Silver or Gold? Homelab component choices.

[Snapwolf]

First thread for a long time lurker.

I'm in the process of building what I would consider my first "real" homelab server, graduating from old laptops to rack mount hardware. I've been slowly accumulating components since prices have started coming down and as I find deals, and I've ended up with some choices to make.

Current Specs:
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SPI-TF-O
CPU: Xeon Gold 6138 ES or Silver 4114
Memory: 64Gb (2x32) DDR4 2400 ECC Registered
Boot device: Micron 7300 Pro M.2 980Gb
Storage: 3x 16Tb Seagate Exos in Raidz1
Networking: Intel Pro 1000 Quad Port Server Adapter or Intel i350 Dual Port network adapter
PSU: Supermicro PWS-605P-1H

Might add someday:
2x 8Tb SSD, mirrored, for personal photos/document storage
Inexpensive/Low power GPU for transcoding and other homelab uses

This will run proxmox and mainly be used as a home storage server, personal cloud, homelab, torrent box, and I'd like to at least try running my home firewall virtualized with the network card passed through (I'm aware of the drawbacks and can always fallback to my current setup). The highest load will come from remuxing bluray rips. The goal is to build it somewhat overpowered for growth, yet still relatively energy and cost efficient.

Which CPU should I go with? Leaning towards the 4114 due to lower TDP, and I think 10 cores is enough for a while.
Which network card? Both are 1Gbe. I don't think I need 4 ports, so I'm leaning towards the i350 as I suspect it will have slightly lower power draw.

Finally, I have a 3x80mm hot swappable fan chassis and a dynatron 2u cooler. I want to replace the jet engines with noctua fans, as my home layout drives the server to be on the other side of one interior wall from my living room. Will this be enough cooling? The only room I have to add fans would fit 3 40mm in the rear of the case above the IO, but I suspect these won't be needed.

 

[BlueFox]

If you don't already have that motherboard you're probably better off with something from the E5 v4 generation due to cost/performance. Also not sure why you'd want another network card when you already have a high end Intel 10GbE NIC integrated into the motherboard. Last thing worth mentioning is that you really want 6 sticks of RAM, not 2, otherwise you're only going to have 1/3rd of the possible memory bandwidth.

 

[Snapwolf]

If you don't already have that motherboard you're probably better off with something from the E5 v4 generation due to cost/performance. Also not sure why you'd want another network card when you already have a high end Intel 10GbE NIC integrated into the motherboard. Last thing worth mentioning is that you really want 6 sticks of RAM, not 2, otherwise you're only going to have 1/3rd of the possible memory bandwidth.

Thanks for your response!

I see your point on the E5v4 gen. I got a pretty good deal on this board/cpu/cooler from a member of this forum so the price difference was much closer, plus m.2 onboard is helpful in my short 2u case.

For the RAM, I probably jumped the gun on a decent deal on these sticks. I did want to leave room to grow, but I've been considering posting them up for trade for 4-6x 16Gb sticks - just wasn't sure if it's worth the effort.

The current plan is to leave the 10GbE both for LAN and pass through the 1GbE card to opnsense. I like the idea of the WAN port being isolated, and I only have 400Mbps from the ISP anyway.

I'm totally open to being wrong. This is the first time I've been able to talk to anyone about my project since none of my family/friends are knowledgeable on the subject.

 

[Snapwolf]

Update:

With the Gold cpu and i350 installed, the system idols at about 80W in its current state with only one HDD. I’m pretty happy with that, so I’ll be posting my silver 4114 up for sale. Even if it idols as low as 60W with the silver, it would take several years to make up the difference between selling the silver and gold.