I posted this question recently on another forum, but it occurred to me I should probably ask the experts too :) Any input, thoughts, or experience you have with the configurations below would be greatly appreciated.
I currently have a FreeNAS system running on a Supermicro X9SRL-F with a E5-1650v2 that is humming along just fine, but due to some unrelated lab upgrades and some dumb luck I now find myself with an extra X9DRH-iTF and a pair of E5-2680v2 processors, and I'm wondering if it is worth moving from the X9SRL-F to the X9DRH-iTF? The E5-1650v2 wins on single core performance with a 3.5 GHz base (3.9 GHz turbo) as compared to the E5-2680v2 with it's 2.8 GHz base (3.6 GHz turbo); however there is no contest when it comes to cores, with the E5-1650v2 having six and the pair of E5-2680v2 having 20 between them. The X9DRH does offer on-board 10 Gb links, but I'm unlikely to use those for the networking (see below). However, the X9DRH does offer additional memory slots (I'm currently maxed out on the X9SRL), which could be useful for future upgrades as I understand ZFS/FreeNAS loves RAM.
If it helps, the system serves up a variety of clients via CIFS and NFS shares; I don't run any additional services/plugins on the FreeNAS system (e.g. no Plex, VMs, etc.). The CIFS clients tend to all be 1 Gb links while the NFS clients are a mix of 1 Gb and 10 Gb links. I expect to add 40 Gb links for some of the NFS clients within the next month or so (just need to install the NICs and cabling). I do not currently have any iSCSI or WebDAV clients, but I may experiment with that in the future.
For reference, the system currently has 128 GB of memory and eight WD Red 4 TB drives in a single RAID-Z2 pool split into two four drive vdevs; the pool has a 500 GB NVMe cache/ARC disk (Samsung something or other) and a 280 GB log/ZIL disk (Optane 900p). The WD Reds are split evenly across two LSI 9211-8i cards (flashed to IT mode). Network connectivity is supplied by a dual port Chelsio T520, soon to be replaced by a dual port Chelsio T580. Everything listed above would stay the same if I switched from the X9SRL to the X9DRH.
I currently have a FreeNAS system running on a Supermicro X9SRL-F with a E5-1650v2 that is humming along just fine, but due to some unrelated lab upgrades and some dumb luck I now find myself with an extra X9DRH-iTF and a pair of E5-2680v2 processors, and I'm wondering if it is worth moving from the X9SRL-F to the X9DRH-iTF? The E5-1650v2 wins on single core performance with a 3.5 GHz base (3.9 GHz turbo) as compared to the E5-2680v2 with it's 2.8 GHz base (3.6 GHz turbo); however there is no contest when it comes to cores, with the E5-1650v2 having six and the pair of E5-2680v2 having 20 between them. The X9DRH does offer on-board 10 Gb links, but I'm unlikely to use those for the networking (see below). However, the X9DRH does offer additional memory slots (I'm currently maxed out on the X9SRL), which could be useful for future upgrades as I understand ZFS/FreeNAS loves RAM.
If it helps, the system serves up a variety of clients via CIFS and NFS shares; I don't run any additional services/plugins on the FreeNAS system (e.g. no Plex, VMs, etc.). The CIFS clients tend to all be 1 Gb links while the NFS clients are a mix of 1 Gb and 10 Gb links. I expect to add 40 Gb links for some of the NFS clients within the next month or so (just need to install the NICs and cabling). I do not currently have any iSCSI or WebDAV clients, but I may experiment with that in the future.
For reference, the system currently has 128 GB of memory and eight WD Red 4 TB drives in a single RAID-Z2 pool split into two four drive vdevs; the pool has a 500 GB NVMe cache/ARC disk (Samsung something or other) and a 280 GB log/ZIL disk (Optane 900p). The WD Reds are split evenly across two LSI 9211-8i cards (flashed to IT mode). Network connectivity is supplied by a dual port Chelsio T520, soon to be replaced by a dual port Chelsio T580. Everything listed above would stay the same if I switched from the X9SRL to the X9DRH.