New Build Pre-Check (Dual E5-2670)

[CrimsonTyphoon]

Edit 2: Skip to here for the latest

 

Long time lurker, first time poster.

 

I am looking forward to building an unRAID server and would like some input from the community before I buy. Here is what I am looking at

 

CPU: Intel - Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU: Intel - Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Supermicro - X9DRL-3F ATX Dual-CPU LGA2011 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

Memory: 16GB of some random DDR3 1600 memory I have laying around (4x4GB)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred (already owned)

GPU: An old 9400GT (temporary)

Hard Drives: I have a few 3TB and 4TB hard drives laying around which I plan on using, and I am sure I will pick up some more.

 

Cost ~$900 + hard drives

 

Edit: I have decided to go prebuilt. Skip to here (about 12 posts down) to see updated specs.

 

Server will be used for:

2 Windows VMs (one passed thru to GPU)

1 Ubuntu VM

1 LibreELEC VM (passed thru in the future)

A whole slew of dockers (sabnzbd, sonarr, radarr, nzbhydra, kodi, etc.)

Backing up of 3 android phones (pictures, videos, etc.)

 

I am looking for general comments, and anything you would tweak, change, etc. Haven't built a PC in ~10 years so I want to make sure I got all my ducks in a row. I am also trying to find out if the memory will work, I presume it will (it is non-ECC) but Supermicro's website does not have a nonECC memory checker.http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRL-3F.cfm

 

All comments welcome :-).

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by CrimsonTyphoon
Add new specs

[ashman70]

That's a heck of a lot of cores and CPU power, any reason you don't want to start off with maybe just one CPU? Also any reason not to go with ECC RAM, the board supports it. Are you going to be doing CPU intensive stuff with the VM's? What will they be used for? I assume you are going to use onboard SATA ports, as there are six.

[Lev]

Welcome, and good start coming here posting that. I think what you posted will work, just once you get more knowledgeable you're going to wish you made different choices. 

 

If all you own is a a case, old gpu and some random memory sticks.... that's nothing worth losing sleep over if you don't reuse. If you haven't built a PC in 10+ years, or are like me, have little time to fuss with the troubleshooting what may come with it, then just buy a barebones system on ebay which you just need to add the USB drive for UnRaid and the hard drives. For your budget you can get a better chassis (supermicro rack mount) and a similar board like the one you're looking at with proper ECC ram.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

45 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

That's a heck of a lot of cores and CPU power, any reason you don't want to start off with maybe just one CPU? Also any reason not to go with ECC RAM, the board supports it. Are you going to be doing CPU intensive stuff with the VM's? What will they be used for? I assume you are going to use onboard SATA ports, as there are six.

Holy shit, I had an epiphany! (is that the right word?)

 

1) The VMs wont be doing anything (that I can see) but at some point there very well could be some Plex transcoding or something. The price-per-dollar ratio is so cheap on dual e5's, why not?.Wait, can I run the board with just one CPU? research time... Research completed, looks like it can!

 

2) Honestly, I dont even need to buy RAM, i have just realized i have 8x4GB sticks of DDR3 1600, not just 4. Now that I think about it, I think ill try that. I don't go with ECC because of the 16GB i already own, can I/ is it smart to mix ECC with non-ECC? And as I type this, no its not smart and no you shouldn't duh!

 

3) There are 10 onboard sata ports, which I plan on using. EDIT: I am incorrect. it has 6x sata and 8x SAS....can they be converted to regular sata?

 

24 minutes ago, Lev said:

Welcome, and good start coming here posting that. I think what you posted will work, just once you get more knowledgeable you're going to wish you made different choices. 

 

If all you own is a a case, old gpu and some random memory sticks.... that's nothing worth losing sleep over if you don't reuse. If you haven't built a PC in 10+ years, or are like me, have little time to fuss with the troubleshooting what may come with it, then just buy a barebones system on ebay which you just need to add the USB drive for UnRaid and the hard drives. For your budget you can get a better chassis (supermicro rack mount) and a similar board like the one you're looking at with proper ECC ram.

 

Thanks!. I am constantly working on hardware (hence the laying around of the RAM, 9400GT and HDDs) so i am familiar with PC building, just haven built my own in a loooong time. Note: i am emotionally attached to the Antec Twelve Hundred, I LOVE the case and would 100% prefer to use it. 

 

Time to scour eBay and see if I can find something that I like for the same appropriate price.

Edited August 3, 2017 by CrimsonTyphoon
research

[ashman70]

Plex will for sure need the cores, depending on how many streams you have running concurrently and at what resolution. You can also run Plex as a docker, so no need to dedicate a VM for it. If you have RAM laying around, which you seem to, in abundance, why not use it. You should be able to run the board with just one CPU.

