New Build Pre-Check (Dual E5-2670)

[CrimsonTyphoon]

I spoke with Justin from Mrrackables and he was more than helpful. Based on what I am looking for, this is what he recommend to me: (and Justin, if you are reading this, thank you for your quick response!)

 

• 4U Supermicro 36 Bay SAS2 Expander
• X9DRI-LN4F+ Motherboard
• 2x E5-2680 V2 CPU
• 64GB RAM (unsure if it is ECC, i asked and am awaiting response)
• LSI 9210-8i HBA IT Mode controller
• PCI-E X16 3.0 expansion slot for GPU Card
• Dual Power Supply
• Rail kit

To summarize, here is what I am looking for:

• PCIE x16 for GPU passthru. More the merrier.
• I need a big case, that can fit > 16 drives. Future expand-ability!
• E5-2670 (or better)
• SAS2 Backplane (SAS will not work drives > 2TB

Here is what I am looking to do:

 

• Server will be used for:
• 2 Windows VMs (one passed thru to GPU)
• 1 Ubuntu VM
• 1 LibreELEC VM (passed thru in the future)
• Plex in the fut
• A whole slew of dockers (sabnzbd, sonarr, radarr, nzbhydra, kodi, etc.)
• Backing up of 3 android phones (pictures, videos, etc.)

Seems to fit the bill for what I need. As usual, I am looking for opinions from the community before I purchase. Please let me know what you guys think!

 

Thanks :-)

[CrimsonTyphoon]

23 minutes ago, btrcp2000 said:

Chiming in because I think I'm following a similar path, and I actually bought the chassis from the ebay seller linked above. 

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)
 

 

I have heard nothing but great things about mrrackables. Its not a matter of if i buy, its a matter of when I buy from him :-)

[Lev]

4U 36 bay chassis only allows half height PCIe cards, safe bet your GPU isn't going to fit.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

17 hours ago, Lev said:

4U 36 bay chassis only allows half height PCIe cards, safe bet your GPU isn't going to fit.

 

You are my lifesaver! I could have sworn that it 4U 36 bay was full height, but I was mistaken. I already messaged mrrackables; I am sure he will reach back by Monday with a different case.

[CrimsonTyphoon]

Mrrackables is OOS on the parts I need. Guess I will wait for him to get back in stock and/or continue my search on eBay

[CrimsonTyphoon]

Okay, I think I found a gem on eBay that fits my needs:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-4U-X9DRI-F-2x-Xeon-E5-2670-2-6ghz-8-Core-64gb-9266-8i-1gb-24-Bay-/292207468394

 

• Supermicro 4U Server
• CSE-846A-R1200B Chassis
• Super Clean - Very minor scratches from pallet stacking
• X9DRI-F Motherboard (Supports V2 CPUs / 16 Memory Slots)
• 2x E5-2670 2.6ghz 8-Core 8.0 GT/s / 20mb Smart Cache CPUs
• 8x 8gb PC3-10600R Server Memory
• 24x 3.5" Trays (2 screws each)
• SAS2-846EL1 Backplane
• LSI 9266-8i 1mb Cache with Battery Back
• 2x 1200w PSU
• 30 Day Warranty

 

The LSI 9266-8i needs to be flashed to IT mode, which i found info from this post: https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/45676-unraid-not-seeing-disks-configured-as-raid0-on-lsi9266-4i/#comment-462273

 

Can I get a sanity check? I believe this hits all my boxes for what I am looking for (see a few posts up or go to https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/59175-new-build-pre-check-dual-e5-2670/?do=findComment&comment=581094. It will cost me ~$1200 shipped.

 

EDIT: Chasis & Motherboard specs:

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/846/SC846A-R1200B

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRi-F.cfm

Edited August 10, 2017 by CrimsonTyphoon

[Lev]

No showstoppers with that one. If I had one nit, it'd be the LSI card...

 -- It's PCIe 2.0, when your board supports 3.0.

-- The fact you have to flash to IT mode paying that price is annoyance and incurs some risk (just that if doesn't go as planned for whatever reason). But even when I get second hand IT cards I usually have to flash to the latest p20 firmware anyway cause all p12 or p14 I seem to get, so odds are you'll be flashing no matter what you buy.

 

Personally I'd wait simply for PCIe 3.0 IT mode card. But if you want to go for it, then pull the trigger!

[Lev]

Make sure if you do it get it that it comes with two sas cables so you can run that backplane in dual link mode.

[SSD]

8 hours ago, Lev said:

No showstoppers with that one. If I had one nit, it'd be the LSI card...

 -- It's PCIe 2.0, when your board supports 3.0.

-- The fact you have to flash to IT mode paying that price is annoyance and incurs some risk (just that if doesn't go as planned for whatever reason). But even when I get second hand IT cards I usually have to flash to the latest p20 firmware anyway cause all p12 or p14 I seem to get, so odds are you'll be flashing no matter what you buy.

 

Personally I'd wait simply for PCIe 3.0 IT mode card. But if you want to go for it, then pull the trigger!

 

The PCIe 2.0 card at x8 will be plenty fast enough for 8 drives. 

[CrimsonTyphoon]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger :-)

 

6 hours ago, bjp999 said:

 

The PCIe 2.0 card at x8 will be plenty fast enough for 8 drives. 

 

That's what I figured. Besides, I could always sell the card and get a new one if I really needed to.

 

The server should be coming next week sometime. I just bought my unRAID license, so time to start expermiting with VMs and dockers and such :-)

[SSD]

I have 16 drives running off of a 2.0 x8 slot. Plenty fast for spinners!

 

Watch the gridrunner (a.k.a., SpaceInvader One on YouTube) videos.

[Lev]

5 hours ago, CrimsonTyphoon said:

I went ahead and pulled the trigger :-)

 

Congrats!!! Well done!

 

4 hours ago, bjp999 said:

I have 16 drives running off of a 2.0 x8 slot. Plenty fast for spinners!

 

24 drives was my assumption. This is my bible. <3 @johnnie.black

 

[CrimsonTyphoon]

17 hours ago, Lev said:

 

Congrats!!! Well done!

 

 

 

Thank you, I literately could not have done it without you! :-)

 

While waiting for my server, I loaded unRAID on some old AMD hardware here. I tried to spin up a LIbreElec VM with pass thru and it worked-ish. More details in this thread: https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/59351-gpu-for-libreelec/. Now to figure out a good GPU for passthru. (Didn't wan't to sidetrack this thread to much so I made a new one in the appropriate section).