Supermicro A1SAi-2750F vs ASRock C2750D4I

Status
Not open for further replies.

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
Didn't I just recently discuss parking trucks in the driveway vs trains in the backyard? :)
 

FNSeeker

Dabbler
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
45
Dear fellow users of A1SAi 2750f,

I believe I owe this post and in case it may be informative to some.

After experiencing conflicts with running link aggregation (of Supermicro A1SAi-2750f) on the host side, I finally configured each ether port dedicated for a particular media host or subgroup. I find this method more stable, resolved conflicts at some host ends, less CPU requirements and better desired results. So bye-bye LACP for me. I believe somebody suggested this approach earlier (could be Cyberjock) but I am a slow self-learner with a St Thomas trait. :)

In case someone still wonders about the performance speed, here is mine for comparison:

70.2 MB/s file copy to NAS
48.8 MB/s file copy from NAS

(on 6 WD Red 3TB HDDs + RAIDZ2 + 16 GB ECC RAM - UNAS NSC-800 Pro chassis)

Regards,
 

engmsf

Dabbler
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
41
FWIW, and in brief because Android just killed a longish post. My LAN has 4 Supermicros, 3 ASRocks, and one 2xL5639 Lenovo D20 board in a Norco chassis, plus I built for temporary media playback, a B85M-ITX+G3320. In fact, I would say positive experience on that board which I bought because it was cheapest and not ECS - like VT-d support, and pulling NTP servers and offset from DHCP (why Windows 8.*/2012* insists on GMT-8 when my BIOS can figure it out and the DHCP server is a WS2012r2 machine is ridiculous) helped get me over my reluctance, and I'm glad for it.

I have had silly design problems with Supermicro - not usually reliability ones, barring one stupid EFI shell text overflow - and fewer with ASRock. As far as just working/reliability, in a whitebox/self supported environment, I don't really care much one way or the other, though I think that ASRock certainly is making an effort in white box/lab building, which is just plain smart. I also distinctly prefer ASRock IPMI, both web and Java interfaces, and despise Super Doctor.

On point, though not stress tested (just learning FreeNAS, also I'm waiting on a 4th Travelstar 1.5TB 2" to go RAIDZ2) I did buy the ASRock C2750 for NAS use, maybe also as a low power Windows LAN client with a mirror/data store dual use. Install was done by IPMI with remote ISO mounting with no issues.

Also, I think 204 vs 240 pin matters, or it certainly does to me: if/when 16GB UDIMMs become available, I can pull whatever UDIMMs are in the C2750 now, step back, and look at all my DDR3 machines (except the 2011s which are already on 16GB sticks) and figure out how best to distribute them. I would say there's a lot more reuse value in an 8GB ECC UDIMM when in a 240 pin format than 204.

Thanks for the informative post. Someone can correct me, but I believe the ASRock C2750D4I is the official motherboard used on the iXsystems FreeNAS Mini?
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
The 1U12LW is an older model but I don't think they made an Avoton of the LX. The biggest problem with the LW is the underpowered power supply, which makes me really nervous. It's fine once everything is spun up but is under-amped for spinup current. However there are also reports of troubles with the Marvell SATA controllers. This isn't a fatal problem even if true because you can always toss in a M1015.
 

RobertT

Explorer
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
54
There is a nice review on the FreeNAS mini with the asrock motherboard.. Written by cyberjock..
He even did some performance testing..
https://cyberj0ck.wordpress.com/
 

DataKeeper

Patron
Joined
Feb 19, 2015
Messages
223
Just for completeness.. Cyberjock had 2 parts to that..
https://cyberj0ck.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/my-review-of-the-freenas-mini-part-1/
https://cyberj0ck.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/my-review-of-the-freenas-mini-part-2/

Also.. I don't see the M1015 as a real option as I'd much rather see the slot left open for a 10gb nic upgrade down the not so distant road. A personal opinion granted but a huge reason for this board is the number of sata ports.

btw.. I do apologize for reviving a year old thread :D
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
Slow and reliable access is preferable for a ZFS pool. Fast and lossy is bad. Shrug.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top