Check out my build for a XenServer

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morbidsteve

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I've been looking to put together a small MiniITX build for hosting a XenServer, but did not find the hardware I'd like to be able to have possibilities of enhancing later on (limited by space). So, I put together this mATX build on pcpartpicker. Wondering if anyone has any ideas about it or if there's anything I might want to change.

Thanks for checking it out
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XQnv99
 
Ditch the SSD. It's overpriced for the space you're getting let alone the lower overall quality compared to other SSDs. $10 to $15 more literally gets you twice as much space, more performance (larger SSDs tend to be faster than smaller SSDs by nature), and a more reputable SSD
$85 - Crucial BX100 250GB SSD

That case + PSU combo is cheap for a reason: It's crap. The fact that the PSU still has that red voltage selector switch is a dead give-away of that PSU being either old and/or of shit to low quality. IN addition, at its cheapest shipped price of $76, it's not actually that much cheaper to justify it. For $14 more, you can get substantial increase in quality:
$45 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$45 - Coolermaster N200 NSE-200-KKN1 mATX Case
----
Total: $90 shipped

So for $24 to $30 more, you're looking at massive increases in quality, performance, and reliability. Well worth it IMO.

If you're looking for a smaller case, don't have plans for full-sized expansion cards, and/or have some spare 80mm fans lying around, I recommend this case Silverstone ML03B case instead
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GGUAUE/?tag=extension-kb-20
 
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Uhm... Why not go ECC if you're going to build a server?
If you don't care at least get a motherboard with Intel LAN such as this by MSI

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...hlsgCFQaWLAod5MwIKw&ei=5qMHVoz5NIassgHkmaPYAg

Memory is fine (unless you want ECC, you need another mobo and RAM then)

As for SSD you have a great deal over att Newegg on a Toshiba SSD which uses a much better and tested controller (Marvell) compared to one you've mentioned and Dangman's sugestion.

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...YAR73yxahIZAFPVH717gkr0bpXdFgZsuoExbFYtXWis1Q

Not sure why you'd want to go with the Coolermaster case, you have very limited expansion in that case. N400 is a much better in that case :)

This PSU is a great deal even without the MiR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
//Danne
 
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diizzy said:
Not sure why you'd want to go with the Coolermaster case, you have very limited expansion in that case. N400 is a much better in that case :)
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Because despite being in the same model line, the N200 and N400 are actually from different factories. Or at the very least, very very different designs. The tear-off expansion slot covers on the N400 are a dead give-away of that case's low quality. I've never once seen a good case with tear-off expansion slots and unfortunately the N400 further confirms that experience. Whereas the N200 with its screwed on expansion slot covers is an indicator of possible higher quality. In addition, the N200 actually has a tad more space behind the motherboard tray for better cable management. I've worked with both cases before and I honestly get the N200 over the N400 99% of the time just based on the quality differences alone.

The OP mentioned in another thread that he really wanted a small system. Hence why I recommended the N200 and the Silverstone ML03B since they were the cheapest but decent small sized mATX cases available. If the OP really wanted to maximize expansion, I still wouldn't recommend the N400 since the higher quality, extra HDD space having, and significantly easier to cable manage NZXT Source 210 Elite is available for $10 less:
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case

diizzy said:
This PSU is a great deal even without the MiR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
//Danne
Click to expand...
I concur. Especially if you can buy it with that $10 promo code before 9/30.
 
On SSDs:

-The "Radeon" SSD is actually built by OCZ, for what it's worth. But overall, it's hard to get excited about.
-The BX100 is alright for the money.
-The Toshiba Q series that diizzy linked came out in 2013, and wasn't particularly fast then either.

120GB SSDs are a questionable value proposition overall (to Dangman's point, larger SSDs are faster in almost all cases). I'd look at the Samsung 850 Evo or SanDisk Extreme Pro for budget options. Realistically, virtual machine workloads are I/O intensive, so it may be worth stepping up to a PCIe SSD (like an Intel 750 or the new Samsung 950 Pro, when it's available) if you can make it work with your budget.

Also, be careful about compatibility with the Xeon and consumer motherboards, especially with regards to memory. Xeon E3's like ECC (non-registered) RAM, and I don't recall whether non-ECC is officially supported.

I just recently parted out my Xeon E3 box, which coincidentally was in a Cooler Master N200 case. It's an awesome little case for the money- I got mine for $30 after rebate last year.
 
Also, to the OP- I realize that you're space-limited, but I feel like, if you're serious about XenServer, you'll regret going this route. I see that your budget is ~$550, so I'll throw out a few distinctly different paths/options that I think may be better for you.

Proposal 1: E3 v2 build with better quality everything
You want something small and inexpensive-ish, and are willing to sacrifice performance and number of threads. You gain little by going with an E3 v3 vs v2 (Haswell vs. Ivy Bridge mattered much more on mobile than in Xeon-land). You're still capped at 4 cores/8 threads and 32GB of RAM on either platform.

