X8DTU-F processors/motherboard and idle TDP (Xeon/iX)

[WeekendWarrior]

@T_Minus recently pointed me to the X8DTU-F motherboard as a foundation for an inexpensive NAS. At first blush it seems like a great suggestion because it has IPMI and does come cheap on ebay (<$100USD).

However, the operating TDP for many of the Xeon processors is too high for NAS applications unless these processors have a standby mode with a lot lower power. Standby probably isn't a big consideration for Supermicro or for their typical customers but it is for me.

So my couple questions related to this subject are:

1. Do any of the Xeon 5500/5600 processors have a standby mode where power can drop to some nominal level (<20W) when not in use? I see that several single-core versions exist that have pretty low TDP so I'm already aware of those. A pointer for a good place to continue my research would be great.

2. Any way to know what the TDP of the X8DTU-F motherboard itself would be? Couldn't find that on the SM website after doing a moderate amount of searching (and google). If it's only a couple watts that's fine but it could be more.

3. Would this motherboard support an i7 1366 chip? Those would have standby modes etc.

Thanks in advance --
Dave

 

[Patrick]

Dave,

I think your best bet would be to find a L5630 or L5639 / L5640. Those are lower voltage parts. The IOH on that generation of motherboard actually used a LOT of power so you are right that the motherboards use more, especially the dual IOH chips. At the time, the 5500 series (45nm) was a major breakthrough in idle power consumption and the 32nm (5600 Westmere parts) were the next step. If you do go for that generation, L for low power then a 5600 series chip is a best bet. You can use a single chip and a single IOH configuration to use the least amount of power but it is going to be much higher than a Haswell-EP or Broadwell-DE system. Odds are you will spend less on power with a L5630 than the differential to a Broadwell-DE over two or three years.

Another thing to look at if you do not need the massive PCIe lanes and memory is a Xeon E3. A E3 V2 or V3 would not be that much more, it would be faster and have lower idle power consumption. The downside is only 32GB RAM. But you can have a nice ZFS NAS at 8GB. One other thought: Atom C2550/ C2558. They are slightly more, decently fast and you can max out a 16GB system in the sub 30w range.

Just as a reference point: I have basically every server platform one could want and I use a C2750 based nas4free box on a daily basis.

 

[WeekendWarrior]

Thanks, Patrick. I recall your C2750 review and will probably want to look pretty hard at it again. I will also look at the L56xx parts you suggest.

 

[T_Minus]

I specifically mentioned the L5639 in my suggestion too

I also agree with @Patrick, the E3 systems can be had "all in one" cheap if you keep an eye out too!! Sips power, idles way down, etc...

 

[WeekendWarrior]

I specifically mentioned the L5639 in my suggestion too

I also agree with @Patrick, the E3 systems can be had "all in one" cheap if you keep an eye out too!! Sips power, idles way down, etc...

Yeah the problem with putting 3 or 4 good things in one post is that one falls under the radar :^0 SM 1366 motherboard ... check; around $125 for mb+processor ... check; Intel 320 SSD ... check; specifically the L5639 ... (silence)

 

[T_Minus]

LOL, understand that. I tend to brain dump on forums, often.

Wait.
Here I go again.


The nice thing about the RDIMMs are that they're cheap.

(E3 would require RAM bundle, or 2 killer deals IMHO, or if you care that much about power or as mentioned ram/mobo/cpu bundle is probably best for newer gear $$ saving)

Interestingly...

RE: RDIMM & E3

From Intel Docs:
Note: "No RDIMM support; ”Not Supported” configurations may still boot"


So, has anyone tried some cheap RDIMMs with SM board and E3?

There could be some interesting upgrades coming for a lot of us if this is the case I'd imagine I've got some SM and Intel boards to try this on.

 

[tubeamps]

I have a X8DTH-6F with 2 x L5630s in a Supermicro CSE216 with low powered fans and a platinum 500W PSU. The system is in a state of flux right now, but I could plug it into the Kill-A-Watt if that would help. I think there is a full review of this board on the main site. I was about to say that power consumption should be similar, but I think my board has dual IOHs which consume a lot of power themselves.

For the money this has made an excellent virtualization platform because of all of the slots and onboard functionality. Honestly, though I think this board it is on it's way out. I think I'm going to keep the case, but I don't think this motherboard makes sense.

My main workstation is a Lenovo TS140 with E3-1225 and 16GB ECC. Near idle (with 2 drives and an extra NIC) the machine draws less than 30W if I remember correctly. There aren't a lot of drive bays, but there is certainly room for more. And if you're using SSDs you can be creative. This goes for around $300.

If you're using 3.5" drives the TS440 might also be a good choice. The mobo is very similar to the TS140, but the case is much bigger. A version with an E3-1245v3, 2 backplanes and hardware RAID card has recently been $375-$400. It has 8 3.5" hot swap bays, but you'll need to buy the caddies at around $15 each. I believe the PSU is redundant, but comes with 1 node.

Note...If you're going ZFS one thing to consider is that ECC udimms are fairly expensive (~$80 for an 8GB stick)

Another option is to go with something like the 50W E5-2418L that has been posted in Hot Deals for $99. You could go single or dual processor, but note if only install 1 processor on a 2 processor board some memory and PCIe slots won't work. There are some pretty good deals on Tyan and Intel boards on ebay. With some of the Intel boards you can get an onboard SAS HBA and 2 or 4 i350 NICs which may be worth a similar amount to the board. Another nice thing is that it takes registered ECC. One big advantage is that the boards generally have 6 registered memory slots per processor and it's easy to find DDR3L-12800 for under $50 for an 8GB stick and ~$100 for 16GB.

The new Atom boards are also really interesting. I'm looking into them for some PFSense and ZFS builds. Becareful to check that these meet your needs though. Onboard SATA is usually limited and some boards only have 1 or 2 PCIe 2.0 slots. That can be problematic if you want to add multiple HBAs or 10gb NICs. If gigabit ethernet meets your needs they have lots of onboard i354 NICs.