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Opinions Wanted: NAS Server Upgrade

T

TGK

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 5, 2005
Messages
71
Hello friends, I'd like to get your ideas/expertise on an upgrade for my NAS/router/firewall/virtualization server -- It's a bit exotic but I thought it might be an interesting scenario for some.

Current setup:
Motherboard: Jetway NF9E-Q77 http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/NF9E.html
CPU: Quad core Ivy Bridge i5-3470S CPU @ 2.90GHz http://ark.intel.com/products/68315/Intel-Core-i5-3470S-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz
Memory: 2x 8GB DDR-3 1333Mhz
Storage: LSI 9207-8i SAS HBA & Intel RES2CV360 36 Port SAS Expander

Upgrade goals:
Increase ram to 32 GB (for virtualization) and have ECC protection (for ZFS)
Lights out Management with dedicated network port (server too heavy to move around)
Maximize single thread performance (some apps only support one thread)
Double multi-thread performance (lots of compression/encoding/encryption jobs)
Low noise and power during idle times
Future upgrade path to 10Gbe
Future installation of more SSDs utilizing native Intel controllers (LSI HBAs stink with SSDs)
Future upgrade path to 64GB of ECC ram

Proposed upgrade components:
Motherboard: Asus X99-WS/IPMI http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1563
CPU: Intel Xeon hex core E5-1650 V3 http://ark.intel.com/products/82765/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-v3-15M-Cache-3_50-GHz
RAM: 4x Samsung DDR4-2133 8GB/1Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory (per Asus QVL)
Fan: Noctua NH-U9DX i4 (Narrow-ILM form factor) http://noctua.at/en/nh-u9dx-i4.html

This should allow me to overclock the E5-1650 to ~4.0-4.2GHz thus accomplishing my goal for improved CPU performance.
The Asus MB has an IPMI v2.0 dedicated port for LoM.
The MB has 5 PCIe slots with 40 lanes that will support multiple high speed add-in cards.
The MB has 10 SATA 6Gbps ports and an M2 slot vs 2 SATA6 in my current setup, so more SSDs!
The Samsung ram is ECC and is listed on the QVL, I can install another 4 sticks later.

Have I missed anything?

For those who immediately think YOU CANT OVERCLOCK XEONS, please see https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/2ywtko/intel_e51650v3_overclockingyes_unlocked_xeon/ and let me know your thoughts.

thanks! :cool:
 
Last edited:
Why did you selected a workstation board when you want a server?

I would start searching with serverboards from SuperMicro and Asrock, ex
Compare a similar expensive http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC612D4U-2T8R#Specifications

that offers socket 2011-R3 with 2 x 10G Ethernet and a 12G LSI SAS/Sata onboard, IPMI, max 256GB RAM,
with three slots left ex for an M2 adapter or additional HBAs

btw
LSI HBAs are perfect with SSDs. Its the P20 firmware for the 2008 chipset that can
give problems with SSDs. I would also avoid expanders for Sata disks or high performance needs.
With ZFS you can span a pool over different controllers so multiple HBA is a better approach.
The P19 or very newest P20 (20.004 I think) firmware for your LSI 9207 should be ok with SSDs
 
Hi Gea thanks for your reply.

Why did you selected a workstation board when you want a server?
Click to expand...

I believe I need the X99 chipset to overclock. Am I correct that you can not manually adjust the CPU multiplier higher than reported by the CPU on the C612 chipsets? I'm also interested in enabling all of the CPUs to max-turbo simultaneously, which the Asus BIOS supports.

I would start searching with serverboards from SuperMicro and Asrock, ex
Compare a similar expensive http://www.asrockrack.com/general/pr...Specifications that offers socket 2011-R3 with 2 x 10G Ethernet and a 12G LSI SAS/Sata onboard, IPMI, max 256GB RAM,
with three slots left ex for an M2 adapter or additional HBAs
Click to expand...

I've looked at the Asrock Rack EPC612D8 as an alternative, but it doesn't support overclocking. For SAS I'm in good shape with the 9207-8i and expander. I've been considering the Mellanox Conntect-X2 VPI cards for 10Gbe due to the great prices aftermarket. I haven't pulled the trigger yet because I'm hoping for NBase-T as a stop-gap.

btw
LSI HBAs are perfect with SSDs. Its the P20 firmware for the 2008 chipset that can give problems with SSDs. I would also avoid expanders for Sata disks or high performance needs. With ZFS you can span a pool over different controllers so multiple HBA is a better approach. The P19 or very newest P20 (20.004 I think) firmware for your LSI 9207 should be ok with SSDs
Click to expand...

Sadly this does not reflect my most recent experiences. With P19 Bios and P20 drivers (SL7.x), the trim functionality is broken. It accepts a range of sectors but then fails to trim the correct range, causing fstrim to segfault mid operation (yay!). The drivers are also quite picky about only supporting trim on SSDs that report the capability to return zeros after a trim, which rules out Samsung EVO 840's etc. Not sure if it's gotten better with 850s or not.
 
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