I was hoping you guys could help me with my build. I am mostly a Mac guy so not used to all the configurations and options, looking for some help.

 

I have about $800-1k to spend. I do not have a rack, and am ok to have a sizable tower, I just need the machine to be as quiet as possible. Super quiet. After speed, this is my big concern.

 

The goal is to have a pretty beastly Plex server with the ability to stream 4-6 transcoded streams... so I guess around 10-12k passmark? I do not game, so do not care about graphics. I would also like to be able to run a few VM's for other services and to generally mess around. I will be getting some form of SSD for caching regardless.

 

Currently, I am looking at this build and was hoping you guys could critique and let me know any changes you would make...again quiet is key...

 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black Silent ATX Midtower http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352048&ignorebbr=1

 

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182821&cm_re=SUPERMICRO_MBD-X10SL7-F-O_Micro_ATX_Server_Motherboard_LGA_1150_Intel_C222_DDR3_1600-_-13-182-821-_-Product

 

Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3 Haswell 3.5GHz 8MB L3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117318&cm_re=Intel_Xeon_E3-1246_v3_Haswell_3.5GHz_8MB_L3_Cache_LGA_1150_84W_Server_Processor-_-19-117-318-_-Product

 

RAM: 2x Kingston 1600MHz Reg ECC Module 16 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA73M4UV6916&ignorebbr=1

 

2x - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148770&ignorebbr=1

 

Power Supply: be quiet! DARK POWER PRO 11 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA68V39G8679&ignorebbr=1

 

Thank you in advance for all the help, really excited to get this project off the ground, I just don't know where to start.

 

 

Just noticed the rules for new build posts..

 

Budget = $800-1k (not including drives)

 

Drives = Will start with 3x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912&ignorebbr=1 and plan to add some older 2TB drives down the line... total will be 6x pool, 1x parity, 1x ssd for cache

 

Expandability = Is somewhat important, but i feel like I would increase drive size at first. Maybe down the line increase preformance, but not for a while.

 

Drive Speed = not sure on this one...I assume low power is fine for my needs.

 

Spare Parts = some drives from an old Drobo

The RAM listed doesn't work with that motherboard. I'd recommend picking a specific part number off of Supermicro's approved RAM list for that board.

 

You don't list any drives, are they supposed to be part of your budget? You can easily spend $1K on drives alone, obviously depending on desired initial and max capacity with a given number of populated drive slots. The higher the drive count, the noisier the build. The lower the drive count for a given capacity, the more expensive. We need a desired initial and max capacity to make recommendations.

 

That board easily supports 1 VM at a time with full hardware passthrough, and a fair number (4+) of headless VM's at the same time depending on RAM usage. If you want multiple simultaneous hardware passthrough VM's, you will need to step up to the next class of Xeons, which have better ACS support, and typically use registered RAM like you listed. You didn't specify whether you wanted local console VM's, or all headless remote access, or a mix.

 

 

Thanks jonathanm,

 

Got it on the RAM. I will adjust that.

 

Drives are not part of the build budget..currently looking at 3x 4tb deckstar (~$500)

 

The entire server will be headless..so 4+ VM's would be perfect.

 

Thank you. Any thoughts on noise?

If you are serious about 4-6 simultaneous transcoded streams plus several VMs you should look at the E5's.  Don't forget that unRAID needs 1,000-2,000 Passmarks for itself in addition to ~2,000 per 1080p stream, plus whatever you want to allocate to your VMs.

If you are serious about 4-6 simultaneous transcoded streams plus several VMs you should look at the E5's.  Don't forget that unRAID needs 1,000-2,000 Passmarks for itself in addition to ~2,000 per 1080p stream, plus whatever you want to allocate to your VMs.

 

Gotcha. The passmark score of ~10k should be ok. I think 3-4 streams for be the norm, anything above that would be rare.

 

So many options, this first attempt at a build was mostly a shot in the dark with some initial research.

If you are serious about 4-6 simultaneous transcoded streams plus several VMs you should look at the E5's.  Don't forget that unRAID needs 1,000-2,000 Passmarks for itself in addition to ~2,000 per 1080p stream, plus whatever you want to allocate to your VMs.

 

Gotcha. The passmark score of ~10k should be ok. I think 3-4 streams for be the norm, anything above that would be rare.

 

So many options, this first attempt at a build was mostly a shot in the dark with some initial research.

