Hi,

So I will start first with my story

I wanted to build a NAS, just build a NAS with Unraid.

The NAS will be for Downloading content, backup phones/computers, transmit video to streamer, in future camera recording.

So I start to grab some parts, CoolerMaster N400 case, i5 8400 with Z370 Motherboard, 32GB DDR and more,

Then I found on facebook HPE ML110 Gen10, and I thought, wow, it's "close" for me all the things that I wanted, hot swap, support for 8 3.5" HDDs and more.

While I looking for PCI-e for NVME SSDs discs (4 NVME) I understand, thanks @MAM59, that with my server I can't do it, because they have RAID controller that Unraid will not support it. (You can read here - https://forums.unraid.net/topic/183634-pci-e-for-nvme-adapter-recommendations/)

Until I asked this question, I already bought 128GB DDR4 RDIMM, Intel Xeon 5218N CPU (for this server) and already sold few of my parts from the start, the i5 with motherboard, CPU cooling and more.

Then now I have on my hand, CoolerMaster N400 case, 128GB DDR4 RDIMM, Intel Xeon 5218N CPU, I started to search a motherboard with minimum 2 PCI-E that works with x16 bandwidth. (It's very hard ..)

Then I found this Motherboard, Supermicro X11SPi-TF, that support RDIMM, ATX Form, 10 SATA6 (more then enough for me), support LGA3647 Socket (my Xeon is like that), and also have 2 PCI-e 3.0 that support x16 bandwidth, it's also have 2 10gbe ethernet (and I already wanted to buy some ethernet card, like Intel X550)

 

So after this story (yes yes sorry for the long one), what do you think about this motherboard, Supermicro X11SPi-TF?

 

Regards.

 

 

I use the X11SPL-F which is basically the same board, except the X11SPi-TF has a better chipset for the network, and a different PCIe configuration. Only thing you have to keep in mind is that if you use x8 slot 3 then the x16 slot 4 will also work at x8. Most of the time that won't make a difference for performance though. Also slot 1 is only x4.

 

The board does support bifurcation, for streaming you probably want to add a videocard, which can influence how you work with things, since it already has a VGA-controller on board.

 

I've used mine with a 6138 and it worked okay but I wasn't happy with the performance, so I switched to a 6248. Yours is supposed to be network-optimized so benchmarks show it may be slower than both but it'll probably work better for what you want to do with it.

 

Also keep in mind that 10gbit copper requires a lot of power and the chips become very hot so you have to make sure you have enough airflow over the heatsink near the slot which can be an issue if your x16 cards are big.

11 hours ago, Wody said:

I use the X11SPL-F which is basically the same board, except the X11SPi-TF has a better chipset for the network, and a different PCIe configuration. Only thing you have to keep in mind is that if you use x8 slot 3 then the x16 slot 4 will also work at x8. Most of the time that won't make a difference for performance though. Also slot 1 is only x4.

 

The board does support bifurcation, for streaming you probably want to add a videocard, which can influence how you work with things, since it already has a VGA-controller on board.

 

I've used mine with a 6138 and it worked okay but I wasn't happy with the performance, so I switched to a 6248. Yours is supposed to be network-optimized so benchmarks show it may be slower than both but it'll probably work better for what you want to do with it.

 

Also keep in mind that 10gbit copper requires a lot of power and the chips become very hot so you have to make sure you have enough airflow over the heatsink near the slot which can be an issue if your x16 cards are big.

 

Thanks for your comment,

About the PCI-E slots, I just need x16 bandwidth for NVME Adapter.

About the streaming, I don't know if I will use Plex, maybe yes, but for currently it's just need to "hold" the content, then with VLC at the streamer I pull it, without coding or something like that.

 

Quote

I've used mine with a 6138 and it worked okay but I wasn't happy with the performance, so I switched to a 6248. Yours is supposed to be network-optimized so benchmarks show it may be slower than both but it'll probably work better for what you want to do with it.

 

Didn't get your point?

 

Quote

Also keep in mind that 10gbit copper requires a lot of power and the chips become very hot so you have to make sure you have enough airflow over the heatsink near the slot which can be an issue if your x16 cards are big.

 

It's RJ45, still will get hot?

As I know for example X540 get hotter then X550,

If I don't buy this MOBO I will take other MOBO but will need to buy X550 ethernet card also.

12 hours ago, ChaoscripT said:

Didn't get your point?

Point is, it will work, but if you visit the dashboard or something it may not feel as fast as it could be. But a lot depends on what you're used to.

