Good day Unraid Community,

 

I've been running Unraid for a long time and every time, I took old PC parts from my previous PCs and moved them into my Unraid server. I'm currently on an old Intel Core2Quad 2.6Ghz which did the job until I decided to run many dockers in parallel as well as VMs. I think it's time for an upgrade. I'm thinking of simply changing the motherboard, cpu and memory.

 

Here's what I have in mind:

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/alexricher/saved/fHtqqs

• Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150. The big advantage is the new motherboard will support 10x SATA 6Gbps while I used to have only 6. It has a dual ethernet ports for bonding or dedicating it for VMs.
  
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core. I hesitated between an Intel i7-4790k but this Xeon gives me technically 8 cores (4 cores + Hyperthreading) while staying in my budget.
  
• Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400. This is my big doubt. I feel 16GB is more than enough for Unraid + lots of Dockers + 2-3 VMs. But my concern is whether I should get 2400mhz RAM instead of cheaper 1600mhz options. Will I see a real gain? Is it worth the difference? I don't have the money to go the ECC way...
  

 

For the rest, I'm using my old case, PSU, SATA controllers, 5-in-3 cages and about 40TB of HDDs.

 

The main reason for my upgrade is to be able to run multiple dockers without any stuttering while streaming movies to my HTPC. I currently experience stuttering whenever CouchPotato is copying files from my cache drive to my Unraid drives. I used to have issues when extracting RARs but I've fixed that by limiting the CPU cores to different dockers. But VMs seem to kill my current setup; hence the upgrade.

 

What do you guys think of this barebone setup? Do you have any suggestions, comments? Am I missing something?

 

Thanks and have a good day!

Hi -

 

Unfortunately I don't think that motherboard will take a Xeon.  Also, if you're going Xeon, I'd definitely go ECC at the same time.  As to memory, doesn't anything over 1600 involve overclocking?  I don't overclock with my unRAID server - I'm looking for rock solid stability over everything else.

Replying to my own thread in order to give an update to the community.

 

After searching a bit further, I found that a lot of people are actually using this very same motherboard for Unraid and there doesn't seem to be any issue with it. On top of that, Tom's Hardware called it a smart buy. So, I've decided to stick with this motherboard. 10x SATA port will allow me to expand even more!

 

For the CPU, there was a small price difference (50$) between the Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 and the Intel i7-4790K; therefore, I've decided to move to the i7 instead because the cores are faster (4Ghz vs 3.4Ghz) and the Turbo mode goes to 4.4Ghz. The have the same core count (4 cores + 4 with Hyperthreading) so for the price difference, it's a little upgrade. The only thing I'm still not certain is the K part of the i7-4790K, which means it's overclockable... but will I overclock? That question remains... I prefer stability over performance for my server, although the motherboard and CPU both support overclocking so perhaps I'll play a little with it. My best bet is I'll just enable the Turbo mode...

 

For the memory, I've done my homework and read many forums and technical web sites and I've decided to go with this RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568&_ga=1.14895615.812793330.1417110123) The price difference between a 2400Mhz and 1600Mhz wasn't much but after my reading, I understood that memory timing/latency doesn't improve performance dramatically so I've decided to cut on memory cost and put it on the CPU. I'd be curious to know what people think of this decision. Should I have kept the 2400Mhz or there won't be much difference on Unraid with 1600Mhz?

 

My order is done but if anyone chips in before I open my package, I would possibly return it to make the perfect system for me.

 

Then, the next thing will be to figure out how to do GPU passthrough for VMs with an AMD Radeon graphic card...

Hi -

 

Unfortunately I don't think that motherboard will take a Xeon.  Also, if you're going Xeon, I'd definitely go ECC at the same time.  As to memory, doesn't anything over 1600 involve overclocking?  I don't overclock with my unRAID server - I'm looking for rock solid stability over everything else.

 

Wow, we were timed perfectly. While I was typing my previous message, you've replied to it.

 

I also thought that memory with higher clocking was only for overclocking but even after my reading, I'm still a bit confused whether it's possible to only play/set higher frequency on RAM while keeping the system in a basic/non-overclock mode... Apparently, they come with XMP profiles and it's possible to enable it in the BIOS but does this impact CPU timings as well?

 

Oh, and for the Xeon part, my research showed they were compatible with Xeon3. The processor is LG1150 which is standard for such compatible motherboard.

 

Nonetheless, I'm with you on overclocking for my server. I prefer stability but my hardware tends to disagree. A Z97 board + a K processor is meant for overclocking. ;-)

I am also looking to upgrade and am considering:

 

Motherboard - X10SLL-F

CPU - Xeon E3-1226v3, almost the same as 1231v3 but includes a graphics processor and is ~$30 cheaper

 

Memory - 16GB ECC, still not decided - suggestions would be great (other than the compatability list on SuperMicro website)

 

I am also looking to upgrade and am considering:

 

Motherboard - X10SLL-F

CPU - Xeon E3-1226v3, almost the same as 1231v3 but includes a graphics processor and is ~$30 cheaper

 

Memory - 16GB ECC, still not decided - suggestions would be great (other than the compatability list on SuperMicro website)

 

The advantage Xeon processor gives is you can use ECC memory with it but you still need a compatible motherboard and those are usually quite expensive (on top of the memory being nearly double the price) I've ran Unraid for many years without ECC memory so I decided to skip on this but perhaps time will tell that I've made a poor decision. But if money is no issue, I guess ECC would be the way to go!

