Sorting our RAM choice for X10SDV-4C-7TP4F

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Hi all, first time posting though I've been lurking for many months now. This forum has been hugely informative, and @Patrick your site is very unique in having useful coverage and a meaningful forum that doesn't venture off into nonsense. Also, bar none, this site has the best Xeon-D coverage and info I've found.

I've been mulling over a build up of a home NAS solution for a while now, but when a fiber to the home solution was made available in my neighborhood, I changed my original motherboard choice from being an Avoton/Rangley board to Xeon-D acting as an All-In-One running ESX with a VM running pfSense or Sophos and a separate one running a ZFS on Linux solution (using an LSI HBA as a VTd passthrough device.) I studied this site, and watched Wiredzone's pages waiting for a second gen Xeon-D board to my liking to come in stock. While waiting, I realized that having an AIO solution wouldn't be the wisest thing in the world, since my significant other wouldn't appreciate any network downtime due to my "learning" exercises... so I procured a Netgate RCC 2440 and put pfSense on it (after trying out Sophos on it) and have a stable network firewall solution.

All that background established, I sent a note to Wiredzone this past weekend asking to be informed when the X10SDV-4C-7TP4F came in stock. I got a reply back on Monday saying one was available, order placed, and now it is sitting in my house. This happened much quicker than I anticipated, so I'm way behind on ordering the rest of the components for my system. This system will be a home NAS box number one, with potential extra duties being ELK processing of pfSense logs, and possibly picking up some sort of media ripping/archiving/plex-type duties. Yes, probably overkill for a home NAS box, but I am purposely over provisioning since getting the opportunity to do significant home lab/infrastructure upgrades is not very often.

Things I'm 100% set on:

• Motherboard is: X10SDV-4C-7TP4F
• Data drives will be NL-SAS. Total capacity not yet determined, but trending to 6x 3TB or 4TB drives in three mirrored vdevs as the zpool. I really like Jim Salter's article on why using this approach found at ZFS: You should use mirror vdevs, not RAIDZ. | JRS Systems: the blog
• OS drives will be a pair of mirrored SATA SSD's.
• O/S will be Linux - likely the upcoming Ubuntu LTS 16.04 release, file system for data drives will be ZFS
• Near term networking will be 1 Gb, but I'm glad that there are the 2 10 Gb ports for one-day future expansion

Things not so set yet, but pretty firm:

• RAM quantity will be 64 GB, likely the Samsung 32 GB M393A4K40BB0-CPB0 x2 - though I really would like feedback from those here on this memory operating with Super Micro Xeon-D motherboards.
• Chassis will be ??

Things I've not yet made deep consideration about, but need to quickly:

• The motherboard has the 16 port LSI 2116 on it, so I will have oceans of upgrade opportunity. The chassis should probably comprehend this.
• I therefore need to select an appropriate power supply.
• Ideally this box won't be mega loud - so an at least somewhat quiet chassis will have to be identified.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback / gotcha's you all may see with this, as well as thoughts or feedback on the above RAM. "It works on my SM Xeon-D" would be awesome confirmation.

Thanks!

 

[Patrick]

I know I have bought these before: 1 x 32GB Samsung PC4 PC4-2133P DDR4 2Rx4 Registered Memory for HP Dell Servers and use them in a bunch of Xeon D configurations.

Given the pricing of 32GB RDIMMs, I am just buying those at this point and nothing smaller.

Chassis - rackmount or desktop?

On the PSU, even with 16 disks, my back of the envelope guess is that you are realistically going to use well below 300W at the wall with everything running hard including fans. If you get a 900W PSU, you are not going to have great efficiency. What you do need is enough connectors.

If you are going rackmount, you can probably get an inexpensive bare bones that will solve the power connector issue for you.

 

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Hi Patrick!

Thanks for the quick feedback - for this system my preference will be a tower solution, not rack mount. If my wife and I move, I'll consider going rackmount if I can get a closet properly wired and cooled. (Much bigger project )

Great point on the power supply efficiency, as well as power connector conundrum. I'll be surveying some of the home-NAS tower chassis I looked at a while back - I seem to recall some with SAS hot plug backplanes that were being used, but don't have those bookmarks available to me at the moment. (Job for later tonight.)

