Motherboard choise for storage server?

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Nicolai

Member
Sep 4, 2020
37
2
8
Hello Everyone on this amazing forum.

I cannot thank you enough for all the help I've already gotten from this truly fantastic community, but I do need a little bit more help finding the correct hardware for my needs.

I've gone away from the idea of making a combined workstation/nas/leisure PC/server, to making 2 systems instead. Currently I'm trying to configure what's eventually going to be my NAS/website box.

I want it to:
  • Storage for my company and for my personal usage.
  • Run my website.
  • Run Plex Media Server.
I've decided on an Intel Celeron G4900, because of it's low power consumption, ECC memory support, and it's iGPU for Plex, aswell as I can't find the Intel Celeron G4900T. The two motherboards I'm trying to decide between is the ASRock Rack E3C246D4U and the SuperMicro X11SCH-F. Both boards use the C246 and gives me 8x SATA3 connectivity, and while the supermicro comes with 2x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, I'm not entirely sure those would be needed for what's essentially a dumb box, maybe a cache drive for Plex and transfers? I do plan on running unraid on RAID1 sata SSDs, but there's plenty of connectivity for that. Both comes with an IPMI port.

Which board would suit that task better and should I not ignore the M.2 NVMe for a RAID1 boot drive?

Best regards and thank you for your time.
 

EffrafaxOfWug

Radioactive Member
Feb 12, 2015
1,394
511
113
If it were me, I'd use the two M.2 slots for RAID1 boot/OS drives and other stuff that'd benefit from random IO (including the possibility of some caching of your main platter-based RAID, depending on what storage you're using).

If noise is a concern, I'd prefer the ASRR IPMI though - it gives finer-grained per-fan-header control and works much nicer with low rpm fans in my experience, whereas the SM IPMI only lets you have two fan "zones", basically the CPU and everything else. If that were the case I'd be tempted to chuck in a 2xM.2 PCIe card (assuming bifurcation is suppored) so as to keep the SATA slots free for hard drives, depending on how many HDDs you think you're going to use.

Disclaimer: I don't have any real experience with plex or iGPU usage/passthrough so I wouldn't know if this is a goer or not. Nor if a relatively anaemic CPU like the celeron is enough for the non-transcodey parts of plex.
 

Nicolai

Member
Sep 4, 2020
37
2
8
If it were me, I'd use the two M.2 slots for RAID1 boot/OS drives and other stuff that'd benefit from random IO (including the possibility of some caching of your main platter-based RAID, depending on what storage you're using).

If noise is a concern, I'd prefer the ASRR IPMI though - it gives finer-grained per-fan-header control and works much nicer with low rpm fans in my experience, whereas the SM IPMI only lets you have two fan "zones", basically the CPU and everything else. If that were the case I'd be tempted to chuck in a 2xM.2 PCIe card (assuming bifurcation is suppored) so as to keep the SATA slots free for hard drives, depending on how many HDDs you think you're going to use.

Disclaimer: I don't have any real experience with plex or iGPU usage/passthrough so I wouldn't know if this is a goer or not. Nor if a relatively anaemic CPU like the celeron is enough for the non-transcodey parts of plex.
Noise control is a top priority, that's why I'm going to use Noctua fans in the entire case and passive cooling on that little Celeron APU. They're the most silent fans I've managed to find. But how dows the IPMI affect noise?

At first I'm "only" running up to 5 harddrives in a SilverStone Technologies FS305-12G hot-swap cage. Eventually I'll probably be installing another, but by the time I need that, I will need to invest in an HBA card too, since it requires 10 sata ports to run those.

As for plex, as far as I understand, as long as I run that in a docker, it can use the iGPU for Hardware Accelerated transcoding and for serving up direct play to my TV, it should be more than adequate, since it's no more of a task, than a basic transfer?
 

