Cali's first build (minor futureproofing)

[Cali]

Started my first build yesterday after much reading on the boards. Thanks to all the helpful posters!

 

I wanted a virtually silent server with some expansion room now and the hardware to push all the way to 20 drives when I need to. Didn't want to shell out for the raid cards now but will in the future. I plan on running add-ons and probably doing some transcoding which is the reason for the extra horsepower. Running Beta 5v6 mostly for AFP support - the data will be mostly media and backups that, while important, are not mission critical if I did lose them.

 

Sorry for the crap pics - I will post nicer ones when the build is done.

 

 

Case: Fractal Design R3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352002

 

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

 

Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-F-O

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253

 

CPU: Intel i3-2100T 2.5GHz 35W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116394&cm_re=intel_i3-_-19-116-394-_-Product

 

Ram: Kingston 8GB 1333 MHz ECC

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262&cm_re=kingston_8gb_ecc-_-20-139-262-_-Product

 

Boot Drive: Lexar Firefly 8GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191282&cm_re=lexar_firefly-_-20-191-282-_-Product

 

Cache: WD Caviar Black 500GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

 

Parity/Data: Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

 

 

I managed to get all the way to the command line, but I did run into a couple of problems along the way. First off, Memtest would not read my ram. I did some digging on the web and found that perhaps memtest doesn't like ECC memory, especially in Supermico boards. Anyone here experience this? I know people are using this board and I was curious if they could successfully run memtest.

 

Next problem was with the ethernet controller - I could not pull an IP even though my router saw Tower and assigned it an IP. Ifconfig wouldn't show the IP and I could not get to it from either my Mac or PC. Again, read on the net that this chip is probably too new and plan to buy a PCI card. Bummer is that I probably wont be able to use IPMI until uraid supports the chipset. Got this working - it is independent of the NIC. It gets it's own IP on the network and you can view it from the browser at that IP (.4 instead of .8 in my case). Once logged in (ADMIN,ADMIN is default) choose 'Console Redirect' and you will get a Java applet with passthrough. It's pretty great and the major selling point of this board.

 

EDIT 5/30/2011: Friend found a workaround for the NIC issue as well. Router had assigned an IP but NIC wouldn't take it. To fix we changed to static IP and set that to the IP the router had assigned it. Works fine but must run static.

 

And finally my PSU fan constantly clicks. I am going to RMA it to Newegg. I could probably take it apart and fix it but to be honest I want a clean interior and I want a modular one after putting this together. This case is not big enough to hide the extra cables nicely behind the mobo.

 

So far:

 

Advice for folks looking to use this kind of setup:

-IPMI works great!

- Ram might not play nice with memtest

-Case is very nicely designed but if you go overkill on the PSU it might get a little ugly with cables.

-NIC not supported in Beta 5v6 (I think) DHCP not supported - static does

-Fans in the case (I got two) are 3 pin while Included CPU fan is 4 pin PWM. You cannot mix these. I got around this by using the very basic fan controller included with the case but it is a bad solution because it is not dynamic. You manually set the speed and that's it. I plan on replacing all case fans with 4 pin.

-There is an internal USB header - very nice for Unraid builds.

-Initially tried to use straight locking SATA cables from Monoprice - don't bother. Really need 90 deg on the drive end and locking was a bit more hassle than it seems worth. Board came with 6 normal straight-straight cables that fit better.

 

I welcome any advice/criticism/corrections!

[Johnm]

Hey. nice build.

 

That is almost my exact same build. you just changed to the the lower power CPU and different case.

 

I did eventually change out my corsair power supply with a seasonc simply because i had it. I somehow thought the gold certification would help more on a 24x7 server.

 

I do love that case. I had looked at one for a while for my WHS build. For my unraid i went straight for the Norco, I knew I would fill it in a few months.

 

As far as the issues you are having.

 

Clicking CPU. I would try it on another motherboard or in another computer to make sure it is not a short on the build you just made. If it still clicks, RMA it.

 

for the NIC. Yes that is a known Issue. You have to use the the NIC furthest from the IPMI port. There is very little support for the Intel 82579LM outside of Windows yet. However the Intel 82574L NIC works just fine. Infact, it is one of the prefered NIC's. Since unRAID only supports one NIC, you are loosing nothing for now.

 

The IPMI works fine, use the dedicated IPMI port. I have not yet hooked my motherboard to a monitor or keyboard.

 

The memtest issue is with the Intel C204/Sandybridge chipsets memory controller being to new for the version that comes with unnraid. This has been reported at http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12935.0

. For a way to fix this issue, you can upgrade the memtest on your thumb drive. see this post. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2538.0 It worked for me and i was able to run memtest just fine.

[Cali]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I am pretty much sold on the Modular route so swapping the PSU is actually not that big of a deal, just frustrating that I got everything else right the first time and the part failed - still works just makes that noise. I haven't built a computer from scratch in at least 10 years so power up was far from assured.

 

I will have to look into the IPMI - part of the reason I bought this board! Although it looks like there is only a Windows and Linux version of IPMIview. Is it possible to go though the browser for this?

 

I will try the memtest upgrade and give my memory a check. Not too worried about the ECC ram, but better safe than sorry.

 

I didn't go with the Norco because of size/noise. I might be moving in the next year to a larger place at which time the ease of moving the smaller case will be nice. And it won't have to sit next to me in the living room while watching movies sounding like a leaf blower. Although, ironically enough, I own an ikea Lack table that would be perfect for it.

[Rajahal]

I haven't used this particular board, so maybe something has changed, but every Supermicro IPMI interface I used has been browser based.  Just point your browser to the IPMI IP address and away you go!

[Johnm]

I haven't used this particular board, so maybe something has changed, but every Supermicro IPMI interface I used has been browser based.  Just point your browser to the IPMI IP address and away you go!

 

Rajahal,

try Ipmiview 2.0 this is how we manage farms of SM servers. many times the web interface just fails for us. this works.

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMIView/