3 questions/concerns about X8SIL builld looking forward in 2011

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kurtkurtosis

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Jan 1, 2011
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Mobo: SuperMicro X8SIL-F (micro-ATX)
Processor: Xeon L3426 or X3450 ???
Memory: Kingston KVR1333D3Q8R9S/4G (two sticks for 8 GB total)
Graphics: Nvidia GFX 460 (many choices & only needed for LINUX/WIN desktop configuration, but not server config)
Monitor: NEC 27" PA271W-BK (2560x1440 pixels)
HD OS storage: Two 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs & One 2TB WD Black (trayless SATA for two 2.5" SDDs JBOD & one 3.5" bay for 2TB HD OS drives)
HD Data storage: 4-5 2TB drives: WD Green 2TB and/or Samsung F4/F3 (in RAID 5 I plan to use 4 identical drives)
RAID controller card: HighPoint RocketRAID 2720 (as needed in JBOD or RAID or not used at all, with VAIL DE gone RAID 5 may be best choice but unclear)
Enclosure: Antec P180 (micro/mini-itx); unclear on the number of fans I will turn on or undervolt.
PS: Seasonic X series 400W SS-400FL (fanless)
CPU Cooler: Noctua U12P SE2 (fanless or undervolted - to be determined)
OS of Interest: FreeNAS, Ubuntu Server/Desktop, WHS VAIL, Nextensa, FreeBSD, WIN 7...SnowLeopard?
Already Purchased Components: Seasonic PS, NEC Monitor, HighPoint RAID card, Antex P180 enclosure, Samsung/WD 2TB drives, (Intel mini-ITX DH57JG mobo as an alternative to X8SIL for now).

I am considering a SuperMicro X8SIL-F build as Patrick has given it high marks and as the 8 or so OSs he tested installed without a hitch. The main purpose of the sytem will be to store ~8TB of multimedia (movies, audio, books, pics...) as well as serve as a test rig to experiment with different server OS such as FreeNAS, Ubuntu Server, Nextensa, as well as Linux Ubuntu desktop (web browing, movie editing/conversion, file copying to QNAP 459 Pro+ NAS). I will make use of trayless SATA to swap-in different drives containg differnent OSs as I am not a great fan of installing different OS on the same drive.

I have several questions regarding obsoleteness, graphics and processor choice of my build.

1) OBSOLETENSS: With Sandy Bridge processors now becoming available (for comsumer PCs) and new 8-core Xeons on the horizon in the 2nd half of '11, how quickly will my build become obsolete within the next 6-8 months as I will be traveling a lot in the next 6 months and won't have much time to experiment with different OS until mid summer? I currenlty have an Intel DH57JG mini-itx that I could use for the above puprose but the integrated Intel NIC controller seems non-standard as neither VAIL nor FreeNAS recognized it, but I found work arounds through forums. Am I better off waiting 6-8 months & just continue going with my DH57JG for the next 6 months or purchase the X8SIL now?

2) GRAPHICS: The X8SIL-F only has X8 PCIe slots while todays's graphics cards such as NVIDIA GXF 460 are X12 based. I believe, the X8SIL has open X8 slots so an X12 graphics card can fit & work in X8 mode. I am not into gaming but will be using an NEC 27" 2560x1440 LCD and video editing may be in the cards. Will the X8 slot significantly degrade performance? I only saw an AMD CrossFire review with one card in X16 and the other in X8 and there was no measurable performance hit in gaming mode. If I had to guess the X8 slot will be good enough of what I want to accomplish, but any comments are welcome as I am not that sure.

