Thoughts on Used Supermicro servers?

[S4Rs]

Does anyone have experience buying one of these servers. This one uses older v2 Ivy bridge processors, but I feel like other then the hard disks which would be completely replaced anyways this still extremely powerful by todays standards.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIACSJ72J0855

My ideal server will host Plex with live TV recording/transcoding of 4 streams, a Zoneminder 4 to 6 camera system, NFS shares for several linux pcs, Transmission, and vms for testing linux distros. Possibly also used to boot other pcs via pixiboot.

My ideal hard disk config is a z2 setup with encryption as well. Not sure how much that makes a difference on cpu. But at 1200$ it seems too good to be true which probably means it is. I guess I will know if its a good deal if someone on this forum buys it before I get a response.

 

[Chris Moore]

I guess I will know if its a good deal if someone on this forum buys it before I get a response.

I hope you didn't buy that. It isn't that it is a bad thing, just that the price through NewEgg is too high for the thing you would get.

This would get you more server for less money:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...-2-6ghz-8-Core-128gb-24-Bay-JBOD/372245227928

 

[S4Rs]

Ha. No I didn't. I have done a little bit of looking on ebay, but when it comes to server hardware I just have no clue and am trying to take in as much knowledge as I can right now. Thanks for the link.

 

[Chris Moore]

Ha. No I didn't. I have done a little bit of looking on ebay, but when it comes to server hardware I just have no clue and am trying to take in as much knowledge as I can right now. Thanks for the link.

The link I sent you is an older system but still very useful as a NAS. You can build a system with new hardware, but it will cost much more money.
Let me know what you are looking to do and I won't send you the wrong direction.

Here is a link to the hardware guide, but it is all about newer hardware:

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[S4Rs]

My ideal server will host Plex with live TV recording/transcoding of 4 MPEG2 streams, a Zoneminder 4 to 6 camera system, NFS/Samba shares for several pcs, Transmission, and VMs for testing linux distros. Possibly also used to network boot other pcs via pxeboot.

I would probably use separate SSDs to host any dedicated VMs I put on the system. I read through the hardware guide, and that is when I shelved my threadripper build. I think other than the fact that I couldn't buy that much ECC memory up front it would of been a fine build. But I don't trust that the new AMD CPUs will be well supported till the end of next year on freeBSD. That being said Intel just released their first microcode updates for the older Sandy/Ivy bridge based CPUs about 2 weeks ago, and it will probably still be a bit before that gets rolled into freeBSD to help combat Spectre/Meltdown issues. From what I understand it doesn't fully remedy the vulnerabilities.

Long story short I want security/support and a system that can handle constant writing of video streams. I would use a z2 raid config.

 

[nightshade00013]

As far as the Spectre/Meltdown issues I personally am not a bit worried on my FreeNAS. The main place you have to worry is the shared web servers with lots of juicy data that someone wants to try and get. As long as your NAS is behind a router or firewall and you are not allowing others to run code on it the risk is minimal. In fact you have a higher risk on your desktop visiting websites and such than the FreeNAS will have. The issue would change when running VM's that would be used like a desktop however. Using remote access to test out an OS and surfing the web would open you up to the exploits. You are better off running virtualbox on your desktop for something like that.

As far as transcoding you need to look at the Plex guides to know what you need under the hood. Most streams should not need to be transcoded unless you refuse to put the video in a good format. I have found that nearly everything plays nice with MP4's using h264 and AAC audio. Have not dealt with recording to know what is needed so the Plex forums will be another place to figure out what you need.

I use Plex, Transmission, Syncthing + OpenVPN, OpenVPN server, Murmur, and 8 cores to run a cpu miner. Also have a couple VM's that are not active but I turn on from time to time and so far no issues. But if you want to stay in the cheaper zone look for board with dual CPU support and DDR3. The RAM is cheaper and with two cpu's you can double the amount of ram in the system that is able to be installed cheaply. I have 4GB sticks and 48GB of total system ram. And if you can't afford two cpu's now you can add a second one later when you can. That is why the system Chris linked would be pretty good to start off with and you may be able to get into a v2 cpu later on that is faster like a 2690 that would gain you a little bit.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2650+v2+@+2.60GHz&id=2042&cpuCount=2

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2690+v2+@+3.00GHz&id=2057&cpuCount=2

And to be honest there are not a whole lot of systems out there that can beat them anyway unless you spend a lot more money. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/multi_cpu.html

 

[Chris Moore]

I have suggested similar systems to people that were thinking of building a system. The cost of RAM being what it is now, it is hard to beat the value of these retired enterprise servers. They may not be fast enough to work in a big datacenter any more but they more than do the job for FreeNAS.
Just add drives.

 

[S4Rs]

Most streams should not need to be transcoded unless you refuse to put the video in a good format. I have found that nearly everything plays nice with MP4's using h264 and AAC audio.

The big problem with recording and watching live tv is that it comes in a very unforgiving MPEG2 stream that is huge. 3Gb for 30 minutes. All my TV's are able to handle MPEG2 streams at the moment, but over Wifi I need a strong 5G connection and most phones/tablets wont support it, for that reason I would just want to transcode on demand as needed. I use an HDHomerun Prime which gives me access to all my cable channels though and it works pretty good. Also all the video gets post processed. TV shows get processed for commercial detection, and my security camera streams will get processed for motion.

