Motherboard choice - Asus P10S-M vs Supermicro X11SSH-F

[Michael Dimech]

Basically what the title says, I'm looking to decide between these two motherboards for my upcoming NAS build:

P10S-M-DC | Servers & Workstations | ASUS Global
X11SSH-F | Motherboards | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc.

The issue I have with these boards is more on the amount of pci-e lanes available to each slot rather than pricing. The Asus board has 1 x8 and 3 x4 pci-e 3.0 slots whereas the supermicro board has 2 x8 and 1x4 pci-e 3.o slots.
The reason why I'm fretting about the amount of lanes available is because I don't really know if they can work in x4 slots (I've read in some instances that they can and that in others they cannot). I'm basically looking for how many SAS cards I can plug in these respective boards should I need it.
Now I'm also aware that if I were to worry about pci-e slots at all, I should probably stick to a C612/older based build, but for now that's just too expensive.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

[Rand__]

Depends on whether you want SAS2 or SAS3, SAS2 (via LSI 2008) will run on PCIe2 x8, SAS3 (3008) will need x8 for 8 channels. They will run on less but will be speed limited then.

 

[Ivan Dimitrov]

Actually the Asus has 1x16 + 1x4 from the chipset. The Supermicro is 8x, 8x + 4x from the chipset. So by the criteria which one can hold more SAS cards, the Supermicro wins.
This one Supermicro SSL-CF has one LSI SAS3008 controller build in but it has only one 8x by slot + 4x, 1x from the chipset. So basically 2 cards in anyway.

BTW check the prices of a X99 system. I also thought the 2011-v3 system is too expensive but with X99 board and quadcore E5-v4 the price difference is really not that big.
Also keep in mind that with the E3 you will need UDIMM ECC and I couldn't find reliable info that it will work with X99 platform. If you go directly with X99 you can get straight with RDIMMs

 

[Michael Dimech]

Actually the Asus has 1x16 + 1x4 from the chipset. The Supermicro is 8x, 8x + 4x from the chipset. So by the criteria which one can hold more SAS cards, the Supermicro wins.
This one Supermicro SSL-CF has one LSI SAS3008 controller build in but it has only one 8x by slot + 4x, 1x from the chipset. So basically 2 cards in anyway.

BTW check the prices of a X99 system. I also thought the 2011-v3 system is too expensive but with X99 board and quadcore E5-v4 the price difference is really not that big.
Also keep in mind that with the E3 you will need UDIMM ECC and I couldn't find reliable info that it will work with X99 platform. If you go directly with X99 you can get straight with RDIMMs

I'll probably go with the supermicro board then, especially since it has integrated IPMI and effectively 3 more storage slots in the same form factor.

An X99/C612 based server is around €100 from my chosen e-tailer, and that's pairing an Asus Z10PA-U8 with a Xeon E5-1620v3, which I wouldn't take into consideration too much especially since I'd limit myself to one cpu. I'd go for something like an E5-2603v3, which is cheaper and can be paired with another one on the same board, but single-core performance for those things is quite lackluster for the price I'd be paying.

There's also no mATX board that they sell. I don't think I'd consider going ATX since, while the Design R5 is similarily priced, it's just a bigger case with no more storage spaces than a node 804. I'd also be willing to go with an X99 system, such as using the X99-M-WS and like that there wouldn't be any price difference, but I'd have several other components such as audio tacked onto the board that I will not really be using.

 

[Michael Dimech]

Depends on whether you want SAS2 or SAS3, SAS2 (via LSI 2008) will run on PCIe2 x8, SAS3 (3008) will need x8 for 8 channels. They will run on less but will be speed limited then.

I'd go with SAS3, especially since if I were to choose the Asus board, their Pike 3008 card is something I would've added if needed, and it's quite cheap compared to other controllers. I'd rather not buy a board with speed limitations so probably I'd go with the supermicro board then - 2 Raid cards, if needed, would serve me well until I'd completely require to upgrade my box if needed.

 

[Rand__]

The pike is cheaper then a used M1215 ? When i was looking last at pike's (when opteron was the thing to get) they were quite expensive (compared to aftermarket)

If you share some more details (# of drives needed now, expected expansion plans, budget, use case beside filer, 10GBe need etc) then it might be easier to recommend things

 

[Michael Dimech]

The pike is cheaper then a used M1215 ? When i was looking last at pike's (when opteron was the thing to get) they were quite expensive (compared to aftermarket)

If you share some more details (# of drives needed now, expected expansion plans, budget, use case beside filer, 10GBe need etc) then it might be easier to recommend things

I generally don't buy used which is why I said the pike is cheaper from what I've seen.

Regards to details, this is what I had in mind, with the budget set to 800 euros for the server and the remainder for storage : System Build - PCPartPicker Deutschland
As of right now those are my requirements. Future expansion would include another 4 drives in RAID 10 and more RAM as needed. Besides storage, I'll probably run Plex on FreeNas to stream this to the 3 computers in my home, where the Xeon 1230v5 should more than give me the power to do that and any other things I discover in the future.
10Gbe is something I'll only consider if really needed for right now. I might need it for 4K playback in the future but as I don't own a 4k TV for now I don't really see the need for having both 4K media and the 10Gbe adapter accordingly.

 

[Rand__]

Ah buying new only - there would have been quite a few deals on the aftermarket, but thats your choice
-CPU is boxed so will include a cooler which is completely sufficient
-If you are planning to run FreeNas on bare metal with the 804 case you only need 1-2 expansion slot(s) (12 drives natively from the case, maybe a 4:1/6:1 adapter in the 5,25" slot gives you 18 drives max.
Board has 8 Sata ports + 8 from an expansion card is 16 - should cover you
-I wouldn't have gotten the 3TB drives but loos like its too late for that

Else it should work fine for what you have in mind.

 

[Michael Dimech]

Ah buying new only - there would have been quite a few deals on the aftermarket, but thats your choice
-CPU is boxed so will include a cooler which is completely sufficient
-If you are planning to run FreeNas on bare metal with the 804 case you only need 1-2 expansion slot(s) (12 drives natively from the case, maybe a 4:1/6:1 adapter in the 5,25" slot gives you 18 drives max.
Board has 8 Sata ports + 8 from an expansion card is 16 - should cover you
-I wouldn't have gotten the 3TB drives but loos like its too late for that

Else it should work fine for what you have in mind.

I only have one of those 3TB disks for now - and I'll be getting 3 others to have a RAID10 config.

Quite frankly, I would also choose 4,6 or even 8TB disks to start with - I just don't have the budget for those right now, and I'd like some performance and redundancy increase which is why I'm opting for those 3TB drives. The second set of RAID 10 drives would definitely be 5+TB.