Wanting to build Mini Thin ITX ESXI Build Options.

[TheBiznes]

I am looking to build a mini Thin ITX Build not sure about some things. Not to sure if correct forum to post here or Small Form Factor, because it's an ESXI Question also.

Intel BOXDQ77KB
Unsure Which CPU ----Intel Core i5 3470T or Intel Intel Core i5 3570T Or High End Xeon E3-1265L Or Intel Core i7-3770T Which I think is roughly the same.(Probably overkill)?

Like the Vpro instruction intel have on some of these chips.

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) Memory Kit PC3-12800 1600MHz

Or could probably go with the value range.

Corsair Value Select DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-12800 (1600)

Intel 60GB 525 Series SSD Msata

I looked at Plextor M5M, but I have had Intels since release never let me down.

Akasa Euler Passive AK-ITX-05BKAL Mini-ITX for Intel DQ77KB Ivy Bridge

I Have a WD Scorpio Black 500GB might use in this for extra storage.

The Box will be running a PFsense-Untangle Bridge a Windows 2008 or 2012 server and perhaps 1 Linux distro.

With all the Virtulization options and specification included on the board and chiips will USB passthrough work as though not in a virtual machine i.e direct I/O? I would like to run some HD TV tuners from a Windows 2008 VM

Anyone else got his setup? Can 2 drives be fitted in this case the Msata and a 2.5" Western Digital Scorpio? It looks as though it can following this article.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1321-page1.html

 

[RSR]

Intel BOXDQ77KB - Good board, you need to keep a eye on the CPU TDP with this board thought.
RAM - Any should be fine, as your not going to gaming on the board.
Intel 60GB 525 Series SSD mSATA - I can't see any problems, maybe a larger drive wouldn't hurt.
WD Scorpio Black 500GB - Sounds sensible as extra bulk storage, I wouldn't recommend running too many VMs from it as you may find you get I/O bound very quickly.

Is it just the 2 NICS or are you looking to add in a extra card?

Can pfSense not do all the functions of Untangle? I am not familiar with Untangle.

 

[TheBiznes]

Thanks for the overview

I wasn't going to add a pci-e card as case will not take it.

You have made me think about storage though I have 2 raid cards Areca and Adaptec later if I want to add them I will have to change the case. Or hang 2 ssd's out the back of the case and software raid them.

Actually with a little modding I recon this board might fit in my Microserver as the Pci-e slot is on the correct side and the adaptec will still sit there.

Untangle has level 7 filtering with a lot of the features of pfsense but it's really a Unified threat Manager with a great web filter. I use untangle mainly, but I would like to add pfsense to route and untangle to filter as I perfer it. Squid you have to pay extra for in untangle. So I will use pfsense for that too. It's a might as well try this route whilst I have the machine rather than just bare metal or only virtualise Untangle.

Still unsure about which cpu though.

Also I read there are problem upgrading the firmware is this true? Others have had to go back to stock original because if they just update there isn't enough space to write the new firmware apparently. Have you found this or did you just flash over the one it came with. Which I would have thought is the stock one. Or have you had problems flashing the revisions?

 

[RSR]

Also I read there are problem upgrading the firmware is this true? Others have had to go back to stock original because if they just update there isn't enough space to write the new firmware apparently. Have you found this or did you just flash over the one it came with. Which I would have thought is the stock one. Or have you had problems flashing the revisions?

I done a firmware update on the board before putting it live, that was Oct / Nov. I believe mines running BIOS version 0046 /45 and so far that's been pretty problem free. However, I don't know if things have changed since then.

You have made me think about storage though I have 2 raid cards Areca and Adaptec later if I want to add them I will have to change the case. Or hang 2 ssd's out the back of the case and software raid them.

You need to be careful with VMware ESXi and RAID / HBA cards, id recommend checking the VMware HCL. I don't think the Intel RST's are supported in VMware.

Untangle has level 7 filtering with a lot of the features of pfsense but it's really a Unified threat Manager with a great web filter. I use untangle mainly, but I would like to add pfsense to route and untangle to filter as I perfer it. Squid you have to pay extra for in untangle. So I will use pfsense for that too. It's a might as well try this route whilst I have the machine rather than just bare metal or only virtualise Untangle.

Ahh I see, so its basically a application firewall. I use Squid with pfSense at the moment purely as a web cache and it seems to work pretty well.

Still unsure about which cpu though.

I personally run a Intel Xeon E1230 v2 in my VMware box, which I have over 25 VMs on and it seems to cope fine.

I wasn't going to add a pci-e card as case will not take it.

The good thing about the Intel board is you can add a One PCI Express half-length mini connector Ethernet adaptor or WiFi card.

 

[TheBiznes]

The good thing about the Intel board is you can add a One PCI Express half-length mini connector Ethernet adaptor or WiFi card.

Hadn't thought of that I was going to use Asus as wireless access point probably still will as fall over also though.

 

[RimBlock]

I would echo what Andy has said.

The E3-1230 is a great CPU, has the features of the Xeons and come in around the same price as an i5 but also has Hyperthreading. The E3-1220L is also good for low power options but does not have Hyperthreading.

Motherboard chipset passthrough is not officially supported by VMware so it is very much a 'suck it and see' situation as to whether the USB ports on the board can be passed with VT-d. My USB ports on my HP ML110 G7 would not work with passthrough.

Another option if you are thinking about changing your case is the Intel S1200KP mITX workstation board which also supports ECC ram (price is now very close to standard ram) but does not support VT-d.

If you were just looking at a PFSense box with Untangel then you could also look at the Intel D2500CC atom board. It has dual lan, and Atom 2500 processor and a tiny power requirement.