Thanks again!

 

[Waq]

Hi all, this forum is really helping to me as well.

I just ordered exactly the same motherboard and MEM-DR432L-SL01-ER21 as it's listed under D-1540 compatibility list on Supermicro website. Hopefully it should work for D-1518.

@SomeGuyInTexas I am planning to use it for exactly the same NAS/networking/security purpose and for same future proof reasons. Additionally, I will try to pass-through GPU as well for gaming.

Cheers

 

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Well, it appears that all of the chassis that I'd bookmarked before were for mini-ITX boards, so this flexATX board won't fit. I've been looking at doing the Fractal 804 route and similar, but am trending now to giving up on small/compact home NAS and biting the bullet and going full tower. At the moment, this guy is front runner:

Supermicro CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ Supermicro CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ Full Tower​

At 66 lbs and $385, with an 865W PSU, this is much bigger than I originally was thinking - BUT - the thought of doing the SAS cable routing / power cable routing without a hot-plug SAS/SATA backplane is totally unappealing.

Anybody use one of these chassis in any mATX/flexATX builds?

 

[nthu9280]

Though I don't have any experience with this chassis, it looks really nice. You may also want to consider Intel P4000M chassis that has been used by many of the folks here on the E5-2670 builds if you are looking at tower chassis. The initial list price by EBay seller is quite high but has been accepting very reasonable 100-120 range. I'm replying on my phone not sure how to provide the links. But check the huge thread under the deals section of the forum

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[SomeGuyInTexas]

Though I don't have any experience with this chassis, it looks really nice. You may also want to consider Intel P4000M chassis that has been used by many of the folks here on the E5-2670 builds if you are looking at tower chassis. The initial list price by EBay seller is quite high but has been accepting very reasonable 100-120 range. I'm replying on my phone not sure how to provide the links. But check the huge thread under the deals section of the forum

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info... I haven't been much of an EBay user, so almost never go looking there. I may have to broaden my horizons.



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[nthu9280]

Thanks for the info... I haven't been much of an EBay user, so almost never go looking there. I may have to broaden my horizons.



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I wasn't either before this build.
The E5-2670 thread can be overwhelming with ~1800 messages.
This specific seller KalleyOmalley (OEM XS) primarily carries Intel surplus New In Box (NIB) items and folks have been getting what I consider rock bottom prices.
If you make offer on multiple items you can ask for combined invoice to optimize shipping costs.
Look for P4216xxmhgr they accept $100-110 range. Comes with dual hot swap 750w Platinum PS & HS SAS/SATA cage for 16 x 2.5 drives.
P4308 variant comes with 8x3.5 HS cage.
There are other variants with smaller power supplies but they are gold/silver.
Hope this helps

p4000m can accept boards all the way upto SSI EEB. Check ark.intel.com for specs and more details




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[SomeGuyInTexas]

I wasn't either before this build.
The E5-2670 thread can be overwhelming with ~1800 messages.
This specific seller KalleyOmalley (OEM XS) primarily carries Intel surplus New In Box (NIB) items and folks have been getting what I consider rock bottom prices.
If you make offer on multiple items you can ask for combined invoice to optimize shipping costs.
Look for P4216xxmhgr they accept $100-110 range. Comes with dual hot swap 750w Platinum PS & HS SAS/SATA cage for 16 x 2.5 drives.
P4308 variant comes with 8x3.5 HS cage.
There are other variants with smaller power supplies but they are gold/silver.
Hope this helps

p4000m can accept boards all the way upto SSI EEB. Check ark.intel.com for specs and more details




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Dang... Awesome, thanks again. Will have to go look through the other thread. I wasn't planning on 2.5 in drives, but I do have 16 ports on the 2116, and that P4216xxmhgr offering would let me have all the SAS ports connected. I just need to balance noise from fans, etc. since the "spousal unit" won't be happy with a noisy box. I just made myself LOL thinking of a response to such a complaint being one explaining redundant power supplies. Let me go read that thread.

