BUILD Supermicro X10SL7-F-O

[Geoffrey O'Brien]

Ok, so i've been throwing this build around for a few weeks, and am about to pull the trigger, im looking for some feedback to ensure im not missing anything. This will be my new Plex server as well and would need to potentially transcode up to 3 devices at the same time.

1x - Fractal Mid Tower Case FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK Black
1x - Supermicro X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX DDR3 1600 LGA 1150 Motherboard
1x - Intel Xeon E3-1231 v3 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.40 GHz Processor BX80646E31231V3
1x - Corsair Professional Series 760 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply AX760
2x - Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC 1.35V 1024Meg x 72
2x - SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16 GB - For boot drives (mirrored)
8x - HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 4TB 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive Kit (0S03664)

I also have 2x 128gb SSD's at my disposal if there is any opportunity to use those, maybe ZIL?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Looks good.

I would say don't use 7200rpm hdd's since they are hard t keep cool and don't bother with the zil it probably won't help at all.

 

[marbus90]

This build is smaller, uses less energy and is a little bit cheaper:

Fractal Define Mini
Corsair CX430
Supermicro X10SLL-F or X10SLM+-F
Xeon E3-1220 v3 or E3-1241 v3 (either you need the power or you don't)
Crucial 8GB 1.35V DIMMs (that kit is fine)
Sandisk Cruzer 16GB (good choice as well)
6x 6TB WD Red

Again smaller and in the same price range would be the Fractal Node 304 with the ASRock MT-C224 or E3C224D2I Mobo, other parts the same.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Personally I don't recommend anything else than the AX series for Corsair.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, the Corsair CXs/CSs are a bit too crummy. RMs are ok, but Seasonic G-Series are better and often cheaper.

On the high-end, Seasonic Platinums (or Corsair AX - they're rebrands - except for the AXis, which are a completely different design, but also very good) are significantly better than Corsair HX. Seasonic X-Series are typically not worth it, since they're only 10 bucks less than comparable Platinum units.

 

[marbus90]

I've looked and the G-360 isn't available at newegg anymore. I assume the CX430 is still far better than anything Rosewill...

 

[Bidule0hm]

Other models maybe?

And Antec?

And there's other shops than newegg :)

 

[Ericloewe]

What about the G-450?

CX430 is really as low as I'd consider going, with a bit more cash getting a lot better performance. There are a couple of Seasonic G-Series rebrands that are generally about as good as the real deal (but careful! Be sure they didn't cost-down the original design), so look out for those.

 

[GrumpyBear]

I just built a similar rig using 8 x 3TB WD & Seagate drives in a Define R4.

Your power supply has way too much headroom. 450W is more than enough and will be less than 50% loaded on start-up and 25% loaded under full CPU and disks.
The Hitachi drives are nice from a purely specifications standpoint but with 8 spindles you only need 16MBps throughput from each spindle to saturate a 1GBps link. Any Seagate or WD NAS disk can do this at less power consumption and less heat with the Intel NICs on the SuperMicro boards. Unless you are planning on spending the $$ on 10GigE ...
It is still significantly less expensive on a purely $/EffectiveTB (Effective TB means the cost of all the disks/effective space after RAIDZ2 /Z3 overhead) to pay the extra $100 for the the SL7 with the SAS controller and go with 8 drives than to save the $100 on a SLL or SLM and go with a six spindle count and have to jump to the 5TB or 6TB models. For example, using the lowest cost Segate/Hitachi/WD disk prices today from NewEgg and comparing a 6-disk 5TB (4.66TB) array with a 8-disk 3TB (2.79TB) array both of which yield 14TB usable (before ZFS overhead) the 6-spindle solution costs $99.64/TB and the 8-spindle $65.85/TB.
You may also want to replace the Fractal Case Fans (3-pin so no PWM control) or at least add another fan in the front to keep the disks cool. My experience is that the fractal fans do not have a lot of static pressure and running a decent 120 or 140mm fan at 600-700rpm will easily keep the drives under 40C.
The e51231v3 will handle 3 plex transcodes no problem (I had it up to 4 today)
Don't forget to budget for a UPS and possibly a additional surge suppressor.
I wouldn't bother budgeting for SSDs. Monitor your ARC stats after you've had it in production for a few months then make the call if you need them.
I decided to put my jails for Plex on the Filesystem rather than on an SSD or Mirror of SSDs. The main reason for putting jails on SSD appear to be if you want to let the disks sleep. I have no intention of this as I'm firmly in the camp of having the disks spin 24x7.

 

[Z300M]

I've looked and the G-360 isn't available at newegg anymore. I assume the CX430 is still far better than anything Rosewill...

Rosewill is a NewEgg "store brand," so it could be that they've cut out the middle man and Rosewill PSUs are better value for money than some others. OTOH, I've read that Rosewill are not so good, except for the Capstone line. I have no complaints about my Capstone 80Plus Gold modular.

 

[Z300M]

Looks good.

I would say don't use 7200rpm hdd's since they are hard t keep cool and don't bother with the zil it probably won't help at all.

The highest lifetime temperature I see on any of my Seagate 7200rpm drives is 37C.

 

[Geoffrey O'Brien]

Thanks everyone, I pulled the trigger on the server gear minus the drives, still trying to figure out what I'm goon to do there.


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