X9DRD-7LN4F, Dual Xeon E5-2670,128 GB of ECC 1333Mhz , SuperMicro 825TQ Chassis

[jayshahu]

My name is Jay. I live in the Canadian Prairies. I have been lurking around this for forum for a while but I finally gathered enough courage to bite the bullet and post for the first time.

Motherboard : Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F ( https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-X9DRD-7LN4F-Server-Motherboard-MBD-X9DRD-7LN4F-B/dp/B008CCNSFC)
CPU : Dual Intel xeon 2670 ( 8 cores) ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/332608770214?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649)
Memory : total of 16 GB X 16 = 256 GB ( ECC, 1333 Mhz , PC3L , Registered RAM). I got a bunch of RAM from a old server that was being decomissioned
HDD : 7 X 2 TB WD RED drives
OS HDD : Haven't decided what I want to do for that.
I was planning to use the 2 SAS2 ports on the M/B and buy 2 SAS cables to connect the drives. thoughts?


usage : Not in any particular order

1) Plex Server
2) NVR
3) File Server


Please feel free to guide me If I am missing something.

Best buy has the easystore 8 TB (NESN) sometimes on sale that people have shucked and have found 8TB red drives in them. Is a 8 TB drive too big put into the mix. From what I have read is that rebuilding a 8 TB drive is going to take 1) long time to rebuild. 2) It puts a very heavy load during the rebuild process. Should I stay away from those large capacity drives?

 

[joeinaz]

Several Things:

Do you have a budget

1. What have you bought so far? The motherboard may be much less expensive on eBay if you can deal with used equipment.
2. How much storage do you need now and in the future? This may give an answer for the immediate need for 8TB of disks.
   
3. What are you doing for a case?
   
4. What are you doing for fans? My X9 uses the rectangular 2011 socket which uses a hard to find fan. If you need I will look up the one I bought.
5. Are you going to use some form of removable disk carriers? This might affect case selection.
6. Do you plan to run virtual machines with your system? If not, 64GB RAM and a single socket E5-2670 is still probably overkill for a FreeNAS storage only box.

If you are running just the FreeNAS, I would start out using one CPU with about 32GB of RAM and check the performance. To house the E-ATX motherboard, you will need a fairly large case which may allow for a large number of disks. Personally, I like smaller disks as they tend to cost less per TB (used disk). The sweet spot seems to be 2 and 4TB disks. Finally, consider selling some of your 16GB DIMMs. Current price on eBay is around $60 each; if you use 64GB for your NAS, you will have 12 DIMMs to sell and finance the rest of your system.

 

[jayshahu]

Thanks.

Around 1200 dollars including the disks keeping WAF in mind. I have flexibility but not much.

I was thinking of setting aside 2 TB for the NVR. Another 10 TB for my music and video. Maybe another 10 TB set aside for growth and VM's.

I did get the motherboard of ebay. It comes with the heat sinks, power supply (don't know the specs yet) , the fans for the CPU and three additional fans on the chasis. The seller is an electronics recycle company and they were kind enough to ship the mother board mounted to the case. I haven't received it yet so don't know what I am getting with respect to the specs. From the picture (they had cropped it, to show the motherboard) I think it could be a 4U server chasis.

I have purchased or in possession of the following.
1) Motherboard ( Comes with FANs and Heatsink)
2) RAM
3) CPU
4) Case (Waiting to see what I get)

I am waiting for the mother board to arrive and then I would know what additional parts I might have to purchase. It is likely the chasis has some form of removeable disk carriers.

I do plan to run atleast 3 VM on that server.

1) One for running either Ubiquiti or blue Iris for the home surveillance.
2) Plex media server.
3) Whole Home network ad block.

 

[Inxsible]

Motherboard : Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F ( https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-X9DRD-7LN4F-Server-Motherboard-MBD-X9DRD-7LN4F-B/dp/B008CCNSFC)
CPU : Dual Intel xeon 2670 ( 8 cores) ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/332608770214?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649)
Memory : total of 16 GB X 16 = 256 GB ( ECC, 1333 Mhz , PC3L , Registered RAM). I got a bunch of RAM from a old server that was being decomissioned

usage : Not in any particular order

1) Plex Server
2) NVR
3) File Server

In my opinion, for your stated use case, I think the board and dual-cpus are way overkill. You aren't doing a whole lot of processing in a file server or NVR (where it's just recording and storing that data). Plex might need some CPU if you plan on transcoding multiple streams. If you stream native resolution, then a pentium would be sufficient.

