Bundle for Server build

The Mad One

The Mad One

The Mad One

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Joined
24 Jan 2003
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681
Location
Staffordshire, UK
Hi All, I've recently moved my current server to run the Linux operating system Unraid but I'm getting massive system instability. I'm now resorting to building it with new hardware to try and sort the situation out, I needed to get a new CPU anyway as I want one with VT-d capability to replace the current 3570k.

This is a server build but I'm probably looking at mainstream components, budget is around £500 (cheaper if it can but I am flexible either way). I need only a CPU, Mobo and Ram.

The main requirements are:
CPU with at least 4 cores with hyper threading
CPU and Mobo with VT-x and VT-d support (for virtualization and hardware pass through)
Mobo with at least 8 SATA ports (all 6gb/s if possible), 10 ports would be ideal.
Mobo with onboard GPU
32GB RAM (doesn't need to be fast current rig has 24gb 1600mhz DDR3)
Mobo with dual NIC but not necessary I can live with a PCI-E card.

Stability is the key here so I am looking for recommendations.

Thanks
 
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Been looking at some builds myself, and I'm not sure about hitting the £500 with those requirements, so I've decided the push the budget by another £150. Been looking at the following builds. Not sure whether to go for an i7 build which would get me the fastest processor, a xeon build which would give me the ECC memory but the slowest build (potentially), or a x99 build which would get me a 6 core processor (useful for the vms and dockers I'm planning to run on it).

Mainstream i7 route (£665.97)
Asus Z170-Deluxe
Intel Core i7-6700K
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz

Server Xeon route (£693.38)
Supermicro X11SAE-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1275 v5
32GB Samsung DDR4, PC4-17000 (2133MHz), 288 pin, ECC, Registered

X99 Route (£639.97) + GPU
Asrock X99 Extreme4 3.1 Intel X99
Intel i7-5820K
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz
(downside is I would have to by a cheap gpu as thee x99 boards don't seem to have on board graphics)

Anyone done anything similar for a server/nas build?
 
Anyone? No one has used mainstream stuff for a nas server build?

Regardless I think I prefer the idea of 6 cores so I'm leaning towards the X99 build but maybe swapping the motherboard to something like an Asus X99-E for possible broadwell compatibility.

So for me its deciding whether to go for the x99 or the xenon build which is my main question is it worth it? Will those components give me better stability with the ECC ram and such?.
 
The Mad One said:
Anyone? No one has used mainstream stuff for a nas server build?
Click to expand...

This is for a NAS?
Serving up files is not taxing, so getting 32GB of memory and an i7 is kind of pointless. I'd be looking to spend money on disks or a RAID card.

You've said you want to run VM's on it, it might be worth giving us some info about them - the NAS component might be the least taxing component.
 
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Its mainly for a nas but it will be running the Linux operating system Unraid which will be running about 10 docker containers including plex and a handbrake one for offloading my video encodes from my main machine. It will also be running 2 virtual machines a Windows server and a Linux firewall distro (to be decided), so no it shouldn't be pointless :).

drakioned said:
Are you planning to run this headless?
Click to expand...

Technically yes, unraid only outputs a command line console to the main display output everything is done via web gui. If I go the x99 route I will have to get a cheap fanless gpu to provide this functionality.
 
So, from the top of my head, the problem with VT-d and most "home" motherboards is that they have half-hearted implementations of VT-d. Sometimes the option isn't enabled in the BIOS, or is there but then gets broken in a subsequent BIOS patch.

My 2 cents is that the best option is to pick a Asus/Supermicro/Asrock Rack workstation board with a previous generation socket 2011, so you can use cheaper DDR3 ECC RAM (have to admit I haven't checked the what DDR4 prices are like yet), and pick up a second hand Xeon.

I'm using something similar with my file server (based around a C602 board).
 
This is my dilemma at the moment, I get your point with a workstation board. The only problem is with a Xeon is that I want a 6 cores, but the (higher clocked) 6 core Xeons totally blow my budget old or new architecture which is why x99 is looking like a decent compromise.

As for VT-d the only thing I am planning on passing through are some gigabit network cards, so hopefully should be fairly harmless. I'm not planning on running a gaming pc VM on it which some people do hehe.
 
I'm currently looking at similar things and looking to build a NAS/VM server. Xeon with ECC memory seems to be best for NAS's but cost wise it gets pricy. The one you have listed above is something I was looking at too. Curious to see how this goes :)
 
When I did this for mine, I used a dual socket Xeon board and VMWare.

Ballpark pricing:
£250 for Asrock EP2C602-4L/D16
£82 for 16x MICRON 4GB (1X4GB) DDR3 ECC PC3 10600R MEMORY KIT
£(depends on what you get) for 2x used Xeon E5-2xxx (v1/v2)

Then I loaded it with 10x 3TB drives on the 3 separate onboard controllers (two Intels and a Marvell) and VMWare.

Hooked 8 of the 10 drives up to two controllers and passed them through to nas4free installation, and hooked the other 2 drives out to VMWare and ran VMs off that.
 
The Mad One said:
No unraid doesn't support ZFS, its XFS for the main data array, it can mix and match drives which I believe you can't do with ZFS?.
Click to expand...

Oh it definitely can, it's supremely flexible. The basics are as follows.

You group your block devices (preferably entire HDDs) into vdevs (virtual devices) and group your vdevs into zpools (virtual storage pools).

Each vdev can be a single disk, two disks in a mirror, or multiple disks in a RAID-Z.

Each zpool stripes over every vdev (similar to RAID-0). Each vdev will be filled up proportionally if they're different sizes.

There's a very accessible introduction here: http://arstechnica.com/information-...using-the-zfs-next-gen-filesystem-on-linux/1/. Also have a look at http://constantin.glez.de/blog/2010/06/closer-look-zfs-vdevs-and-performance

The coolest part is you can add one or more cache devices which will be transparently used to speed everything up. Adding a few hundred GB of SSD does exactly what you'd expect. ;)
 
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Arg, after having another crash on my current server last night I'm close to leaning towards a Xeon build if it can guarantee me some stability, currently looking at:

Intel Xeon E5-1650 V3, LGA 2011-3, Haswell, 6 Core, 3.5GHz £473.99
Supermicro MBD-X10SRA-O £259.20
(X2) Samsung M393A2G40DB1-CRC 16GB DDR4-2400Mhz LP ECC Registered (£165.98 for 2)

Adds another £200 onto the budget but hopefully will be worth it in the long run. Anyone see any problems with that?
 
You might actually be better off with an AMD system (with an FX 8320e/8370e) actually if you're not too bothered about the single thread performance. It would be extremely cheap, < £250 for the bits you want.

My ASUS motherboard takes un-registered ECC dimms, and the FX CPUs support AMD-v extensions.

I've been running a VM on it in Windows for linux development and it works fine. TBH you become more limited by the disk speed than anything.

EDIT: More like £350 actually when I re-checked the prices.
 
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Don't see a problem, but you can save yourself a decent bundle getting a Sandy/Ivy over a Haswell.

Do you need the extra single core performance?

EDIT: It's possible to find 4gb DDR3 ECC Registered for under a fiver for example
 
Xeon E5-2670s are going extremely cheap second hand these days. Worth a thought. I for one have jumped on them for my pending Unraid build :)
 
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