So, I've decided to buy a Supermicro X11 board...

[Nightcat]

Hello,
first Post from me, hope I picked the correct forum/thread...

I was doing a lot of reading over the last weeks since I want to build a Home Server using ZFS as the Filesystem. I did not really find an answer to my main questions using the search, so I hope its ok to ask this here. I also read the hardware recommendation thread, but it mostly contains older hardware compared to what I intend to use...
I havent fully decided if it will be Freenas or maybe a Proxmox Hypervisor, a few (3-4) VMs/Jails and some NFS shares...
In the end, I want to have 2 Disks (WD Red 1TB? or 500GB SSDs) as a mirror for the System, and another 6 Disks (WD Red 3TB) as RaidZ2 for all the data!

Just wanted to check on my hardware since I dont wanted to make any big mistakes...
So any help or tips are very welcome, thanks

Mainboard:
X11SSH-F (mainly because of the 8 SATA Ports and the lower price compared to the X11SSL-CF)
X11SSL-CF (the added 8 SAS Ports via LSI 3008, seem to be better value compared to buying a PCI Card for additional SAS connections, it only has 6 SATA but that would be enough) I could connect my 2 Disks for the system, and the 6 Disks for storage and still have another 6 connections free for another RaidZ2 Pool (using 6 new additional Disks) for when I need more storage in the future! I like this expandability since the price difference is not that much...
Will my WD Red 3TB Drives work on the SAS Controller (using adapter cable from 1 SAS to 4 SATA)??

As for the X11SSH-CTF, I dont think the huge increase in price (compared to the X11SSL-CF) is worth the 2 extra SATA Ports and the extra M2 ports, which I both dont really need in the future as far as I can see...


RAM:
16 or 32 GB probably Samsung M391A2K43BB1-CPB since it is officially in the supported list from Supermicro for both those Mainboards

CPU:
Here is the interesting question: I would love to use an Intel i3-6100T since a friend uses it and it seems to be a great CPU, very low power usage, great performace and very good price!!
Looking at the intel specifications the CPU supports ECC RAM, and looking at the supported CPUs of the SuperMicro Mainboard they list:
" Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports
Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v5,
Intel® 6th Gen. Core™ i3 series,
Intel® Celeron® and Intel® Pentium® "

So this combination should work, if all the information I could find are correct...?!?
I know that a CPU from the Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1200 v5 Product Family would be more powerful, but I really love the i3-6100T and I dont need all that performance from a Xeon...
After all, using such a combination of Motherboard and RAM, I should be able to swap out the CPU for a Xeon if I ever need more performance in the future, right?

Lots of questions, I hope my post and my questions are clear...
Thanks for any feedback!

 

[Ericloewe]

Hello,
first Post from me, hope I picked the correct forum/thread...

Your own thread would have been more appropriate. I've asked the mods to move this.

Will my WD Red 3TB Drives work on the SAS Controller (using adapter cable from 1 SAS to 4 SATA)??

Yes, SAS supports SATA drives.

interesting question: I would love to use an Intel i3-6100T since a friend uses it and it seems to be a great CPU, very low power usage, great performace and very good price!!

It's also a horrible choice outside of very specific scenarios. The non-T 6100 or 6300 are much better choices.

 

[jgreco]

Your own thread would have been more appropriate. I've asked the mods to move this.

Kay.

 

[Nightcat]

Your own thread would have been more appropriate. I've asked the mods to move this.

Sorry for that, and thanks for moving it.

It's also a horrible choice outside of very specific scenarios. The non-T 6100 or 6300 are much better choices.

Can you explain why it is such a bad choice?
Like I said, if I need more performance I can upgrade to a Xeon whenever needed, but I dont think this will be any time soon.


Whats your opinion on the motherboards I am looking at, are those good picks and it just comes down to personal opinion, or is there some major problem I am not aware of.
The combination should work, right?

Thanks for you help, or from anyone else ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

Can you explain why it is such a bad choice?
Like I said, if I need more performance I can upgrade to a Xeon whenever needed, but I dont think this will be any time soon.

It's artificially limited, doesn't use less power and is generally more expensive.

Whats your opinion on the motherboards I am looking at, are those good picks and it just comes down to personal opinion, or is there some major problem I am not aware of.
The combination should work, right?

No serious issues we know of. The specific choice will have to be up to you, but any of those should work well.

 

[Nightcat]

Thanks for your quick responses and your help.

I found one more question, since I am leaning towards the X11SSL-CF Motherboard for additional future expandibility!
You posted in your hardware thread (https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/so-you-want-some-hardware-suggestions.12276/)
"Avoid the LSI SAS/SATA 3Gbps HBA/RAID controllers. They have a 2TB size limit. Ick."

Is that still true??
Since the X11SSL-CF board has a LSI 3008 controller. And I plan to use 3TB WD Red drives.
The LSI 3008 according to Supermicro is a 12Gbps controller, but I still wanted to check on that... dont want to be surprised after it´s to late.

Thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

Since the X11SSL-CF board has a LSI 3008 controller. And I plan to use 3TB WD Red drives.
The LSI 3008 according to Supermicro is a 12Gbps controller, but I still wanted to check on that... dont want to be surprised after it´s to late.

It only applies to LSI SAS1 controllers. The SAS2 and SAS3 controllers have no known/publicized limitation. They work with all drives that currently exist.