New Home Server Build : X11SRM-F + Xeon W-2135

[zecas]

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a home server, the objective would be to provide a centralized storage to everyone the house, and at the same time having some additional services available.

The idea would be to install proxmox, with some VMs and containers to provide the services and further improve my network infrastructure (for instance pfsense, pi-hole, maybe wireguard in the future)

Also one of the VMs would be a truenas, with dedicated sata controllers (passthrough) and higher capacity disks for storage, as I'm in huge need for a NAS storage device.

So looking at some refurbished parts, I was thinking about a solution with the following items:
- Motherboard: Supermicro X11SRM-F (microATX, Intel C422 LGA-2066, DDR4) - 300€ (refurbished);
- Processor: Intel Xeon W-2135 (6-CORE, 8.25M, 3.70GHZ, SR3LN) - 88€ (refurbished);
- Memory: 2x 32GB RDIMM ECC REG DDR4-2666, Samsung M393A4K40BB2-CTD (for a total of 64Gb, leaving 2 banks free for further expansion if needed) - 2x 55€ (refurbished).
- HDD Disks: 4x HGST Ultrastar He10 HUH721010ALE604 10Tb - 4x 100€ (refurbished) or Western Digital Pro WD4003FFBX 4Tb (7200rpm, 256Mb) - 4x 160€ (new)
- SSD Disks: 4x Samsung MZ-7LH2400 PM883 240Gb (I already own them, will be used as raidz mirror for VMs, maybe buy some 480Gb if found at good price);
- SSD Disks: 2x some other cheaper SSD disks for a proxmox OS installation in mirror.

For the HDD disks the refurbished one would have a significantly lower price and huge difference in size, I already bought some refurbished HDD SAS disks in the past that are working flawlessly for a couple of years holding some VMs on 2 other servers, and this disks will now be bought for storing important data like personal documents, photos, so I hope they would work with no issues (still I would test them on arrival prior to putting them to work). Purchasing new disks would lower the total capacity and would cost more, maybe being new disks would be a safer bet, but then again, the difference in quality (HGST enterprise vs WD Red Pro) would also be distinct.

Also the processor on specs looks to me an good processor for the job, 6-core 12-thread would be good for virtualization, but would it be a good candidate in practice?

The motherboard looks a nice small factor piece of hardware, with some nice expansion slots to add my HDD controllers and even an M2 slot for some more performace storage. I would probably put a disk on M2 for testing/building VMs prior to move them to the raidz VM storage.

Can anyone confirm that the backplate of a microATX board if the same standard size of an ATX board? I believe it is, if I checked correctly on the ATX specs, but I must be sure so to be able to choose a proper case.

Do you think the hardware will fit the job? What is your opinion on this setup?


I would very much appreciate any options about this hardware.

Thank you.

 

[zack$]

You should look into getting the VF model for the 4 X nvme occulink ports.

Also, you can get the Mac w-21xxB CPUs at better prices than the regular w-21xx. I can confirm that they work on this MB (picked up a w-2191B).

Finally, w-22xx prices are still too high now but bear in mind the limitations depending on which year your MB was manufactured: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/supermicro-mainboard-x11srm-vf.31787/post-293911

 

[nabsltd]

- Motherboard: Supermicro X11SRM-F (microATX, Intel C422 LGA-2066, DDR4) - 300€ (refurbished);

If you need a true server, then you really want more PCIe slots. I'd go for an X11SRL-F instead, where you have 4x more DIMM slots, and a lot more PCIe slots. The M.2 slot on the X11SRL-F also supports 22110 drives.

If you need to stick with micro-ATX, then definitely do as @zack$ recommends and get the X11SRM-VF. Without the Oculink, those 16 CPU PCIe lanes go nowhere.

 

[zecas]

You should look into getting the VF model for the 4 X nvme occulink ports.

Also, you can get the Mac w-21xxB CPUs at better prices than the regular w-21xx. I can confirm that they work on this MB (picked up a w-2191B).

