setup, Performance, Safety

[NugentS]

That particular X11 isn't exactly perfect either

X11SCA-F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

• 1 PCI-E 3.0 x4,
• 1 PCI-E 3.0 x1,
• 2 PCI-Ex16 slots are running at NA/16, or 8/8

You have two useful PCIe Slots and one useless one. The PCIe 3*4 is of limited use as most supported 10Gb cards are *8 and won't fit a *4 slot (unless the slot is open ended). I am assuming 1 GPU, 1 HBA and 1 !0Gb NIC. You do have 8 SATA ports though. If you use an M2 in slot #1 then the PCIe*4 vanishes.

Of course if you only use 1Gb and the existing 8 SATA are enough (you are planning 5 in the OP) then the GPU wull fit and all will be fine

As I said - a juggling act. There are however a lot of supermicro boards - so another board may juggle better.

 

[bacardi8]

This is going to be a tough one, almost impossible to find any Supermicro here.

Currently it looks like I would be able to get the following :

CPU : Intel Xeon E-2278G (3.4GHz).
MB : Asus WS C246M Pro/SE ( WS C246M PRO/SE｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global )

This Motherboard looks interesting I think, it do not have 10gb onboard, but it has the PCIe to add in case of needed.
what do you think about that..???

 

[NugentS]

You have two useful slots PCIe3*16, PCIe3*8 (4 electrical) and one largely useless PCIe3*1
8 SATA Ports - so 8 disks + 1 * M.2
Apparently you get 80 (that's not a mistype by me) SATA cables and 10 M.2 Screws (cos they are so easy to lose?) -Sorry
2 1G LAN + a management port.

Assuming you put the GPU in the *16 slot that leave a PCIe3*8 (electrically *4) for an HBA (if you want more than 8 disks) or a 10Gb card
PCIe3*4=3.938 GB/s = 34Gb/s
PCIe2*4=2 GB/s = 17Gb/s
So a single port 10Gb (PCIe2/3*8) card will work at full speed AND a dual PCIe3 card should also work well. However just make sure its a well supported card!!! [Most supported NICs seem to be *8, so they will fit in the slot but only run 4 lanes]

I think the major issue here is expansion - as long as the 8 disks +1 M.2 is enough then you are golden.
[I am assuming that use of the M.2 doesn't prevent the use of the PCIe3*4 slot - but I can't see that in the specs - and it normally says]

The CPU is also fast enough to do some transcoding without needing a GPU - so you don't need to use the CPU (which also has quicksync if you can get that to work) which opens up another slot if needed for an HBA

For a small quite powerful NAS, should work well I think

 

[Evertb1]

MB : Asus WS C246M Pro/SE ( WS C246M PRO/SE｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global )

It might work for you. However take note that this motherboard supports UDIMM and not RDIMM. The main problem is that motherboards that supports UDIMM, afaik, fully depend on the memory controller of the CPU while with RDIMM modules the register is between the systems memory controller and the DRAM modules. That's one of the reasons you can scale up to a huge amount of memory with RDIMM. If you own RDIMM (registered) memory there is a big chance that the motherboard won't even post.

By the way: If you want to know at forehand how many PCIE lanes you have and how they are shared between the slots and other peripherals you can look at the block diagram that is available in the manual.

 

[Etorix]

With IPMI, the Asus WS C246 is better suited than its Gigabyte counterparts for using as a server. If you don't need 8 cores, Core i3-9100(F) would support ECC UDIMM in there—cheaper than a Xeon E-2xxx. But it won't take registered DIMM: you need a Xeon W-2xxx, Xeon Scalable, Xeon D, Atom C or EPYC for that.

If Ryzen is still on your potential list, you may look for the AsRockRack server boards X470D4U, X570D4U, B550D4U.

Small tip: While Fractal Design cases are very nice, the German knock-off Nanoxia Deep Silence 8 Pro is easier to work with than the FD Define 7 for storage use. Again, if you can find it—probably a big "if".

 

[Evertb1]

But it won't take registered DIMM

The Asus WS C246 motherboard won't take registered (RDIMM) memory.

 

[NugentS]

OP said: RAM : 64GB Samsung DDR4 REG/ECC
@bacardi8 do you already have the memory - and if so can you tell us specifically what you have?

 

[bacardi8]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your good reply's,

Biggest issue that I have here, is mainly that many of our preferred hardware parts isn't available, and if they are
then to a crazy price and with no warranty. So I'm constantly looking for available parts for my needs, and this is also the reason for why
I'm mentioning this CPU and this Motherboard, because these two parts is available for me at the moment.

Regarding the use of M.2, it will prevent the use of SATA, I could read, means by using M.2 I will be down to 7 SATA connectors.
I could live with that. Also my plan is not to use any GPU, if I go for the mentioned CPU.

Worse is the memory situation mentioned by Evertb 1, due to that I own ECC memory already, just not sure what kind.
I will have to check that first.

 

[Evertb1]

I will have to check that first.