3) PROCESSOR CHOICE: Also, one of the build objectives is to minimize power consumption and noise. I am not sure whether the L3426 at 45 W is a good choise compared the Xeon X3425 (95W) as idle power is really the main metric for an NAS server and not TDP. Any advice would be appreciated as the L3426 seems pretty expensive and I have yet to find a review on the "L" processor. Also, is undervolting the Xeon X3425 to conserve power an option with that MoBo?
The final goal is to retire the X8SIL system as an NAS sever for the next 3-4 years (within the next 8-10 months -- with the sever OS still to be determined) and graphics card & perhaps RAID RocketRAID card? removed as it consumes power & a graphics card serving no purpose in the server configuraton.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Kurt
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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1) One good option is using the DH57JG and add a solid Intel NIC. If you are just using it for test purposes, you can use non-ECC memory easily. The four main advantages of Sandy Bridge are: 1) Higher clock speed, 2) 32nm vs 45nm for slightly lower idle power consumption 3) AES-NI; and 4) a better integrated GPU. In most storage servers, if you aren't doing encryption/ compression/ dedupe, AES-NI and the higher clocks are not a big advantage. If you are, then they may be desirable so long as you have OS support for Intel's AES-NI. The integrated GPU you end up not using in Sandy Bridge if you use BMC video (like on the X8SIL-F's IPMI 2.0) or a P67 based board. That is the main reason I haven't been posting much about Sandy Bridge yet. Power consumption wise, if you are not using the integrated GPU, quad core to quad core Sandy Bridge wins, but take a X3440 vs. a i5-2500k and you are talking a few watts at idle. That amounts to a few dollars a year which is not huge.
2) Two x8 slots in SLI are generally 5% slower than in X16 slots... that is a much higher end setup than a single GTX460. Odds are you will not notice this. I will note however that you won't be using the X8SIL-F's onboard GPU which is pretty poor, but you do get IPMI 2.0.
3) If you aren't going for the lowest possible wattage and you are not pegging the CPU with high utilization non-stop (does not happen in most smaller NAS'es with no compression/ dedupe/ encryption), the difference isn't HUGE between the two. Generally the price differential between the "L" parts is greater than the energy cost/ savings over 3-5 years... and by a large margin. That is why I hesitate to recommend those parts. Modern CPUs are fairly good at using low power states.

I think the biggest thing I can ask is whether you need to play now, or you can wait. If you can wait, it is worth it. If you cannot, then you are probably not going to lose a lot. Sandy Bridge does have some great advantages, but you are stuck with no VT-d and no ECC for the time being. From what you described above, I would probably spend a few dollars on an Intel x1 NIC and then use the existing DH57JG for the next few months. Swap the NIC for the GTX 460 when you want to switch to video editing. When it is time for the NAS build, re-assess the landscape.
 

kurtkurtosis

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Jan 1, 2011
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Patrick, thanks for your advice and suggestions.

I actually have a 1X PCIe Intel Gb NIC card (Intel EXPI9402PT) in my main desktop PC that is only used to connect directly to my ReadyNAS NV+ to backup my QNAP 450Pro+. There is no performance advantage of connecting the ReadyNAS to the NIC card directly vs. the router. So, I think I'll stick to my DH57JG mini-itx for now and use the NIC card whenever a given OS does not recognize the on-board NIC. The only think is that I won't be able to use both RocketRAID & use the NIC card. Perhaps booting off the eSATA port and using the on-board RAID functionality might be an option?

Kurt
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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That is a pretty good idea keeping the DH57JG. As for the RocketRAID, if you do use software RAID using ZFS for example, you would be better served using a cheap LSI card or onboard Intel than the HighPoint anyway. ICH10R RAID is ok for RAID 0/1/10 but I would not use it for a fake-raid 5.

Also, mind sharing performance thoughts of the ReadyNAS NV+ and/ or the QNAP here? Might be worth starting some threads with your experiences.
 

kurtkurtosis

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Jan 1, 2011
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Good suggestions, but I got to find the time for it.

At the top of my head the ReadyNAS NV+ (~600 MHz? processor non-Intel) is ~8-10 MB/s, the QNAP 459 Pro+ (1.8 GHz dual-atom) ~60-80 GB/s and the Intel DH57JB (8GB DDR3, & 3.4 GHz i-5) running VAIL 70-90 GHz. Using WD Greens for the most part. The rates are for 1 GB DVD files.

Am also interested in reporting the power consumption (with a meter I already purchased from a Canadian company, e..g. similar to Kiill-A-Watt but has network logging capability) of above NAS under various conditions & yes, that warrants a new thread.
 

kurtkurtosis

New Member
Jan 1, 2011
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Just to correct the above typos:
- ReadyNAS ~8-10 MB/s,
- QNAP 60-80 MB/s,
- DH57JB 70-90MB/s

all copying DVD typle files under WIN 7 with ASUS Rampage III using Explorer. Main conclusion is that QNAP and DH57JB are fairly close while ReadyNAS NV+ is totally obsolety but still useful for backups. I hope to post real quantitative results (as opposed to guesses) in coming weeks as well as power consumption results while copying/idle.