RB

 

[TheBiznes]

Thanks for the ideas. Had a look at Atom found I nice idea in US, but would need to import. I really want something larger CPU wise. Instead of going esxi I could continue with 2008 and virtualbox for the Vm's. This way USB works.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

I am looking to build a mini Thin ITX Build not sure about some things.

I have built this:

DQ77KB Motherboard
Xeon E3-1265L V2
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Intel 160GB SSD (I forget the model, one of the older SATA 2 ones)
Akasa Euler case

Booting ESXi 5.1 off an external USB flash drive.

Comments:

- This motherboard is very fussy about what CPU it will accept, so check with the Intel website before ordering any CPU.

- I updated to the latest BIOS a couple of months ago, and had zero problems.

- ESXi only supports one of the two on-board NICs, so if you want the second NIC, you will need to manually add a driver (Google how to do it).

- The 1265L V2 is an incredible CPU, but is definitely pushing it in terms of heat for the Euler case. As long as the CPU isn't constantly maxed out, things should be fine. I ran Prime95 for a couple of hours, and the case gets pretty hot (not hot enough to burn, but it feels scary hot for a computer), and from memory the CPU temperatures were 78 degrees.

- I wasn't entirely happy with how the motherboard lines up inside the case. Everything seems to work ok, but the motherboard gets fairly warped from the various screws holding it down (and the backplate forcing it into a particular position).

- I haven't done USB pass-through on this motherboard, but someone in a forum post talks about doing it. The only issue is that you lose ALL USB ports, including the Intel remote control mouse and keyboard.

- A SATA + an mSATA drive should work fine.

- I use thin provisioning, which means that 160GB is enough for hosting the small handful of VMs I want on this machine for now.

This is an amazing little system. I get it idling at 11W with ESXi, 10W with Windows 2012. Really happy with it.

 

[TheBiznes]

I was going to get the i7-3770T, but my order is on back order. Although a friend ordered after to me and received his today. He gets around 70 watts idle with 5 HD a network card and an Adaptec 3405 plugged in.

@rotor

The processor you mentioned is almost an identical to the 3770T how are you getting such low wattage reading? Is it the 2500 graphics rather than the 4000?

@Andy

What graphics card are you using with that processor and do you know the energy usage as well for the full system please?

I bought an Intel DQ77MK in the end and 2 *8Gb sticks of Crucial LP Tactical low voltage memory, also second hand Intel ET . I figured I needed the extra slots and as I have a case and passive PSU around I would go this route.

Now I am stuck on CPU because of back order and possibility of it taking at lot longer than they or I thought. This will be running around 5 vm's mostly at one time. I don't want stuttering as some who have tried to run what I want to run inside VM's 2 firewall applications. So I was going for a quad with hyper, but now looking at the duals maybe as a stop gap. I would like your input though.

I don't suppose these boards will allow a rare thing boot without graphics like some server boards? Or boot then physically remove? Or because I have a PCI slot onboard. What's the lowest wattage video card just to boot with that idles really low?

 

[RSR]

@Andy

What graphics card are you using with that processor and do you know the energy usage as well for the full system please?

I just used the on board GPU, I am not sure about the energy usage but it can't be any more than 10 / 20w as pfSense on the whole isn't CPU intensive. I will stick a power meter on it at some point.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

I was going to get the i7-3770T, but my order is on back order. Although a friend ordered after to me and received his today. He gets around 70 watts idle with 5 HD a network card and an Adaptec 3405 plugged in.

@Rotor

The processor you mentioned is almost an identical to the 3770T how are you getting such low wattage reading? Is it the 2500 graphics rather than the 4000?

If you don't need the graphics, why are you getting the 3770T? From what I understand it is incredibly hard to source, whereas the Xeon is a piece of cake (not sure about the price difference, though).

Your friend's system is running 5 hard drives (several watts each), a network card (a couple of watts), and a SAS RAID card (see the heatsink on the card? That's needed because it consumes a lot of power and produces heat as a result -- could be easily 20W). My system isn't running any of those things (except for a single SSD, which idles at probably 0.5W), has much lower power graphics (the 2500 is a completely different family to the 4000), and I tweaked the BIOS and ESXi settings for low idle power.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Now I am stuck on CPU because of back order and possibility of it taking at lot longer than they or I thought. This will be running around 5 vm's mostly at one time. I don't want stuttering as some who have tried to run what I want to run inside VM's 2 firewall applications. So I was going for a quad with hyper, but now looking at the duals maybe as a stop gap. I would like your input though.

I don't suppose these boards will allow a rare thing boot without graphics like some server boards? Or boot then physically remove? Or because I have a PCI slot onboard. What's the lowest wattage video card just to boot with that idles really low?

Not sure what you mean by stutter? This combination of motherboard and CPU is UNBELIEVABLY powerful for the power consumption.

The motherboard boots without a monitor plugged in, no problem at all. Also because it supports vPro, you can power it on remotely (via the Red network port), and via VNC you can remote control everything, including going into the BIOS settings, and mounting virtual floppies and CDs (ISOs). Just make sure that the CPU you buy supports vPro.

 

[TheBiznes]

Purchased a i5-3470T for the moment. Thanks for your input guys using 19 watts and max 25 watts so far with one dvd, 2 dimms, 1 ssd.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Purchased a i5-3470T for the moment. Thanks for your input guys using 19 watts and max 25 watts so far with one dvd, 2 dimms, 1 ssd.

Cool! Check the BIOS settings and you should be able to get that power consumption further down.