[Lev]

1 hour ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

Holy shit, I had an epiphany! (is that the right word?)

 

1) The VMs wont be doing anything (that I can see) but at some point there very well could be some Plex transcoding or something. The price-per-dollar ratio is so cheap on dual e5's, why not?.Wait, can I run the board with just one CPU? research time... Research completed, looks like it can!

 

2) Honestly, I dont even need to buy RAM, i have just realized i have 8x4GB sticks of DDR3 1600, not just 4. Now that I think about it, I think ill try that. I don't go with ECC because of the 16GB i already own, can I/ is it smart to mix ECC with non-ECC? And as I type this, no its not smart and no you shouldn't duh!

 

3) There are 10 onboard sata ports, which I plan on using. EDIT: I am incorrect. it has 6x sata and 8x SAS....can they be converted to regular sata?

 

 

Thanks!. I am constantly working on hardware (hence the laying around of the RAM, 9400GT and HDDs) so i am familiar with PC building, just haven built my own in a loooong time. Note: i am emotionally attached to the Antec Twelve Hundred, I LOVE the case and would 100% prefer to use it. 

 

Time to scour eBay and see if I can find something that I like for the same appropriate price.

 

Enterprise motherboards have more strict requirements than consumer parts I was acustom to As a computer builder for gaming systems when I was younger.  As you found, Memory DIMMS have to adhere to what's supported. Such are other things like power supplies, etc.

 

Stick with what's in spec, read the manuals and follow the advice from those that have failed many times before, and it'll help immensely.

 

 

 

[jbartlett]

Concerning Plex in a Docker - after having my plex metadata library get corrupted twice requiring a full rebuild from scratch (and loosing all my customizations), I moved my Plex installation to a Windows VM and I've had zero issues with it to date.

 

Advantage of a Win VM for Plex is that you can set up a virtual hard drive to store the plex metadata on and backing up your entire collection is just backing up that virtual drive. You can also update the Plex server from the Plex website (viewing collection).

 

Along those notes, it's a good idea to create dedicated virtual drives for any app that stores a lot of data and create one for your Temp files to keep your system OS drive from bloating.

[ashman70]

That's unfortunate that you had that experience. I have a pretty massive library and have been running it in a docker for over a year with zero issues. Perhaps it was something specific to your setup or system. I would still recommend dockers over wasting an entire windows VM for plex, but to each their own!

[jbartlett]

1 hour ago, ashman70 said:

That's unfortunate that you had that experience. I have a pretty massive library and have been running it in a docker for over a year with zero issues. Perhaps it was something specific to your setup or system. I would still recommend dockers over wasting an entire windows VM for plex, but to each their own!

 

I wouldn't recommend a Win VM just for Plex when there's free unix VM's that'll do the same. In my case, the VM isn't just for Plex.

 

My plex metadata has reached 68GB. I've since switched to a versioning backup of the metadata so I can restore from a given date, snapshots taken weekly. After the last rebuild, I don't 100% trust any Plex platform no matter how much I want to have its baby if I could.

[SSD]

30 minutes ago, jbartlett said:

 

I wouldn't recommend a Win VM just for Plex when there's free unix VM's that'll do the same. In my case, the VM isn't just for Plex.

 

My plex metadata has reached 68GB. I've since switched to a versioning backup of the metadata so I can restore from a given date, snapshots taken weekly. After the last rebuild, I don't 100% trust any Plex platform no matter how much I want to have its baby if I could.

 I think you meant free unix Dockers.

[BobPhoenix]

3 hours ago, bjp999 said:

 I think you meant free unix Dockers.

Actually I think he meant VM since he was talking about problems running plex in a docker.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

I was going to custom build, but Lev pointed out, that in my case it would be much easier/smarter/cost effective to get a pre-built form eBay. But before I pull the trigger, I figured i should get some other opinions from the wonderful community. Here is what I am looking at:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-3U-Server-X9DRI-LN4F-2x-Xeon-E5-2670-2-6ghz-128gb-1x-100gb-SSD-3x-2tb/311770068825

 

SuperMicro 3U Rackmount Server Chassis
X9DRI-LN4F+ Motherboard

Off-Lease
Some minor scratches/dings from pallet stacking

Rails NOT INCLUDED

2x Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6ghz 20m 8GT/s CPUs (Octo Core)
16x 8gb DDR3 Registered ECC Memory
1x 100gb SSD 2.5"
3x 2TB SATA II 3.5" Hard Drives
DVD Drive
2x 1280w Power Supplies

Onboard IPMI 2.0
4x Gigabit Ethernet
4x USB 2.0 
1x VGA / 1x Serial

No OS Installed
No Power Cords Included

 

No power cords included, I presume that this means I need my own? Standard power cords, or are there server specific ones? I have plenty of power cords laying around from old builds/monitors/PSUs/etc.