Finally, w-22xx prices are still too high now but bear in mind the limitations depending on which year your MB was manufactured: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/supermicro-mainboard-x11srm-vf.31787/post-293911

I also checked that VF model, and after some looking around, found that the "only" difference was those occulink ports. At first I thought that was the one to go for, but the price was almost the double and having to go for additional cables (maybe even proprietary ones?) would not help either.

But maybe it would be better to reconsider...

If you need a true server, then you really want more PCIe slots. I'd go for an X11SRL-F instead, where you have 4x more DIMM slots, and a lot more PCIe slots. The M.2 slot on the X11SRL-F also supports 22110 drives.

If you need to stick with micro-ATX, then definitely do as @zack$ recommends and get the X11SRM-VF. Without the Oculink, those 16 CPU PCIe lanes go nowhere.

Well, I don't need to stick for micro-ATX, I will most probably install it on an ATX case, because for such an amount of disks, it is hard to find a small case for the job, and even then, it would not be easy to keep temperatures to an acceptable level...

That Supermicro X11SRL-F looks great, very similar to the X11SRM-F / X11SRM-VF models, with more PCIe and memory slots for expansion. The price I can find is around 600€ which is double the price, but I'll check around for better deals.

Anyone knows if there is any important notes regarding the BIOS version/firmware to support more recent processors?



Thank you for your help.

 

[nabsltd]

The price I can find is around 600€ which is double the price, but I'll check around for better deals.

Wow, those prices have jumped. When I bought my X11SRA new for $350, I was considering a X11SRL, but I didn't want the IPMI (which means no individual fan control) since I was going to use it as my workstation, and there is no non-F version of the X11SRL. At the time, the price was only about US$500 (new), but the best I can find now is over $800 (used).

You should probably look at the X11SPL-F. It's a true server board (the SRA and SRL are workstation) and drops the x16 slot, but has six x8 slot. You can get first-gen scalable Xeon CPUs pretty cheap. Used prices for the board are about US$450.

Anyone knows if there is any important notes regarding the BIOS version/firmware to support more recent processors?

The X11Sxx line supported the first gen (W-21xx and 1st gen scalable Xeon) with the first BIOS. I don't know how much of the 2nd gen they supported from the start, but my X11SRA supported the W-22xx with no BIOS update, and I have updated the BIOS twice (immediately with a beta to fix a specific problem with only being able to enter setup once after a CMOS clear).

 

[zecas]

Wow, those prices have jumped. When I bought my X11SRA new for $350, I was considering a X11SRL, but I didn't want the IPMI (which means no individual fan control) since I was going to use it as my workstation, and there is no non-F version of the X11SRL. At the time, the price was only about US$500 (new), but the best I can find now is over $800 (used).

You should probably look at the X11SPL-F. It's a true server board (the SRA and SRL are workstation) and drops the x16 slot, but has six x8 slot. You can get first-gen scalable Xeon CPUs pretty cheap. Used prices for the board are about US$450.


The X11Sxx line supported the first gen (W-21xx and 1st gen scalable Xeon) with the first BIOS. I don't know how much of the 2nd gen they supported from the start, but my X11SRA supported the W-22xx with no BIOS update, and I have updated the BIOS twice (immediately with a beta to fix a specific problem with only being able to enter setup once after a CMOS clear).

Yep, seems that the pandemic helped allot the refurbished businesses.

Interesting you say the SPL is "server" and SRA/SRL are "workstations", I didn't have a clue about that modelling guideline. Can you please explain on why it that? What are the main differences?

I also found a MBD-X11SRL-F-O and MBD-X11SRL-F-B boards selling, do you or anyone else by any chance know what is the O/B difference? Should be something regarding region or global availability?

I find more deals from china, but they are a bit higher in price, anyway I don't know about you guys, but I'm very reluctant on buying from china. I know, most probably they are manufactured there, or at least most part of the components, but still...

