mITX - Upgrading a 2010 machine

[Smitty2k1]

I built my unRaid machine back in 2010. It started with some 1TB drives in a giant 4U server case with a lowly little Supermicro Atom D525 mITX motherboard. I had grand plans to just keep adding drives and expanding with an add in SATA card when the time came:

 

 

However, a move across the country into a small apartment made me rethink my storage space. Rapidly decreasing HDD prices and increasing storage size made it a little easier to commit to a mITX case:

 

 

Although it doesn't look any different from the outside, I've since gone through a full suite of 2TB HDDs and am almost through replacing them all with 4TB HDDs. I've added a cheap SSD in the PCIe slot for a cache and upgraded it to a faster M.2 SSD in hopes of curing my slow copy speed. Alas as unRaid continues to expand in functionality my lowly Atom D525 is unable to keep up. For unknown reasons I am not able to copy files to my server (using an SSD cache) at speeds above ~25MB/s.

 

Therefore, I've been ogling the Xeon D platform since it was announced by Intel back in 2014. The mITX supermicro boards were wonderful - fast, low heat output CPU, 10GB Ethernet, on-board M.2 slot, DDR4 ECC RAM. The only downside was the price - was a $450 board + the cost of RAM really worth the upgrade? I've been telling myself "no." Even once the lower-powered and lower cost Pentium D-1508 boards were released I've still held off.

 

However, Cyber Monday struck.

 

An obscure Gigabyte board I've heard nothing about went on an absolute fire sale at Newegg (in fact, it's still on sale now!! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128925). To round out my system I picked up a 8GB stick of RAM open box on Amazon for $44. Not a bad day for $300 all in.

 

Enter the Gigabyte MB10-DS1 with Xeon D-1521 CPU:

 

The MB10-DS1 has everything the Supermicro Xeon boards have: Xeon D CPU (this one even has active cooling!), IPMI support, Intel Gig Ethernet (I don't need 10G yet), 6 SATA ports, and DDR4 ECC RAM. The only thing I feel I'm missing out on is the M.2 integrated into the motherboard. I've already got a PCIe adapter for my existing SSD, so no big deal there - just losing out on an future expansion options. My case is limited to 6 HDDs anyways, and I don't plan on increasing the size of that anytime soon.

 

 

 

Stay tuned for pre/post upgrade benchmarks and any additional narratives of the upgrade!

[landS]

About a tenfold jump in pass mark score... Nice!

 

So....  I also have the D525 in a supermicro flavor.... And while v6 is heavier out the gate than v5,  with a little tweaking I was able to get to nearly full write speed back.    Disc tunables is a must!

 

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.

[Smitty2k1]

I've tried so much to track down why I can't copy at faster speeds (and you replied to some of my other threads a few months back). I finally gave up and am purchasing better hardware. If that doesn't work... sigh

 

 

Since you like the D525 so much, want to purchase a 2nd one?

 

Just got my Newegg shipping! I doubt it will be here but if it showed up Thursday it would be awesome for my Friday off this week!

[garycase]

Definitely a VERY nice improvement.  If I had seen that deal I'd have jumped on it (it's now sold out).

 

=>  r.e. "... (this one even has active cooling!) ..." ==>  You say that like it's a good thing.  Most of us would agree that passive cooling is MUCH nicer [totally quiet; never fails (fans DO fail); uses NO power]  IF (and here's the catch) a passive cooler can provide adequate cooling for your CPU.  In this case, that is apparently not possible, so there's a fan.  I'm sure it's still very quiet, but the fact there's a fan is NOT an improvement -- just a necessity.

 

=>  A 10X gain in PassMark is certainly nice.  In addition, the Xeon supports the AVX 2 extensions that make the 2nd parity calculation much more efficient (the Atom does not).  So overall it's a MAJOR boost in performance.

 

=>  In addition to the CPU performance boost, you also just switched to registered (buffered) ECC memory -- another very nice improvement.

 

=>  I also have a D525-based server (Supermicro board), and it works just fine as a basic NAS.  I DID avoid doing the v6 upgrade, based on the increased CPU demands that were obvious from my experimentation on a couple other systems [i have 4 UnRAID setups -- 3 I use, and one I "experiment" with].  So my D525 system is still on v5 => but since it's used purely as a NAS that's fine, and it serves files very well -- I can easily exceed 100Mb/s on reads from the server; and writes to it (no cache) are in the 40-45Mb/s range.  In fact, if I had bought one of these Xeon boards, I'd likely have not replaced my D525 unit -- I'd have just built another mini-ITX box with the Xeon.

 

=> landS's comments r.e. tweaking to get a D525 to run well with v6 are interesting.  It seems you can even run dual parity v6 on the D525 without too much performance degradation.  But my D525 will happily remain on v5    [it's completely backed up to my dual-parity server anyway  ]

 

 

 

 

 

[Smitty2k1]

Thanks for the reply, Gary.

 

I've been following the Xeon D reviews and discussions closely over at Serve The Home. Most of the Supermicro boards they have reviewed have had passive cooling for the CPU, but were definitely designed to be installed in 1U or similar server cases with significant airflow over the CPU. Because this is going in a Node304, there won't be much cooling over the CPU as there is a huge brick of HDDs in the way.  I was pretty set on buying one of the Supermicro boards and attaching a cooler to the CPU but this pricing was WAY to nice to pass up.

 

FYI, these Gigabyte D-1521 boards have been going in and out of stock over at Newegg all weekend. I setup an email notification and within a day was alerted that they were back in stock. Additionally, when I first checked them back out, the price had increased $50. Later that night it was back down. I posted at Serve The Home and someone bought a few more, they went out of stock again. Later I checked once more and they were BACK in stock, so YMMV.

