X7SPA-HF-D525 Build


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Last Update 2017 April 03

Version 6.2

Original Build Spring 2013

 

System "Name" - tower

  • Case Fractal Design Define R4
  • CPU Atom D525 - 1.8 Ghz Dual Core with Hyperthreading.  13 Watt.
  • Motherboard- SuperMicro X7SPA-HF-D525
  • RAM Micron Memory - MEM-DR320L-CL02-SO13 - 2GB DDR3-1333 1Rx8 1.35v (4GB Total)
  • PSU SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
  • HDD Array 3x 4 TB Seagate ST4000DM (5400rpm)
  • HDD Parity 1 1x 4 TB Seagate ST4000DM (5400rpm)
  • HDD Parity 2 1x 4 TB Seagate ST4000DM (5400rpm)
  • HDD Cache Samsung 850 Pro 250 GB
  • HDD Boot Lexar Firefly 2Gb via Onboard Internal Port
  • UPS APC SMC1500 Smart-UPS
  • FANs 3x 140mm Noctua NF-A14 ULN
  • 2017 April 03 Update
  • SAS Dell Perc H310 flashed to LSI IT mode. 
  • HDD Array 1x 4 TB HGST_HDN724040ALE640 (7200rpm)

 

Plugins

  • Powerdown Package
  • Dynamix Cache Dirs
  • Dynamix Active Streams
  • Dynamix System Info
  • Dynamix File Integrity
  • IPMI Support
  • Open Files
  • Recycle Bin
  • Preclear Disks
  • Shell In a Box / Command Line Tool
  • Nerd Tools (for Screen)

 

Notes

  • Sata set to AHCI – Sata Mobile Rack with power button used for Hot Swap Pre-Clears.
  • IPMI / iKVM for Headless Terminal and Remote Management

 

6.2 Parity testing D525 X7SPA-HF-D525

 

Reminder that the Atom D525 is a 1.8 Ghz Dual Core with Hyperthreading and a max of 13 Watt with a measly 700 passmark.

 

Write Speed Test

  • Write speed to the Cached Share, all other hardware and test file the same (4 GB  ISO File)
  • V5 near 100 MB/s
  • V6.1.9 max of 40 MB/s
  • V2.0 57 MB/s

 

v6.2 Write speeds are still not as fast as v5, however it is nearly 40% quicker than v 6.1.9!  The low Cache write speeds have been my biggest complaint with v6, however the benefits far outweigh this obstacle.

 

Parity Check and Build Times

  • Single Disk Parity Check: 10 hours, 4 minutes @ 110 MB/s
  • Dual Disk Parity Build: 17 hours, 46 minutes.  CPU at 22-48% use
  • Dual Disk Parity Check: 15 hours, 33 minutes @ 71 MB/s.  CPU 2 threads at 100%, 2 threads at 40% 
  • ...... Down to 13 hours, 38 minutes with Squid's Modified Tunables tool 
  • 2017 April 03 Update
  • Moved all Cache and Data drives to SAS controller.  Parity up 14 hours, 45 minutes 
  • Added a 4th 4 TB data drive at 7200 rpm... Parity up to 19 hours, 28 minutes 

 

Dual Parity check takes nearly 50% longer than single Parity

 

File Read during  parity Check

One use case of this server is to store Children’s movies as unconverted ISO for playback in the home (mix of DVD and Bluray, all purchased and stored in the crawl). 

  • v 6.2 Single Parity – DVDs play with no problem.  1080p files stutter for a few frames every 8 minutes
  • v 6.2 Dual Parity– All movies fail playback after 3-5 seconds.  MP3s fail to playback after a few songs.  Unable to open RAW image files for editing
  • ... able to play movies with minimal stuttering after running Squid's modified Tunables script
  • 2017 April 03 Update

  • .... after moving all data and cache to SAS controller, all DVDs fail playback within 30 seconds. 

 

File Copy during  parity Check

Note that I do NOT copy files (to the Cache) during parity checks normally, however mover is suspended during parity checks so in theory this should be OK (edit,  turns out this is not true)

  • v 6.2 Single Parity – 42 MB/S
  • v 6.2 Dual Parity– 34 MB/s

 

My choices with 6.2 are to choose single parity for read access during parity checks and forgo read access for single parity use, or know the server cannot be used during the monthly check. 

 

I think I can live with the kids not having movies and my having to work with a local copy until 4pm on the first day of each month. 

 

Write speed performance Boost

Cache Drive:  Samsung 850 Pro, 256 GB

 

Max copy speed (pre-tweak) is 57 MB/s during idle & 42 MB/s during a parity check AFTER running the Disk Tuneables script

 

The following was all done on my Windows 10 machine

  • Regedit / (DWORD value) systemCurrentControlSet/Services/lanmanworkstation/parameters/
    Create the DWORD DisableBandwidthThrottling and set to 1
  • gpedit.msc / Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Network/QoS Packet Scheduler/Limit reservable bandwidth.  Edit, Enable, change 80 to 0
  • Settings/Updates&Security/Advanced Options/Choose how updates are delivered/Turn OFF deliveries of updates to other computers
  • CMD as administrator (default is 'normal')/ Netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled
  • CMD as administrator (default is 'enabled')/ Netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
  • Programs&Features/ uncheck Remote Differential Compression
  • Ethernet Adapter / uncheck IPV6
  • Ethernet Adapter Properties / Set Speed & Duplex from Autonegotiate to 1.0 GBps Full Duplex    (note that I have a managed switch)
  • Disable Unused Network Adapters

 

And the results after rebooting the Windows 10 machine?

