X10 E3 vs. X9 E5 vs. X10 E5 for a Home Plex and Backup Server

Joined
Aug 8, 2019
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The question is more or less what it says in the title, but some more information for context:

I'm currently mulling my first FreeNAS build, and I'm trying to choose between a Xeon E3 build on Supermicro's X10 platform and a Xeon E5 build on Supermicro's X9 or X10 platform. The primary uses I'm considering for it:
  • A network full-disk backup server for three computers, with local storage varying between 256 GB and 1 TB.
  • A Plex server for a mix of content, including uncompressed 1080p Blu-Ray rips and live TV recordings. 4K isn't in the picture for now, but I'd like to have that option.
  • Local storage for a collection of older software I'd like to hold on to for safekeeping.
  • A local backup for the Plex content and the older software.
  • Maybe offloading some Blu-Ray ripping work to a bhyve VM or otherwise playing around with virtualization.
My build priorities are:
  1. ~$700 hardware budget
  2. Relatively low power consumption
  3. Storage expandability.
I'm planning on using mirrored vdevs built up from shucked EasyStores in the main storage pool for relatively easy expandability and fault tolerance. With all that out of the way, here are the three builds I've put together:

Xeon E3 X10-Based Build:
  • Xeon E3-1225 V3
  • Supermicro X10SL7-F
  • 32 GB RAM
  • Crucial BX500 120 GB boot disk
  • Node 804 case
Xeon E5 X9-Based Build:
  • Xeon E5-2650 V2
  • Supermicro X9SRI-F
  • 32 GB RAM
  • Crucial BX500 120 GB boot disk
  • Define R6 case
Xeon E5 X10-Based Build:
  • Xeon E5-2640 V3
  • Supermicro X9SRL-F
  • 32 GB RAM
  • Crucial BX500 120 GB boot disk
  • Define R6 case
The main thing pushing me towards the E5 platform is that on last-gen (read: somewhat affordable) hardware, E3 is limited to 32 GB of RAM. Keeping to the general rule of thumb that you should plan on 1 GB of RAM for every 1 TB of storage, that feels a little claustrophobic for me. I don't think I'd ever exceed 32 TB of media, but I think it's possible that I might break 32 TB when including backups. I think I'm mostly curious about how the RAM requirements for FreeNAS look when you're dealing with two separate pools, one of which is only being hit for backups. I'm also a bit concerned about the greater power draw on E5, but considering embedded boards aren't really in the picture for my purposes I'm not sure if there's a huge gap between single-socket E5 and E3 on that front.

In any event I've learned a lot on these forums over the past few weeks and I appreciate your help!
 

anmnz

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Joined
Feb 17, 2018
Messages
286
Keeping to the general rule of thumb that you should plan on 1 GB of RAM for every 1 TB of storage,

Don't. It is outdated.(*) 32GB RAM will be fine for a whole lot more than 32TB of storage.

I think there is at least one typo in your lists -- your "E5 X10 based build" says it has an X9 motherboard?

I think personally I would avoid the X9SRI-F with its missing PCIe slots and go for the X9SRL-F instead. And would go X9 E5 not E3, for the much higher memory capacity (ECC DDR3 is plentiful and cheap!) But that is all based on ideas about future expandability well beyond the uses that you are listing. Given what you actually say you want to do with the system, I don't think there is much to choose between the alternatives you list -- all seem fine.

(*) I don't mean that it was a bad rule in the past, just that it doesn't really scale up as-is beyond 8TB of disk, and these days it is irrelevant below 8TB due to the stated 8 GB RAM minimum requirement for FreeNAS.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 8, 2019
Messages
21
I knew something was going to get lost in editing -- I meant the X10SRL-F!

I'm definitely leaning towards the X9 E5 right now, if only for the possibility of doing more with it in the future and the PCIe expansion. Do you have any insight on the comparative power consumption between E3 and E5? For what it's worth I'm mostly looking at the E5 processors around ~95 W TDP.
 

anmnz

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Joined
Feb 17, 2018
Messages
286
I knew something was going to get lost in editing -- I meant the X10SRL-F!

I'm definitely leaning towards the X9 E5 right now, if only for the possibility of doing more with it in the future and the PCIe expansion. Do you have any insight on the comparative power consumption between E3 and E5? For what it's worth I'm mostly looking at the E5 processors around ~95 W TDP.

Really the only first hand info I have is in my signature. But you might find it encouraging.

You mentioned TDP so I will trot out the standard caveat that TDP is not a useful measure of how much electricity your NAS will consume. TDP relates to maximum heat dissipation -- very important if you are building a laptop or a datacentre, but very poorly correlated indeed to system power consumption at idle, which is what's normally relevant for a NAS.
 
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