Motherboard for Xeon E3 v6


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Hi everyone.

 

Looking for advice on a motherboard for a Xeon E3-1245v6. Already have the CPU and 2x16gb ddr4 udimm sticks, and I think I have the final motherboard choices, but I'm having trouble deciding.

 

My needs are, minimum of 6 Sata connections for 4-5 HDD and 2 SSD, low power consumption, sleep function ( I want to have the server sleep during the night), low noise so the option to set up my own fan speeds is valued.

And 3 fan headers might be useful for an extra HDD fan with independent control (1xcpu, 1xchassis and 1xhdd).

The server will be used mainly as a file server, media server for Plex and maybe some Dockers. 

I have no need of features like IPMI, I can live without it.

No Gpu will be used and I'm even planning to disable some functions to try and save some power, electricity prices are pretty high in Europe, and low iddle power consumption and sleep functions are a must, hopefully the Xeon E3 v6 iddle power won't be to bad on idle.

 

My choices:

 

ASRock C236 WSI (208,78€)

 

Pros:

- Proven board, I see a lot of good things about it.

- 8 x Sata

- S3 sleep support

- Wake on Lan

- Hardware virtualization support

- Configurable fan speed from bios

 

Cons:

- only 2 fan headers

- might need bios update to support the CPU

- maybe the newer c24x chips have better power consumption

- no USB 3.1

- slightly more expensive

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Asus P11C-I (176,14€)

 

Pros:

- Newer C242 chip

- 6 x Sata

- Power on by RTC (scheduled power on) 

- mini SAS connector (less cables)

- 3 fan headers

- Configurable fan speed from bios

- USB 3.1

- slightly cheaper

 

Cons:

- no Wake on Lan mention on manual

- no S3 sleep mention on manual

- 6 Sata opposed to 8 on the ASRock board

- no hardware virtualization (only CPU)

- c242 chip has limited options compared to c246

 

Am I missing a better alternative than this two?

Anyone has experience with the Asus motherboard?

Any thoughts? Thanks for the help.

 

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1 hour ago, johnnie.black said:

Doesn't support Xeon E3 V5/V6, only Xeon E (coffee lake)

Oh....how did I miss the most important difference between the 2.

Ok, I'll sit in the corner and face the wall for the rest of the classes duration.... 😅

I guess this makes it easy to chose between the two.

1 hour ago, johnnie.black said:

Doesn't support Xeon E3 V5/V6, only Xeon E (coffee lake)

 

Do you require ITX? I'm partial to Supermicro.

Yes, ITX is a must for me. I don't remember seeing any c23x board from Supermicro in ITX form.

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3 hours ago, l3gion said:

ASRock C236 WSI (208,78€)

I have had this board in my main server for 2 years.  I doubt you will have BIOS issues with the E3-1245 V6.  I have the E3-1245 V5 in my server but the last three BIOS releases have supported the V6.  If for some reason you do happen to get a board with an older BIOS, ASRock will send you a BIOS chip flashed with the latest BIOS.

 

Yes, the board only has two fan headers (1 CPU, 1 chassis), but, I put two drive cage fans on the the single chassis fan header with the Y-cable included with the noctua fans.  They are controlled by the Autofan unRAID plugin and the speed fluctuates without issue with drive temperatures.

 

I don't sleep my server as it runs 24x7 but I did test it with the S3 sleep plugin and wake-on-LAN and it seemed to work.

 

The 8 SATA ports are nice and I do run a few VMs as test beds, all without issues.

 

This board will certainly work for your purposes if you do not find another option you prefer.

 

The only SuperMicro Mini-ITX board with a C236 chipset that I could find is the X11SSV-M4F but it uses SODIMM RAM, has only 4 SATA ports, has IPMI and comes with a Xeon E3-1585 V5 processor.

Edited by Hoopster
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13 hours ago, l3gion said:

Oh....how did I miss the most important difference between the 2.

Ok, I'll sit in the corner and face the wall for the rest of the classes duration.... 😅

I mostly blame Intel for that, they should've released a new socket, as they usually do when they want to artificially break compatibility.

