New to UNRAID and looking for advice

[PSchouten1701]

Greetings all! I've been using UNRAID now for a few months on an old HP desktop i7-2600. Looking to make the jump to a more 'server' like configuration for PLEX, Transcoding, some dockers and VM's. I've thinking about the HP Z840 system. Looks like a great 'starter' server. 

 

Any thoughts on the E5-2620 v3 CPU? I plan on using an NVIDIA P2000 for Transcoding, so no need of an iGPU. I like the fact this system as a built in LSI controller, and a lot of expandability.

 

Thank you in advance and glad to be a part of this community!

[drchips]

Welcome.

Z840 is a very capable machine (as is the Z820) as long as you are not intending to put masses of drives in it.

As far as UNRAID usage is concerned (in my view):

Benefit of Z840: supports Bifurcation in the BIOS, should you wish to use multiple NVMe's on a single cheap card. (Z820 no bifurcation)

Benefit of Z820: 3 x 5.25 external bays (if you want to use drive cage). (Z840 only 2 x 5.25 external)

LSI controller is same.

 

If you intend to expand the system internally (2nd CPU, lots of RAM etc) it would be best to go for the high capacity PSU.

 

See the following resources:

Art of Server: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtofServer/videos

How to flash HP Z840 Z820 to IT mode firmware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boK6UcCFx2Q&ab_channel=ArtofServer

How to upgrade the power supply in HP Z840 to 1125W PSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKSc5l0cvsw&ab_channel=ArtofServer

HP Z840 How to add additional HDD storage bays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQU90wCCpSc&ab_channel=ArtofServer

 

HP Z840 Technical White Paper

 

z840 Technical Whitepaper.pdf

[PSchouten1701]

drchips, 

 

Thank you for the info! Funny because the Art of Server is what led me to looking into the Z840. On Ebay, a company called PC Server and Parts out of Michigan sells many different flavors of Z840. Looking at Dual E5-2620 v3's with 32GB Ram and the 1125W power supply.

 

Thanks again for the response!

[drchips]

Hope you have fun...

 

I am currently watching / looking at 2 systems:

1 - HP Z820 - 2x Intel Xeon [email protected], 256GB@1600MHz DDR3

2 - HP Z840 - 2x Xeon 10C [email protected], 256GB@2133MHz DDR4