Rate my 10/10 "going overboard" build plz!


Unmax

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Hey everyone,

 

So, I’m coming from a Synology NAS 918+ and I’m looking to upgrade to an absolute unit! Like most first NAS builders I’m most likely overcompensating and going way overboard, but I have the money to spend so I should be good, but would like good value for my investment, and I can make use of many second hand options, here in the Netherlands.

 

I will primarily use my build for Plex Media Server, file storage and many other docker containers. Due to having a 500/50 mbit connection I expect to not be needing more than 10 trans codes at a time. I might experiment with VM’s or gaming, but that is a low priority. My reason for Unraid is that I can start with several drives and expand as I go.

 

I will be filling up one of two Cooler Master CM Stacker STC-T01 (Product Sheet PDF) towers, each with 4x 5.25 to 5x 3.5 HDD cages allowing for 20x 3.5 8TB WD Red hardrives.

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

My “draft” build:

Note: I have inserted "Tweakers" links, Tweakers is the Dutch equivalent of PC Part Picker

CPU

Choice: [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 @ 12C/24T (2.5GHz, 3.3GHz) - Passmark: 24190 / STR: 1753 => €300

Why:

[Update] I can get them for fairly cheap, second hand, and they will give me plenty of raw power.

 

MOBO

Choice: Supermicro X10DAi (Bulk pack) => €349

Why:

A dual socket 2011 is around the same price as dual socket 2011-3 here and I like it to be future proof such that I can re-use later. The ddr4 ram requirement isn’t that much more expensive. And it comes with a good initial 10 SATA ports so I can withhold on the SAS card for now.

 

RAM

Choice: Samsung M386A8K40BM2-CTD 64GB DDR4 LRDIMM 2.666Mhz (Tweakers) (kit of 8 sticks => € 307,50 (€ 38,44 each)

Why:

[Update] As required, I need Registered ECC memory and this seems like a good choice.

 

PSU

Choice: Corsair HX850i => € 187,90

Why:

Seems like a good fit, I like the extra functionality although I’m not sure if I can use it in Unraid and if the wattage will be enough for the eventual 20 disks + 4 SSD’s

 

SDD

Choice: Samsung 970 Pro 512GB => € 144,90

Why:

I like the very high IOPS and will use this as storage for the docker configs and Plex meta files.

 

Storage

Choice: WD Red (256MB cache), 8TB => € 240,90

Why:

[Update] Bigger is better, also from a price point so I will stick with the WD Red series and look for good deals focusing on the higher capacity drives.

 

Total:

€ 1,130.70 ($1125,56)

 

  • What is your budget?  
    • To get up and running, € 1500
  • How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
    • Eventually, 20 HDD, each 8TB so 160TB and 5 SSD’s
  • Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?
    • Very important, eventually when I move I will go for a big server rack and hopefully have fiber optics internet but would like to reuse most parts.
  • Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)?  If so, which ones?  Be specific.
    • Very few, maybe, I would like to use docker containers as much as possible.
  • What do you plan to run for hard drives?
    • Plex media storage and personal file storage for family such as pictures/videos.
  • Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build?  This includes drives.
    • Currently have 3x WD Red 8TB in my Synology but will buy 3 more just to transfer everything safely.  
  • If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up.
    • Yes I did this!

 

My questions (so far):

  • Would it be possible to use a 10x sata pci card or is it better to use a SAS card?
    • Might spell trouble, go with a cheap SAS Card.
  • I have a spare Ryzen 7 1700, might that be a better option than dual Intel?

 

Thank you!

 

Edited by Unmax
Corrections
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As you say, somewhat an overkill build.

 

CPU's, if you want gaming then high frequency will be better.

 

My real question is memory, performance will be significantly crippled with just 2 Dimms. The CPU's share memory badly as latency would be really high across a shared bus, Ideally you want each CPU to have it's own memory and 16GB shared between 12 to 24 cores is very stingy.

 

Socket 2011 V3 is Quad channel so for best performance you need 4 Dimms per CPU, for tolerable performace you could live with 2, but 1 DIMM per CPU seems like a real performance killer. I recently bought 4 x 16GB RDIMM 2133 new, brown box in UK for ~ EUR50 per stick so your ram is also expensive. Most of the Xeons are capped at 2133 anyhow so 2400Mhz is mostly moot.

 

Perhaps a single E5-2690 12C 24T 2.6Ghz / 3.5Ghz with 4 x 16GB would be a comprimise. Pass mark 19k hence why I don't see much point in dual CPU in consumer space. In a server farm with optimisation dual CPU makes more sense.

 

For extra SATA use a cheap reflashed LSI SAS card, some random SATA card will only be trouble. 

 

What are you pluging you Samsung M.2 into? no slots on that board so will need a PCI-E adapter. Super fast and high IOPS makes little difference in the consumer space, mostly cache is just that, cache + log files etc. I'm using a standard mirrored pair of SATA SSD's and nothing I run including a few game servers causes them any stress.

 

Drives - if you want to go big, I'd be buying 14TB+ Drives for parity and any new drives, add in the 8TB you have but if going big, why 8TB? Just have to look out for the Amazon etc deals and shuck the drives. 

 

 

 

 

  • Thanks 1
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Thank you very much for your informative reply!

12 hours ago, Decto said:

As you say, somewhat an overkill build.

 

CPU's, if you want gaming then high frequency will be better.

Since gaming is a lower priority I think I will go with the more cores slightly less frequency.

