sigurdur

Yes, I think it's time to stop overthinking and just test the setup I'll keep the dual on the shelf for a while in case I need to beef up the box. Thanks again for taking the time to think this through with me!

Yes, I might be trying to juggle too many ideas in my head at the same time What I'm basically trying to achieve is, yes, the beefiest UnRAID box, with music and video servers, possible with what I have. The thought was that if the X8SIL with the single XEON was not up to the task of transcoding, I could use it as data storage and let the dual handle all the other stuff. Virtualization was partly just for the fun of it, but also to be able to keep a clean VM for each task and have the option of setting up additional VMs to play around with if the mood strikes me. Quite possibly I'm just overcomplicating things. Perhaps I should just swap the MBs and build the beefiest box I can and possibly just sell off the 1U box if I don't find any use for it (and buy more RAM for the money). It's just that used Supermicro servers are not regularly available here (Iceland) and buying new is just not in my budget (a new X9SCA-F-O and a Xeon E3-1220 with 16GB registered ECC would set me back around USD 1000!) so it would be nice to be able to put both of them to work.

So you would suggest skipping the ESXi complication and just run both as basic UnRAID boxes, the 2U box with just UnRAID and the 1U dual processor one with UnRAID and plugins for the mediaservers?

Thanks for your reply. The MB in the 2U is basic X8SIL without IPMI. I've flashed the LSI into IT mode, using the info from this forum and it's working nicely. What I'm thinking now is to set up the 2U X8SIL with the X3430 as a dedicated UnRAID box. In addition I'm going to setup the 1U dual E5506 with ESXi, running PMS, Logitech media server (for my Squeezebox) and other services in VMs. I might also setup a VM for another UnRAID installation to use up the drive bays in the 1U box. This box has IPMI so administration should be easy. Would this be a logical allocation of the hardware? The boxes certainly sound like commercial jets, let alone when they are humming together, but I've got a concrete bunker under the stairs that should keep the noise out of my apartment

Hi, I recently came into possession of a couple of old Supermicro servers that I would like to use as a basis for an unRAID/Plex combo. What I need is some input on how to put together the best possible system/systems from what I've got. The first one is a SuperServer 6016T-MTLF, a 1U chassis with 4 hot-swap bays: MB = X8DTL-iF CPU = Dual Xeon E5506 Memory = 4x Kingston KVR 1333D3D4R9S/4G (total 8GB) registered ECC 1333 PSU = Supermicro 350W 80Plus Gold (29A on the 12V rail) The chassis is a 1U rackmount with 4 drive enclosures. The second one is a 2U case with 8 hot-swap bays and what looks like space for 3 drives on top: MB = X8SIL CPU = Single Xeon X3430 Memory = 2x Kingston KVR 1333D3E9SK2/8G (total 8GB) unbuffered ECC 1333 PSU = Surestar 700W (56A on the 12V rail) Controller = LSI SAS3081E-R What I would like to do is use the 2U case for an unRAID system, but I'd like to run Plex Media Server and some addons as well. As I'm not familiar with the Xeon family and the processing power needed for transcoding, I'm not sure how best to utilize the two machines. One setup could be to use both machines as is with the X3430 running unRAID and the dual E5506 running Plex. Another could be to swap the dual MB into the 8 drive chassis and run both on the same machine, either with unRAID plugins or as esxi VMs and try to find other uses for the single MB and the 4 drive chassis. Any thoughts?