Helmonder Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Hi, My current Unraid setup is 6, allmost 7 years old and still performing strong. I experience no performance bottlenecks but looking at the age of the system I feel it is about time to think about replacing some of the components (specifically: motherboard, cpu and possibly ram). My setup has been rock and rock solid from the beginning and my new build needs to be as good. What setup would be advised out of the following standpoints: 1) Stability (this is key to the choice, I do not want to pick components that have not thoroughly proven themselves; 2) Performance (but only looked against what I am using the system for, see below, I have been using these components for several years and I do not see that changing a lot, I will not start doing 3 gamers, 1 machine like stuff 3) Power consumption 4) Money. The unraid system is such an important part of my setup, and I am convinced I will use it for many years more. I will pay extra for power consumption, even if that extra money spent does not get back in the running costs. At the moment I am running: Supermicro - X9SCL/X9SCM Intel® Xeon® CPU E31230 @ 3.20GHz 32 GB Single-bit ECC M1015 type SATA controllers What am I using it for: File server (the array is 55 TB of which 76% is used) Some base plugins, nothing special Dockers for: Couchpotato, CrashplanPRO, Deluge, MYSQL, Plex, SAbnzbd, Sickrage, Spotweb, Syncthing, Transmission Any tips are appreciated ! Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 IMO good upgrade both in performance and power consumption would be for example: X11SSL-F/X11SSM-F Xeon E3-12xx v5 or v6 DDR4 ECC RAM Not as proven as they are very new, though they be as stable as the previous X11 series, you could also get the new Xeon E combo: X11SCZ-F Xeon E Quote Link to comment
whipdancer Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 (edited) I'm pleased with my upgrade that is about 2 weeks old. Since I updated the motherboard bios, it has been rock solid for all the tests I've thrown at it. Multiple (4) simultaneous preclears, a parity rebuild, 3 plex streams, and a large backlog of post processing in nzbget. No issues (i couldn't begin to do all that at the same time with my prior CPU/mb/ram setup, without experiencing significant lag In everything. Edited October 13, 2018 by whipdancer Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 (edited) Thanks.. Working on this: CPU I am looking at an Intel Xeon E3-1230V6, this gets a Passmark of 9947, this opposite of mu current V1 which has a Passmark of 7848. That is a 25% speed increase. At the same time the TDP decreases to 72Watt opposite 80Watt of my current Xeon. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1230+v6+%40+3.50GHz&id=3032 EUR 271,45 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1230+%40+3.20GHz&id=1199 So that seems to fit. MOTHERBOARD The following Supermicro board that was suggested has 8 SATA connectors on board, the more the better since it will save me the expansion cards and the power they consume. https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm I am not clear if it has an M2 slot, does not look like it. Would like that for the cache and application drives. An other option could be the X11SSH-LN4F. Product data shows it has 8 SATA ports and an M2 port (x2): https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSH-LN4F.cfm EUR 232,45 Anyone any experience with this one ? DRIVES At the moment I have 15 disks in the system, 4 of them are 256GB SSD drives, I will plan to exchange those for 1 bigger SSD, the following one looks good: Corsair Force 960GB. It is not the quickest drive but a lot faster then SATA in any case, it also has an x2 slot as is what the SuperMicro board has, so that seems to fit: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Storage/M-2-SSDs/Force-Series-MP300/p/CSSD-F960GBMP300 EUR 248,89 When calculating for my system this would mean that I use the 960GB M2 as my cache drive, this means instead of 15 SATA drives in the system I have 11. Of those 11 I can service 8 thru the onboard SATA connectors (8). Leaving me with 3 left, that can be serviced thru 1 (instead of 2) of the M1015's (saving power). I also still have 1 3TB and 1 4TB drive in the system, I am planning to replace