Edit:
Oh, and regarding BIOS updates, are we able to download and install them, or do we have to send the boards for supermicro to do it? I've read that people sent boards to be updated, but maybe in situations where hardware change was required?


Thanks

 

[mrpasc]

do you or anyone else by any chance know what is the O/B difference? Should be something regarding region or global availability?

It’s to mark if it’s „Bulk“ packaging (B) or „Retail“ packaging (O). Only difference: Retail comes with a printed quick install guide and sometimes some additional cables (Sata and so on).

 

[nexox]

Interesting you say the SPL is "server" and SRA/SRL are "workstations", I didn't have a clue about that modelling guideline. Can you please explain on why it that? What are the main differences?

The Supermicro code is usually that the second letter indicates the socket, for X11 P is LGA3467, R is 2066, then the last letter sort of indicates usage, with A for workstation boards which have things like more USB ports and a built in sound card. The SRL uses a workstation CPU socket, but comes with IPMI and onboard video, so it's arguably in between, probably for people who were happy with their single socket Broadwell servers and didn't want to pay the huge price increase for LGA3647 Xeon Scalable systems, or who really needed high clocks and didn't really benefit from huge core counts.

 

[nabsltd]

Interesting you say the SPL is "server" and SRA/SRL are "workstations", I didn't have a clue about that modelling guideline. Can you please explain on why it that? What are the main differences?

In addition to what @nexox said, single CPU "workstation" Supermicro boards tend to have the DIMM slots parallel to the back panel connectors, while "server" boards have the DIMM slots perpendicular to the back panel. This is because servers (and any dual CPU board) pretty much universally use front-to-back airflow, while desktop boards (of which "workstation" is the high-end version) are often put in cases with a bottom-to-top airflow.

But, it makes zero sense, as Supermicro puts both types of boards in their 4U tower cases, which are all front-to-back airflow.

 

[piranha32]

The Supermicro code is usually that the second letter indicates the socket, for X11 P is LGA3467, R is 2066, then the last letter sort of indicates usage, with A for workstation boards which have things like more USB ports and a built in sound card. The SRL uses a workstation CPU socket, but comes with IPMI and onboard video, so it's arguably in between, probably for people who were happy with their single socket Broadwell servers and didn't want to pay the huge price increase for LGA3647 Xeon Scalable systems, or who really needed high clocks and didn't really benefit from huge core counts.

Is the naming scheme documented somewhere?

 

[nexox]

Is the naming scheme documented somewhere?

Not that I know if, I've just reverse engineered it from looking at their products so many times, and there are definitely exceptions (eg X11DDW and X11SDW, which have LGA3647 sockets just like the DP and SP boards.) I don't really understand the small Xeon / Core / Atom boards with LGA 1150, 1151, 1200, 1700 and such sockets, seems like there are multiple middle letters for the same socket, perhaps it's something to do with the chipset. The first letter after the generation is at least pretty consistent for the number of sockets, S=Single, D=Dual, Q=Quad.

 

[alaricljs]

In various pages and maybe not up to date (seeing as how X13 is a thing) and also dropping older boards too...

Motherboards (Intel UP) | Product Naming Conventions | Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Intel UP Product Naming Conventions

www.supermicro.com

 

[tubs-ffm]

The idea would be to install proxmox, with some VMs and containers to provide the services and further improve my network infrastructure (for instance pfsense, pi-hole, maybe wireguard in the future)
[...]
- Processor: Intel Xeon W-2135 (6-CORE, 8.25M, 3.70GHZ, SR3LN) - 88€ (refurbished);

Did you chose this combination with 6 cores on purpose?
For virtualization, I personally would go with more cores and compromise with lower single core speed.

Blast from the past.
When I upgraded my old server, I was looking for a long time to get hardware like Skylake like you or newer. I could not find good deals and went with older staff where I got "more bang for the bug". I do not want to confuse you in your plans. Just want to share what I got for cheep money
- Intel Xeon E5-2698 V3 16 core
- Supermicro X10SRH-CLN4F