 

[Inxsible]

or that reason I would just want to transcode on demand as needed.

That, IMO, necessitates a Xeon processor. But it still doesn't have to be the latest. You can still buy a X9 or X10 based board that supports DDR3.

I bought a 2U Supermicro chassis (today about 4 hours ago)that I am going to transplant my server into. My current 1U chassis will then be converted into a JBOD unit once I put in a HBA with an external port in the 2U. That would give me 12 drives in the 2U + 4 drives in the 1U = 16 total drives which should last me a good while.

 

[S4Rs]

I think I will keep my eyes on ebay for a few days and see what I pops up for these supermicro chassis. I am not in dire need of a lot of HDD space right now. So maybe I will scale back the number of HDDs I buy initially and spend a little more on a used server.

 

[Inxsible]

I think I will keep my eyes on ebay for a few days and see what I pops up for these supermicro chassis. I am not in dire need of a lot of HDD space right now. So maybe I will scale back the number of HDDs I buy initially and spend a little more on a used server.

You might also go the route where you buy the pieces individually and then put them together yourself, if you are technically inclined. It's relatively easy and members on these forums are always there to help in case you have questions.

 

[joeinaz]

Does anyone have experience buying one of these servers. This one uses older v2 Ivy bridge processors, but I feel like other then the hard disks which would be completely replaced anyways this still extremely powerful by todays standards.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIACSJ72J0855

My ideal server will host Plex with live TV recording/transcoding of 4 streams, a Zoneminder 4 to 6 camera system, NFS shares for several linux pcs, Transmission, and vms for testing linux distros. Possibly also used to boot other pcs via pixiboot.

My ideal hard disk config is a z2 setup with encryption as well. Not sure how much that makes a difference on cpu. But at 1200$ it seems too good to be true which probably means it is. I guess I will know if its a good deal if someone on this forum buys it before I get a response.

Chris is right about the price. There is a barebones (no cpu or memory) version on eBay for $325. With the $800 difference from the Newegg system, you could easily add a CPU, memory and 12 disks. You can grow slowly with one CPU and add the memory you need.

Where is your system going? The only caveat to server hardware in the home may be the noise.

 

[joeinaz]

The costly components in new systems these days is DDR4 memory and CPUs. In terms of maximum value, SuperMicro X9 motherboard is a sweet spot. It uses inexpensive DDR3 ECC RDIMMs and E5-2600 series v1 and v2.

The server you looked at has a dual socket X9 motherboard so you are making a great start.

 

[Chris Moore]

I think I will keep my eyes on ebay for a few days and see what I pops up for these supermicro chassis. I am not in dire need of a lot of HDD space right now. So maybe I will scale back the number of HDDs I buy initially and spend a little more on a used server.

Just be careful. Some of the ones you might find will have hardware that isn't compatible with FreeNAS. This same seller had some that were almost identical to this except they had a hardware RAID card instead of a SAS HBA. If there is one you are interested in, and you have any questions, post a link and someone will have a look at the specs.

 

[Chris Moore]

The big problem with recording and watching live tv is that it comes in a very unforgiving MPEG2 stream that is huge. 3Gb for 30 minutes.

The system I pointed you at should have plenty of compute power for the transcoding and you can add a lot of drives to that chassis.

 

[Spearfoot]

Beware systems with the older BPN-SAS-846EL1 expander backplane: they're limited to 3Gb/s, and may or may not support drives larger than 2TB.

 

[Chris Moore]

BPN-SAS-846EL1

My mistake. I overlooked that.

 

[S4Rs]

So if I bought something like the server Chris mentioned
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...rentrq:7c3169cd1620aa49012e24a2fff9a335|iid:1

Could I easily upgrade it with the BPN-SAS2-846EL1 ti get 6GB Sata? Are the backplanes tied to specific motherboards? I don't even know how they connect to the motherboard. I assume they are PCIE?

Also lets say I was fine with that server for now. Could I buy a used 1u or 2u supermicro server that is a xeon v3 or v4 setup down the road. Is it easy enough to swap the motherboard and CPU but keep the existing backplane? Are these supermicro motherboards size specific to specific chassis? Or all they all some standard size like ATX, extended ATX, etc.

Noise is a concern, but it will just be another project to try to tackle that. I do like this guys solution.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjyL6ZiMkI

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[danb35]

Could I easily upgrade it with the BPN-SAS2-846EL1 ti get 6GB Sata?

Most likely, if you could find the newer backplane on its own.

Are the backplanes tied to specific motherboards?

No.

I don't even know how they connect to the motherboard.

Via SAS.

Is it easy enough to swap the motherboard and CPU but keep the existing backplane?

Should be; they generally work with standard motherboard form factors. There are some Supermicro chassis that don't (the Fat Twin series, for example), but most do. The Supermicro product pages are pretty good at showing compatibility.

 

[Inxsible]

Could I easily upgrade it with the BPN-SAS2-846EL1 ti get 6GB Sata?

yes, but most times it turns out to be more expensive than buying aachassis with the backplane you want in the first place.

Also lets say I was fine with that server for now. Could I buy a used 1u ...

Noise is a concern,

both those statements don't go together very well. I have a 1U Supermicro server and the fan are called screechers for good reason. If noise is a concern, you should go for 3U or 4U which will have a lot more airflow.