those 2 with 1 8TB WDRED, that brings down the number of drives again (to 10, saving power) https://www.wdc.com/nl-nl/products/internal-storage/wd-red.html#WD10EFRX EUR 248,85 At the moment I have 4 5in3 drives cages in my system, I could actually turn off two of those (including fans) saving again a bit more (would have to check if that really makes a difference irl). MEMORY At the moment I have 32GB of memory, that shows no signs at all of filling up, so I do not need to upgrade that to 64. The board has 4 DIMM slots, to make future upgrade possible I would like to upgrade to 2x16GB DIMM. Available seems to be the following, https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Certified-MEM-DR416L-SL01-ER21-Samsung-Memory/dp/B00MDZL2B6 EUR 125 (of which I would need two) That would make my shoppinglist: Intel Xeon E3-1230V6 EUR 271,45 SuperMicro S11SSH-LN4F EUR 232,45 Corsair 960GB M2SSD EUR 248,89 WD RED 8TB EUR 248,85 2*16GB DRAM EUR 250 TOTAL EUR 1251.64 Probably a good idea to also exchange the PSU. Thinking of a Corsair RM750x for its price, zero RPM fan mode, modular cabling. This would ADD EUR 100. Any comments or better ideas how to spend this amount of money on something "better" ? Added question: The board has a VGA for video out, although that is sufficient for a console I would like to utilize my KVM switch, this needs an hdmi port. What would be the cheapest gpu that gives me a hdmi port that would work with this board ? Edited October 14, 2018 by Helmonder Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 21 minutes ago, Helmonder said: An other option could be the X11SSH-LN4F. Product data shows it has 8 SATA ports and an M2 port (x2): IMO Unless you need the extra NICs it's not a good option, not as flexible, M.2 slot is limited to x2 and you lose a PCI x4 slot compared to the X11SSM-F, just get the latter and buy a cheap PCIe to M.2 like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38 Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 (edited) Thanks Johny ! That is a good point and I certainly do not need the extra NICs, that would mean: CPU I am looking at an Intel Xeon E3-1230V6, this gets a Passmark of 9947, this opposite of mu current V1 which has a Passmark of 7848. That is a 25% speed increase. At the same time the TDP decreases to 72Watt opposite 80Watt of my current Xeon. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1230+v6+%40+3.50GHz&id=3032 EUR 271,45 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1230+%40+3.20GHz&id=1199 So that seems to fit. MOTHERBOARD The following Supermicro board that was suggested has 8 SATA connectors on board, the more the better since it will save me the expansion cards and the power they consume. https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm EUR 210 I will need to add a PCI to M2 adaptor to accomodate the needed M2 drive: https://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38 EUR 20 DRIVES At the moment I have 15 disks in the system, 4 of them are 256GB SSD drives, I will plan to exchange those for 1 bigger SSD, the following one looks good: Corsair Force 960GB. It is not the quickest drive but a lot faster then SATA in any case, it also has an x2 slot as is what the SuperMicro board has, so that seems to fit: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Storage/M-2-SSDs/Force-Series-MP300/p/CSSD-F960GBMP300 EUR 248,89 When calculating for my system this would mean that I use the 960GB M2 as my cache drive, this means instead of 15 SATA drives in the system I have 11. Of those 11 I can service 8 thru the onboard SATA connectors (8). Leaving me with 3 left, that can be serviced thru 1 (instead of 2) of the M1015's (saving power). I also still have 1 3TB and 1 4TB drive in the system, I am planning to replace those 2 with 1 8TB WDRED, that brings down the number of drives again (to 10, saving power) https://www.wdc.com/nl-nl/products/internal-storage/wd-red.html#WD10EFRX EUR 248,85 At the moment I have 4 5in3 drives cages in my system, I could actually turn off two of those (including fans) saving again a bit more (would have to check if that really makes a difference irl). MEMORY At the moment I have 32GB of memory, that shows no signs at all of filling up, so I do not need to upgrade that to 64. The board has 4 DIMM slots, to make