Hi,

 

I am a brand new member, so "hello everyone". 

 

This is my current setup:

 

12Tb File Server: Fractal Design Array R2, Intel D510MO / D510 Intel MN10, 4Gb DDR2 800Mhz.  This server runs UnRAID.

 

I love my setup mainly due to it's extremely low powered!  But file transfers are painfully slow and it doesn't handle multitasking.  I am thinking of upgrading and using ESXi to combine systems into one unit. My major bugbear is power hungry systems especially when electric is not cheap. So I want my new build to draw as little power as possible!

 

My proposed new setup:

 

Case: Norco 4224 - Need to find the 120mm fan plate

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O

RAM: 2x 8GB KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230

Power Supply: ?

SATA Expansion Card(s): 3x IBM M1015 - Purchased: £261.37 New

Cables:

 

Total Cost:

 

Hard Drives I already have:

 

Parity Drive: 2TB

Data Drives: 17x either 1TB, 1.5TB or 2TB

Cache Drive: 1x 500GB 2.5"

Total Drive Capacity: Unknown at present as it depends on the state of the hard drives I have

 

Although I am thinking of swapping them all for 3TB WD Red as power consumption is tiny!

 

WD Red: 2TB/3TB: Read/Write 4.4W, Idle 4.1W, Sleep/Standby .6W

WD Green: 2TB: Read/Write 4.5W, Idle 2.5W Idle, Sleep/Standby .7W

 

The primary uses of the new server will be:

 

- Computer backups (rsync) 

- Web server 

- Virtual machine (Windows 10)

- Plex

- Home Automation - If possible?

 

What would you change if anything? 

 

Does anyone have an idea on how I can work out the potential power consumption on my proposed build?

 

Thank you

Edited November 24, 20187 yr by Rick Sanchez

...the cables you mention are reverse] breakouts...good for connecting on-board SATA to the backplane of the case....no use with the M1015.

Let's assume you have 6-8 on-board SATA, you'll be needing 2 of these cables and 2 pieces of CBL-SFF8087-06M to connect all 8 Ports of the M1015 to the case

 

edit: adjusted cables

With that many drives, I'd be going for a 750W'ish power supply to guarantee some headroom.  I'm a massive Seasonic fan due to the huge warranty (7 years) and great performance of their product, so I'd recommend the Seasonic X-750 Gold for that build.

 

Some other notes:

 

- those breakout cables are still wrong.  You need SFF8087-SFF8087 cables (SAS to SAS) to connect from the M1015 to the backplane.  Each M1015 will drive 8 drives (2 backplanes) in total, i.e. Port 0 connects to one backplane, which controls 4 drives.  Port 1 connects to another backplane, which controls another 4 drives.

 

Therefore if you are starting with 16 drives, you would need two M1015's - 8 drives on each, and 4 SAS to SAS cables.  You can get these cables quite cheap:  http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/mini-sas-36-pin-to-mini-sas-36p-pin-sff-8087-data-cable-/150959693123?pt=AU_Electronics_Accessories_Wires_Cables&hash=item2325e61d43&_uhb=1#ht_3126wt_906

 

As you are building an ESXi build, you also need a datastore drive.  There's two schools of thought here - if you're only going to be running a couple of VM's, then a SSD serves well.  If you want to use a spinning drive, then you lose a backplane to that purpose (i.e. space for 4 drives) and connect that backplane to the onboard SATA via one of the reverse breakout (fanout) cables that is already in your post.

 

Also, how many VM's are you intending on running?  You may want to get more RAM than that if you intend to run any more than 2-3 at the most.  16Gb is a better number for 4-6, 32Gb if you want to go nuts. 

 

Lastly, where will you be housing the server?  The stock fans in the Norco's can be quite loud (they are delta fans, designed to move a lot of air, and designed to be put where noise isn't an issue.)  If you don't want noisy, then I suggest getting the 120mm fan bracket for that case and 3x120mm PWM fans for said bracket.  Also replace the 2x80mm at the back with 2x80mm PWM fans.  Something like the Noctua PWM fans or Arctic Cooling PWM fans work well.

 

 

I would suggest that you consider using the X9SCM-iiF and E3-1230V2 processor.  You can then use faster memory - 1600, rather than 1333.

 

Power Supply is under-rated for that number of drives - 650W would be an absolute minimum, 750W would be safer.  I'm also a big Seasonic fan.

