Server setup in signature, what should I throw money at?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Having already overthought this to the Nth degree, i think i am ready to pull the trigger (for the 2nd time...) on hardware.

Looks like I could pick up a couple used e5-2660 v2 Xeons with VT-D for maybe $200-$250 if I'm lucky. This would give me 20 cores and plenty of overhead, and would not seem to be TOO much more than an i7 setup, although I;m sure mobo/RAM will surprise. I don;t mind investing, but i don't really want to start over a 3rd time, so would rather put the horsepower in now.

What am I not thinking of? Confirmed that they are VT-D capable here, but I don' t know what to look for to ensure pci passthrough?

Is this a ridiculous overrreach? Probably way overpowered, but it seems as though if it idles properly it won't use too much energy. Seems like all Xeons have gone up since the refurb craze started a few years ago, and this seems to be the best balance of horsepower and price. Willing to be wrong though, TIA.

Due to the way the newer (not Core 2) systems work to be VT-D capable both the motherboard and CPU need to have that capability. I don't believe that's going to be a problem with any of the Xeon hardware.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Due to the way the newer (not Core 2) systems work to be VT-D capable both the motherboard and CPU need to have that capability. I don't believe that's going to be a problem with any of the Xeon hardware.

I 2nd that. Passthrough while possible on capable normal CPU + MB combos should generally be much less of a headache on server hardware.

[bigo93bronco]

I don't want to hijack or steer this conversation too far off-course, but I've been following along and have a question. I've seen Fuzzy and others talking about the benefits of unraid regarding larger java heap sizes, faster drives with SSD cache drives,etc. My question is: What is more effective, an unraid server, or handbuilt clients on the other end that outperform HD300's when using GUI rich addons?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

I don't want to hijack or steer this conversation too far off-course, but I've been following along and have a question. I've seen Fuzzy and others talking about the benefits of unraid regarding larger java heap sizes, faster drives with SSD cache drives,etc. My question is: What is more effective, an unraid server, or handbuilt clients on the other end that outperform HD300's when using GUI rich addons?

The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can still use Windows based clients with an unRAID server. The advantages of more heap space is not really the primary reason to use unRAID, and really only helps the most if you have a large number of miniclients. UnRAID's benefits are more in the realm of easier management, and the greater ability to have this single 24/7 system handling just about any task you can think to throw at it.

I always used to like running Windows clients, because of the UI speed, but lately I don't have a single one running, and am using hd300 and no box as my primary clients today. A little slower in the menus perhaps, but I use them primarily for watching tv, not for browsing menus.

[btrcp2000]

For any other noobs like me following this, here is what I settled on, most of which will be on my doorstep in the next few days. I never declared an official budget, but did enough research to convince myself I wasn't paying top dollar. Would like to get this done sooner rather than later to address some issues with the current server, so I wasn't willing to wait for deals on every last part:

2x Xeon e5-2660 v2 CPUs, 10 cores and 2.2ghz each- ebay seller ESISO $270

SuperMicro x9dri-LNF4+ and 32gb ECC- Mrrackables $325 (very good experience with a phone in order because I had some questions. Guy was even willing to share some thoughts on dumb questions that had nothing to do with what I was buying. Highly recommend)

SuperMicro 3U SC835BTQ-R1K28B- 8 hotswap bays, 7 full size expansion slots, 2x 1280 watt PSUs- CSE-SAS-833TQ backplane- ebay $300 incl shipping at 57lbs (might sell off one of the PSUs if its not required, also no idea what a backplane even does, thought i would be connecting SATA straight to the mobo, so maybe i can sell that too. I'm sure this will sound like a thousand hair dryers, but it can be modded plus will be in a basement dungeon anyway)

Already have HDDs, so all in I'm around $895 for a box that will someday run sage, plex, crashplan, and unifi dockers, 2 Windows VMs for sure,
NAS, and whatever else tickles my fancy. It will replace 3 other computers, a daily driver in the kitchen, the sage server, and a WHS box that currently is NAS and backs up the sage box.

Or I totally screwed this up as I have no idea what I'm doing. Will let you know...

[wayner]

What you are buying looks pretty good. Let us know how it goes. I bet you will enjoy being able to run more clients without having to worry about JVM heap size.

I also run the Unifi docker for my networking and it works great. There is a thread here on other useful dockers.

[bbig119]

Please do post an update. I'm in a similar position. I've held off upgrading my old i5 server running windows 7 and Sage7. Its slow and the loss of guide info is the final kicker that is pushing me over the edge to do something. I'm just trying to determine if I should do a more modest upgrade or a complete overhaul with server components like you have done.

The prices you've posted are in the range of what I'm willing to spend for the complete overhaul, but I'd also want to buy a few new drives to make the migration to unraid easier and because-- new drives.

