New motherboard and/or new motherboard and CPU?


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I currently have a not so old Intel® Xeon® CPU E3-1240 v3 and the ASRock - E3C224D4I-14S. Believe I bought them around December 2015.

Just recently the motherboard seems to be becomming unstable. The built in SAS has died, after a reboot it gets stuck on 'system initializing' 25% of the time.

 

Which has got me thinking that it's about time for an upgrade soon anyway. I've decided on a new case, a Lian Li PC-D8000, which will hold up to 20 HDDs. I'll have an additional HDD so I'll be needing at least 21 Sata/SAS ports.

 

Which gives me a lot more options regarding a new motherboard, my last case was ITX hence the ITX motherboard.

 

Problem I have is that with the CPU being discontinued, the motherboards are harder to find. But they are out there. Could anyone recommend what motherboard to choose for the CPU, and what additional SAS cards to use to let me use up to 21 HDDs?

 

OR, I'm also wanting to start storing 4K Blu Rays, H265 content, the CPU I have cannot handle transcoding through Plex for this (already tested), I was toying with the idea of older Dual Xeons (decided not to due to power consumption), or even Ryzen has a good passmarks, but the additional cost just isn't worth it, I'd rather make a 1080p seperate rip of these instead. I did see someone mention that Kaby Lake is good for transcoding H265 content though? So depending on price that may be worthwhile...

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Oh, and to note I'm looking to do this with a budget of £1,500. I do also want to buy 7 new 4TB HDDs as well, which is about half of that.

The case I've opted for pricey... it's difficult to find but I'd be looking at about £330. So I'll have about £435 left.

Probably going to be the same CPU, a new motherboard and some SAS card(s) I imagine.

 

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I'm pretty sure that board has a 3 year warranty. Have you considered RMAing it with asRock? They might even cross-ship you the new one to avoid down-time...

 

[EDIT] I'm surprised transcoding is a problem. CPU Benchmark gives it a score of 9702, which should be more than sufficient to transcode 1 stream... Could there be another issue causing the transcoding problems?

Edited by DoeBoye
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So I did a bit more reading on the transcoding, and looks like you're not alone with h265 4k transcoding. Here's an interesting thread discussing it. One user in that thread said he ended up using the gpu in the media player to transcode, and now he has no problems... Might be a quick and easy solution...

 

Quote

I would have to concur with jjrjr1. Unless you're willing to invest heavily into a high end CPU and setup. I have an I7 980X (Hex core CPU Mark 15,200 ) with a Samsung 250GB SSD for PMS on my server and 4k transcoding for movies starts to buffer horribly within 15 seconds on my HTPC. I instead went and got a HEVC decoding capable video card (GTX 1050 for $100) to put into my HTPC, checked the Hardware Decoding box in PMP so that PMS isn't trying to do the decoding and that works wonderfully.

 

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It can transcode everything fine, other than 4K HEVC/H265 content.

It can't manage transcoding 4K to 30Mbps...

 

I might consider RMAing it if they will ship it out first... Should still give me enough SATA ports I need with the onboard SAS, 6 Sata and an additional RAID card. That'll give me more to spend on HDDs...

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Yeah, I'll be fine direct playing 4K content, that won't be an issue. It's just if I have friends or anyone else connected to my Plex... my server wouldn't be able to handle the transcode.

But I believe with Plex you can also store more than one version of a file, so any 4K Blu Rays I have, I'll just keep an additional 1080p version I think.

 

Would have been ideal having something that could transcode, but, to be honest, it's not worth the extra cost...

 

I'll get on to them about RMAing it. Would save me plenty to be fair.

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Sounds like Plex is working on GPU transcoding on the server as we speak. I don't use Plex (I'm an Emby fan), so I can't confirm, but it seems to be either in Beta or already available...

 

[Edit] Though it may be using the iGPU on the chip (which won't help you with a  E3-1240 v3), as opposed to a discrete card... It's not entirely clear to me, but something to look into...

Edited by DoeBoye
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@Jawswing -  I have the Lian Li PC-D8000 , best case decission ive made for the servers. I do have a thread in here but i've been busy to update. I can throw some photo's on.

