Upgrading to 10G network

Skyscraper

Cadet
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
1
Hello everybody!

I'm new to this forum and I hope my post will be properly formatted (read the guide before). Otherwise please send me a PM and I will fix it! Thanks!

I already have a TrueNAS 12 Core system running on the following hardware:
Case: FANTEC SRC-2080X07
Mainboard: ASRock AM1B-ITX
CPU: AMD Athlon™ 5350 APU with Radeon™ R3 Series (AD5350JAH44HM)
RAM: G.SKILL F3-1600C9-8GXM + G.SKILL F3-1600C11-8GNT (2x8GB = 16GB, non-ECC!)
Ethernet: Realtek RTL8111GR (ASRock onboard, 1G speed, fails on heavy usage)
HBA: Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller H310 (Chip: LSI SAS2008, re-flashed to HBA-Mode, limited to PCIe X4 due to board)

Problem with this hardware: The Mainboard/Processor is limited to only 4 PCIe lanes. So the SAS2008 is undersupplied. Also the Realtek 1G Network controller fails on heavy load (does some misterious reconnects). This is the biggest problem so I considered to upgrade to a 10G network controller. But this isn't possible with this setup.

This is my "upgrade setup":
Case: unchanged
Mainboard: Supermicro X11SCL-F (MBD-X11SCL-F-B)
CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-9300T Processor (WikiChip)
RAM: 2x Kingston 16GB Module - DDR4 2400MHz Server Premier (KSM24ED8/16ME, 2x16GB = 32GB, ECC, unbuffered)
Ethernet: Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-DA2 (Using only one SFP+ Port is supported with PCIe X4, second slot from Mainboard)
HBA: unchanged (Using the PCIe X16 slot from board with X8 lanes)

Primary goal: 10G-Ethernet
Side effects: RAM doubled, ECC, IPMI, and possibly: PMS-Jail with Hardware Acceleration (does this work? CPU supports many decoding/encodings)

Is this setup working?

Thank you very much!

Kind regards
Skyscraper
 

LeDiable

Dabbler
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
36
I built my FreeNAS system using the X11SCL-F board with an i3-9100F, so far no problems. If you don't already have the RAM, perhaps consider getting it from Supermicro. I bought a pair of these 32GB modules from their tested memory list. I've had no issues with the memory, so my only complaint is that it appears they've dropped the price nearly 20% since I bought them back in June, but I guess that's to be expected.
 

ChrisRJ

Wizard
Joined
Oct 23, 2020
Messages
1,909
What is your budget and have you considered being used gear? When I compare the USD 170.00 of the Supermicro 32 GB module from the post above, it costs roughly 4 times of what I paid for DDR3 ECC 16 GB modules. It's not that I couldn't afford it, but why spend more money than needed?

Also, what is the reason for going to 10 GBit? Knowing the use-case always helps to give better advice
 

demon

Contributor
Joined
Dec 6, 2014
Messages
117
I wouldn't bother with the i3-9300T CPU. Unless you're actually doing a setup where you literally can't have a heatsink/fan assembly, you're effectively spending the same as the non-thermally-constrained version, for a slower CPU. You'll likely consume a bit less power overall with a normal i3-9300, if anything, because anything CPU intensive will run for less time due to being able to clock up.

The T-coded CPUs are almost never what you really want.

Edit: Also, re: transcoding, I'm not sure if the SCL board will enable transcoding - not all boards will activate the iGPU. I know for a fact that the X11SCH boards do let you enable the iGPU with the IPMI graphics (it's active on my NAS, see signature), but there is an option you have to flip in the ROM setup to activate the PCI device for the iGPU to show up, otherwise it will not work.

Edit 2: Confirmed the SCL will not activate the iGPU: see here.

Edit 3: Looks like the X11SCH-LN4F can be had for about the same price as the X11SCL-F.
 
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