New 32TB Home Server/Workstation Build

[TType85]

Build’s Name: No official name yet
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Unraid 6.2 or Linux
CPU: E5-2686 V3 (ES) 18-core
HSF: Noctua 2011 cooler
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SRA-F
Chassis: Corsair Carbide 200R
Drives: 8x 4TB Seagate 2.5" Drives (26TB useable with 1 parity drive), 2x Sandisk 480GB SSD
RAM: 64GB DDR4 ECC
Add-in Cards: GTX 970, GTX 1070, 2x USB3 Cards
Power Supply: 850W EVGA G2
Other Bits: Cooling to be determined, Vantec 8 bay 2.5" hotswap chassis.

Purpose/Goal:
I have been wanting to do this build for a while, the fact that the 4TB 2.5" drives are available at a good price now made me do it. The goal of the build is to have a file/KVM server that hosts a few VM's passing through a USB card and video card to each. My wife will be running off 1 vm with the 760 and I will have the 970. I might replace them with 1060's if the price is right. If I go the Linux route I will be using Snapraid to give a bit of security to my data.

I already have my 970 in a dual 2670/2600CP2j board passing through to a windows 10 vm on an Unraid system and it works well. I see about 90% of the GTX970's performance and that is on a pcie 8x slot. This build will replace my dual 2670, 128GB, 21TB build and it will go up for sale here when it is done.

I am currently waiting on a replacement motherboard since the first one they sent out had 2 bad usb ports.
Here is a Cinebench preview of the 18 core processor (and the GTX760) bare metal with windows 10.

 

[BLinux]

hey! nice machine... i like the cooler master case you have.

BTW, I really recommend you use double parity with that many 4TB drives. i was using 8x 3TB drives in a few arrays here and I frequently ran into Uncorrectable Read Errors; one of them resulting in total data loss of an array (had backups) because it happened during a rebuild when a drive failed. These days, I you have to have double parity if you're doing traditional RAID or even ZFS raid. Just a suggestion...

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

It's absolutely nuts that you can fit so much data into two 5.25 bays. I have an AIO with 8 4TB drives - they take up a lot more real-estate.

 

[Patrick]

Nice @TType85 - after getting back to the US I was thinking about using two 4-in-1 backplanes with the Seagate drives to do something very similar. Now I am thinking of using small mITX cases and doing Docker + Ceph nodes.

 

[TType85]

hey! nice machine... i like the cooler master case you have.

BTW, I really recommend you use double parity with that many 4TB drives. i was using 8x 3TB drives in a few arrays here and I frequently ran into Uncorrectable Read Errors; one of them resulting in total data loss of an array (had backups) because it happened during a rebuild when a drive failed. These days, I you have to have double parity if you're doing traditional RAID or even ZFS raid. Just a suggestion...

I will most likely use double parity. The nice thing about using snapraid or unraid is that even if a 2nd drive fails I only loose some of the data (I have everything important backed up). 99% of the data is movies and tv shows that can be re-ripped.

 

[TType85]

Here is 7 of the 8 drives, the 8th has been shucked and I tossed the box.

New motherboard got here and tested good. Hopefully I have time tonight to get it together.

 

[NashBrydges]

hey! nice machine... i like the cooler master case you have.

BTW, I really recommend you use double parity with that many 4TB drives. i was using 8x 3TB drives in a few arrays here and I frequently ran into Uncorrectable Read Errors; one of them resulting in total data loss of an array (had backups) because it happened during a rebuild when a drive failed. These days, I you have to have double parity if you're doing traditional RAID or even ZFS raid. Just a suggestion...

No one is using these consumer drives in a standard RAID config are they? I've been bitten too many times with drives dropping because of TLER that I've stayed away from consumer desktop drives for many years now.

 

[TType85]

No one is using these consumer drives in a standard RAID config are they? I've been bitten too many times with drives dropping because of TLER that I've stayed away from consumer desktop drives for many years now.

Nope, using either unraid or snapraid (pretty much not raid)

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

No one is using these consumer drives in a standard RAID config are they? I've been bitten too many times with drives dropping because of TLER that I've stayed away from consumer desktop drives for many years now.

Can't speak for the 2.5" 4T's (I have some but I don't use them in RAID arrays) but I've had zero problems for years with using WD greens in soft RAID once the idle timer is disabled. Don't think I'd trust them with a hardware RAID controller though. But probably something for another thread

 

[TType85]

Looks like the HAF XB is not going to work for what I need. Putting it together this morning I realized that it doesn't have room to have a GPU in the last PCIe slot. This wouldn't be so bad but I would really like to be able to put in a HBA if I need more than 10 SATA ports. (cards are 2x double slot GPU's, 2x USB3 5 port cards, possibly 1x HBA)

I picked up a Corsair 750D at lunch, it will fit everything (and more) and will have better cable management to boot.
EDIT: Nope, Vantec 8 bay 2.5" does not fit in the 750D... Phanteks Enthoo Pro ordered.

I have a spare P40ooM I would love to use but it has the same issue as the HAF XB (plus I would need to do some fabrication to get a regular ATX powersupply to work along with the front panel connections using a ribbon connector.

 

[TType85]

Vantec 8 Bay is going back to Amazon. I picked up 2 Monoprice 4 2.5 in 1 5.25 adapters cheaper and don't have to worry as much about case fit. I was able to find them cheaper than the Vantec one.

 

[britinpdx]

I have a spare P40ooM I would love to use but it has the same issue as the HAF XB (plus I would need to do some fabrication to get a regular ATX powersupply to work along with the front panel connections using a ribbon connector.

This was my solution to be able to use a Supermicro (non-SSI) motherboard in a P4000M chassis .. use a M-F ribbon cable for point to point connection between SSI front panel pinout and SM front panel pinout. I simply tore off enough wires to get the basics operational. Power, reset, Power LED, HDD LED etc. A little ghetto but it works !

 

[Vlad]

TType85,

If you don't mind, how much did each of the drives set you back? I think NewEgg has them for about $119.
Was it difficult to get the drives out of the plastic case & how did you do it?
I think it voids the warranty on the drive, removing it from the case?

Thanks!

 

[katit]

Vlad, See in "Deals" section huge thread about those drives and instructions on how to open them up on main site. I think they down to $99 if you catch them on Amazon

 

[TType85]

TType85,

If you don't mind, how much did each of the drives set you back? I think NewEgg has them for about $119.
Was it difficult to get the drives out of the plastic case & how did you do it?
I think it voids the warranty on the drive, removing it from the case?

Thanks!

I paid on average about $105 each with tax shipped. The drives were not to bad to pull out but you are right there is no warranty once removed from the case. I tested each before removing them. At the price I don't mind buying a extra one or two to have as spares.

 

[TType85]

Updates!

Moved system in to a Corsair Carbide 200R for now. Running 1x GTX 1070, 1x GTX 970 and 2 USB 3 cards. Video performance is 95% of what it ran bare metal. 2 VM's in Unraid each with a video card and usb card passed to them. I am working at copying multiple TB of data over now.




Heaven Benchmark running on both at the same time (970 on the left)


GTX 970 (Non OC'd)


GTX 1070 (Non OC'd)

Bare metal I got around 2150 score on this card, OC'd I can get over 2500.