My build is finally up and running, can post little NAS/HTPC combo:
-Sliger Cerberus
-Xeon E5-2683v3 (14 Cores @ 2.0Ghz)
-128Gb DDR4 2400 ECC REG.
-Asrock Rack EPC612D4U-2T8R
-Asus RTX 2070 Dual Mini OC.
-Samsung PM1725 NVMe 3.2Tb
-Seagate Nytro 3330 15.36Tb SAS SSD
-Corsair SF450 Platinum
-Few SSDs and Noctua fans.
Picked up this interesting board long time ago. This is one of few boards that have 10G NIC and onboard SAS controller. On top of that it have 3x PCIe slots. Initially I planned for NAS/HTPC with 8x drives, but I picked up 15Tb SAS SSD instead. More then enough for 10G network.
ESXi installed on NVME drive, so I can passthrough onboard USB controllers into Windows VM. To make life easier I had partition my NVME drive with multiple namespaces: that way you can reinstall ESXi and don't lose your datastore.
Because of SAS ports onboard I needed short videocard. Initially picked Radeon 5500XT, but it got "Navi reset bug." It can be solved with kernel patch if you use Unraid, but I run ESXi. I was readling lots of scary stories about Nvidia and passthrough, but it was way easier then I expected: no need to modify drives or anything like that, in fact I can even overclock my card: 2070Mhz Core, and 14120Mhz memory.
So far I have Windows VM (with RTX and USB controllers), NAS VM with SAS controller passed through and dozen smaller VM's to play with. NAS VM acts as NFS target, so I can store less-critical VM's on big 15Tb drive.
System runs cool and silent, thanks to two 140mm fans on bottom and big Noctua C14S on CPU. Oficially, that cooler doesn't suport 2011-Narrow ILM mount, but if you ask nicely, you can get extra brackets. 14-Core CPU stays around 49-52C. Videocard idles at 33C, 68-72C when gaming.
That leaves me with extra PCIe slots in case I decide to add extra GPU, SSD drive or extra USB controller.
In the end:
-10Gbps network
-15-20Tb of storage.
-Dozen VMs
-Can play games.
-All in compact and silent case.
More photos here:
Here's crystaldiskmark from VM on same host using P3600 drive.
1 drive - system drive (VMDK Stored on Intel P3600 NVME)
2nd drive - Same drive via Network (Another VMDK connected to NAS VM)
3rd drive: Nytro connected to NAS VM. Via Network of course.
Here's performance of PM1725 drive, same as #1 above. Haven't tested network performance yet.
-Sliger Cerberus
-Xeon E5-2683v3 (14 Cores @ 2.0Ghz)
-128Gb DDR4 2400 ECC REG.
-Asrock Rack EPC612D4U-2T8R
-Asus RTX 2070 Dual Mini OC.
-Samsung PM1725 NVMe 3.2Tb
-Seagate Nytro 3330 15.36Tb SAS SSD
-Corsair SF450 Platinum
-Few SSDs and Noctua fans.
Picked up this interesting board long time ago. This is one of few boards that have 10G NIC and onboard SAS controller. On top of that it have 3x PCIe slots. Initially I planned for NAS/HTPC with 8x drives, but I picked up 15Tb SAS SSD instead. More then enough for 10G network.
ESXi installed on NVME drive, so I can passthrough onboard USB controllers into Windows VM. To make life easier I had partition my NVME drive with multiple namespaces: that way you can reinstall ESXi and don't lose your datastore.
Because of SAS ports onboard I needed short videocard. Initially picked Radeon 5500XT, but it got "Navi reset bug." It can be solved with kernel patch if you use Unraid, but I run ESXi. I was readling lots of scary stories about Nvidia and passthrough, but it was way easier then I expected: no need to modify drives or anything like that, in fact I can even overclock my card: 2070Mhz Core, and 14120Mhz memory.
So far I have Windows VM (with RTX and USB controllers), NAS VM with SAS controller passed through and dozen smaller VM's to play with. NAS VM acts as NFS target, so I can store less-critical VM's on big 15Tb drive.
System runs cool and silent, thanks to two 140mm fans on bottom and big Noctua C14S on CPU. Oficially, that cooler doesn't suport 2011-Narrow ILM mount, but if you ask nicely, you can get extra brackets. 14-Core CPU stays around 49-52C. Videocard idles at 33C, 68-72C when gaming.
That leaves me with extra PCIe slots in case I decide to add extra GPU, SSD drive or extra USB controller.
In the end:
-10Gbps network
-15-20Tb of storage.
-Dozen VMs
-Can play games.
-All in compact and silent case.
More photos here:
Here's crystaldiskmark from VM on same host using P3600 drive.
1 drive - system drive (VMDK Stored on Intel P3600 NVME)
2nd drive - Same drive via Network (Another VMDK connected to NAS VM)
3rd drive: Nytro connected to NAS VM. Via Network of course.
Here's performance of PM1725 drive, same as #1 above. Haven't tested network performance yet.