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

For any other noobs like me following this, here is what I settled on, most of which will be on my doorstep in the next few days. I never declared an official budget, but did enough research to convince myself I wasn't paying top dollar. Would like to get this done sooner rather than later to address some issues with the current server, so I wasn't willing to wait for deals on every last part:

2x Xeon e5-2660 v2 CPUs, 10 cores and 2.2ghz each- ebay seller ESISO $270

SuperMicro x9dri-LNF4+ and 32gb ECC- Mrrackables $325 (very good experience with a phone in order because I had some questions. Guy was even willing to share some thoughts on dumb questions that had nothing to do with what I was buying. Highly recommend)

SuperMicro 3U SC835BTQ-R1K28B- 8 hotswap bays, 7 full size expansion slots, 2x 1280 watt PSUs- CSE-SAS-833TQ backplane- ebay $300 incl shipping at 57lbs (might sell off one of the PSUs if its not required, also no idea what a backplane even does, thought i would be connecting SATA straight to the mobo, so maybe i can sell that too. I'm sure this will sound like a thousand hair dryers, but it can be modded plus will be in a basement dungeon anyway)

Already have HDDs, so all in I'm around $895 for a box that will someday run sage, plex, crashplan, and unifi dockers, 2 Windows VMs for sure,
NAS, and whatever else tickles my fancy. It will replace 3 other computers, a daily driver in the kitchen, the sage server, and a WHS box that currently is NAS and backs up the sage box.

Or I totally screwed this up as I have no idea what I'm doing. Will let you know...

[btrcp2000]

Sure. For once I'm building something without needing to stand it up ASAP, so I'm taking my time and (hopefully) doing things right, but I will update as I learn. It will be pre-clearing drives for a few days, so there won't be much to report for a bit, plus I don't have much time for it this week anyway. But here's a status update.

I put it all together and discovered that one of my 4 DIMMs is apparently defective as it would hang during post with a "BA" code, so right now its running just fine on 32gb. Waiting to hear back from mrrackables on how they want to deal with it. The mobo apparently defaults to full fan speed, and the chassis has 6 fans, so it was a bit deafening until I figured out where the fan controls were (IPMI not bios). Flipped it to "Optimal" and it's no louder than the server it will replace, although it isn't doing anything either. Noise could be improved upon, but that's not a priority right now. I did notice that the PSU that came with the chassis is REALLY quiet, had to look inside to make sure the fan was on. I have it on a Kill A Watt, and with no dockers or VMs its pulling only slightly more than the old server, which was a pleasant surprise. we'll see what happens when it actually does stuff.

I started by just re-using the usb drive from the first attempt with new hardwaer per a post on the unraid forum. The pre-clear plugin did not work until I wiped and reformatted the drive. No big deal for me as there was no config yet, but based on other forum people,. I'm not the only one with that issue and it would be pretty frustrating with a in-production server. Never did figure out the cause.

The fourth and biggest drive is just about to finish it's 1st of the recommended 3 preclear passes, started them all about 16 hours ago. Next thing I want to do is learn how to have the preclear use the "unofficial faster" script. Sage and other dockers will probably have to wait until this weekend

[btrcp2000]

Update for those interested. Have not set up the Sage docker yet, as I realized that the new server will be up and down a lot as I continue to monkey with it while I'm learning, and this tends to happen while the rest of the fam is watching big brother (hate that show so I prefer to be in the server dungeon). I have decided I am very concerned with redundancy, including staying up and running while repairs are occurring, so I went ahead and spent on a pair of 500gb Samsung SSDs for a cache pool. There was a time when I enjoyed spending a weekend fixing stuff, but now I would rather avoid that black cloud feeling when things aren't running and you don't have time to deal with it yet. I also put in an 8TB drive ($150 best buy, shucked from a WD easystore usb3 drive) as parity. Ordered another to set up as dual parity, but this may be overkill so it may wind up as part of the array.

I have learned how to set up a win7 VM and pass through a USB and GPU. It currently houses my dish r5000 boxes which the old sageserver treats as networked tuners. They don't seem to like the USB card passthrough, so I'm trying a new card this weekend. In fact, the entire USB card disappeared this morning after a full restart. I was passing the motherboard usb ports, but couldn't figure out how to have it leave the the UPS connected to unRaid.

I gave the VM more cores (up to 8 from 2) as it was pegging running r5000 and playon at the same time, which resulted in noisier fans, so I'm looking at replacements now. Put the Kill-a-Watt back on it this morning, will report back when I see what the difference is.

All in all I'm spending more than I thought, but I think I have a good handle on how to problem solve and the overall benefits of having done this in the first place. Worth it so far, but I haven't really had a major hiccup yet (knock on wood)