 

What tdallen is saying is that if you're running several VMs, you won't have 10k of passmark to work with.  The cpu's overall passmark score is simply the addition of each of the individual cores' passmark scores, so even if all 4 of your VMs are only allocated 1 cpu core each, you'd only be left with half of those 10000 passmarks.  unRAID needs some computing power, and let's be aggressive and say it only needs 1000.  Even then, you're looking at 1000 (unRAID) + 5000 (each of your 4 VMs allocated a single core, taking half your computing power) + 8000 (4 simultaneous transcoding streams) = 14000.

 

Granted, that is only if all 4 VMs were actually being used, so it's a "worst case cpu cycle scenario", but still, I agree with tdallen that your CPU needs to be beefier for your requirements.  I have that EXACT Xeon in my machine, and it's awesome, but I don't think it could handle what you're wanting to throw at it.  Another thing to consider, is what if you want to make some, or all, of those VMs dual core?  Then you're REALLY running thin.

Oh and I can definitely vouch for the R5 case.  I have the R4, which is almost identical, and with 4 140mm Fractal fans in it, it's all but silent.  I had to put more fans in it when I added a GPU, which made it slightly more audible, but that shouldn't be a problem with you since you said you have no interest in GPU passthrough.  Great case.

If you are serious about 4-6 simultaneous transcoded streams plus several VMs you should look at the E5's.  Don't forget that unRAID needs 1,000-2,000 Passmarks for itself in addition to ~2,000 per 1080p stream, plus whatever you want to allocate to your VMs.

 

Gotcha. The passmark score of ~10k should be ok. I think 3-4 streams for be the norm, anything above that would be rare.

 

So many options, this first attempt at a build was mostly a shot in the dark with some initial research.

 

What tdallen is saying is that if you're running several VMs, you won't have 10k of passmark to work with.  The cpu's overall passmark score is simply the addition of each of the individual cores' passmark scores, so even if all 4 of your VMs are only allocated 1 cpu core each, you'd only be left with half of those 10000 passmarks.  unRAID needs some computing power, and let's be aggressive and say it only needs 1000.  Even then, you're looking at 1000 (unRAID) + 5000 (each of your 4 VMs allocated a single core, taking half your computing power) + 8000 (4 simultaneous transcoding streams) = 14000.

 

Granted, that is only if all 4 VMs were actually being used, so it's a "worst case cpu cycle scenario", but still, I agree with tdallen that your CPU needs to be beefier for your requirements.  I have that EXACT Xeon in my machine, and it's awesome, but I don't think it could handle what you're wanting to throw at it.  Another thing to consider, is what if you want to make some, or all, of those VMs dual core?  Then you're REALLY running thin.

 

 

Thanks De1taE1even, I see what you mean. I think my initial requirements were a worst case situation and based on what you described, I would be happy with the performance of the Xeon. I doubt I would have more than 2 VM's running at any time, the VM's are mostly for me to experiment with.

 

So, I went ahead with my order last night. I am very excited to get started. I did have two other questions is anyone could possibly advice..

 

1. With the supermicro board, I believe I will have to flash the LSI onboard card to IT mode? Can someone confirm this? I looked into some other threads but they were older so I just want to confirm. Also, if someone has an updated how-to I would be very appreciative.

 

2. In terms of my goal of super quiet, do you think the included heatsink is enough CPU cooling? If not, could someone make a recommendation.

 

Honestly, thank you all. I am pumped!

 

1. With the supermicro board, I believe I will have to flash the LSI onboard card to IT mode? Can someone confirm this? I looked into some other threads but they were older so I just want to confirm. Also, if someone has an updated how-to I would be very appreciative.

 

2. In terms of my goal of super quiet, do you think the included heatsink is enough CPU cooling? If not, could someone make a recommendation.

I have that board, didn't flash it, been using it this way for over a year with no issues I've noticed. I am using all the ports, 14 drives attached. YMMV, I've seen others say you have to flash it. I tried it without flashing and it worked. <shrug>

 

The included heatsink should be fine performance wise, may not be the quietest option, I've never cared about noise since it's in a server room away from the living area.

1. With the supermicro board, I believe I will have to flash the LSI onboard card to IT mode? Can someone confirm this? I looked into some other threads but they were older so I just want to confirm. Also, if someone has an updated how-to I would be very appreciative.

 

2. In terms of my goal of super quiet, do you think the included heatsink is enough CPU cooling? If not, could someone make a recommendation.