 

[Inxsible]

I did get the motherboard of ebay. It comes with the heat sinks, power supply (don't know the specs yet) , the fans for the CPU and three additional fans on the chasis. The seller is an electronics recycle company and they were kind enough to ship the mother board mounted to the case. I haven't received it yet so don't know what I am getting with respect to the specs. From the picture (they had cropped it, to show the motherboard) I think it could be a 4U server chasis.

That seems strange to me that you bought something sight unseen. Didn't they include pictures of the chassis if it was part of the sale? The PSUs could be under-sized and then you might have to buy different ones.

 

[joeinaz]

As soon as you find out the model of the chassis (case) we can get a better idea of how to proceed. If it's a server case with a backplane and removable disks, you may be in good shape except for one important detail; the power supply. The power supply is the one component you never "go cheap" on. Many times, hardware sellers will remove a decent power supply and replace it with a "no name", lesser quality part. If you need a power supply, the next consideration is the fact that, your dual CPU motherboard may require a power supply that has two 8 pin motherboard connectors. We can review all of this when you find out what you have in the way of a case.

 

[Inxsible]

If it's a server case with a backplane and removable disks,

Hopefully not a TQ backplane & 4U. Imagine the cable management nightmare with 24 SATA breakout cables running from the board to the backplane.

Many times, hardware sellers will remove a decent power supply and replace it with a "no name", lesser quality part.

True.

If you need a power supply, the next consideration is the fact that, your dual CPU motherboard may require a power supply that has two 8 pin motherboard connectors.

Which is exactly why I feel strange that the op (@jayshahu)bought the case/psu without knowing what they were.

 

[jayshahu]

What I brought from the company was only the motherboard. They mentioned in the listing that they are including the heat sinks , fans and the power supply. I sent them a note if they would be kind enough to ship it mounted on the chassis and they agreed to do so.

Here is the pic from the ebay listing. The chassis/case what I am getting is only a bonus for me.

Yes once I get my hands on the chassis then I will go and check the power supply and if it has any disk array space else, If not then I will invest in a decent power supply and case.

Hopefully not a TQ backplane & 4U. Imagine the cable management nightmare with 24 SATA breakout cables running from the board to the backplane.
True.
Which is exactly why I feel strange that the op (@jayshahu)bought the case/psu without knowing what they were.

 

[Inxsible]

Looks like a 2U Supermicro 825-xxxLPB or 826-xxxLPB chassis. If you got that for free -- consider yourself lucky.

The motherboard also has SAS ports -- so I would imagine that the backplane is also SAS at least, if not SAS2.

 

[jayshahu]

I am now in possession of the mother board and the chassis. The chassis is a SuperMicro 825TQ with a dual redundant 920 watt power supply. I have now decided since I sold some of my memory is to fill up all the 8 Hard Drive bays with WD 4TB red drives.

Is there any possible issues that I will have with all the 8 drives filled up. There was some concerns about the 825TQ backplane having issues with drives bigger than 2 GB and greater?

 

[Inxsible]

The chassis is a SuperMicro 825TQ with a dual redundant 920 watt power supply.

Not a fan of the TQ backplane. xxxA would have been better mostly for cabling issues. But chassis with backplane-A are hard to find on ebay. But hey if you got the chassis for free and 2 920W (is the model number : PWS-920P-SQ? if so, these are 80+ platinum rated) PSUs alongwith -- I am not gonna complain. The PSUs alone sell for $120+ on ebay. All that for free, man it was your lucky day. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for it?

Is there any possible issues that I will have with all the 8 drives filled up.

No. Why would there be? That's what they are built for.

There was some concerns about the 825TQ backplane having issues with drives bigger than 2 GB and greater?

Nope TQ backplanes don't have that problem, AFAIK. I think it was the SAS-EL1 backplanes that cannot see drives bigger than 2GB.

 

[jayshahu]

Not a fan of the TQ backplane. xxxA would have been better mostly for cabling issues. But chassis with backplane-A are hard to find on ebay. But hey if you got the chassis for free and 2 920W (is the model number : PWS-920P-SQ? if so, these are 80+ platinum rated) PSUs alongwith -- I am not gonna complain. The PSUs alone sell for $120+ on ebay. All that for free, man it was your lucky day. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for it?

No. Why would there be? That's what they are built for.

Nope TQ backplanes don't have that problem, AFAIK. I think it was the SAS-EL1 backplanes that cannot see drives bigger than 2GB.

I paid a total of 180 dollars for the entire server. I got lucky on this one.

 

[Inxsible]

I paid a total of 180 dollars for the entire server. I got lucky on this one.

That's really a great price for the quad NIC board, dual CPUs, 8-bay chassis and redundant PSUs.

Enjoy building it up.