New server any pitfalls with this hardware? Also Drive reocmndations?

[budgidiere]

I'm setting up a new sever with the following parts, anyone see any pitfalls?

- 8700k

- MSI Z370-A-PRO
- 16GB Single DIM Micron 3200Mhz Ram (single dim so I can upgrade to 64gb later)
- 1060 6gb as Unraid GPU
- 980 as Windows VM GPU
- LSI 9201-8i
- Sabrent 1tb rocket 4 (for cache)
- ASUS BW-16D1HT
- Silverstone RSV-L4500U
- Samsung Bar Plus 32GB (for unraid)
- 750W PSU

I'm also thinking about getting a Mellanox Connnect-X3 for 10GB networking and to reduce CPU load.

I'm also still looking at drives, anyone have recommendations? I'm probably never going to need more than 24TB.

Thanks.
 

Edited March 14, 2022 by budgidiere
typo

[ChatNoir]

What do you plan to do with your server ?

• Simple NAS 
• Dockers
• Many dockers with transcoding
• Basic VMs
• High performance VMs with HW passthrough

[budgidiere]

I'm planning on using it for 1 Windows Hybrid VM, a bunch of dockers with transcoding (but not often), and NAS stuff

[budgidiere]

Well I also plan on running another linux VM for game servers

[budgidiere]

11 hours ago, ChatNoir said:

What do you plan to do with your server ?

• Simple NAS 
• Dockers
• Many dockers with transcoding
• Basic VMs
• High performance VMs with HW passthrough

Are these options mutually exclusive?

[Hoopster]

4 minutes ago, budgidiere said:

Are these options mutually exclusive?

No but, depending on your needs, hardware requirements increase a bit the further you move down that list.

[budgidiere]

9 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

No but, depending on your needs, hardware requirements increase a bit the further you move down that list.

Is my hardware sufficient for what I listed?

[Hoopster]

11 hours ago, budgidiere said:

I'm planning on using it for 1 Windows Hybrid VM, a bunch of dockers with transcoding (but not often), and NAS stuff

 

2 minutes ago, budgidiere said:

Is my hardware sufficient for what I listed?

Yes.  for a VM you usually want to assign at least least 4 cores/threads and your CPU gives you a total of 12.

 

The 8700K processor has an iGPU which you can use for unRAID and hardware transcoding so you do not need the 1060 GPU just for unRAID.  The iGPU will actually give you more transcoding flexibility than the 1060.  You could use that for the VM.

[budgidiere]

20 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

 

Yes.  for a VM you usually want to assign at least least 4 cores/threads and your CPU gives you a total of 12.

 

The 8700K processor has an iGPU which you can use for unRAID and hardware transcoding so you do not need the 1060 GPU just for unRAID.  The iGPU will actually give you more transcoding flexibility than the 1060.  You could use that for the VM.

I got the 1060 originally for 4k HDR h.256 transcoding -- can the 8700k handle that?

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, budgidiere said:

I got the 1060 originally for 4k HDR h.256 transcoding -- can the 8700k handle that?

The 8700K is a Coffee Lake CPU.  It supposedly can handle HEVC 10-bit H.265

 

[Hoopster]

13 hours ago, budgidiere said:

4k HDR

FYI - Plex has had their issues with HDR to SDR tone mapping in transcoding.  I am not sure how well Emby or Jellyfin handle that.

 

More info from Plex.  It has been broken a couple of time recently.

[UhClem]

On 3/14/2022 at 10:30 AM, budgidiere said:

I'm setting up a new sever with the following parts, anyone see any pitfalls?
...

- MSI Z370-A-PRO
...
- LSI 9201-8i
...

Don't get a mobo w/all 16 (CPU) PCIe lanes going to a single x16 slot. Look for boards that (at least) offer the option of (2 slots as) x16/x0 OR x8/x8.

Also, don't waste potential bandwidth by using Gen2 HBAs in a Gen3 ecosystem.

 

[Hoopster]

14 minutes ago, UhClem said:

don't waste potential bandwidth by using Gen2 HBAs in a Gen3 ecosystem

With HDDs attached to a PCIe 2.0 HBA, there is plenty of bandwidth.  I have several HDDs attached to a Dell H310/LSI 9211-8i (PCIe 2.0) and bandwidth is not a problem.  HDDs never get close to using PCIe 3.0 bandwidth.  With SSDs it may be an issue but SSDs should be attached to motherboard SATA ports because they support TRIM and most HBAs do not.

[budgidiere]

1 hour ago, Hoopster said:

FYI - Plex has had their issues with HDR to SDR tone mapping in transcoding.  I am not sure how well Emby or Jellyfin handle that.

 

More info from Plex.  It has been broken a couple of time recently.

I see, I'll look into that.

[budgidiere]

28 minutes ago, UhClem said:

Don't get a mobo w/all 16 (CPU) PCIe lanes going to a single x16 slot. Look for boards that (at least) offer the option of (2 slots as) x16/x0 OR x8/x8.

Also, don't waste potential bandwidth by using Gen2 HBAs in a Gen3 ecosystem.

 

Does a ROG MAXIMUS X CODE work?

[UhClem]

20 hours ago, Hoopster said:

With HDDs attached to a PCIe 2.0 HBA, there is plenty of bandwidth.  I have several HDDs attached to a Dell H310/LSI 9211-8i (PCIe 2.0) and bandwidth is not a problem.  HDDs never get close to using PCIe 3.0 bandwidth.  ...

I completely agree ...but (for a 2 SAS port card) ONLY if the HBA is given 8 lanes AND never an expander [ie max # drives is 8]. Given that the proposed case has 15 x 3.5, I want to allow for growing into that. [Also, given that case, I'm confused by OP's

Quote

I'm also still looking at drives, anyone have recommendations? I'm probably never going to need more than 24TB.

OP ?? ]

I see 2 GPUs in that list, plus mention of a 10G NIC. Also, looking to the future, it's a good idea to provide for additional NVMe's--a real boon for speeding up many workflow scenarios. Sounds like a tight "budget" for slots and lanes. Toward these ends, I would want to use a Gen3 HBA since it offers the option of 3200+ M/s bandwidth using ONLY 4 lanes; and Gen3/SAS2 HBAs are only a few $ more than Gen2/SAS2 these days [frugality ON].

Edited March 16, 2022 by UhClem
add /SAS2 [x2]

[UhClem]

9 hours ago, budgidiere said:

Does a ROG MAXIMUS X CODE work?

Yes. In addition to having the x16/x0 or x8/x8, it even provides  for bifurcating the (2nd) x8 to x4/x4, allowing 2 NVMe's to feed off the slot. And there is also a X4 (x16 mechanical) slot (plus  2/3 x1 slots). But it's not a budget mobo (like the MSI one)--I'd expect that a mobo with similar functionality and flexibility could be found at an intermediate price point. I'm not familiar with the MB scene nowadays, so I have no recommendation.

 

[budgidiere]

10 hours ago, UhClem said:

Yes. In addition to having the x16/x0 or x8/x8, it even provides  for bifurcating the (2nd) x8 to x4/x4, allowing 2 NVMe's to feed off the slot. And there is also a X4 (x16 mechanical) slot (plus  2/3 x1 slots). But it's not a budget mobo (like the MSI one)--I'd expect that a mobo with similar functionality and flexibility could be found at an intermediate price point. I'm not familiar with the MB scene nowadays, so I have no recommendation.

 

I can get the maximus x code for cheap from a friend. I already orderedthe SAS card