In this case, you probably want a real workstation-class motherboard, and ECC RAM as diizzy noted. I'll share an awesome find with you- this eBay store. This is an Intel liquidator sitting on massive inventory of whatever they have. They have a habit of accepting offers >40% below the asking price. I have bought a LOT of stuff from them over the years, and never paid fair market value :D

I got one of these barebones from them a year or so ago for a friend, for $110. I'm sure you could get the same deal now. Add a decent quad core Xeon e3 v2 for $140-160 (which would be 80-90% the performance of the CPU in your proposed build anyway), basic heatsink/fan of your choice for $20, $100 for 2x 8gb PC3-12800E ECC DDR3, and you're potentially at $370 + an SSD of your choice.

The case may not be pretty, but it, the motherboard, and the power supply are legitimate server-grade components. You could also check out the motherboards offered by that same seller and make a similar lowball offer.

Proposal 2: Used workstation with serious expandability
Dell sells a tremendous number of pretty solid workstations to large corporates. These then end up available very cheap, used. The Precision T5500 is an excellent dual LGA1366 machine. You want VMs, you need cores/threads and capacity for RAM. This is a cheap way to get there.

These systems can handle up to 2x 6 core/12 thread CPUs. They'd even be relatively efficient at such a spec if running a CPU like a Xeon L5640, which go for $50/each these days.

You can get stripped out T5500's for under $150, but I'd recommend starting with a dual CPU one so you don't need to deal with finding the right CPU riser board (they require this for the second CPU, so single CPU configurations won't have it). RAM (PC3-10600R) is quite cheap for these boxes these days, and they have 9 DIMM slots. I believe they top out at 8gb DIMMs, but I might be wrong.

I'd start with a configuration like this for $275, remove the CPUs that are in there, and replace them with 2 of these L5640s. For $375, you'd have a 12 core/24 thread server/workstation-grade system (plus the cost of the SSD of your choice).

If you have any interest in going the T5500 route, I have one that I don't need anymore that I could make you a deal on- PM me if you'd like more info.
 
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Ok hey everyone sorry I was away getting married, so I'm just getting back to looking at this now.

I'm about to buy two of these as everything I see about them is fantastic (and it's a great deal right now).

I'm debating over the case and other components, looking at the N200 and the Corsair Builder Series CX 430. I think I'll purchase those now, as well.

Too bad I haven't kept up to date with hardware recently, because I really want to push the buy button on everything right now.

I think I'll move over to ECC RAM and a supporting motherboard as well. I'll put another post up when I figure more on that out.

Appreciate all the help and if you have any more info I'd appreciate it.
 
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Actually, in order to keep it a smaller build, I'm going to get the ML03B, and pick up some 80mm fans as well to keep it cool
 
The Crucial's are good "value" SSDs, go for it.
You're better off getting a server such as Lenovo TS140 or similar, it's going to be cheaper and it'll work ootb.
 
diizzy said:
The Crucial's are good "value" SSDs, go for it.
You're better off getting a server such as Lenovo TS140 or similar, it's going to be cheaper and it'll work ootb.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing that they are pretty expensive, don't include much RAM, and use HDDs vice SSDs. I'll check more out.
 
So this is what I'm looking at now. So I switched to the E3-1246 so I can have integrated graphics (don't want to need a dedicated GPU since I'm not going to do anything GPU intensive).

I have also selected 2x8gb ECC RAM, so I can go to the 32gb I'd like in the future. I selected the mobo due to the higher quality, IPMI, etc.

I have already purchased 2 500gb SSDs that were on sale yesterday through Amazon, and I'm happy with those two drives. I will probably throw in a 2TB HDD or two with one (maybe both) of the 500gb SSDs.
 
Looks solid. Though you don't have to spend extra money for the E3-1246 since the motherboard itself already has onboard video via the BMC integrated Aspeed AST2400.
 
Do you think the 1231 would work fine here then? I'm thinking I'll buy that as I can get it for around 210 right now.
 
Not sure if that Supermicro mobo will support the E3-1231V3 out of the box. The E3-1230V3 shouldn't have that problem though.
 
Dangman said:
Not sure if that Supermicro mobo will support the E3-1231V3 out of the box. The E3-1230V3 shouldn't have that problem though.
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't it support the 1231? I'm not seeing anything that would indicate that it wouldn't??? Ahh
 
morbidsteve said:
Why wouldn't it support the 1231? I'm not seeing anything that would indicate that it wouldn't??? Ahh
Click to expand...

Just something I've seen happen before: a vendor has an older stock of mobos that they'll end up selling first before selling the newer stock with the updated BIOs. I was still doing UEFI updates for X79 mobos to support Ivy Bridge CPUs after 9 months of the Ivy Bridge CPU releases.
 
nomas said:
If this XenServer will operate 24x7, definitely switch to ECC ram.

Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L-1600MT/s (PC3-12800) DR x8 ECC UDIMM Server Memory
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR3L...MA5VU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1445699841&

$104 is the lowest I have ever seen it. I have 2 of these kits.
Click to expand...


Thanks! I bought this at 111.99, getting it price matched now.

FYI for anyone who reads this posts. I have received all of the hardware I stated and this build is working perfectly!

I put down ESXi 6.0 and put down the Embedded Host. Currently setting all of my things up to use this box as a nice server for my purposes. Thanks for all of the help everyone!
 
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