 

If I am reading the manual correctly, the board has 6 SATA ports, 4x Sata 3.0 and 2x Sata 2.0. It also has 4x SCU Sata 2.0. https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRi-LN4F_.cfm Will all the sata ports work with unRAID?

 

So if/when I go plex, ill make sure to run it in a VM :-)

Edited August 4, 2017 by CrimsonTyphoon
Add SATA ports

[SSD]

1 hour ago, BobPhoenix said:

Actually I think he meant VM since he was talking about problems running plex in a docker.

 

I'd recommend the Docker. Much less resource intensive than a VM.

[jbartlett]

That buy looks off the rails! Sweet! (get it, no rails included)

 

As long as you don't mind the SATA2 connections, it looks good to me. I'd replace any heat sinks they've got in there, they're bound to be noisy and the thermal paste is likely several years old if it's off lease. Some sweet memory capacities too:

Up to 1.5TB DDR3 ECC LRDIMM

Up to 768GB DDR3 ECC RDIMM

Up to 128GB DDR3 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM

 

Now I'm tempted to see what quad-cpu systems are available. MORE POWER!

 

And yup, I meant VM. My experience shows Plex in a VM to be more reliable. Your experience may differ. You'll have to evaluate the pros & cons for your specific use.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

Okay, I am driving myself crazy with all these choices, but I changed once again... (I am realizing that I want different features) I also now have a firm price point, $1,500 max with shipping. (obviously lower with my requirements is better, more money on beer!

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-4U-36-Bay-Storage-Server-SAS2-FREENAS-2x-E5-2660-8-Core-SATA-Dom-64GB-/152640543027

 

Server Chassis/ Case: CSE-847E16-R1K28LPB  

4U 36 Bay SAS2 Dual Power supply Storage Server

BackplaneBPN-SAS2-826EL11826 backplane with single LSI SAS2X28 expander chip

BackplaneBPN-SAS2-846EL11Backplane supports upto 24 SAS/SATA

Supermicro X9DRH-IF motherboard 

Dual Intel Xeon E5-2660 2.2Ghz Eight Core CPU

64GB (16x 4GB RAM DDR3 ECC REG)

64GB SATA-DOM Drive installed (Boot drive)
36x 3.5" Caddies, does not come with Drives, please contact us for purchasing drives ask for Justin

LSI 9211-8i JBOD HBA Card (Great for FREENAS)

On board Intel® i350 Dual port GbE LAN

Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM witH Dedicated LAN

Dual 1280Watt SQ Power suppply (PWS-1K28P-SQ) 80Plus Platinum

1 PCI-E 3.0 x16 and 6 PCI-E 3.0 x8

 

I realized a few things...

• I need PCIE x16 for GPU passthru. Yes I could either cut the x8 slots to fit a x16 card, or get a x8 card but why??
• I need a big case, that can fit > 16 drives. Future expand-ability!
• I really want the E5-2670 (or better), but at my price point with everything else i just couldn't find it. I could go for a smaller case and just 'wing it' and slap HDDs all around but not smart long term....This build has the E5-2660 running a 2.2Ghz. However, it is rated at 95W instead so I will save a little bit on the electrical bill. Hopefully the  e5-2660 is fast enough for my VMs...

Or maybe I will buy the previous one (

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-3U-Server-X9DRI-LN4F-2x-Xeon-E5-2670-2-6ghz-128gb-1x-100gb-SSD-3x-2tb/311770068825 ) and just plop additional HDDs on top or something...

 

Hmm. Suggestions? Riser Cable?

Edited August 4, 2017 by CrimsonTyphoon
price

[Lev]

3 hours ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-3U-Server-X9DRI-LN4F-2x-Xeon-E5-2670-2-6ghz-128gb-1x-100gb-SSD-3x-2tb/311770068825

 

SuperMicro 3U Rackmount Server Chassis
X9DRI-LN4F+ Motherboard

 

Pass on this... even though a very tempting price cause of the memory included... that 3U chassis is too limiting for your goals. This seller looks like a liquidator of sorts, find a more qualified seller who deals regularly with this type of product. Remember this is still ebay, be skeptical of everything.