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13 hours ago, Hoopster said:

I have had this board in my main server for 2 years.  I doubt you will have BIOS issues with the E3-1245 V6.  I have the E3-1245 V5 in my server but the last three BIOS releases have supported the V6.  If for some reason you do happen to get a board with an older BIOS, ASRock will send you a BIOS chip flashed with the latest BIOS.

 

Yes, the board only has two fan headers (1 CPU, 1 chassis), but, I put two drive cage fans on the the single chassis fan header with the Y-cable included with the noctua fans.  They are controlled by the Autofan unRAID plugin and the speed fluctuates without issue with drive temperatures.

 

I don't sleep my server as it runs 24x7 but I did test it with the S3 sleep plugin and wake-on-LAN and it seemed to work.

 

The 8 SATA ports are nice and I do run a few VMs as test beds, all without issues.

 

This board will certainly work for your purposes if you do not find another option you prefer.

 

The only SuperMicro Mini-ITX board with a C236 chipset that I could find is the X11SSV-M4F but it uses SODIMM RAM, has only 4 SATA ports, has IPMI and comes with a Xeon E3-1585 V5 processor.

Thanks for the reply Hoopster, very nice to know it's working for you.

Mind if I ask you something, this might have been due to the older hardware, but in my previous build the sleep function seemed to be broken, as putting the server to sleep didn't seem to do anything, the HDD stopped but all the fans stayed on. Was a Xeon 2680 v2 with Supermicro board. 

In sleep the server is supposed to stop completely, saving to ram and suspending, correct? 

And one more question, since you have a very similar system, you know what's your idle power consumption?

 

Thanks.

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20 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

I mostly blame Intel for that, they should've released a new socket, as they usually do when they want to artificially break compatibility.

True, I looked at the socket name and assumed it was compatible.

Now looking at the CPU compatibility list, I see that only the new Xeon-E are there.

 

Thanks.

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6 hours ago, l3gion said:

in my previous build the sleep function seemed to be broken, as putting the server to sleep didn't seem to do anything, the HDD stopped but all the fans stayed on. Was a Xeon 2680 v2 with Supermicro board. 

In sleep the server is supposed to stop completely, saving to ram and suspending, correct? 

And one more question, since you have a very similar system, you know what's your idle power consumption?

I have a Kill-A-Watt to which I plugged in my server.  At idle, it consumes 29.6 watts.  Rounding up to 30 produces a monthly cost for me of about $2.20 as my electricity costs average only about $0.10 per kilowatt hour.  That's one reason I don't mind it running 24x7.  Another reason is that I have backup and other scripts that run at night.  I imagine your cost is a bit higher 😀

 

I have to backtrack a bit on the sleep statement.  I have had three different motherboards in my main server; the first two (a Biostar and a Gigabyte board) worked great with S3 sleep.  The first C236 WSI board I received from ASRock had three bent socket pins and no video was produced from the E3-1245 V5.  I was able to straighten the pins and fix that problem, but, later on, when I tried S3 sleep on the same board, it would not wake up; it was dead, nothing but fans worked.  ASRock even sent me a new BIOS chip which did not resolve the problem.  Eventually they sent me a new motherboard which I have had for over 18 months with zero issues; however, I have never attempted to put the system to sleep for the reasons explained above.

 

The motherboard in my backup server has IPMI which is great to power on and off the server as needed for backup purposes.  My initial runs with the script used S3 sleep and WOL and this board (also from ASRock) had no sleep/wake problems.

 

Frankly, I think the C236 WSI probably does support sleep/wake but I had a problematic board at first and have had no desire or need to sleep/wake the replacement.

 

Perhaps you should check with ASRock to verify support for S3 sleep/WOL with the C236 WSI.