6x corsair SP120's @ 40% rpm has my HGST's avg 32C when at ful speed it drops down to mid 20's.

case is nice to work within, the hotswap back plates are a nice feature but expenisve in the UK.

picked mine up from http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/

@£320 direct shipping from Germany to UK. On ebay/gumtree they are rare but £190 used if you can collect.

I'm using 12 i think now outta the 20.  Using a typical H310i .

However i also have a LSI 9201-16i  for about £120 on ebay has 4 x8087 internal ports i was planning on swaping too if  my board didnt have the pci-slots or sata3's.

 

If your thinking about a 16/20/24 hotswap 3U/4U server rackmount case those are anwhere from £270+ .  I have a Logic-case 4216 from servercaseuk. But recently after 2years 2 of the sas backplanes have died. One has a loose clip to hold the 8087 and the 2nd has the molex connector snapped off.  To replace those its 3+ weeks waiting at £30 each+shipping.  So im pleased ive gone with the D8000 for easier access.

 

For plex I've been testing sample files of 4k , Hevc, Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, True-HD, HD-MA .  on my 2 servers. aswell the 2 new ones ive just built for family.

Needless to say, its the media player at the other end + tv that has the most impact . Direct streaming is the way to go if your worried about the transcoding.

Nvidia Shield has been the best followed up by AFTV 4k. for our family. 

As for transcoding, i tested a new build for a family member. The intel core i-3 6100T  was forced to transcode a 1080pHevc 6ch, on their samsung smart tv running plex app. When looking at it , the transcoding was for the sound not the video which makes sense. The cpu in unraid was maxed out on all 4 threads.

Testing the same file on the old HTPC was direct playing, using 1-8%cpu power due to direct stream.

 

Testing the same file on my current unraid server:

M/B: ASUSTeK - P10S WS
CPU: Intel® Xeon® CPU E3-1260L v5 @ 2.90GHz
On a 1080p older LCD tv, via AFTV v2 (4k)  it had no issues.   But testing a 4k atmos, it obviously would transcode, and capping all cpu threads.
 
Yes you can store more than one version of the file on plex! i have done this as i'm upgrading the colelction. Not everone has  a 4k tv with latest surround amp + 4k media player.
 
Try RMA your board, hope you can get a better one.  Having a beastly mobo with 8+ cores sound nice but the price tag is a killer.
While ryzen is still under going testing etc, i dont think we will see a huge rush to swap to it just yet.  I've seen a Intel Xeon e5-2660v2 go for £240 Thats a 10core xeon on 2011 platform.  Id had considered it to swap from my 6core.
The lesson i've learnt recetly is simple, life throws you a curve ball and turns everything upside down. Dont be rushing off to buy the latest and newest, its not always worth it.  Have a look around for slightly older Intel stuff as prices have dropped alot.
 
 
Edited by Akio
typo /new info
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On 03/04/2017 at 4:45 PM, DoeBoye said:

Sounds like Plex is working on GPU transcoding on the server as we speak. I don't use Plex (I'm an Emby fan), so I can't confirm, but it seems to be either in Beta or already available...

 

[Edit] Though it may be using the iGPU on the chip (which won't help you with a  E3-1240 v3), as opposed to a discrete card... It's not entirely clear to me, but something to look into...

 

Plex has one version of the server that has working QuickSync transcoding, though like all QuickSync transcoding it's pretty rubbish quality compared to the software transcoder.

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Akio, you've pretty much answered any question I could possible ask right there!

 

The case does look difficult to source with it being fairly old.  But, I think I'm pretty much set on the Lian Li, ideally I'd have liked a rackmount, I'm currently living at my parents but plan to move out within a year, and I just can't seem to find anywhere to put a rackmount set up! Also looking to keep it as quiet as possible, as due to the size of the case would be going in my bedroom whilst I'm at the parents, so spinning down the HDDs and a fan controller would be needed.

 

I currently have a Lian Li Q26. I bought 5 backpanes for that, so I'll only need another 5 to have them all 'hotswap', Overclockers have them at a reasonable price of £11 each.

 

How do you have your 6 fans set up over the HDDs? One side intake one side exhaust? Or both intake?