  • File copies DURING a dual parity check using TeraCopy are now at 45, and 64 otherwise. 
  • File copies DURING a dual parity check using Windows Explorer are now at 78, and 98 otherwise.
  • Speakeasy jumped from 22 down to 37 down.

 

Edited by landS
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I use hat board as well for a mini esxi setup (firewall and test Linux servers.)

Good to see you put them on pieces of wood. I see too many people put their computers on carpet :-(

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

 

ESXi runs on the D525 Atom board??  Very interesting.  Which version of ESXi are you running?

 

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I would never place a PC directly on carpet ;)

 

At 100% load, the server will cost ~$45/year to run

At idle, the server will cost ~$18/year to run

 

The case is overkill (size wise) - but it matches my main machine.  Plus the 140mm fans run silent and both PCs stay cool enough even with the closet doors closed (3/4" gap along the bottom + a large vent on top of the closet).

 

Cheers

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Nice shot of your crotch in the bottom of the third picture haha  ;D

 

A requirement of Eames Lounge Photography is that 1 of 2 body parts must be included.  Either the aforementioned unmentionable ... or ... feet.  Just be glad I retook the picture after dressing  ;D

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Parity Check and Build Times

  • ...... Down to 13 hours, 38 minutes with Squid's Modified Tunables tool 
  • 2017 April 03 Update
  • Moved all Cache and Data drives to SAS controller.  Parity up 14 hours, 45 minutes 
  • Added a 4th 4 TB data drive at 7200 rpm... Parity up to 19 hours, 28 minutes 

File Read during  parity Check

One use case of this server is to store Children’s movies as unconverted ISO for playback in the home (mix of DVD and Bluray, all purchased and stored in the crawl). 

  • v 6.2 Single Parity – DVDs play with no problem.  1080p files stutter for a few frames every 8 minutes
  • v 6.2 Dual Parity– All movies fail playback after 3-5 seconds.  MP3s fail to playback after a few songs.  Unable to open RAW image files for editing
  • ... able to play movies with minimal stuttering after running Squid's modified Tunables script
  • 2017 April 03 Update

  • .... after moving all data and cache to SAS controller, all DVDs fail playback within 30 seconds. 
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My D525 system is still just fine for my needs -- a basic NAS.    Not likely to change it out anytime soon.    The one thing I HAVE done is leave it on v5, which performs FAR better than v6 on that hardware.    As landS knows, I tried v6, but after a bit of experimentation I simply decided the much longer parity checks and notably slower read speeds simply weren't worth the nicer GUI.

 

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And for me... a basic NAS with the 1 day a month of inability to have a usable read is worth the dual parity, file integrity, and recycle bins ;)

 

... a nearly 50% increase in parity check times to add 25% more capacity... mild bummer only

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  • 2 weeks later...

@garycase   I am FLOORED!

 

I am at stage 1 as listed below.... and I currently streaming the SAME 1080p BD.ISO to 2 different devices with about 20 minutes difference between their read points AND running a parity check at 226.8 MB/sec!   Edit: 2 hours in... Now at 128... 1.5 more hours now at 95.

 

Edited by landS
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On 4/14/2017 at 11:39 AM, landS said:

@garycase   I am FLOORED!

 

I am at stage 1 as listed below.... and I currently streaming the SAME 1080p BD.ISO to 2 different devices with about 20 minutes difference between their read points AND running a parity check at 226.8 MB/sec!   Edit: 2 hours in... Now at 128... 1.5 more hours now at 95.

 

 

 

How are the parity check speeds so fast? I've got a pretty powerful CPU since upgrading my D525 (Xeon D-1521) and I only get ~88MB/sec avg. Or are you saying that you ended up averaging 95?

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  • 1 year later...

2018.10.82

At the 6.5.3+ updates the web Gui / SSH / etc becomes fully inaccessible during the 20 hour dual disk parity check.   Attempting server use results now in a crashed system.  Dropping to single parity / dropping plug-ins (cache dir, etc) allows the system to continue to function as a pure Nas. 

 

Swapped in an unused Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe with 16 GB of ram, the latest 2014 bios, and a i7-3770K with hyperthreading disabled (spectre/meltdown) - and a single thread passmark of 2083...

 

Cuts the dual parity check down to 8 hours, everything remains super responsive, and transfer speeds to the shares has skyrocketed.   As an interesting aside, disk Temps have plummeted 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry @garycase - - I measured the power draw difference via my UPS and while I no longer remember the watt difference the dollar difference is under $10/year.   I did disable all unused board features and hyperthreading.

 

But... Nearly 3x passmark on a single core x 4 vs D525.  Win. 

 

The disk temp 'issue' is odd indeed.   

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About the only thing I can think of vis-à-vis the disk temp difference is that perhaps a fan connector was loose and a fan wasn't spinning to cool the disks, and after you swapped out the boards the connection was solid and the fan was spinning.     Clearly you'll never know -- but SOMETHING has to be responsible for the difference 🙂

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  • 3 weeks later...

@garycase power draw at idle is 36w with the replacement mobo/cpu/ram. 

 

The D525 with the same supporting hardware was in the upper 20s.

 

This is with fans that do not slow down, ssd cache, and an IBM 8 port SAS card.  At load is higher, however parity check is halfed and file transfer speeds are increased so, based on my usage of this machine, is not material.  

Edited by landS
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  • 9 months later...

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