Want help choosing new motherboard and CPU to upgrade from my supermicro + Intel Xeon E3-1246 setup

[tmchow]

My Unraid server has evolved over time and my requirements don't fully apply anymore when I originally built it. At that time, I didn't have a GPU nor did I have a LSI RAID card. So I looked for a CPU with a built in GPU and a motherboard with a ton of SATA connectors since my Rosewill case has support for quite a few drives. 4 years ago, it was hard to find a motherboard that fit all the requirements.

 

Lastly, I wanted IPMI support for remote administration.

 

I ended up with:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X10SLM-F motherboard
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3 3.50GHz
• RAM: Crucial 32GB ECC RAM (4 x 8GB, PC3-12800)

 

Since that build, I've added:

 

• LSI 9201-8i RAID card that was flashed to IT mode. I'm running 8 drives off of it, and the other 4 drives directly connected to my motherboard.
• NVIDIA Quadro P2000 GPU primarily for plex hardware acceleration

 

I've been plagued with issues lately with bios chip problems on this motherboard. I've swapped the chip and while it runs fine, if I reboot, I have a 50% chance something is messed up and I have to jump through hoops to reset the bios (by shorter 2 pins on the motherboard), etc. It's a total pain.

 

I looked to replace the motherboard with exactly the same one, but then it's like $300 due to it being older and shorter in supply. I'm hesitant to just buy another bios chip because I think there is something else wrong. Rather than mess with this still, I just want to fix it and upgrade at the same time to get more current with hardware.

 

I'd love recommendations on what to look at.

 

My usage is relatively light:

• Plex server, serving both local viewers and remote
• 2 VMs -- one for Home Assistant for all the automation in my house, and one Win10 that I use for a few random things when i need to run windows app
• NAS file storage for plex, photos, sync'ing google drive etc
• I run about 15 different dockers for a variety of things such as MQTT server, Radarr, Sonarr, nzbget

 

Requirements:

• Replace both CPU and Motherboard
• Motherboard RAM support: While I'm not in a business environment, I figure ECC RAM isn't a bad thing to have, so would like to continue to use my RAM unless for some reason my ECC RAM isn't fast enough or something with changing requirements. So if I need to replace RAM I will, and looking for suggestions if I should not use ECC for some reason
• Motherboard size: My case will support up to E-ATX, so I'm good with basically any size
• Motherboard slots: Need at least one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (for my Nvidia P2000) and one PCIe x8 slot (for my LSI).
• Motherboard SATA: At least 4 SATA connectors, but the more the better.
• IPMI support preferred but not a deal breaker if missing
• Gigabit LAN
• Built in USB port to plug small USB key into it for Unraid boot drive (I'm not sure what this port is exactly called but I'm sure all of you know what I mean).

 

My first debate is whether to continue on the Xeon or go with the non-Xeon platform. In fact, should I just look at AMD now? I keep reading rave things about their latest CPUs.

Edited July 4, 2021 by tmchow

[gyrene2083]

@tmchowWhat did you end up doing? I'm curious as I am in a similar position, and would love to hear what you settled on.

[Spunner]

Same!  I have an almost identical configuration and I'm looking for "the next 5-7 year replacement" configuration.

 

• Supermicro X9SCL
• Xeon E3-1230 v2
• 32 GB ECC DDR3
• LSI SAS 92xx-8i running 6 drives (3 & 4 TB w/Dual Parity)
• 2x 500GB SATA Samsung SSD's for Cache (off motherboard SATA)