 

I think I'm going to be keeping my current CPU, it's a good CPU, and it'll just be a pointless expense buying something else along with a new motherboard. I really like the idea of dual second hand Xeons, but I just can't justify it, even if they could manage a transcode, it'll be able to do one 4K transcode and that's all. And I'll be paying much more to run the server in electric. So I'm going to attempt to RMA the board I have with Asrock and get myself an 8 port SAS card.

 

Quick question regarding the TV and Plex... I don't actually own a 4K TV just yet. But, I will be buying one shortly. I was wondering about whether the built in Plex app would need to transcode or not... Probably will be a Samsung too.

 

Could the i3 transcode the content with no issue? Or was it unplayable...

 

I have a fanless HTPC built awhile back with a 3770T. No GPU (no space in the case for one), and the max resolution is 2560x1600  I believe on the HD4000 IGPU.

Was hoping that I'd just be able to use the Plex app on the TV.

 

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I have my fans set up left to right across the drives. I had a couple spare 140 bequiet ive been testing in the middle between the two hdd rails. And seen temps drop to early 20's on ssd cache. I belive i used the lian li 321 ssd converter which holds 2x2.5" .

 

The i3-6100t doesnt need to transcode 1080p h264 on the smart tv (samsung  1080p from a few year ago). I dont believe it needs to transcode for the 4k either depending on the media specs vs media player. (Usually sound not resolution for the tv app)

 

As for your htpc, the few older ones ive been testing from althon x4 960, and 5350 . Mostly quad and dual cores from amd below the kav cores dont play well. 

It would be a safe bet to put a rx460 2gb or nvidia 1050 in your htpc because they have the right specs. But for that price you may aswell consider the media players which are small and silent! i have no issues with the fire tv using plex.I  much prefer the shield or my ps4 pro to produce the 10 bit UHD for the sony tv i have (10bit panel btw). Which is another thing i highly suggest when browsing the market for a display.

 

I havent tried the plex app on my sony tv yet but it has the x1 processor so will be interesting and quick test to see what transcodes.

 

If you were to go down the VM route for media playback with plex?

option 1-  Librelec is recommended, running kodi using the plex connect docker to have the kodi experience using plex docker as the backbone and brains.

Option 2-  as above but use plex offical addon to load up plex app five the olex experience.

 

Worth noting, this can be done any kodi installation. The vm setup would require 2 x gpu's. Im sure you u know how that works.

 

The samsung 4ks are still pricey, finding a uk model thats 10bit panel hmm tough one. There is a huge colour spec difference between the 8 and 10bit. Thats upto you and budget. 

 

Edited by Akio
Typo
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Cheers for the info!

Found that Overclockers had one D8000 in stock, snapped it up straight away. Wasn't planning on starting this for another week or two. May as well start now I guess.

The TV and media player probably won't be for a short while yet mind, although a 10bit panel is definitely on the cards. I'll only be wanting a 40-43" 4K TV for my bedroom for now, they don't seem too expensive, and a 10bit panel will limit my options I guess for that screen size, so finding one shouldn't be too difficult.

Not looked in to the media player option too much. The current case in my HTPC is basically a fanless case. No real way to put a GPU in, other than getting a new case, as well as a GPU. Which defeats the fanless aspect it was built for. After I've done this server, I do plan on upgrading my current PC, (4770K + GTX 980 in a little NCase), was considering just using that as a HTPC, but it wouldn't be anytime soon, so I'd need something in the meantime. Thinking either the cheaper option, Roku/Amazon Fire, but a PS4 Pro has also crossed my mind... not too bothered about gaming on consoles or anything, but I'll have the option at least?

 

Need to figure out how many fans I'll be needing now and whether or not I need a new PSU and I'll be set. 

 

Need to do some more testing on this motherboard too, since I bought the new SAS card, and plugged in all the HDDs if I have the bad disk it seems to drop a different drive from the array, remove it and that drive comes back up. Which has had me thinking maybe the SAS isn't dead, a HDD may be dead and it's causing interference with the other HDDs. My current case is so small though, and I hate working with SFF builds... I'll test it some point soon.

 

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