 

12 hours ago, ChaoscripT said:

It's RJ45, still will get hot?

All 10gbit RJ45 get hot and use a lot of power (up to 5w per port or so, so 10w per connection), fibre uses up to 1 watt or so no matter the speed (but then you also need to get the SFP+ and a network-card so it may not matter that much).

Point here is, there always has to be some airflow in the area of the network-card. So if you have that, then it's fine, but its good to know in advance.

10 hours ago, Wody said:

Point is, it will work, but if you visit the dashboard or something it may not feel as fast as it could be. But a lot depends on what you're used to.

 

Sorry to be a bit long-winded about this, I'd really like to understand what you mean? Is the processor too slow?

 

10 hours ago, Wody said:

All 10gbit RJ45 get hot and use a lot of power (up to 5w per port or so, so 10w per connection), fibre uses up to 1 watt or so no matter the speed (but then you also need to get the SFP+ and a network-card so it may not matter that much).

Point here is, there always has to be some airflow in the area of the network-card. So if you have that, then it's fine, but its good to know in advance.

 

Currently I have 1gbe downlink/100mb uplink, but I want to make it future-proof. Here in Israel, SFP+ still not common. From the outside/ISP it's connects to media converter (like Nokia) then with RJ45 to my router and use PPPOE.

 

At the end of the day, because I already have this CPU and RAM I prefer to use it, but also can sell in second hand marketplace and buy other CPU.

As I understand most of Intel (Desktop grade) CPUs MOBOs don't support bifurcation at x4x4x4x4, only AMD.

So I wanted to know if this MOBO is worth it.

 

Thanks for all the help & replies.

 

Regards.

On 1/3/2025 at 10:35 AM, ChaoscripT said:

Sorry to be a bit long-winded about this, I'd really like to understand what you mean? Is the processor too slow?

You'll get the full speed on the drives and on the network, so not too slow, but the single core speed is lower, so that means if you visit the unraid page for the server, or go to another page, it won't be instant, but may take a second. That's perfectly fine, and most people wouldn't notice, but if you're used to it being instant on other computers you'd notice.

 

On 1/3/2025 at 10:35 AM, ChaoscripT said:

ISP it's connects to media converter

Here it is supposed to work the same way, but the convertor they put in had to be replaced three times, and the power-supply failed twice too during only a year or two. So I bypassed that device and extended and connected the cable directly to my switch where its running for years without any issue.

 

Anyway, for Intel server boards, they do support bifurcation, and the x11spi-tf has slot6 which supports x4x4x4x4 for sure, not sure how the others handle it because of the switch and reserved pcie lanes for the chipset, but the other one probably also supports it. The system block diagram in the manual shows which slot is connected to which IIO and you set the bifurcation for those in the bios.

Edited January 5, 20251 yr by Wody

5 hours ago, Wody said:

You'll get the full speed on the drives and on the network, so not too slow, but the single core speed is lower, so that means if you visit the unraid page for the server, or go to another page, it won't be instant, but may take a second. That's perfectly fine, and most people wouldn't notice, but if you're used to it being instant on other computers you'd notice.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I love instant pages, but I think I can live with that.

For the start I wanted to go with Intel i5 8400 (before I know about all the bifurcation etc), and in CPU compare vs 5218 (can't find 5218n) they not really different.

If we compare Ryzen 7 5800X that AMD motherboards more support bifurcation, this CPU is much better in single core speed and also with multi core. (but much low cores/threads)

 

 

5 hours ago, Wody said:

 

Here it is supposed to work the same way, but the convertor they put in had to be replaced three times, and the power-supply failed twice too during only a year or two. So I bypassed that device and extended and connected the cable directly to my switch where its running for years without any issue.

 

I still don't have much speeds here in Israel, so the converter still works.

 

May I ask the X11SPi-TF users, what exact memory modules they are using ?

On 11/14/2025 at 8:31 AM, Truman said:

May I ask the X11SPi-TF users, what exact memory modules they are using ?

64GB Samsung - 4x 16GB DDR4 2666MHz M393A2K43CB2-CTD

5 hours ago, ZipTieNinja said:

64GB Samsung - 4x 16GB DDR4 2666MHz M393A2K43CB2-CTD

Ok, thanks for the info.
I am running now 2x 32 GB Samsung DDR4 2933MHz M393A4K40CB2-CVF on one of my X11SPi-TF and on the other one 4x 32 GB Crucial DDR4 2933MHz CT32G4RRFD4293.36FE2.