 

32 minutes ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

I need PCIE x16 for GPU passthru.

 

No complaints with the motherboard in this second system if you want 16x slot. But the 36 bay chassis only allows half hieght cards, so your GPU isn't going to fit. Look at the 4U 24 hard drive bay chassis if fitting a GPU is a firm requirement.

 

36 minutes ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

I really want the E5-2670 (or better)

 

Sellers who deal in this type of equipment may have options. Recommend contacting them in advance, maybe they can upgrade you to a E5-26XXv2 for small additional charge.

 

Good hunting!

[SSD]

Suggest you assess that you have an adequate home in your house for such a beast. These guys tend to be loud and not energy efficient. And very large. We've had folks buy then and very quickly downsize..The older technology provides a lot of cores but they are significantly slower per core than current offerings.

 

Not trying to be a downer, but just make sure you.have a rack to mount it and really need and want this type of machine. Is WAF is a factor? If so, you'd need a very special woman to allow one of these in her house!

 

You mention having an Antec 1200, an awesome case with room for 4 5in3s (20 drives), and room for most any motherboard you could want. I'd go that route personally. Much smaller footprint. Quieter. Energy efficient (depending on components), and WAF is high! 

 

Whatever you decide, best of luck with your build!

 

18 hours ago, jbartlett said:

Concerning Plex in a Docker - after having my plex metadata library get corrupted twice requiring a full rebuild from scratch (and loosing all my customizations), I moved my Plex installation to a Windows VM and I've had zero issues with it to date.

 

Advantage of a Win VM for Plex is that you can set up a virtual hard drive to store the plex metadata on and backing up your entire collection is just backing up that virtual drive. You can also update the Plex server from the Plex website (viewing collection).

 

Along those notes, it's a good idea to create dedicated virtual drives for any app that stores a lot of data and create one for your Temp files to keep your system OS drive from bloating.

 

Sorry I missed this as i lazily skimmed the thread. My Docker has worked smoothly. Have considered creating a loopback disk to store my Plex library with a Docker. The Plex library file structure is a monstrous collection of tiny files, and as you say backup is slow and hard to time align. With a loopback file, could probably take the Docker down for 2 minutes and back it up. Might not even need to take the Docker down at all. Was not able to find a compressed file system for the loopback that I liked for this purpose and put the project off to the side. Maybe will work on it! 

[CrimsonTyphoon]

Noise isn't an issue. I have a nice and cool basement that I can put my server. Power consumption is always an issue, but something I can live with-ish...besides doesn't a server double as a space heater in the winter? :-)

 

As much as I love the Antec Twelve Hundred, it can only support ATX boards.  No E-ATX, SSI-EEB, etc. Which unfortunately severely limits my options. I was going to spend ~$1,000 on new/used parts to put into my build, but for around the same price I can get a used server which should have much better performance and expand-ability. 

 

In the meantime, I reached out to a seller to see if they can build something that fits my needs. I shall continue to research and scour eBay for some deals.

[ashman70]

If you are located in the US Mr.Rackables has a lot of inventory at pretty good prices on eBay.

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/SUPERMICRO-4U-SC846A-R1200B-2x-E5620-8GB-24x-TRAYS-LSI-9210-8I-JBOD-FREENAS-/172511438645?hash=item282a7ba735:g:mRYAAOSwLEtYknF-

 

[jbartlett]

Wow. Saved Mr. Rackables for further review.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

MrRackables was the one I reached out to. He seems highly recommended.

 

In the mean time, I have found another store that has some nice options for me. I found this which I like:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-4U-846BA-R920B-2x-E5-2680-96GB-24x-TRAYS-3x-LSI-9210-8I-JBOD/381953625116 ($1,398 + $75 shipping)

 

SYSTEM	SUPERMICRO 4U 846BA-R920B
PROCESSORS	DUAL INTEL XEON PROCESSOR E5-2680 EIGHT CORE 20M CACHE 2.70GHZ
MEMORY	96GB MEMORY (12X 8GB) DDR-3 ECC REG
HARD DRIVE	NO HARD DRIVES INSTALLED (24X TRAYS WITH SCREWS)
RAID CONTROLLER	3X LSI 9210-8I
CHASSIS	846BA-R920B
SYSTEM BOARD	X9DRI-LN4F+
BACKPLANE	SAS846A
POWER SUPPLY	DUAL PWS-920P-SQ
RAILS	RAIL INCLUDED

 

Seems to hit everything that I am looking for. I found several versions of the same, except the RAM. Here is a cheaper one with less RAM:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-4U-846BA-R920B-2x-E5-2680-32GB-24x-TRAYS-3x-LSI-9210-8I-JBOD-/381953624978 ($1,169 + $75 shipping)