 

Hopefully I don't miss out on 10G Ethernet or the lack of an M.2 slot (thus taking up the only PCIe slot) throughout the lifetime of this board. If it had one or the other I'd feel 100% about it (since the PCIe slot could be used for either a 10G controller or a M.2 port in the future) but as it stands I'm still a comfortable 90%. I don't ever plan on expanding past a mITX case with 6 drives.

[garycase]

For a mITX build I don't think the lack of 10Gb or M.2 support is really an issue.  It WOULD be nice to have 8 ports instead of 6, but the reality is the  PCIe slot can easily take care of that => with either an M.2 card with a spare SATA port; or simply a 2 or 4 port card with a standard SSD.

 

Newegg's status is still "out of stock" ... and they don't have an "auto-notify" option now => this generally means they're not likely to restock; but not always.  I'll keep an eye of it -- not sure I really need another server at this point, but that IS a very compelling deal.

 

[Smitty2k1]

Well the new board has been delivered, except there is a problem. The SATA ports on this board stick out of the side and the cables interfere with the power supply.

 

So back to the internet I go to order a SFX power supply. But that didn't stop me from at least throwing things together to make sure the system booted.

 

http://imgur.com/m1Eb8wK.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/BBp699O.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/8QcuP5c.jpg[/img]

 

More photos to come once the new PSU arrives. I can't do any real performance testing yet because j wasn't able to cram my PCIe SSD cache in with this configuration. Initial impressions are the tiny heatsink fan isn't very loud and Gigabytes IPMI implementation is just as good as supermicros.

[garycase]

Anyone who follows my comments over the years r.e. mini-ITX builds knows I ALWAYS recommend using nothing but SFX power supplies for these builds 

 

They simply provide more working room;  better airflow; and, as you've just documented well; more room for cable routing 

[Smitty2k1]

Ok another update!

 

I received my new power supply, a Silverstone 500W SFX-L. I checked to make sure the SFX-L form factor isn't any wider than SFX to ensure clearance for the SATA connectors. Because of the Node 304's inability to handle a SFX power supply, the ATX-SFX adapter bracket that came bundled with the power supply had to be utilized. While this would typically be OK, this bracket centers the SFX power supply in the ATX mounting, which loses some of the advantage of the narrow width of the SFX power supply.

 

http://imgur.com/iAPbrBN.jpg[/img]

 

Fortunately, I had some SATA connectors that were lower profile than others, and utilizing those I was able to make it all fit. Note: despite the fact the SFX power supply is basically floating in space, it feels pretty sturdy.

 

http://imgur.com/TGv90sj.jpg[/img]

 

The NEXT problem I ran into (notice a trend here?) was the fact that this new PSU only comes with one cable for SATA power (3 connectors). My tower has six SATA drives. Of course none of the power cables from my old PSU were compatible with the new PSU (Enermax vs. Silverstone) but I did have another Silverstone PSU in my gaming desktop. Unfortunately, that only had one SATA strand too, and it was in use. I couldn't find any Molex - SATA adapters in my spare parts box, so off to Amazon I went once again...

 

http://imgur.com/O8yPdAm.jpg[/img]

 

Behold, the extra expensive Silverstone Molex to four SATA adapter cable, now with fancy red striping.

 

Finally, I could put it all together, enjoy the rest of the photos!

 

http://imgur.com/OA9OOao.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/Rh3l0BQ.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/bMaSjCJ.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/gdw4shF.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/cKV5ZRP.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/WOr0ORi.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/rdQSfZv.jpg[/img]

 

http://imgur.com/iV9iOfP.jpg[/img]

[garycase]

Looks good.  Note that Silverstone sells an after-market SFX -> ATX adapter plate that mounts the SFX unit at the top of the bracket and towards the left edge ... leaving all the free space at the lower end and on the right side of the PSU (which would have given your SATA ports more clearance).

 

I wish they included that version with their PSU's, but they don't -- the included brackets, as you noted, center the PSU both vertically and horizontally.  From your pictures, all is well; but just in case you're interested, here's the other version:

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Universal-Bracket-RL-PP08B/dp/B01BYB33J8

 

This was their original announcement of this newer bracket:  https://smallformfactor.net/news/silverstone-announces-the-pp08-sfx-to-atx-adapter-bracket

 

 

[mr-hexen]

Would 2x 90 deg and 2x 180 deg SATA cables have worked with the original PSU? I think they might have.

[Smitty2k1]

No it was too tight of a fit. I had a couple of 90° SATA cables laying around

[bgrantp]

How is the Silverstone adapter cable holding up? Is it an adapter cable off a molex cable off the PSU? I've been looking at options for molex-sata adapters but they seem poorly regarded as tending to melt or catch fire.

[Smitty2k1]

How is the Silverstone adapter cable holding up? Is it an adapter cable off a molex cable off the PSU? I've been looking at options for molex-sata adapters but they seem poorly regarded as tending to melt or catch fire.

 

It is a Silverstone branded cable designed for this exact use so it has been (and will be) just fine. Most of the problems people on the internet seem to have are with really cheap and generic (no brand) single or double MOLEX -> SATA cables.

 

Everything has been rock solid so far.

[trurl]

How is the Silverstone adapter cable holding up? Is it an adapter cable off a molex cable off the PSU? I've been looking at options for molex-sata adapters but they seem poorly regarded as tending to melt or catch fire.

 

It is a Silverstone branded cable designed for this exact use so it has been (and will be) just fine. Most of the problems people on the internet seem to have are with really cheap and generic (no brand) single or double MOLEX -> SATA cables.

 

Everything has been rock solid so far.

Thanks for this. I just ordered one for each of my systems. Those SFX PSUs don't come with enough SATA connections and I had been using some MOLEX-SATA cables I harvested from an old computer.