Need recommendationa for my "ideal" POC/homelab

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Razva

New Member
Jun 8, 2019
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Hey,

Right now I'm using two Poweredge C6100 with four nodes, each node having Dual Intel Xeon L5520 and 24 GB DDR3.

They offer great performance but unfortunately the idle power consumption is about 450W. Under load they use 700W.

I need them in order to test bare metal deployment tools and techniques. I've been through virtualizing bare-metal and it's a pain. So yes, I need bare-metal.

My "ideal" setup would be this:
- x64 Processor (no ARM), can be Intel or AMD
- a CPU that can do ~5000 points in CPU Benchmark. I can work with ~3000 as well but...the more the merrier
- virtualization support mandatory (VTx or AMD-V)
- fanless (if such a thing even exists for the aftermentioned CPU Benchmark score?)
- the cheapest motherboard that offers IPMI (the rack is in another room and walking there for each reset/reinstall was a pain in the arse)
- as low TDP as possible
- cheap?

What's your recommendation?

Thank you!
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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598
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Are you talking about passmark CPU benchmark ?
Plenty of low power boards like the lower end c3000, d1500, or amd 3000 SOC’s will meet the IPMI, performance, low power requirements (30w idle or less) with the appropriate virtualization options etc.... But not the cheapest deployments.
 

Razva

New Member
Jun 8, 2019
9
0
1
Are you talking about passmark CPU benchmark ?
Yes, about this.

Plenty of low power boards like the lower end c3000, d1500, or amd 3000 SOC’s will meet the IPMI, performance, low power requirements (30w idle or less) with the appropriate virtualization options etc.... But not the cheapest deployments.
Well...let's put it this way. I spent 500€ on the C6100 (without drives), that's about 125€ per node. BUT I'm spending 100€/month on electricity.

So on the long run I have a feeling that spending more on hardware will basically cover the electricity costs and/or maybe even be cheaper.

Another thing that bothers me with the C6100 is the (waaaaay!) dated BIOS and IPMI. The Java app is bad, really bad, so bad that on "modern OSs" I'm not even able to use the mouse pointer and have to base exclusively on the keyboard, or use USB drives in order to install the OS (which kinda defeats the purpose). So right now the IPMI is more or less a "glorified reset button".
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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So compare the AMD EPYC 3251 (8 core) vs dual X5670
https://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-m11sdv-8c-ln4f-review-amd-epyc-3251-mitx-platform/3/

And at 30watts idle and 70watts 100% cpu (missing 10G network onboard)

But the price is not cheap, older D-1540/1541 options can be had cheap though. (Often has 10G network on board if this is important), maybe cheap d-1520/1521 could also be an option.
That review has a good lot of comparisons on the SOC options.

Nothing will beat used enterprise gear but the power bills also add up as you can see.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Looks very good, but at $700 ($2800 for a pack of 4) I would rather pay the electricity for 3 years.
Totally get your point, HPE gen8/9 (or Dell, Lenovo, etc) equivalent will be cheap and available and not great on power in pretty much every way better than what you have today and still be ‘supported systems’ (by that I mean firmware updates available at least even a couple of years)

E5 v1/v2 are DDR3
E5 v3/v4 are DDR4
 

Razva

New Member
Jun 8, 2019
9
0
1
Totally get your point, HPE gen8/9 (or Dell, Lenovo, etc) equivalent will be cheap and available and not great on power in pretty much every way better than what you have today and still be ‘supported systems’ (by that I mean firmware updates available at least even a couple of years)

E5 v1/v2 are DDR3
E5 v3/v4 are DDR4
Can you please give me a link? Everything I find is usually in the $1000 ballpark.

What do you think about Xeon E31220L v2 + X9SCM-F?
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Nothing wrong with older e3 Supermicro stuff but udimm not cheap and I would try for new generation

Now I went looked for complete servers just now and very oddly they are indeed expensive, at that price may as well buy a brand new current gen HPE or Dell etc,

SMB Offers | HPE Store US
Usually some great deals around but not just now.

Probably wait a couple of weeks till you see some proper deals.