Edited by Hoopster
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1 hour ago, Hoopster said:

I have a Kill-A-Watt to which I plugged in my server.  At idle, it consumes 29.6 watts.  Rounding up to 30 produces a monthly cost for me of about $2.20 as my electricity costs average only about $0.10 per kilowatt hour.  That's one reason I don't mind it running 24x7.  Another reason is that I have backup and other scripts that run at night.  I imagine your cost is a bit higher 😀

 

I have to backtrack a bit on the sleep statement.  I have had three different motherboards in my main server; the first two (a Biostar and a Gigabyte board) worked great with S3 sleep.  The first C236 WSI board I received from ASRock had three bent socket pins and no video was produced from the E3-1245 V5.  I was able to straighten the pins and fix that problem, but, later on, when I tried S3 sleep on the same board, it would not wake up.  ASRock even sent me a new BIOS chip which did not resolve the problem.  Eventually they sent me a new motherboard which I have had for over 18 months with zero issues; however, I have never attempted to put the system to sleep for the reasons explained above.

 

The motherboard in my backup server had IPMI which is great to power on and off the server as needed for backup purposes.  My initial runs with the script used S3 sleep and WOL and this board (also from ASRock) had no sleep/wake problems.

 

Frankly, I think the C236 WSI probably does support sleep/wake but I had a problematic board at first and have had no desire or need to sleep/wake the replacement.

 

Perhaps you should check with ASRock to verify support for S3 sleep/WOL with the C236 WSI.

Thanks very helpful, thanks.

 

That 30 watt idle is with how many HDDs? And are the drive spinning?

You mind me asking also how many fans and if you have a gpu? 

I guess CPU wise from the v5 to the v6 the idle power consumption must be the same.

Energy costs for me is 0.3€ per kilowatt hour, so triple the cost 😤😤

 

I checked the manual, pretty much read the whole thing, and S3 sleep and WOL are supported. So it should be ok.

But when you tried it, the fans and HDD all stopped correct?

The not coming back from sleep was another issue 😅

 

Thanks 😁

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That 30 watt idle is with how many HDDs? And are the drive spinning?

Four 8TB hard drives; 1 7200 rpm HGST (Parity) and 3 5400 rpm WD Reds for data.  At idle, drives are spun down.

 

You mind me asking also how many fans and if you have a gpu? 

Four fans, one (exhaust) spinning on full, one (intake) with a 7v low-noise adapter, two (drive cages) with speed controlled by drive temp.  At idle, the two fans are only spinning at ~400 rpm.

 

No discrete GPU; I use the iGPU in the E3-1245 for both console and Plex hardware transcoding operations.  I would only need a discrete GPU if passing through to a VM and I am not doing that.

 

But when you tried it, the fans and HDD all stopped correct?

Yes, everything stopped as it should (as it has on every board I have had which supports S3 sleep).  The failure to wake definitely was a problem related to some issue with the MB.

 

I cannot recall the exact number, but, I believe that when the server was up and running it consumed about 70-120 watts during normal operations (depending upon how active the CPU/iGPU and disks were) and 110-115 watts during startup.

 

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2 hours ago, Hoopster said:

Four 8TB hard drives; 1 7200 rpm HGST (Parity) and 3 5400 rpm WD Reds for data.  At idle, drives are spun down.

 

 

Four fans, one (exhaust) spinning on full, one (intake) with a 7v low-noise adapter, two (drive cages) with speed controlled by drive temp.  At idle, the two fans are only spinning at ~400 rpm.

 

No discrete GPU; I use the iGPU in the E3-1245 for both console and Plex hardware transcoding operations.  I would only need a discrete GPU if passing through to a VM and I am not doing that.

 

 

Yes, everything stopped as it should (as it has on every board I have had which supports S3 sleep).  The failure to wake definitely was a problem related to some issue with the MB.

 

I cannot recall the exact number, but, I believe that when the server was up and running it consumed about 70-120 watts during normal operations (depending upon how active the CPU/iGPU and disks were) and 110-115 watts during startup.

 

Thanks for the info 😁 , very helpful.

 

At 30 watt idle I'm looking at 6,6€ a month for 24/7 use.... Europe energy prices suck....

 

Pulling the trigger on the ASRock then 🤩

 

And thanks for all that great info, really nice, thanks @Hoopster and @johnnie.black

 

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