 

Personally, my server is already accumulating a lot of investment from my part. I'm very close to having spent 5000$ on hardware (HDDs, SATA expansion cards, 5in3 HDD cages, SAS cables, etc.) The only thing I hadn't invested in a while was a good Mobo/CPU as I could always take them from old PCs as its main purpose was a NAS. Now that it's a power-server (Dockers, VMs, NAS, etc.), I'm in need of something more powerful...

The motherboard I menitioned is priced at around the price of the motherboard you mentioned.

 

Regarding the price of the memory it is higher but then I save some money by choosing the Xeon 1226v3.

 

I think that even for VMs a 3.4GHz QUAD with multithreading is quite sufficient.

 

I am currently running a Windows 7 VM on my ATOM D510 unRAID server using Virtualbox.

 

Memory Speed: Just get the basics, 2400Mhz is for gamers.

 

i7-4790k is for overclocking (k = unlocked multiplier). You should be able to find a non-k version (i.e. i7-4790). Don't confuse this with the slower 4790S either

 

 

Memory Speed: Just get the basics, 2400Mhz is for gamers.

 

i7-4790k is for overclocking (k = unlocked multiplier). You should be able to find a non-k version (i.e. i7-4790). Don't confuse this with the slower 4790S either

 

I've stuck to 1600Mhz for memory as it allowed me to save a few bucks and I wasn't sure if I'd see a difference anyway as I wasn't planning on overclocking.

 

For the CPU, there was 20$ difference between the 4790 and 4790K so I've went for the overclockable version just in case I ever want to do it (my Z97 mobo supports it too)

I think the big cpu sucker is if you plan to game on that machine (Windows KVM running Steam) or if you're gonna transcode videos with Plex. Other than those two, everything else is relatively light.

 

As for OP's issue (streaming stutters when copying files), I used to have that too. Upgraded my rig from Athlon to Xeon v3 on x10sl7-f motherboard w/ 16GB RAM. STILL THE SAME F'IN STUTTERS.

Turned out it was reiserfs fragmentation that was kicking my ass. Everytime I'm copying something to my 'inbox' unraid drive, the system would hang for 10-20s while reiserfs prepares the space.

 

What I did was upgrade my unraid to v6(b15) and converted my inbox to XFS filesystem. Everything was smoothsailing after that.

Just a quick heads up on this since I just so happen to use the 4790k in my primary unraid workstation at the office. This is one bad@#$ processor!  I'm sure the non-K variant is just fine as well and while I did have it overclocked at one point, it's really not necessary and not worth the risk.

 

In my setup, I give my primary workstation / gaming VM 6 physical cores while keeping docker containers pinned to the other two to prevent context switching. This makes sure my work and gaming experiences are never impeded by other background processes.

 

In addition, gaming performance is definitely more about clock speed than core count, and even then, in today's games, the CPU is primarily utilized for generating in-game physics effects and audio, and the GPU is your real money maker when it comes to graphics quality and framerate.

 

Just a little extra input for those that care...

Just as an update, I've received the ordered parts and the server is now up and running on a i7-4790K (Turbo mode 4.7Ghz) and it flies like never before! I've even installed 2 VMs and it's much smoother than it used to be. 8 cores of pure speed!

As for OP's issue (streaming stutters when copying files), I used to have that too. Upgraded my rig from Athlon to Xeon v3 on x10sl7-f motherboard w/ 16GB RAM. STILL THE SAME F'IN STUTTERS.

Turned out it was reiserfs fragmentation that was kicking my ass. Everytime I'm copying something to my 'inbox' unraid drive, the system would hang for 10-20s while reiserfs prepares the space.

 

What I did was upgrade my unraid to v6(b15) and converted my inbox to XFS filesystem. Everything was smoothsailing after that.

 

What he said. You most likely experienced reiserfs stutters. Your old hw should have been more than capable. I run a core2duo 2.2ghz and can transcode with ples while performing one or two other operations (couchpotato move, unpack rar, etc.) without getting buffering in plex. When reiserfs becomes fragmented and needs to loot for space in the drive, it will lock up the whole kernel, rendering all your precious cpu's stalled. If you ever run into it again, look into transitioning to XFS.

As for OP's issue (streaming stutters when copying files), I used to have that too. Upgraded my rig from Athlon to Xeon v3 on x10sl7-f motherboard w/ 16GB RAM. STILL THE SAME F'IN STUTTERS.

Turned out it was reiserfs fragmentation that was kicking my ass. Everytime I'm copying something to my 'inbox' unraid drive, the system would hang for 10-20s while reiserfs prepares the space.

 

What I did was upgrade my unraid to v6(b15) and converted my inbox to XFS filesystem. Everything was smoothsailing after that.

 

What he said. You most likely experienced reiserfs stutters. Your old hw should have been more than capable. I run a core2duo 2.2ghz and can transcode with ples while performing one or two other operations (couchpotato move, unpack rar, etc.) without getting buffering in plex. When reiserfs becomes fragmented and needs to loot for space in the drive, it will lock up the whole kernel, rendering all your precious cpu's stalled. If you ever run into it again, look into transitioning to XFS.

 

I get this all the time and it's been driving me bonkers!  I tried everything to resolve it.  I've had unRAID up for more than 5 years now and only started getting this issue a few months ago.  Looking around, it seems like there's no good way to upgrade all disks to XFS without adding a new drive to the array, which is understandable but disappointing.  Rebuilding every disk to get around the stutter is going to be a lot of work.

 

Edit:  This post documents the process, for anyone else interested: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=37490.msg346739#msg346739