 

 

SYSTEM	SUPERMICRO 4U 846BA-R920B
PROCESSORS	DUAL INTEL XEON PROCESSOR E5-2680 EIGHT CORE 20M CACHE 2.70GHZ
MEMORY	32GB MEMORY (4X 4GB) DDR-3 ECC REG
HARD DRIVE	NO HARD DRIVES INSTALLED (24X TRAYS WITH SCREWS)
RAID CONTROLLER	3X LSI 9210-8I
CHASSIS	846BA-R920B
SYSTEM BOARD	X9DRI-LN4F+
BACKPLANE	SAS846A
POWER SUPPLY	DUAL PWS-920P-SQ

 

RAILS

RAIL INCLUDED

 

As far as I can tell, there the same minus RAM. I presume the LSI 9210-8I can be flashed to IT mode? Actually, how would I do it? (time to go look more in the forums!)

 

Even though the 2680 is slightly newer and more powerful, it does have a higher TDP than the 2670 :-/. As much as I like 96GB of RAM (hell, who wouldn't?) it is at the top of my price range and would much rather prefer to spend closer to $1,000.

[Lev]

5 hours ago, ashman70 said:

If you are located in the US Mr.Rackables has a lot of inventory at pretty good prices on eBay.

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/SUPERMICRO-4U-SC846A-R1200B-2x-E5620-8GB-24x-TRAYS-LSI-9210-8I-JBOD-FREENAS-/172511438645?hash=item282a7ba735:g:mRYAAOSwLEtYknF-

 

 

@ashman70 I concur on Mr.Rackables... just ordered a server from them last week, it arrived today. Give me two weeks and I can comment further. Great so far in communication for sure! Very good to work with between payment and the delivery today.

 

Not sure about what you linked though on ebay.CANADA?, cause it's not the same seller.... Also if I'm not mistaken that back-plane isn't SAS2, so >2TB drives are not supported?

 

 

[CrimsonTyphoon]

26 minutes ago, Lev said:

Not sure about what you linked though on ebay.CANADA?, cause it's not the same seller.... Also if I'm not mistaken that back-plane isn't SAS2, so >2TB drives are not supported?

 

 

26 minutes ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

BACKPLANE	SAS846A

 

Woa, that is a deal breaker. I did not know that. You saved me [again]! Thank you, I will continue searching.

[BobPhoenix]

5 hours ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

besides doesn't a server double as a space heater in the winter? :-)

They do in my house.  Back when I had 3 Pentium 4 3.4Ghz PCs running in my basement I had to turn them off during the day and only run them at night in the summer.  Just made the house too hot for ME let along the CPUs. In winter they made the basement bearable at least until I fixed the essentially open basement window after that it was plenty warm in the basement.  Been getting cooler with every processor upgrade (Pentium 4 to Core2Quad to Sandy Bridge Xeons although I may have had other CPUs in the mix between just don't remember any more).

[btrcp2000]

Chiming in because I think I'm following a similar path, and I actually bought the chassis from the ebay seller linked above. Here is what I settled on, most of which will be on my doorstep in the next few days. I never declared an official budget, but did enough research to convince myself I wasn't paying top dollar. Would like to get this done sooner rather than later to address some issues with current computers, so I wasn't willing to wait for deals on every last part. Already have HDDs, so all in I'm around $895 for a box that will someday run sage, plex, crashplan, and unifi dockers, 2 Windows VMs for sure, NAS, and whatever else tickles my fancy. It will replace 3 other computers, a daily driver in the kitchen, the sage server, and a WHS box that currently is NAS and backs up the sage box.

2x Xeon e5-2660 v2 CPUs, 10 cores and 2.2ghz each- ebay seller ESISO $270

SuperMicro x9dri-LNF4+ and 32gb ECC- Mrrackables $325 (very good experience with a phone in order because I had some questions. Guy was even willing to share some thoughts on dumb questions that had nothing to do with what I was buying. Highly recommend)

SuperMicro 3U SC835BTQ-R1K28B- 8 hotswap bays, 7 full size expansion slots, 2x 1280 watt PSUs- CSE-SAS-833TQ backplane- ebay $300 incl shipping at 57lbs (might sell off one of the PSUs if its not required, also no idea what a backplane even does, thought i would be connecting SATA straight to the mobo, so maybe i can sell that too. I'm sure this will sound like a thousand hair dryers, but it can be modded plus will be in a basement dungeon anyway)