My first new (old) server!


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Hello, 

I just wanted to share my recent build and my experiences while building it. This was quite the ride for me, and even though I'm pretty experienced with building PCs, I had no experience with server grade stuff I ended up with. I've been searching for a NAS solution for quite some time and wanted something that would not break the bank and still be versatile. Having tried unRaid on a regular PC after becoming aware of it watching LinusTechTips, and I was really sold on the concept. And here are some of the stuff I figured I'd use a unRaid box for:

 

- Plex media server

- Backup of my other machines

- MakeMKV/Handbrake for ripping my Blu-ray collection

- Playing with VMs

 

So, after a lot of googling and reading up on this forum etc. I decided upon the following:

 

- I wanted a dual socket motherboard to get up the core count for encoding and VMs

- It had to be ATX to fit in my Define R5

- I settled on the 1366 socket as the cheapest option that was not entirely outdated (DDR3)

- I would need either a motherboard with a lot of SATA ports or an adapter card (the Define R5 has room for 8 drives and 2 SSDs)

 

The first thing I needed to figure out was the mobo/cpu combo and I've always used Intel so that much was clear to me. I quickly realised that Supermicro was quite popular around here, and eventually found a good deal on a package with a Supermicro X8DTL-i, 2x E5645 and 16GB of ECC RAM that seemed to fit the bill perfectly. The Supermicro site provided me with both drivers and a manual which was great!

 

To my horror the board arrived damaged (one corner had almost completely broken off). But the seller was on the up and up and sent me a replacement which worked right away. 

 

Now, this mobo only has 6 SATA ports, so I figured I needed some more. This was entirely new territory for me and I had no idea where to start. Luckily the wiki (link) pointed me in the direction of the LSI cards and since I figured I didn't want to start crossflashing I landed on the 9201-8i figuring it would compliment the mobo just fine (it did). It was only after the fact I realised it does not support TRIM, but I figured I'd only use regular disks on it anyway.

 

The third challenge was to get coolers to fit. And to my delight I found a guide that said the 212 EVOs would mount by using some 10mm M3 standoffs on the server-variant 1366 backplate. It worked like a charm, although it was a tight fit! (the heatpipes are in contact with the RAM sticks).

 

While testing unRaid on a regular PC I used my existing Intel NVMe SSD as a cache, and I wanted to keep using it. The old Supermicro mobo obviously doesn't support it as a boot drive, but I learned that it would be possible to use it as long as the OS has drivers for it. I decided to pick up an inexpensive M.2 to PCIe adapter and it worked right out of the box.

 

And lastly I wanted to mention that while testing the hardware the fans would ramp up even though the CPUs were quite cool. At first I didn't understand it, but then I realised the southbridge was getting really hot! I installed the Dynamix System Temp plugin and it said the Intel 5500 was reaching the high 60s (celcius). I had to place a fan on the side panel to directly target the southbridge chip. I'm not entirely satisfied with this solution and I'm still evaluating what to do to improve it. I took the heatsink of the broken mobo to inspect it and it may have some really old thermal compound on there. It might help to replace it.

 

Anyway, besides the hot southbridge, it works great. I added a Quadro (only viable option i found for a single slot card) and the Windows 10 VM I installed worked perfectly! I haven't done any extensive benchmarking yet, but encoding my blu-rays goes a lot faster than my i3 in the old machine. Here is the final hardware list:

 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5

Mobo: Supermicro X8DTL-i
CPUs: 2x Intel Xeon E5645 6 core/12 thread 80W TDP
Coolers: 2x Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
RAM: 6x Hynix 4GB DDR3 ECC 1333 GHz

PSU: Corsair RM850x

Fans: 2x Corsair ML140 (front intake), 2x Corsair ML120 (side panel intake, rear exhaust)

GPU: Nvidia Quadro K2000 2GB Kepler

Storage controller: LSI SAS 9201-8i HBA

Adapter: NVMe PCI-E M.2 SSD to PCI Express 3.0 X4

Storage: 2x 4TB (1 as parity), 2x 2TB, 2x 750GB
Cache: Intel 600p 256GB NVMe SSD

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Edited by Mex
Edited first paragraph for clarity and some typos
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