New Freenas server on the way.
So I have been using an older AMD FX-8320 based Freenas box for a couple years which was originally one of my old gaming machines. It has served me pretty well, but over the course of my current lab requirements and testing I have to do let's just say it works, but it struggles. I have issues with occasional crashes especially while using ISCSI LUNS inside Vmware ESX. I think the reality is I am just doing too much with the amount of RAM I have. Freenas makes it very clear in their documentation that of course, RAM is very important between ZFS caching and other functions. I have multiple jails running, I have ISCSI LUNSs for SQL cluster testing. I even have a VM domain controller inside my Freenas....and I only have 24GB of RAM. If I were only running Plex/Freenas I think that would be plenty, I could probably even get away with my VM running, but I also have 7 other jails and the ISCSI on top of that. I would like to add at least 2 more jails. (Lidarr and Organizer)
I could take the motherboard up to its full 32GB of RAM, but to be honest I really didn't think it was worth the money when you consider that Freenas really never worked great with the FX series of processors anyway and for me to even get it to work I had to disable some of the power saving features in the BIOS and I downclocked it to 3GHZ to save a little power. Throw in limited ability to upgrade RAM or add any more hard drives and I think its time for retirement. Airflow was never great in that case since adding the HD cages either. I might turn it into a lower end game machine for my kids, but that has yet to be determined for sure.
I could get a new AM4 motherboard, RAM, and processor, but it still wouldn't solve the lack of hard drive expandability or airflow issues and still cost me a good 500+ sure it would last for years, but really processor was not my limiting factor. Even on Plex I rarely transcode, both of my main TVs support 4K and 10bit HEVC 265 is about the largest struggle for them and that is rare for me. After weeks of Ebay scouring, I focused on one of the many Supermicro servers with between 12 and 24 bays from the early E5 series processors. They have come down to very reasonable levels and I spent way to long looking for the right deal. UXS (unixsurplus.com) had plenty of great option like they always do, but I really wanted to do this CHEAP... money is tight
Fnally, the right deal came along. I found a Supermicro 24 Bay X9DRI-F/2x motherboard and E5-2630LV2 processors 16GB RAM for $349 (Price went up to 369 after I bought it). I wanted something with enough grunt to get me through at least 2-3 years and some room for expansion, but still be power effecient. I really didn't want a 4u box, but obviously from the picture above I have the room. I was happy it had the V2 2630L because they were a decent step up from the V1 plus with 12 real cores vs AMDs 8 pseudo-cores in the FX I should see a decent gain in performance on some workloads all at 60w TDP per processor. The FX-830 was 125W and with some of those power features disabled it defintely felt like it was eating 150-200w total (with hard drives etc) or so all the time with my kill-a-watt meter. (Guess cause I also have Cisco switch on it)
I did make one mistake when ordering it. I ordered one with a real RAID card vs a JBOD card....my bad. Luckily I already have one in the current box so no biggie just swap it out. There was one available with the JBOD card, from the same vendor which is the link I posted below. It only comes with 16GB of ram, but I was able to pick up another 64 for 100. I can then take the 16GB from this box and move it into my R610 taking it up to 64GB.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-4U-CSE-846-24-Bay-SAS2-BP-X9DRi-F-2x-W-2x-E5-2630Lv2-16GB-IT-MODE/202743312268?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Mothboard Specs - https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRi-F.cfm
So plenty of RAM with room to grow, a bit of a processor bump with better power usage at a base level and more HD bays than I will probably ever use. It'll work, it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow...the real struggle will be getting it into the basement and racking it by myself. Unless I find someone to help.
I doubt I will ever take it over 64GB, but since DDR3 ECC DIMMS are getting cheaper all the time who knows.
I could take the motherboard up to its full 32GB of RAM, but to be honest I really didn't think it was worth the money when you consider that Freenas really never worked great with the FX series of processors anyway and for me to even get it to work I had to disable some of the power saving features in the BIOS and I downclocked it to 3GHZ to save a little power. Throw in limited ability to upgrade RAM or add any more hard drives and I think its time for retirement. Airflow was never great in that case since adding the HD cages either. I might turn it into a lower end game machine for my kids, but that has yet to be determined for sure.
I could get a new AM4 motherboard, RAM, and processor, but it still wouldn't solve the lack of hard drive expandability or airflow issues and still cost me a good 500+ sure it would last for years, but really processor was not my limiting factor. Even on Plex I rarely transcode, both of my main TVs support 4K and 10bit HEVC 265 is about the largest struggle for them and that is rare for me. After weeks of Ebay scouring, I focused on one of the many Supermicro servers with between 12 and 24 bays from the early E5 series processors. They have come down to very reasonable levels and I spent way to long looking for the right deal. UXS (unixsurplus.com) had plenty of great option like they always do, but I really wanted to do this CHEAP... money is tight
Fnally, the right deal came along. I found a Supermicro 24 Bay X9DRI-F/2x motherboard and E5-2630LV2 processors 16GB RAM for $349 (Price went up to 369 after I bought it). I wanted something with enough grunt to get me through at least 2-3 years and some room for expansion, but still be power effecient. I really didn't want a 4u box, but obviously from the picture above I have the room. I was happy it had the V2 2630L because they were a decent step up from the V1 plus with 12 real cores vs AMDs 8 pseudo-cores in the FX I should see a decent gain in performance on some workloads all at 60w TDP per processor. The FX-830 was 125W and with some of those power features disabled it defintely felt like it was eating 150-200w total (with hard drives etc) or so all the time with my kill-a-watt meter. (Guess cause I also have Cisco switch on it)
I did make one mistake when ordering it. I ordered one with a real RAID card vs a JBOD card....my bad. Luckily I already have one in the current box so no biggie just swap it out. There was one available with the JBOD card, from the same vendor which is the link I posted below. It only comes with 16GB of ram, but I was able to pick up another 64 for 100. I can then take the 16GB from this box and move it into my R610 taking it up to 64GB.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-4U-CSE-846-24-Bay-SAS2-BP-X9DRi-F-2x-W-2x-E5-2630Lv2-16GB-IT-MODE/202743312268?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Mothboard Specs - https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRi-F.cfm
So plenty of RAM with room to grow, a bit of a processor bump with better power usage at a base level and more HD bays than I will probably ever use. It'll work, it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow...the real struggle will be getting it into the basement and racking it by myself. Unless I find someone to help.
I doubt I will ever take it over 64GB, but since DDR3 ECC DIMMS are getting cheaper all the time who knows.
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