If you are going to be using that many drives, just be aware that if you go the iiF and v2 processor, you will likely hit an issue if you ever want to add a third controller to the board.  See user Rockdawg's post about this.  He resolved the problem by going back to a Sandy Bridge (1230v1) processor.

 

I would suggest that the small advantage from the faster ram is outweighed by the controller limitation, so I'd stick with what you've got personally.

With that many drives, I'd be going for a 750W'ish power supply to guarantee some headroom.  I'm a massive Seasonic fan due to the huge warranty (7 years) and great performance of their product, so I'd recommend the Seasonic X-750 Gold for that build.

 

Is there any other PSU you would recommend as their seems to be only one supplier for that specific PSU...

 

Some other notes:

 

- those breakout cables are still wrong.  You need SFF8087-SFF8087 cables (SAS to SAS) to connect from the M1015 to the backplane.  Each M1015 will drive 8 drives (2 backplanes) in total, i.e. Port 0 connects to one backplane, which controls 4 drives.  Port 1 connects to another backplane, which controls another 4 drives.

 

Therefore if you are starting with 16 drives, you would need two M1015's - 8 drives on each, and 4 SAS to SAS cables.  You can get these cables quite cheap:  http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/mini-sas-36-pin-to-mini-sas-36p-pin-sff-8087-data-cable-/150959693123?pt=AU_Electronics_Accessories_Wires_Cables&hash=item2325e61d43&_uhb=1#ht_3126wt_906

 

Ok, I'll send my ones back as the supplier told me they were correct.  Could I not use the reverse breakout cables to any motherboard SATA sockets?  Or is that a bad idea?

 

As you are building an ESXi build, you also need a datastore drive.  There's two schools of thought here - if you're only going to be running a couple of VM's, then a SSD serves well.  If you want to use a spinning drive, then you lose a backplane to that purpose (i.e. space for 4 drives) and connect that backplane to the onboard SATA via one of the reverse breakout (fanout) cables that is already in your post.

 

Also, how many VM's are you intending on running?  You may want to get more RAM than that if you intend to run any more than 2-3 at the most.  16Gb is a better number for 4-6, 32Gb if you want to go nuts. 

 

Honestly, I have no idea, maybe 3?  Not sure.  I have a 60GB Vertex 2 SSD spare, would that be suitable?

 

Lastly, where will you be housing the server?  The stock fans in the Norco's can be quite loud (they are delta fans, designed to move a lot of air, and designed to be put where noise isn't an issue.)  If you don't want noisy, then I suggest getting the 120mm fan bracket for that case and 3x120mm PWM fans for said bracket.  Also replace the 2x80mm at the back with 2x80mm PWM fans.  Something like the Noctua PWM fans or Arctic Cooling PWM fans work well.

 

It'll be placed in my home office either on my desk or in a rack, all depends on the weight.

 

I was just browsing Xcases website and noticed their is a "homeserver" version, but I couldn't see the difference other than it's length.  Is having a shorter case better or?

 

http://www.xcase.co.uk/x-case-home-server-box-p/case-homeserver24.htm

The case is completely up to you - just make sure it takes a matx motherboard if the X9SCM is the board of choice.

 

60Gb SSD is probably an ok starting point for the datastore, though obviously that sort of space will limit you in terms of how many VM's you can run.

 

The power supply - you have to be careful here, as the X9SCM is very touchy about power supplies that it supports.  That is the reason why I recommended the Seasonic - yes it's not cheap, but it's guaranteed to work.  You might also consider the EPS power supply (MUST be EPS/SSI compliant) that x-case have as an option for that case... however I can't comment on whether it would definitely work.  Maybe ask them?

 

Reverse breakout (fanout) cables - this cable attaches to the motherboard SATA ports.  There is 4 SATA connectors on it - the other end then connects to a single SAS backplane.  Therefore, you'll only need one of those cables (as you will use one of the on board SATA ports, potentially two, for datastore drives, leaving 4 that can be connected to hard drives.)  All the rest of the cables would be SFF8087-SFF8087.

 

The case is completely up to you - just make sure it takes a matx motherboard if the X9SCM is the board of choice./quote]

 

Ok, I will phone them tomorrow.

 

60Gb SSD is probably an ok starting point for the datastore, though obviously that sort of space will limit you in terms of how many VM's you can run.

 

I honestly have no idea.

