Upgarding my E3-1241 V3 to somethng better.

[Apollo]

I am looking at a possible upgrade of my system by replacing my XEON E3-1241 V3 @3.5GHz with a higher core count and more RAM.

I am running under FreeNAS 9.10.2-U2 since I had so many issues with FreeNAS Corral, I didn't bother upgrading to the latest FreeNAS 11 release.

I plan on keeping my current 2 Vdev volume(10 disks) as is and replace the CPU, motherboard and RAM to accommodate my needs.

I have of course read the hardware recommendation guide but the answers are generic as it lacks specifics.

For instance I am running several jails as follow:

2 x Nextcloud NC 12: Serving live data.
2+ Nextcloud for test and experimentation purposes: Serving limited data if any.
Syslog_server
Plex

On top of it, I would like to integrate OnlyOffice, Colabora and a few other VM when I finally decide to upgrade to FreeNAS 11, which is currently possible on my system.

The primary reason for adding RAM is based on my ARC and swap usage, but I am not quite sure if this is so relevant based on the following post:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/swap-with-9-10.42749/

I have several options to choose from:


XEON D Series:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-TLN4F-O:

Pros:
- TDP 45W (I don't know of the total power consumtion)
- 10Gbe (Not using it yet, don't know if I will anytime soon)

Cons:
- 2.0GHz
- 6 SATA ports
- PCIe 1 slot

XEON E5 Seires V4:

E5-2620 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores


E5-2630 V4 @2.2GHz 10 cores


E5-2640 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores

Attached comparison chart from ark.intel website:

Then it is a matter of choosing the proper motherboard.
One solution I keep in mind is the possibility of selecting a dual socket motherboard:
Supermicro X10D motherboard is what I might be looking for since my current motherboard is from Supermicro and it has been doing well with the exception of adding PCIe RAID card while retaining the onboard LSI enabled.

The advantage of going dual socket is that I could go with the XEON E5-2620 V4 and upgrade later on with a second CPU if I deem it necessary. I could go with the second CPU off the start and start with 64GB RAM.

The next challenge is to find a solution for my 10 SATA drives.

On my current X10SL7-F, I am using 8 HDD on the LSI controller and the remaining 4 on the remaining SATA ports.
So I don't expect much issue there but still curious about the various issues or limitations.


One of my major unknown is clock speed, would I be loosing in performance running at lower clock speed, mostly related to SAMBA and possibly replication or scrubs?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Stux]

E5-2620 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores
E5-2630 V4 @2.2GHz 10 cores
E5-2640 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores

E5-1650 V4 @ 3.6 -> 4.0Ghz 6 cores.

Single thread performance can be important, and this chip has it. And is roughly the same over-all speed as the others. (cores * ghz)

 

[Apollo]

Hi Stux,

I don't feel comfortable going from a 4 core to 6 cores CPU.
I am concerned number of core would be too limited.
But I keep your advice in mind.

Thanks.

 

[Stux]

That's the thing, you're going from a 4 core 3.5ghz+ CPU, to 8 core at 2ishGhz. Marginally faster. The big upgrade is from 32GB max ram to 1TB max ram. And PCIe slots.

The RAM should make a difference as you'll be able to upgrade your ARC and L2ARC.

And a Xeon D gets you 8-16 cores at 2.2ish ghz too. and 128GB

I have both a 1650v4 and the X10SDV-TLN4F. Love the little board... but I also think its limited to about 1GB/s throughput.

Anyway, what is your actual bottleneck? Plex transcodig?

Maybe it is worth considering:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3197...ipper-prices-specs-release-date-and-more.html

16 cores... and 3.5-4ghz for the same price as the E5-2640v4.

 

[jgreco]

XEON E5 Seires V4:

E5-2620 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores


E5-2630 V4 @2.2GHz 10 cores


E5-2640 V4 @2.1GHz 8 cores

The price of the dual socket stuff tends to be insane. If you go to single socket and stick in the E5-1650v4, that's really one of the best general purpose solutions for midrange filers. You get insane per-core speeds of up to 4GHz (turboboost). Don't forget to consider this option.

 

[Apollo]

I couldn't find information about ECC capability for Rysen 1900X series. If it did then it would be something to consider. That may be a better option to replace my old i7-920 if I decide to do the plunge and ECC is not abailable.
I don't transcode with Plex much as my Windows machine seems to handle direct play. If playing from phone, which I rarely do anyway, transcoding can maxout my CPU. Doing 4K is a bit more challenging but still performing direct play on my 4K monitor.
It's hard to pinpoint botlenecks.

 

[Stux]

https://www.amd.com/en/products/ryzen-threadripper

Quad channel DDR4 with support for ECC for reliable throughput.

Really looking like where big SOHO FreeNAS's need to look after LGA2011 platform. Scalable Xeon Processors just seem inappropriate.

And if its really cores you want....

https://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/nfo/AMD_SP3.cfm

Try 32 of them.

But I think it might not be. The E3-1241v3 is a performant chip. Whats your CPU usage on your NAS?

 

[Apollo]

https://www.amd.com/en/products/ryzen-threadripper


Really looking like where big SOHO FreeNAS's need to look after LGA2011 platform. Scalable Xeon Processors just seem inappropriate.

And if its really cores you want....

https://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/nfo/AMD_SP3.cfm

Try 32 of them.

But I think it might not be. The E3-1241v3 is a performant chip. Whats your CPU usage on your NAS?

E3-1241 V3 is a good performer. RAM seems somewhat an issue and I am hoping for 64GB as a start and possibly 128GB. E5 are the way to go until I find as good a performer than E3.
I don't have my mind set to geta new system yet. I have to do my homework before I spend a significant amount of money.
Maybe AMD is a good candidate but what about Freebsd support for the architecture?

 

[jgreco]

E3-1241 V3 is a good performer. RAM seems somewhat an issue and I am hoping for 64GB as a start and possibly 128GB.

How exactly were you planning to do 128GB on a platform that only supports 64?

 

[Apollo]

Hi Jgreco,
You got it wrong. My E3 cannot even make use of more than 32GB.
This is why I am looking at upgrading potentially to E5.