EffrafaxOfWug

Radioactive Member
Feb 12, 2015
1,394
511
113
Noise control is a top priority, that's why I'm going to use Noctua fans in the entire case and passive cooling on that little Celeron APU. They're the most silent fans I've managed to find. But how dows the IPMI affect noise?
Therein lies the rub - there's been a number of issues users have experienced (including myself) running Noctua fans on supermicro IPMI. In some cases it can be fixed by fiddling the IPMI thresholds, but personally I ran into my Noctua fans dropping below their critical threshold, all the fans ramping up to max speed. Alerts clear, fans slow down, fans drop below critical threshold... rinse and repeat. On two of my SM boards I'm unable to use Noctua fans because of this "surging" behaviour and I had to replace them with fans that don't suffer from the issue.

A quick search on this forum and other for "supermicro noctua ipmi" will likely turn up dozens of similar issues. Here's one example.

There's also the thing where SM only has zone-based control and not fan-header-specific control. Whether this is important or not really depends on the case layout and fan configuration, but for instance it's very useful when you might want e.g. FAN X and FAN Y to always run at at least 50% duty cycle because they're the ones that blow over the HDDs.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
701
315
63
I just use a fan controller or 3-pin fans that I'm comfortable with db/airflow.
 

Nicolai

Member
Sep 4, 2020
37
2
8
Therein lies the rub - there's been a number of issues users have experienced (including myself) running Noctua fans on supermicro IPMI. In some cases it can be fixed by fiddling the IPMI thresholds, but personally I ran into my Noctua fans dropping below their critical threshold, all the fans ramping up to max speed. Alerts clear, fans slow down, fans drop below critical threshold... rinse and repeat. On two of my SM boards I'm unable to use Noctua fans because of this "surging" behaviour and I had to replace them with fans that don't suffer from the issue.

A quick search on this forum and other for "supermicro noctua ipmi" will likely turn up dozens of similar issues. Here's one example.

There's also the thing where SM only has zone-based control and not fan-header-specific control. Whether this is important or not really depends on the case layout and fan configuration, but for instance it's very useful when you might want e.g. FAN X and FAN Y to always run at at least 50% duty cycle because they're the ones that blow over the HDDs.
The SilverStone Technologies FS305-12G have it's own 3-pin 80 mm fan, SilverStone Technologies AP81 (3000 RPM, 29.5 CFM and 30 dBA). I am going to replace that with a 3-pin 80mm Noctua NF-A8 FLX (2000 RPM, 50.4 M3/H (equal to 29.5 CFM), but producing only 16.1 dBA).
The SilverStone Technologies RM400 supports 3 80mm fans, for those I was going to equip the 3-pin 80mm Noctua NF-A8 ULN (1400 RPM, 34.8 M3/h, 10.4 dBA).

Since they're not PWM fans, would that be affected by the IPMI?

I just use a fan controller or 3-pin fans that I'm comfortable with db/airflow.
That's what I was going to do, and since it's just going to run an Intel Celeron G4900, I feel fairly confident, that a passive cooling system (such as a SilverStone Technologies NT01-PRO) can deal with the 65W thermal solution specification it comes with by default, considering the fan configuration I'm planning on?
 

EffrafaxOfWug

Radioactive Member
Feb 12, 2015
1,394
511
113
The SilverStone Technologies FS305-12G have it's own 3-pin 80 mm fan, SilverStone Technologies AP81 (3000 RPM, 29.5 CFM and 30 dBA). I am going to replace that with a 3-pin 80mm Noctua NF-A8 FLX (2000 RPM, 50.4 M3/H (equal to 29.5 CFM), but producing only 16.1 dBA).
The SilverStone Technologies RM400 supports 3 80mm fans, for those I was going to equip the 3-pin 80mm Noctua NF-A8 ULN (1400 RPM, 34.8 M3/h, 10.4 dBA).

Since they're not PWM fans, would that be affected by the IPMI?
I've not used non-PWM fans in years so I'm not sure if the same issue would occur with regular 3-pin fans.

