low power Low power consumption high performance ESXI server

[Londonnet]

Hi all. I'm planning a new build to update my old home ESXI system with something much better.

 

My current system is:

• quad-core Q6600 
• 4gb of DDR2 ram
• 1TB SATA HD
• 2 Intel 1Gbit nics
• An old Nvidia card

This thing is eating power, 140w of power and it feels like this is at idle as the two running hosts are not doing much.

 

The new spec I am aiming for:

• 6 - 8 cores minimum
• 16 - 32gb of ram
• 1 - 2 NVMe M.2 drives 256GB is loads of space
• Onboard simple graphics
• out of band KVM management over IP
• 2 x 10Gbit nics
• 1 x PCI slot
• Case, mini-ITX size 1u rack
• Cooling, Passive if possible and fanless

 

I don't want much do I

 

What I have learnt so far:

• An Intel i7 7740x or an AMD Ryzen 1700x could be good options for a processor. Is an Atom C3758 a bad idea
• I should look at an 80 Plus gold or better PSU
• SSD's will greatly help my Power consumption targets

 

I'm kind of looking for a lower cost more mainstream, better ESXI supported Supermicro A2SDi-H-TP4F or Gigabyte MA10-ST0.

Apart from the cost and the processor type these board ticks all the boxes.

 

My questions:

• Which processor should I be looking for? I'm looking for a high core count with hypervisor support that is very power efficient
• Once the CPU is selected we can look for a motherboard but do we have any combinations known to be low power high performance
• Is there a system builder who specialises in low power high-performance systems
• Does anyone know of a specialist website where low power high performance is their game?

 

Any support here is well received, this should be a fun build.

 

So team, what do we think?

 

Thanks

 

 

[TheLaserCucumber]

You don't always have to go with special "ESXi support confirmed" boards.

For example, my ESXi Host has got a simple Asrock H110M-ITX.

But that's not a board suited for your requirements.

[samcool55]

Well AMD won't be an option for you in that case.

They need a dGPU because they don't have an iGPU and you need the PCI-E slot for a 10Gb ethernet adapter if you stick with mini-itx.

[Londonnet]

Some of the mini-AX boards I have seen have 2 x SFP sockets on them which is super nice, they just are getting expensive.

 

Just seen the Gigabyte MB10-DS4 which has all the ports ect and a Xeon D processor but it's $1k

 

Yikes!

 

[Londonnet]

So actually this Supermicro server is almost it

5018D-FN4T

Anyone seen a similar spec server that's a bit quieter and less than $1k?

 

Thanks

[KuJoe]

What are you doing with the ESXi server? I can make better suggestions hardware-wise is I knew what kind of load to expect and where to focus resources.

[Londonnet]

It will be running a few instances of centos, Web servers, Asterisk and a couple instances of windows.

Typically I use the system for testing my builds and thus I don't need a lot of storage but when I am using it I want it to run fast so I can build fast and start running tests

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 hours ago, Londonnet said:

It will be running a few instances of centos, Web servers, Asterisk and a couple instances of windows.

Typically I use the system for testing my builds and thus I don't need a lot of storage but when I am using it I want it to run fast so I can build fast and start running tests

you can probably get away with a bit slower of a cpu, and a fast atom based c chip here if you want to save a buck.

 

But if you want fast and low power, your spending a lot of money as you need basically new hardware for this, esp if you want it server grade.

 

Going with a ryzen can save you money if you don't need a server board(no sfp+ or impi or ddr4r support)

[Jarsky]

13 hours ago, samcool55 said:

Well AMD won't be an option for you in that case.

They need a dGPU because they don't have an iGPU and you need the PCI-E slot for a 10Gb ethernet adapter if you stick with mini-itx.

 

If he only needs 6-8 cores then why not an AMD? he could use a Ryzen 5 2400G which has iGPU. 

It wouldn't however have IPMI management (which i assume is what he means by KVM over IP?). Personally I find IPMI useless in a home environment after I setup my server.

 

Be extremely hard pressed to find anything that comes with a PCI slot from this decade though....can get PCI-E x1 to PCI adapters though

 

[samcool55]

48 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

 

If he only needs 6-8 cores then why not an AMD? he could use a Ryzen 5 2400G which has iGPU. 

It wouldn't however have IPMI management (which i assume is what he means by KVM over IP?). Personally I find IPMI useless in a home environment after I setup my server.

 

Be extremely hard pressed to find anything that comes with a PCI slot from this decade though....can get PCI-E x1 to PCI adapters though

 

The 2400G is only 4 cores, it has HT which helps but that's imo not good enough.

I would just run it headless (don't really see the need of a GPU) once it is configured but that might be just me?

Like, it has onboard ethernet, that can be used to manage it and use the other 2 ethernet ports for actual data transfer.

[Londonnet]

PCI-e is probably what I meant, I'm a bit behind in the hardware game.

Some of the gigabyte and Supermicro boards have a separate ethernet interface like an ilo and onboard simple graphics, so yes I plan to run this headless.

On the ryzen chip I'm seeing the previous gen is lower power consumption and I'm guessing a bit lighter on the pocket 1700x

 

Currently considering:

• Gigabyte MB10-DS3 Server Motherboard
• Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T Mini-Tower Server (Maybe quieter than the rack version below due to larger, slower running fans)
• Supermicro 5018D-FN4T Barebone 1U Intel Xeon D-1541 8-Core System-on-Chip

The above are $$$ though

 

I think we are getting there though

 

Thanks all for the input, can't wait to make a decision and get the kit ordered. I have a 1Gbit internet connection to consume