EPYC build questions (large upgrade)

[war4peace]

Hello everyone,

 

I have started planning for a large upgrade to my existing Unraid server.

Current specs:

Unraid Pro on X570 motherboard, Ryzen 2400g, 2x nVME SSDs in RAID0 as fast cache, 2x SATA SSDs in RAID1, cache for VMs and docker, and a hodge-podge of various sized HDDs (6x pieces) ranging from 4 TB to 18 TB. One parity drive.

Add-ons: 10g NIC and a LSI HBA which supports 8x HDDs.

All in a tower case.

 

Starting with my budget: up to €5000, but could go maybe 10% more if there's a good reason for it.

Reason to upgrade: I am currently rebuilding my whole network, putting everything in a tall 19" rack, and current server's hardware specs don't allow for much expansion.

 

Drive setup will certainly expand as time goes by, I only want to buy 18+ TB drives to maximize data density. Longer term goal is to have at least 1 PB of space within the next 3 years. Therefore, I want to have a good server infrastructure (mobo, CPU(s), RAM, HBA cards) in place before I start expanding space.

 

I saw quite a few options for EPYC CPUs on Ebay, and I plan to buy from there. After looking long and hard at various options, I admit I'm a bit lost (too many things to choose from, I'm afraid), therefore I'd much appreciate some piece of advice.

 

Starting with the HBA card(s?): I saw this as a good option, but open to others if they are better: LSI SAS 9300-16I 12GB/S HBA BUS ADAPTER CARD IT Mode 4*SFF-8643 SATA Cable

Motherboard/CPU/RAM combo: Now, this is where it becomes complicated. I need 10g LAN for sure, but before that, I need to figure out which of these two options is preferrable: Single-CPU or dual-CPU. I'd rather splurge on a future-proof build, rather than beat myself up two years from now for not going the right route, so here are two options:

1. Single-CPU board: Supermicro MBD-H12SSL-CT-O Socket SP3/ Single AMD EPYC 7002/ DDR4/ ATX Server MB.

2. Dual-CPU board: Supermicro H12DSi-NT6

 

CPUs: EPYC 7742 (for single-CPU board) or EPYC 7642 (for Dual-CPU board)

 

RAM: since I don't need enormous RAM speed for VMs or other things I plan to do (ZFS comes to mind), 2133 MHz DDR4 ECC would suffice. Quantity over speed is what I am looking for. Example: Samsung 64GB (1x64GB) DDR4 Registered ECC PC4-19200 2400Mhz (16x for dual-CPU, 8x for single-CPU).

 

Now, the big question is: would there be a net advantage of dual-CPU versus single-CPU? I'd like to know your opinions on this.

 

Moving on: For fastcache (temporary files), I'd still use 2x nVME drives, but I am not sure RAID0 would bring any advantage, might want to go for RAID1 as well. 2x2TB drives is my goal. As for docker cache pool, SATA SSDs should suffice. One more thing I am considering, since there will be plenty PCI Express lanes available, is to buy a PCI-E card which holds 4x nVME drives later on and use those for VMs exclusively.

 

Case: this is where I am truly lost. Having everything in one case is more compact, but... not sure if it's a good idea. I saw this case (IPC 4F28 MINING-RACK) which is not expensive, and holds a ton of HDDs, but would it fit the whole build? if not, I am looking for a combo (one dedicated drive case and one system case, both rackable), open to suggestions because I frankly have nothing in mind in that case.

Add-ons: I have a pair of watercooled (from factory) GTX 1080 Ti GPUs which I plan to put in the build, for real-time transcoding of my surveillance cameras streams (6x 4K + 2x 1440p), as well as Tdarr whenever applicable. I will repurpose the existing 10g NIC, so that'll not be used any more.

 

Power delivery and UPS: I have a brand new Cyberpower OLS2000ERT2U which can, if needed, be beefed up with a BPSE72V45ART2U battery pack. However, I am not sure whether I'll need server-grade PSUs or not. Advice is greatly appreciated!

 

Cooling and noise: My current plan is to watercool both CPU(s) and GPUs using a MoRa 420 with dual-pump, and for all other hardware (HDDs and whatnot), I already own several Noctua Industrial 3000 RPM fans (120mm). Noise is of no importance, everything sits in my garage in a technical area, nobody leaves there except the odd spider which makes its way in. I am pretty sure they will not complain.

 

Well... it's quite the topic, now that I am looking back at it. Hopefully there's enough information for some informed advice from the experts here.

 

Thank you all in advance for your replies, looking forward to read some awesome responses!

 

[war4peace]

I had more luck on Facebook. Thanks.