I have that board, didn't flash it, been using it this way for over a year with no issues I've noticed. I am using all the ports, 14 drives attached. YMMV, I've seen others say you have to flash it. I tried it without flashing and it worked. <shrug>

 

The included heatsink should be fine performance wise, may not be the quietest option, I've never cared about noise since it's in a server room away from the living area.

 

 

Awesome. Thank you!

 

If you did want to get a quieter cooler, do you have any recommendations that would be quiet and work with my set up?

Btw, with regards to the flashing controller bit, here are the relevant portions from my syslog referencing what version of things my system has.

DMI: Supermicro X10SL7-F/X10SL7-F, BIOS 2.00 04/24/2014
smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1271 v3 @ 3.60GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0x3c, stepping: 0x3)
mpt2sas_cm0: LSISAS2308: FWVersion(15.00.00.00), ChipRevision(0x05), BiosVersion(07.29.00.00)
mpt2sas_cm0: Protocol=(
kernel: Initiator), 
kernel: Capabilities=(Raid
kernel: ,TLR,EEDP
kernel: ,Snapshot Buffer,Diag Trace Buffer
kernel: ,Task Set Full,NCQ
kernel: )
kernel: scsi host1: Fusion MPT SAS Host
kernel: mpt2sas_cm0: sending port enable !!

If yours is different, I can't vouch for how it will work.

 

No clue on noise level comparison for CPU coolers, my advice would be to build it with what comes stock, and see if it meets your expectations. The stock coolers are very quiet at lower RPM's, so you may not even know it's running until you really load up the CPU.

2. In terms of my goal of super quiet, do you think the included heatsink is enough CPU cooling? If not, could someone make a recommendation.

 

Should be fine.  I used the stock cpu cooler on my 1246 for a while, and even under stress, I never heard it.  I say try the stock cooler, and if it seems too loud, then buy an alternative.  I upgraded my cooler to a Noctua NH-U12S for lower temps (adding a GTX1070 upped the temps more than I wanted), and it's practically silent, even when the fan is at 100%.

Btw, with regards to the flashing controller bit, here are the relevant portions from my syslog referencing what version of things my system has.

DMI: Supermicro X10SL7-F/X10SL7-F, BIOS 2.00 04/24/2014
smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1271 v3 @ 3.60GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0x3c, stepping: 0x3)
mpt2sas_cm0: LSISAS2308: FWVersion(15.00.00.00), ChipRevision(0x05), BiosVersion(07.29.00.00)
mpt2sas_cm0: Protocol=(
kernel: Initiator), 
kernel: Capabilities=(Raid
kernel: ,TLR,EEDP
kernel: ,Snapshot Buffer,Diag Trace Buffer
kernel: ,Task Set Full,NCQ
kernel: )
kernel: scsi host1: Fusion MPT SAS Host
kernel: mpt2sas_cm0: sending port enable !!

If yours is different, I can't vouch for how it will work.

 

No clue on noise level comparison for CPU coolers, my advice would be to build it with what comes stock, and see if it meets your expectations. The stock coolers are very quiet at lower RPM's, so you may not even know it's running until you really load up the CPU.

 

Perfect. Everything is coming on Tuesday, so I will keep this thread updated. Really appreciate the help.

 

Happy Holidays.

 

2. In terms of my goal of super quiet, do you think the included heatsink is enough CPU cooling? If not, could someone make a recommendation.

 

Should be fine.  I used the stock cpu cooler on my 1246 for a while, and even under stress, I never heard it.  I say try the stock cooler, and if it seems too loud, then buy an alternative.  I upgraded my cooler to a Noctua NH-U12S for lower temps (adding a GTX1070 upped the temps more than I wanted), and it's practically silent, even when the fan is at 100%.

 

Thanks for the rec. I went ahead and ordered the Noctua.. I have some Amazon credit anyways.

 

Can't wait to get started!

Awesome man, have fun! Let us know how it goes.

So I'm actually doing the same thing bpage is (and I know him—and live down the street from him).

 

Wondering if this rig would work well with unRAID: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/charlestephen/saved/GyjnQ7

 

Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2

Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE II ATX LGA2011-3

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor

RAM: 4x Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB DDR4-2133 Memory — 32GB total

Storage: 4x WD Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache; 2x Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache; 2x WD Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" SATA Gb/s 16MB Cache

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Video Card: AMD FirePro W2100 2GB Video Card

 

I'm moving about 7TB of data from my Mac Mini/Pegasus RAID and will be running Plex and related apps like bpage (hey Brian!)