After Many Years of Love I am Looking to Upgrade - 10 gig networking?

[gundamguy]

I built my Unraid Server in 2014 and have grown it in storage space over the years but have never swapped the Motherboard or looked to closely to adding a 10 gig nic. What is finally forcing me to upgrade is that when I first built my unraid server I built it in a Node 304 case using an Mini-ITX motherboard. When I did my last big expansion I bought a Node 804 that I love and is the perfect case for my purposes and use.

 

Now that I am looking to add a second PCIe card I am going to need to get a Micro-ATX motherboard.

 

I don't need a lot of power under the hood and don't run any VM's currently (but do run Plex in a Docker and a few other Dockers as well).

 

What I have now:

ASUS H87I-PLUS

Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz

RAM: 8GB

SeaSonic SS-400FL2 400W Platinum

Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 - 8 HDD attached (DATA)

2 HDD attached to SATA (PARITY)

2 SSD attached to SATA (CACHE)

 

What I'm thinking:

Ryzen 3?

Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 - 8 HDD attached (DATA)

Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT ConnectX-3 EN 10G Ethernet 10GbE SFP+

2 M.2 NVME (CACHE)?

2 HDD attached to SATA (PARITY)

RAM 16GB?

I'm assuming I'd need a larger power supply?

 

When it comes to SFP+ networking I'm not sure if I want to go that way or 10 gig twisted copper. I ran CAT 6a in my home but the server is going in a closet with the network switch so I can prob use SFP+ DAC to go from the switch to the server... my office and other access points are in other rooms so I'd need to use a SFP+ to RJ45 to connect to CAT 6a... unless that's not going to work? Any draw backs on that?

 

I've just started planning this out and haven't been paying close attention to computer hardware for a couple of years now... so any advice would be good.

 

 

 

[gundamguy]

Ok, after some consideration here is what I am thinking...

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G

Motherboard: ASRock X570M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4

RAM: G.Skill FORTIS 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-2133

Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME Titanium 600 W 80+

Array: Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 - 8 HDD attached

Cache: 2x Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

NIC: Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT ConnectX-3 EN 10G Ethernet 10GbE SFP+

 

Can someone help me validate if this build will actually do what I want to do? I'm asking because I'm not sure I can have enough PCIE lanes to run NIC and PIC to SAS, and 2 NVMEs at speeds above 6 gbs a second

 

I mean if that works then I might tighten up the RAM, Power Supply, and Cache Drives because those are probably beyond my requirements right now.

[Vr2Io]

Two 16x slot actually was a 16x ( CPU ) and 4x (X570), if with APU it will 8x 4x. In most case still have enough bandwidth.

For RAM if you decide use four, best you can get single rank (SR) instead dual rank (DS).

 

For 10G NIC, how you connect to other 10G NIC ?
I agree choice SFP+ not a bad idea ( I use also ), because TP multi-giga product still not common and expensive too.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Vr2Io

[ChatNoir]

Why go for 4x8 GB and not 2x16 GB ?

The second option would leave you room for future expansion if needed.

[gundamguy]

On 3/4/2021 at 12:09 AM, Vr2Io said:

Two 16x slot actually was a 16x ( CPU ) and 4x (X570), if with APU it will 8x 4x. In most case still have enough bandwidth.

For RAM if you decide use four, best you can get single rank (SR) instead dual rank (DS).

 

For 10G NIC, how you connect to other 10G NIC ?
I agree choice SFP+ not a bad idea ( I use also ), because TP multi-giga product still not common and expensive too.

 

For your question on the 10G NIC.

 

I ran CAT6a when I moved into my home a couple of years ago, but networking equipment for 10G has been out of reach until pretty recently.

 

I'm planning to go with MikroTik 5-Port Desktop Switch, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port, 4 SFP+ 10Gbps Ports (CRS305-1G-4S+IN) for a Swtich, and use something like DAC to go from the Switch to Unraid Server via the Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT ConnectX-3, then to my office and other stuff I want to have a faster connection to unraid via Transceivers to RJ45 (CAT6a).

 

One question I have is if I do a SPF+ to RJ45 Transceiver can I just use a RJ45 10g NIC in my office desktop, or would that require an SPF+ to RJ45 transceiver?

 

Edit one more question: Do I really need to upgrade the power supply or can I still make due with the 400W's that I have now.

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by gundamguy

[Vr2Io]

2 hours ago, gundamguy said:

 

For your question on the 10G NIC.

 

I ran CAT6a when I moved into my home a couple of years ago, but networking equipment for 10G has been out of reach until pretty recently.

 

I'm planning to go with MikroTik 5-Port Desktop Switch, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port, 4 SFP+ 10Gbps Ports (CRS305-1G-4S+IN) for a Swtich, and use something like DAC to go from the Switch to Unraid Server via the Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT ConnectX-3, then to my office and other stuff I want to have a faster connection to unraid via Transceivers to RJ45 (CAT6a).

 

One question I have is if I do a SPF+ to RJ45 Transceiver can I just use a RJ45 10g NIC in my office desktop, or would that require an SPF+ to RJ45 transceiver?

 

Edit one more question: Do I really need to upgrade the power supply or can I still make due with the 400W's that I have now.

 

That's good you will got 10G switch. I don't think use adapter to change SFP/SFP+ to RJ45 is a good idea, those transciever use too much power and very hot.

 

For 400W PSU definitely enough, you haven't hungry GPU.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Vr2Io