On the stickers on the memory modules there should be a code for the type. Do a search on that code and you will find out for sure if it are UDIMM (unregistered) or RDIMM (registered) modules. This is an example of the product code of a Samsung memory module: M393A2G40DB0-CPB In this case for a 16 GB DDR4-2133 Registered ECC module.

 

[bacardi8]

Hi Evertb 1,

Thanks for the info, yes I read that also.
My ones is also Samsung, and also starts with M393A, so means I have Registered ECC modules.

Means my search for the correct Motherboard, for the mentioned CPU and for the registered ECC continues.

 

[bacardi8]

hmmm....maybe it will be easier to forget about my registered ecc modules, and go for udimm ecc, since it seams to be almost
impossible to find a motherboard that supports these, by still having in the CPU in mind (socket type).

Means then it could still look like this :

CPU : Intel Xeon E-2278G (3.4GHz).
MB : Asus WS C246M Pro/SE
Buy new ECC Udimm Modules.

 

[Etorix]

Regarding the use of M.2, it will prevent the use of SATA, I could read, means by using M.2 I will be down to 7 SATA connectors.

That would apply to M.2 SATA drives. A M.2 NVMe would not share a SATA port and let you use all 8 motherboard ports.
But if you already own RDIMM (check the whole part number, not just "M393"), then you basically need to find a motherboard for Xeon-D, Xeon E5 or Xeon Scalable. Look for second-hand: Decommissioned/upgraded servers must go somewhere…

 

[bacardi8]

Hi Etorix,

Thanks for your reply, I checked the whole number, it is Registered ecc Modules.

Means then also a different CPU is needed..??

 

[Evertb1]

Means then also a different CPU is needed..??

No, if you switch to UDIMM memory modules and the support of ECC on that Asus motherboard is for real, you should be good. What you most likely will not find is a motherboard with an LGA 1151 socket that supports RDIMM. At least I haven't seen one yet.

I have looked at the specs of all the server boards of Supermicro with that socket, the X11... series and they all support only UDIMM. As Supermicro is fairly mainstream when it comes to the Intel platforms for servers I guess you will find the same situation with other brands like Asrock Rack and Asus.

On the other hand not so long ago I had a Chinese motherboard of brand unknown that was a very strange mixture of FCLGA2011 socket, UNREG/REG ECC memory support and a build in wifi chip and soundboard. So you never know what you can find.

 

[bacardi8]

Yes okay,
I think I will do the switch to UDIMM.
The question here would also be,
is it actually possible to recognize the difference between RDIMM and UDIMM on a media server..???

 

[Evertb1]

is it actually possible to recognize the difference between RDIMM and UDIMM on a media server..???

It has nothing to do with what kind of server you build with it. A system needs to go trough it's post (power on self test) before it executes the bootloader (from your boot device). If you have unsupported memory I doubt that the system will start. If you get beep(s) during post and the system seems to hang, you know you are in trouble.

The beep(s) are coded but that is depending on the brand of the BIOS in your sysem. With AMI BIOS for example one short beep means a DRAM refresh failure. And there are a lot of BIOS Codes. It differs by brand. At this link you can read all about it.

 

[Etorix]

It's a matter of protocols and support by the memory controller, now part of the CPU. Consumer-grade CPUs only support unbuffered memory (UDIMM); only higher-end server-grade CPUs support registered DIMM (RDIMM), and may also work with UDIMM but then you cannot mix both types. No LGA115x (or AM4) CPU can do RDIMM.

To tell modules apart, UDIMM have a complex set of traces in the middle. Non-ECC UDIMM has RAM chips in multiples of 8. ECC UDIMM has RAM chips in multiples of 9 (8 data + 1 parity). RDIMM has chips in multiples of 9(*) plus one chip on the front (the "register"), and only very simple and straightforward traces. (* I've never seen or heard of non-ECC RDIMM.)

 

[bacardi8]

Thanks a lot for your explanations.

What I actually ment by asking if you are able to recognize the difference between the RDIMM and the ECC UDIMM,
was i terms of daily use and performance, by still having in mind that this server will run as a media server.

Im my current mentioned situation I would still be able to run ECC memory but with ECC UDIMM modules, and not with RDIMM.
So I guess this would then be in the middle range if we comparing the three mentioned memory modules, and will still be better
compare to Non-ECC UDIMM.
Or what you guys think..???

 

[Evertb1]

What I actually ment by asking if you are able to recognize the difference between the RDIMM and the ECC UDIMM,
was i terms of daily use and performance, by still having in mind that this server will run as a media server.

First, I hope you realize by now that choosing UDIMM or RDIMM will have consequences for the CPU and Motherboard. That being said there are differences in performance but I doubt that you will notice much of it based on the memory alone. On this link you will find some information about the differences.

By the way: There are a lot of forum members with systems with UDIMM's and most of them are perfectly happy with them. I am one of them. Look at the specs of my main file server.

 

[bacardi8]

Yes I can see that in your specs.

I will switch to ECC UDIMM, then let's see later how that comes out.