Be wary of using low-rpm fans in drive enclosures though, some of them also have alarms if the fan drops below a certain rpm. Personally I wouldn't both with the ULN variants, I think the regular ones are quiet enough (your opinion may differ of course) and I'd be worried about them not moving enough air, especially in an environment like a drive enclosure where you've got a fair amount of resistance.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
701
315
63
Do you plan on populating the internal HDD tray? If so, that 80mm front fan needs to push enough air through the HDDs and cool the passive heatsink when needed.

Maybe you might have issues if you have heavy transcoding on the CPU from time to time?

Low-rpm noctuas may not do a good job there (ambient temperature is gonna be another factor).

Maybe just get a quiet cpu active heatsink?

System looks good otherwise. Drive bays should be good unless you planned on putting some high-rpm sas drives in them. Just keep an eye on the voltage if the fans you indeed to replace.

Also to note, the Chenbro RM-41300/42200/42300 are very similar to the silverstone and may be cheaper. You can get the hard to find left bay (for more drive cages) at provantage that regularly has it in stock.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
701
315
63
I've not used non-PWM fans in years so I'm not sure if the same issue would occur with regular 3-pin fans.

Be wary of using low-rpm fans in drive enclosures though, some of them also have alarms if the fan drops below a certain rpm. Personally I wouldn't both with the ULN variants, I think the regular ones are quiet enough (your opinion may differ of course) and I'd be worried about them not moving enough air, especially in an environment like a drive enclosure where you've got a fair amount of resistance.
Confirmed that no alarms/low-rpm issues with 3 pin fans on most supermicro MBs. I think some special 1U MBs do require a minimum rpm or they go nuts.
 

Nicolai

Member
Sep 4, 2020
37
2
8
I've not used non-PWM fans in years so I'm not sure if the same issue would occur with regular 3-pin fans.

Be wary of using low-rpm fans in drive enclosures though, some of them also have alarms if the fan drops below a certain rpm. Personally I wouldn't both with the ULN variants, I think the regular ones are quiet enough (your opinion may differ of course) and I'd be worried about them not moving enough air, especially in an environment like a drive enclosure where you've got a fair amount of resistance.
The ULN variants would be for the case only, the drive enclosures would get the FLX variant.

Do you plan on populating the internal HDD tray? If so, that 80mm front fan needs to push enough air through the HDDs and cool the passive heatsink when needed.

Maybe you might have issues if you have heavy transcoding on the CPU from time to time?

Low-rpm noctuas may not do a good job there (ambient temperature is gonna be another factor).

Maybe just get a quiet cpu active heatsink?

System looks good otherwise. Drive bays should be good unless you planned on putting some high-rpm sas drives in them. Just keep an eye on the voltage if the fans you indeed to replace.

Also to note, the Chenbro RM-41300/42200/42300 are very similar to the silverstone and may be cheaper. You can get the hard to find left bay (for more drive cages) at provantage that regularly has it in stock.
I not NOT plan on populating the central HDD tray, which is why I'm considering a passive cooling solution. The 2 SSDs I'm considering for RAID1 boot drive, will be mounted in the 2.5" mounting tray found in the bottom of the cages.

Transcoding will be hardware accelerated, thus require less resources and produce less heat, but I have taken the concerns under advicement, luckily the cooling solution do have options for mounting fans.

Thank you for the heads up on the Chenbro brand, I will look into them. I chose the silverstone rm400 for it's aesthetics, since it's going to be housed kinda alternatively.

Confirmed that no alarms/low-rpm issues with 3 pin fans on most supermicro MBs. I think some special 1U MBs do require a minimum rpm or they go nuts.
Thank you for this extra step! Much appreciated.

So to summarize:
  • SuperMicro X11SCH-F
  • Consider M.2 NVMe, even though it's just a NAS with a website.
  • Thermal solution looks OK, provided I monitor the solution and is prepared to upgrade.
Would there be an advantage in using the M.2 NVMe as a cache instead?