Homelab Upgrade

[LIGISTX]

Hi guys! First time poster here - I am looking to finally upgrade my ESXi homelab. I have been running on a HPE Proliant i3 6100 based system for a while, and its just not meeting my needs any longer. I am looking at something a few generations old but still relatively current.

I am currently looking at some X10SRA motherboards and while I have been building desktops for 15+ years, I am never fully sure what ECC RAM is supported for server gear... I plan to pick up a xeon e5 2650, and then I think this would work for RAM? Samsung 64GB DDR4 RAM 4x 16GB PC4-2133P 2133MHz 1.2V Reg ECC RDIMM Server Memory | eBay

I am just trying to make sure this setup will actually work... As far as I know I would, its 2133 RDIMMS.

Anyone know of any reason it wouldn't work?

 

[gigatexal]

A good place to start is the motherboard compatibility list for the particular board you're looking at.

 

[pinkanese]

If it is for a server you probably want the X10SRA-F. The non F model doesn't have onboard graphics and the E5 Xeon doesn't have graphics on board either so you would need a video card.

I'm guessing you just left off the version, but you will need an E5-2650 v3.

The memory looks right, all the specs line up. Might be a good idea to check Supermicro's site for the tested memory list, though at this point everything on it is going to be end of life so perhaps not the most helpful. Some boards can be picky about memory rank so it's not a bad idea to check the motherboard manual just to be sure.

Other note, that motherboard has a square cooler mount, usually it will be called "square ILM", this is the common style for desktop/workstation boards server specific boards tend to use the narrow ILM pattern. So if the board does not come with a cooler make sure you get one that fits.

 

[LIGISTX]

If it is for a server you probably want the X10SRA-F. The non F model doesn't have onboard graphics and the E5 Xeon doesn't have graphics on board either so you would need a video card.

I'm guessing you just left off the version, but you will need an E5-2650 v3.

The memory looks right, all the specs line up. Might be a good idea to check Supermicro's site for the tested memory list, though at this point everything on it is going to be end of life so perhaps not the most helpful. Some boards can be picky about memory rank so it's not a bad idea to check the motherboard manual just to be sure.

Other note, that motherboard has a square cooler mount, usually it will be called "square ILM", this is the common style for desktop/workstation boards server specific boards tend to use the narrow ILM pattern. So if the board does not come with a cooler make sure you get one that fits.

Hmm, well, I did just order the mobo and CPU a few hours ago, and I ended up going with a E5-2660 v4. Forgive me for not understanding, but why would I have needed a v3? The mobo supposedly supports 2600 V4, up to 22 cores and 55mb cache which the 2660 v4 is well under at 14 cores and 35 mb cache. Am I missing something?

As far as RAM goes, yea I do hope it works... It is ordered as well and should be here Monday, so I suppose we will find out. Graphics output isn't a big deal, it will be a server, and obviously when needed a display is useful, but I can throw in a random video card when needed for that (and ipmi would suffice for most things anyways)

*Edit about CPU support* It looks like it may need a BIOS update to run the E5 2600 V4's, but if that is the case, looks like I can pick up a early e5 2600 v3 type chip for ~15 dollars just to flash the boards. Assuming it is on the correct BIOS (or I need to get a different chip just to flash them), any reason this wouldn't work? Info from: X10SRA | Motherboards | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.

*Second Edit about RAM*

This is what the manual shows for support, I would be using a a 2600 V4. I am not entirely sure what I am reading here tho, and the RAM is listed as 2Rx4, is that mean dual rank x4? I have a lot to learn as far as server hardware goes...


*ok... this is fun, Edit 3.......* Looks like the non -F does not have IPMI, I was able to find some -F boards for the same price, so went ahead and grabbed a set of those (building 2 of these boxes) instead. Thank you for that catch.

 

[i386]

I have a x10sra and it's 7 years old, I wouldn't call it "current"
Personally I would look for something more recent with more pcie lanes (you lose two slots to a dual slot gpu on the "sra" model without ipmi)

 

[LIGISTX]

I have a x10sra and it's 7 years old, I wouldn't call it "current"
Personally I would look for something more recent with more pcie lanes (you lose two slots to a dual slot gpu on the "sra" model without ipmi)

I also wouldn't call it "new", but the price is right for our needs. A buddy of mine is running a Dual socket 1366 setup that just turns lots of electricity into heat, and not much else.... I am running a i3 6100.

The main use case for these is homelab type work, we both run truenas virtualized under ESXi, myself with ~50 TB of storage and he with 128 TB. But, being for the most part single user boxes, we don't need much as far as performance goes, I have been running my 50 TB on 16 GB of RAM and 2 threads of my i3 for years and have had no issues.

As far as PCIe goes, neither of us have any cards that actually need bandwidth besides an HBA or two or a SAS expander. Even if we wanted to add a GPU at some point to either of our setups, I can't see PCIe being an issue for us

I would have wanted to get something newer, but keeping the price down was a big part of this endeavor.

 

[LIGISTX]

I have a x10sra and it's 7 years old, I wouldn't call it "current"
Personally I would look for something more recent with more pcie lanes (you lose two slots to a dual slot gpu on the "sra" model without ipmi)

Oh... seeing as you do have one. Any reason to think the RAM I got wouldn't work? 2Rx4 2133 I believe is what it is called - sorry, I am a desktop PC builder, there is a lot of new terminology here that I am just not familiar with.