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[SomeGuyInTexas]

@nthu9280 Thanks again for the info. After looking through the thread, and debating about those Intel chassis, I decided to go ahead with the SM CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ tower chassis from Wiredzone. The price is a bit higher, but the appeal of quiet chassis and 8 hot swap 3.5" drive bays won out. I also pulled the trigger on these 64GB DIMMs. Samsung M393A4K40BB0-CPB DDR4

Next up, ordering NL-SAS drives.

 

[KJaneway]

Hey SomeGuyInTexas,

can you explain why you want to use mirrored vdevs? I read that article, but I don't get the point. To me it seems less reliable than a raidz2, because in a raid z2, you can loose every two drives, whereas in your scenario you have a chance of around 13% of loosing all your data when a second disk fails...

Do I overlook something?

 

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Hi KJaneway,

Yup, I've gone back and forth on it as well before deciding to go this route. Essentially the judgement call is all based around how big an array is vs. the elements in it successfully being able rebuild without running into a second and then third failing drive. By running mirrored vdevs, a rebuild is as fast as possible - sequential reads from the original member to the newly plugged in replacement drive. Of course, I'll have to be very diligent about monitoring the array - any time a drive has failed, getting a replacement needs to be done ASAP. I've seen many examples where people have run in a degraded state (albeit using hardware RAID) for very long periods of time without taking care of their failed drive(s), and run into data loss situations. I haven't sorted out HOW to do this with ZFS, but do intend to have a "hot spare" drive sitting there in the backplane to kick in as soon as a drive in a vdev goes offline. Hopefully this makes sense.

On my build front, I'm expecting delivery today of my chassis, memory and the first of the drives... Hopefully FedEx doesn't disappoint, and I can start putting it all together this weekend.

 

[KJaneway]

Has your chassis arrived? Can you give a hint on the noise production? How silent is that case really? They call it whisper silent: Would one notice it if its turned on and positioned a few meters away?
What are your impressions?

 

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Has your chassis arrived? Can you give a hint on the noise production? How silent is that case really? They call it whisper silent: Would one notice it if its turned on and positioned a few meters away?
What are your impressions?

Hi KJaneway,

Yes, the chassis has arrived and I've assembled most of it together. One thing I discovered was that although the WiredZone's web page for this chassis mentioned an air shroud, I didn't realize it was an optional item. After talking with WiredZone, I just ordered an air shroud for my motherboard, so I'll have to wait until it comes in to give a final verdict on fan noise. Currently, my processor is getting to almost 80C just idling at an Ubuntu desktop, so the fans are likely running faster than they need to be.

At the moment, I wouldn't call it "whisper" silent - though depending on your environment, it won't be noticeable a few meters away from you. If in an office environment, it wouldn't be noticeable. If in a library, it would be, but it isn't a high pitch/screaming type of fan noise you'd hear in a 1U or blade based chassis.

 

[KJaneway]

Ah very nice. That sounds really good. I am actually choosing a case for my NAS. Most important: Silent, up to 12 3,5" HDDs.
I'm trying to choose between the SM CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ and the Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 RevB. The later is much cheaper (100 vs 400 bucks), supports many more HDDs and 140mm Fans (which should be more silent than 80mm fans). What is your opinion?

 

[SomeGuyInTexas]

Ah very nice. That sounds really good. I am actually choosing a case for my NAS. Most important: Silent, up to 12 3,5" HDDs.
I'm trying to choose between the SM CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ and the Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 RevB. The later is much cheaper (100 vs 400 bucks), supports many more HDDs and 140mm Fans (which should be more silent than 80mm fans). What is your opinion?

Hi KJaneway,

I wanted to follow up after getting an airshroud installed... The chassis does run quiet, and I'm satisfied with the cooling provided to the CPU, which prior to installing the shroud would get into the low to mid 90's C, but afterwards seems to peak at 73 C. I wouldn't call it silent though... I have no experience with the Nanoxia chassis, so I cannot comment on it. It will be hard to find something that is both silent yet can house (and cool) many HDD's, though I am satisfied with the sound levels I'm at now. It is perfectly usable in a home office environment, but isn't something you'd likely want in a bedroom or living room.

I hope this helps...

Best regards.