future upgrade possible I would like to upgrade to 2x16GB DIMM. Available seems to be the following, https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Certified-MEM-DR416L-SL01-ER21-Samsung-Memory/dp/B00MDZL2B6 EUR 125 (of which I would need two) That would make my shoppinglist: Intel Xeon E3-1230V6 EUR 271,45 SuperMicro X11SSM-F EUR 210,00 PCI to M2 Adapter EUR 20,00 Corsair 960GB M2SSD EUR 248,89 WD RED 8TB EUR 248,85 2*16GB DRAM EUR 250 TOTAL EUR 1249,19 Probably a good idea to also exchange the PSU. Thinking of a Corsair RM750x for its price, zero RPM fan mode, modular cabling. This would ADD EUR 100. Any comments or better ideas how to spend this amount of money on something "better" ? Added question: The board has a VGA for video out, although that is sufficient for a console I would like to utilize my KVM switch, this needs an hdmi port. What would be the cheapest gpu that gives me a hdmi port that would work with this board ? Edited October 14, 2018 by Helmonder Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 6 minutes ago, Helmonder said: https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Certified-MEM-DR416L-SL01-ER21-Samsung-Memory/dp/B00MDZL2B6 EUR 125 That is registered ECC and it's won't work, you need unbuffered ECC e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-ValueRAM-KVR24E17D8-16/dp/B01FM3GBC0 9 minutes ago, Helmonder said: The board has a VGA for video out, although that is sufficient for a console I would like to utilize my KVM switch, this needs an hdmi port. What would be the cheapest gpu that gives me a hdmi port that would work with this board ? Any GPU should work, but the board has IPMI so don't see the need for a KVM Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Yes correct, that was the memory for the other board.. Supermicro has certified: MEM-DR416L-SL01-EU24 by Samsung (for example) https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Certified-MEM-DR416L-SL01-ER21-Samsung-Memory/dp/B00MDZL2B6 EUR 125 So costs would stay the same. I know about the IPMI but for some reason I have issues using it and find the KVM switch (that I allready have) handier. I would go for the Sapphire HD 6450, it costs EUR 40 and (important) is passively cooled: It has a PCI-E 2.0 x 16 connection, would that fit on the board, it has: 1 PCI-E 3.0 x8 (in x16), 1 PCI-E 3.0 x8, 2 PCI-E 3.0 x4 (in x8) I would need to fit both the M2 adaptor and the GPU on these slots, as well as the M1015 card. That would leave me one slot, giving me the option to add-in the second M1015 if I need to in the future. That would make my shoppinglist: Intel Xeon E3-1230V6 EUR 271,45 SuperMicro X11SSM-F EUR 210,00 PCI to M2 Adapter EUR 20,00 Corsair 960GB M2SSD EUR 248,89 WD RED 8TB EUR 248,85 2*MEM-DR416L-SL01-EU24 EUR 250,00 Sapphire HD 6450 EUR 39,15 TOTAL EUR 1288,34 Probably a good idea to also exchange the PSU. Thinking of a Corsair RM750x for its price, zero RPM fan mode, modular cabling. This would ADD EUR 100. Any comments or better ideas how to spend this amount of money on something "better" ? Quote Link to comment
uldise Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 (edited) if you plan in future add more PCIe NVME SSDs, there are adapters who can hold up to 4 NVMe SSDs - you plug it to 16x slot and then divide this slot to 4 x4 "slots" - this feature is called PCIe bifurcation, i just hope your board support that. as for adapter model, this for example: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-hyper-quad-nvme-raid,35359.html or this https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SLG3-2M2.cfm but, it will not be that cheep as adapter for single NVME, about 50EUR for SM one.. Edit: corrected with 2x adapter only, X11SSM-F have only x8 slot elictrically Edited October 14, 2018 by uldise Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 16 minutes ago, uldise said: this feature is called PCIe bifurcation, i just hope your board support that. It does, but only two devices since there are no x16 slots, only x8. Quote Link to comment
