So, I'm planning to renew a bit my current server to try to save some electricity and improve performance a bit (single thread performance is suffering). I've been mulling over this for quite a while, but a post on reddit about downsizing/reducing electricity gave me a bit of a push so I wanted to give it a try, at least to plan a possible solution. Got some idea but feedback from someone that might know more is welcome. My knowledge is 95% related to enterprise things that would just blow my house fuse, not really on "efficient setups".
What I have:
Dell R720XD, 2x Xeon E5-2667v2, 320Gb RAM, ~6TB nvme storage (3x2Tb) and ~100TB storage (4x12Tb Raid-Z1 and 5x18Tb Raid-Z2), 2x 10Gb fiber, 2x 10Gb BaseT.
Consumes about 300-320W on average (280 to 340)
What I need:
CPU: anything power efficient and relatively powerful
RAM: 96GB might be enough, I'd be happier with 128GB+. I don't need all of the 320GB RAM, most is used when I run labs or test environments that don't need to stay up all the time, I can just run the old server when I need to work on them and turn it off later. ECC would be a plus but 100% not needed.
Storage: ~4TB should suffice for VMs, maybe even less. I'd like to keep file it as is, but might consider splitting NAS from virt server and stick it on a different low power cpu to avoid truenas eating up RAM. Don't need raid on VMs as I'd back them up daily (and some critical ones like DCs weekly on cloud) and there's nothing critical I can't deal a couple of days without.
Networking: At least one 10Gb, ideally SFP+ so I don't need to have a base-t gbic that I hate
Other:
At this point I am undecided between:
What I got already to work with that might help:
* AM4 mobo (Steel Legend X570)
* 10GB Dual nic PCIE network card
* might be able to dig up a raid card flashed in jbod mode with 8x sas/sata
* a rackmount case with 9x 5.25 slots (6 of them are used for 2x fans with non hot-swap space for a total of 6 drives
* a hot swap backplane for 5 hdd bay in 3x 5.25 slots, it works but has serious heat issues (disk run at 45-50°C++ in it)
* a couple of PSUs Gold 650W and Platinum 1250W
* a RPI4 or a CM4 laying around (I need one for something else, but I could use any one of the two) if I need to run a PIKVM.
The money:
price-wise I'd like to keep it under 1200/1300€ if possible and if I manage to land under 100W of power average I'd be happy since with those two figures I might be able to pay back the expense in ~3 years more or less.
The questions:
Second one should be cheaper as I already have some parts, but first one SHOULD be more efficient? but is it? Not sure what the difference would be but allegedly the first one idles at ~10W and the second at 50+W. But will it be ever really idle?
And if I end up running a different machine as the NAS, what should I pick to run 100TB of TrueNAS? Considering I'd like to have a 10Gb networking (I know I won't saturate it, but I don't want to change the switch to one with 2.5Gb ports, don't have the money to change all of it at once)
What would be best to keep the HDD in? I got a rack case with 9x 5.25" slots so it's either 3x 4 bay backplanes (5 bays I had were always having temp issues on the drive, my hope is that 4 bays might be slightly better) or a new case off aliexpress with drive bays already built in, both solutions seems to run in the 3-400€ range. Is there any suggestions regarding this? specific backplane/case, cheap JBOD enclosures I don't know about?
Honestly I'd welcome feedback on any and all points of the whole thing
What I have:
Dell R720XD, 2x Xeon E5-2667v2, 320Gb RAM, ~6TB nvme storage (3x2Tb) and ~100TB storage (4x12Tb Raid-Z1 and 5x18Tb Raid-Z2), 2x 10Gb fiber, 2x 10Gb BaseT.
Consumes about 300-320W on average (280 to 340)
What I need:
CPU: anything power efficient and relatively powerful
RAM: 96GB might be enough, I'd be happier with 128GB+. I don't need all of the 320GB RAM, most is used when I run labs or test environments that don't need to stay up all the time, I can just run the old server when I need to work on them and turn it off later. ECC would be a plus but 100% not needed.
Storage: ~4TB should suffice for VMs, maybe even less. I'd like to keep file it as is, but might consider splitting NAS from virt server and stick it on a different low power cpu to avoid truenas eating up RAM. Don't need raid on VMs as I'd back them up daily (and some critical ones like DCs weekly on cloud) and there's nothing critical I can't deal a couple of days without.
Networking: At least one 10Gb, ideally SFP+ so I don't need to have a base-t gbic that I hate
Other:
- TPM
- no E/P cores shenanigans since I might want to run esxi on it (still undecided, even if I keep the licenses on the old server I still have 4 more left with VMUG if Broadcom doesn't kill it)
- IPMI (but I'm fine with a PIKVM)
- Can run a VM to do video encoding/decoding well (jellyfin, Tdarr) <--- only this of the "other" is 100% needed
At this point I am undecided between:
- Minisforum BD790i with the Ryzen 9 7945HX, 96GB ram, 1x 10GB Network card. Maybe a HBA card IF it supports bifurcation and I end up running Truenas as a VM
- Recycle old AM4 mobo I have, get a Ryzen 9 5950x, 128GB ram, ECC support (not sure if the Mobo supports 64GB DDR4 ECC modules? If so it might be double that! but I doubt it). 1x 10GB Network card and an HBA if needed.
- ??? I accept suggestions
What I got already to work with that might help:
* AM4 mobo (Steel Legend X570)
* 10GB Dual nic PCIE network card
* might be able to dig up a raid card flashed in jbod mode with 8x sas/sata
* a rackmount case with 9x 5.25 slots (6 of them are used for 2x fans with non hot-swap space for a total of 6 drives
* a hot swap backplane for 5 hdd bay in 3x 5.25 slots, it works but has serious heat issues (disk run at 45-50°C++ in it)
* a couple of PSUs Gold 650W and Platinum 1250W
* a RPI4 or a CM4 laying around (I need one for something else, but I could use any one of the two) if I need to run a PIKVM.
The money:
price-wise I'd like to keep it under 1200/1300€ if possible and if I manage to land under 100W of power average I'd be happy since with those two figures I might be able to pay back the expense in ~3 years more or less.
The questions:
Second one should be cheaper as I already have some parts, but first one SHOULD be more efficient? but is it? Not sure what the difference would be but allegedly the first one idles at ~10W and the second at 50+W. But will it be ever really idle?
And if I end up running a different machine as the NAS, what should I pick to run 100TB of TrueNAS? Considering I'd like to have a 10Gb networking (I know I won't saturate it, but I don't want to change the switch to one with 2.5Gb ports, don't have the money to change all of it at once)
What would be best to keep the HDD in? I got a rack case with 9x 5.25" slots so it's either 3x 4 bay backplanes (5 bays I had were always having temp issues on the drive, my hope is that 4 bays might be slightly better) or a new case off aliexpress with drive bays already built in, both solutions seems to run in the 3-400€ range. Is there any suggestions regarding this? specific backplane/case, cheap JBOD enclosures I don't know about?
Honestly I'd welcome feedback on any and all points of the whole thing
