Dell Optiplex + NVMe PCIe riser.

PaulCa

PaulCa

PaulCa

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I have a Dell optiplex 7010 i7-4790 16Gb as a server. Ubuntu.

I was to upgrade it to a RAID1 boot disk. In a slightly rushed purchase I bought a dual NVMe riser card and 2x Crucial 500Gb M.2 drives.

Only then did I realise this will require BIOS PCIe Bifurcation support. I haven't checked, but as this platform pre-dates m.2 drives in mainstream circ it's unlikely to support that.

I order a pair of single risers. But reading more into it, I may still have issues with the BIOS.

The understanding is, without making a custom BIOS with the NVMe drivers the BIOS, nor EUFI can see the M.2 drives at all. Thus I will not be able to "boot" from M.2s. I'm still kind of "ok" with that, I can boot of a SATA disc, just putting the EUFI boot folder there. That should allow Ubuntu's Init RAM disk to boot the kernel with the NVVe drivers, initialise the RAID array and mount the root.

For some reason I don't feel that confident in this working.

So much so that I specced a minimal build out on OCUK for a "new" server. £270. Assuming I reuse the GT730 I have for display (no display required, just for maintenance/recovery) and the Cosair 650HX power supply I have. £300 if I instead go for the 5600G instead of the 5500(>) non G and the 730.

It's tempting. The Dell will not even touch the speed of the Gen3 M.2's. 32Gb and a 6Core modern CPU will give the virtual machines a boot and stop InfluxDB hammering the SSDs.

So, what say ye?

Buy the new server...
Keep flogging the dead eWaste horse?
 
PaulCa said:
I have a Dell optiplex 7010 i7-4790 16Gb as a server. Ubuntu.

I was to upgrade it to a RAID1 boot disk. In a slightly rushed purchase I bought a dual NVMe riser card and 2x Crucial 500Gb M.2 drives.

Only then did I realise this will require BIOS PCIe Bifurcation support. I haven't checked, but as this platform pre-dates m.2 drives in mainstream circ it's unlikely to support that.

I order a pair of single risers. But reading more into it, I may still have issues with the BIOS.

The understanding is, without making a custom BIOS with the NVMe drivers the BIOS, nor EUFI can see the M.2 drives at all. Thus I will not be able to "boot" from M.2s. I'm still kind of "ok" with that, I can boot of a SATA disc, just putting the EUFI boot folder there. That should allow Ubuntu's Init RAM disk to boot the kernel with the NVVe drivers, initialise the RAID array and mount the root.

For some reason I don't feel that confident in this working.

So much so that I specced a minimal build out on OCUK for a "new" server. £270. Assuming I reuse the GT730 I have for display (no display required, just for maintenance/recovery) and the Cosair 650HX power supply I have. £300 if I instead go for the 5600G instead of the 5500(>) non G and the 730.

It's tempting. The Dell will not even touch the speed of the Gen3 M.2's. 32Gb and a 6Core modern CPU will give the virtual machines a boot and stop InfluxDB hammering the SSDs.

So, what say ye?

Buy the new server...
Keep flogging the dead eWaste horse?
Click to expand...

I know that there are NVME risers that don't require PCIe bifurcation.

Two single risers is ok if both slots are gen 3 from the CPU (not likely). Otherwise one will use gen 2 lanes from the chipset and will be slower.
NVME raid for intel used to be limited to VROC that you had to buy a key for.

5600G would limit you to gen 3 drives. But does mean you could go for a cheaper A320 / A520 board if you wanted to.
 
pandem0nium said:
5600G would limit you to gen 3 drives. But does mean you could go for a cheaper A320 / A520 board if you wanted to.
Click to expand...
I was looking at a Asus Prime B450 board and the 5600G and 32Gb RAM.

You think I should go up the B5* instead?

Oh... the dual riser arrived. Installed both M.2, booted and only one detected, as expected. At least it's some good news that the PCIe supports and the Linux kernel can see it, I can put a rootfs on it.

The pair of single risers arrives tomorrow, which might get me going and I can consider the upgrade and the credit card balance.
 
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I think that’s 8 PCIE-E lanes so just enough to cover a two drive HBA card. If that’s all you need then I’d price up a HBA card vs the AM4 system.
 
So... em...

I had an accident with the credit card.

Asus Prime B550-Plus
ryzen 5600G
32Gb of Corsair vengence 3600.
Fractal Designs Core 2500
SATA expansion card (I currently have 6 drives + the 2 M.2s.
600W EVGA Bronze PSU

This also takes care of my other "thorn" in my side. The external USB3 disc enclosure. It can go away and I can power manage the spinning drives better.

Just how low I can get the idle power on the above remains to be seen.
 
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So... em...

I had an accident with the credit card.
Click to expand...

That’s happened to me many times!

“Were you in an accident that wasn’t your fault?”

Yes! The credit card slipped out of my hands and the next thing I know, I’ve got something expensive arriving the next day. Occurs regularly enough haha.
 
I had the sense to go back and have a follow up accident and change from the mATX to an ATX (+£50). Otherwise I would have the 8x m.2 riser and no place to put the SATA 4x card.
 
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