uldise Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 49 minutes ago, johnnie.black said: It does, but only two devices since there are no x16 slots, only x8. thanks for a tip, corrected my post above. Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 Stuff is getting here slowly.. I should have everything in, in a month or so... Since I will be reshuffeling some drives also I will have a need for less SATA connectors external to the motherboards, I have therefor decided to move away from the Dell Perc H200 and move to a very simple 4 port SATA expansion card: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Marvell-88SE9230-SATA-PCI-Express-4-Poorten-Uitbreidingskaart-SATA-Controller-PCI-E-Raid-Card-PCI-E/32952868382.html?albbt=Google_7_shopping&isdl=y&slnk=&albslr=117547464&src=google&acnt=494-037-6276&aff_platform=google&crea=nl32952868382&netw=u&plac=&albcp=1626925412&mtctp=&aff_short_key=UneMJZVf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvY3UnJXH3wIVDuh3Ch0v3gkwEAQYASABEgKpsfD_BwE&albag=63599479084&albch=shopping&trgt=296904914040&device=c&gclsrc=aw.ds It has a Marvell 88SE9230 chipset which should work out of the box with Unraid 6. The card will actually at first only be used for -1- drive, probably will help a bit in driving the wattage down. At the moment I have 11 SATA drives and 4 SSD's (in a btrfs cachebundle) In the new setup I will have 9 SATA drives and 1 M2 SSD. Should also help. New PSU, GPU, Pci/M2 adapter and cooler are allready here, M2 should be here monday. I will then move to use the M2 in the current system, that make it a 1-to-1 stop to the new system when it is complete. Will also make it possible to move some drives to the MB instead of the Perl H200, I have seen some read errors lately, will be a good chance to see if these are adapter related or drive related. Quote Link to comment
JonathanM Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 6 hours ago, Helmonder said: It has a Marvell 88SE9230 chipset which should work out of the box with Unraid 6. Google unraid marvell and see what the majority of people have to say about that. Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 What do you mean ? I did google it and found a reference stating that it would work out of the box without issues ? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 There are issues with virtualization (vt-d) and they also have a tendency to drop disks, so not recommended in general, though they do work OK for some. Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted March 3, 2019 Author Share Posted March 3, 2019 Have everything in but for the processor.. Was having another look. Would there be a good reason to not go for an i7-8700k instead of the i3 1230v6 ? https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E3-1230-v6-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8700K/m268848vs3937 Its 50 euro more expensive but a lot faster and also with a lower tdp.. Ah damn.... just saw... no ecc supported ... Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted March 3, 2019 Author Share Posted March 3, 2019 (edited) On 10/14/2018 at 2:38 PM, Helmonder said: 1230v6 besteld ! Edited March 3, 2019 by Helmonder Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted March 22, 2019 Author Share Posted March 22, 2019 Upgrade fully completed ! The 4 port SATA expension card refused to work in Unraid so I switched back in one of my Dell PERC H200 PCI-e. Also the system refused to boot and after an hour of trying I tried another USB stick.. This worked... So I copied over the contents of my old usb stick to the new one and used that. The key swapping system worked immediately so no down time. System is performing fine, running a bit cooler. Quote Link to comment
Helmonder Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 Time for the second stage.. At the moment I have 11 drives (ex. cache) in the system. My two parity drives are allmost 3 years old and I am going to replace them (no errors at all, but I like to keep on top). I just ordered 2 WD RED 10TB drives, after a thorough preclear I will move them towards replacing the current parity drives (which are 8TB) My disk number 6, 7 and 8 are 5 1/2, 4 and 4 and years old, they are 4, 6 and 3 TB (so 13 TB in total), I will fully retire them and replace them with the 2 8TB drives comming out of the parity pool. I will be moving all data to 10TB drives during the remainder of the year, something like a disk per month, these things are expensive.. Quote Link to comment
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