 

The power supply - you have to be careful here, as the X9SCM is very touchy about power supplies that it supports.  That is the reason why I recommended the Seasonic - yes it's not cheap, but it's guaranteed to work.  You might also consider the EPS power supply (MUST be EPS/SSI compliant) that x-case have as an option for that case... however I can't comment on whether it would definitely work.  Maybe ask them?

 

I will do that.

 

Reverse breakout (fanout) cables - this cable attaches to the motherboard SATA ports.  There is 4 SATA connectors on it - the other end then connects to a single SAS backplane.  Therefore, you'll only need one of those cables (as you will use one of the on board SATA ports, potentially two, for datastore drives, leaving 4 that can be connected to hard drives.)  All the rest of the cables would be SFF8087-SFF8087.

 

Ok. So one of those cables can connect to the SAS port on the case and connect four drives? And the remaining two SATA ports for datastore drives which I assume means ESXI stuff

Is this the Norco RPC-4224?

 

Yep that's the Norco 4224, which is what the xcase RM424 is .

£50 cheaper though I found a UK supplier

Nice!  Please share the supplier with everyone if you can - I'm sure others would like to take advantage of a £50 saving.

The CPU is being a pain to acquire especially for a decent price in the UK. I can only find one supplier for it and there is a two week wait time, unless I order the v2?

 

Will that be ok? 

 

Any suggestions?

Read Rockdawg's post about his issues with lots of drives and the v2 processor - that might help you decide.  It's around here somewhere!

 

Also just went through your parts again and I noted you only have 1x M1015.  A single M1015 will run 2 backplanes in the 4224, 4 drives on each backplane.. so a total of 8 drives per M1015.  You mention 17 drives, so you definitely need a 2nd M1015, possibly a third as 2 gives you 16.

 

You could RDM the 17th drive off the motherboard SATA in the meantime if you wanted to (as per the Atlas thread.)

What about from Amazon?  They have 3 v1's in stock:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Xeon-E3-1230-3-2-Processor/dp/B004R0QBRU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365821691&sr=8-1&keywords=e3-1230

What about from Amazon?  They have 3 v1's in stock

 

£209 though, the US is £156 from Newegg.  I'll see if I can find it cheaper.

 

Can you not run any of these cables directly off the motherboard?

...the forward cables can be used to connect the s-ata ports from the mobo to the backplane.

But you'll need to install ESXi elsewhere (i.e. on a USB-stick) and passthrough the onboard s-ata controller to the unRAID VM in order to use the ports for unRAID disks natively

 

But still, you'll be 3 ports short ( 6x mobo + 8x for first M1015) to reach the number of 17.

Another option is to go for a SAS expander and multiply/expand the single M1015 to more have ports.

One more M1015...even another two should be cheaper, I'd say.

 

£209 though, the US is £156 from Newegg.  I'll see if I can find it cheaper.

 

AFAIK, in Europe a shop is required to issue the final price...including shipping and VAT....in the US VAT is handled/displayed differently...also do not forget customs when buying and comparing prices.

True, I'll phone a couple of companies on Monday and see what I can do. So I need another 2x M1015 of these to handle all 24 drives?

Yes, as BetaQuasi already pointed out, a single M1015 supplies 8 ports and with direct cabling it will connect to two backplanes of your case.

 

Alternatives are to go for another controller that supplies more ports or go with an expander.

With an Intel RES2CV240 you can have 20 ports (5 backplanes) with a single connector/cable from one M1015.

Just bought another two M1015's as the Intel RES2CV240 was over double in price!

...with 4x cables you can manage to connect 16 drives (on two M1015).

For your setiup with 17x data and cache you need 19 drives including parity ...you are one cable short....two cables in order to fully populate all 6 backplanes for all 24 drives of the Norco.

 

...AFAIR you cannot add already filled disks into the array.

There is a way to handle disks outside of the array...then copy data over...you will need to lay-ou your strategy on how to move and use/employ your disks.

 

Is this new server in addition to your old server or an upgrade of your old server? I recently replaced everything except the HDDs and flash in my server and unRAID just kept on using the old HDDs complete with data as if nothing had happened.

 

Tapatalk from CM10.1 Kindle

 

 

Upgrade of my old server using all of the hard drives that I have in my flat, I was left a load of 1/2Tb drives by my late father and it is not worth the hassle selling them So I am going through them, clearing and re-using them in my new and final home server build, hopefully for a long time...

 

Although I might upgrade to WD Reds based on their power consumption, but I'm in no rush!

Will a 8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 Unbuffered UDIMM 240 Pin Memory Module Kit work on this board?