 

12 hours ago, Decto said:

My real question is memory, performance will be significantly crippled with just 2 Dimms. The CPU's share memory badly as latency would be really high across a shared bus, Ideally you want each CPU to have it's own memory and 16GB shared between 12 to 24 cores is very stingy.

 

Socket 2011 V3 is Quad channel so for best performance you need 4 Dimms per CPU, for tolerable performace you could live with 2, but 1 DIMM per CPU seems like a real performance killer. I recently bought 4 x 16GB RDIMM 2133 new, brown box in UK for ~ EUR50 per stick so your ram is also expensive. Most of the Xeons are capped at 2133 anyhow so 2400Mhz is mostly moot.

 

Yes you're absolutely right! My initial choice was also unnecessary expensive so I have found a kit of 8 sticks which will give me 64 GB of ram, which I will split in 2 so each CPU will get 32GB with 4 Dimms. My new choice is higher clock speed but nothing lower could be found for cheaper, but I am aware that the extra speed above 2133 is indeed moot.

 

12 hours ago, Decto said:

Perhaps a single E5-2690 12C 24T 2.6Ghz / 3.5Ghz with 4 x 16GB would be a comprimise. Pass mark 19k hence why I don't see much point in dual CPU in consumer space. In a server farm with optimisation dual CPU makes more sense.

 

A good suggestion, but unfortunately I could only buy these new and it would be Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 => € 1.688,69 (!). Maybe it's something here in the Netherlands but some of these CPU's are crazy expensive so I'm kinda forced to go second hand, which is why I picked the options in the OP as these can be bought relatively cheap. The Dual socket CPU idea came from Serverbuilds.net Anniversary 2.0 builds as they are highly recommending it for my use case and I figured it's near the same price as a single socket build.

 

12 hours ago, Decto said:

For extra SATA use a cheap reflashed LSI SAS card, some random SATA card will only be trouble.

I would indeed rather not risk it, I found several cheap LSI SAS card options which I will look into once I expand beyond the 10 Sata ports that are on the motherboard.

 

12 hours ago, Decto said:

What are you pluging you Samsung M.2 into? no slots on that board so will need a PCI-E adapter. Super fast and high IOPS makes little difference in the consumer space, mostly cache is just that, cache + log files etc. I'm using a standard mirrored pair of SATA SSD's and nothing I run including a few game servers causes them any stress.

 

I forgot to include that in the build but I was planning on adding a PCI-E adapter for it, 3 In 1 PCI-E 3.0 X16 to NGFF M.2 NVMe AHCI SSD Adapter Card.

The m.2 is for docker config files, VM installations etc, an additional 2.5 SSD would be for Cache and another 3.5 is for downloading and unpacking files through Usenet. 

 

12 hours ago, Decto said:

Drives - if you want to go big, I'd be buying 14TB+ Drives for parity and any new drives, add in the 8TB you have but if going big, why 8TB? Just have to look out for the Amazon etc deals and shuck the drives.

 

Yes! After looking at the price per GB they are very similar so I will do exactly like you said here and go for good deals on the larger drives. The 8TB drives were more affordable but in the long run it is better to go with the bigger drives.

 

Again thank you very much for your feedback!

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1 hour ago, Unmax said:

A good suggestion, but unfortunately I could only buy these new and it would be Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 => € 1.688,69 (!). Maybe it's something here in the Netherlands but some of these CPU's are crazy expensive so I'm kinda forced to go second hand, which is why I picked the options in the OP as these can be bought relatively cheap. The Dual socket CPU idea came from Serverbuilds.net Anniversary 2.0 builds as they are highly recommending it for my use case and I figured it's near the same price as a single socket build.

 

Hi,

 

Several E5-2690 V3 on ebay in the EU for ~EUR 250. CPU's are quite robust and where you see someone is selling multiples it's very likely they are straight server pulls. I'd looked at these but then settled on an E5-2660 V3 for ~EUR 100 as it's more than adequate for my current needs. 

 

I'm currently testing with an X99 motherboard but plan to buy a Supermicro board in a couple of months, just some other jigsaw pieces to move. I'm a little caught in the loop of 1 or2 CPU, 4-8 dimm per CPU.  if I go with 1 CPU or 2 CPU with 4 Dimms then I use my Antec P180 ATX case for now which will give 10 3.5 + 4 2.5 SATA.

 

The dual CPU boards will also run with 1 CPU and as you say there is little difference in price so my current thoughts are to buy a dual board but run 1 CPU for now.

 

My main concern with Dual CPU is idle power consuption, I'd be interested to know what you get when it's build.

 

Good luck!

 

 

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Energy cost is something to think about yes 🙃

 

Nowhere nearly have the build you’re aiming for, but in my case I was curious to what kind of wattage my build pulled out of the wall. Well I was surprised it was actually not bad at all, in regular usage between 24 and 44 Watt depending on what is currently running. And in sleep mode, which is during the most part of the work week the server consumes 3 Watt. 

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  • 1 year later...

I'm actually planning on a build similar to yours OP. Here's my current setup (still need some components though):

 

MOBO - Supermicro X10Dai-O

CPU - [Single CPU] E5-2695 v3

RAM - 4x16GB DDR4 RDIMM 2133p

Case - Supermicro 846

LSI - SAS 9266-4i/1GB

 

I wonder, how much energy does your build consume? From my point of view it's an interesting build (at least I hope it will last me some years) but my only fear is that it will consume far too much energy, hence the question.

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