Jump to content

FreeNas, finding a right MoBo is actually hard

Feanyest
 Share
Posted

Hello together:

My Story:

I am going to build a FreeNas system, chosen side is going Intel with the 9100F.

My Problem, I wanna built in a HBA x8 (Host Bus Adapter) and a 10GB NIC x8.

So I am in need of an Motherboard which is capable of delivering 2 x8 PCIe slots.

So chipset Z370 or Z390 are the only ones remaining. 

 

I have tried to find MoBo with my needed config, but I am not finding anything. 

The ones I found are all running in dual mode with one Slot in x4 mode.  Example (Z390 GAMING X from Gigabyte)

 

So If anyone in here knows a MoBo with my needs (Price max up to 150€ if possible), i am very thankful. 

 

PS: Please don't mention the Supermicro Boards. They are out of my price range.

 

Gratefully,

Christian

 

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

You may need to go for an SLI capable board (or really just dual GPU) as the PCIe configuration will go to x8 x8 rather than x16 x4 due to Nvidia's requirements.

 

ASRock - Z370 Killer SLI is the cheapest board I could spot here in the UK. Next is the likes of the Asus PRIME Z370-A II

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
4 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

need to go for an SLI capable

This is a really good Tipp. Thank you very much.

 I am going to take the Asus PRIME Z370-A II in my closer consideration.

 

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
21 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

9100F.

Why? id get the one with the igpu so you don't need a graphics card.

 

23 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

S: Please don't mention the Supermicro Boards. They are out of my price range.

Why not get a used server board? They cheap, support more ram and ecc. Id get a used 2011 system here.

22 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

The ones I found are all running in dual mode with one Slot in x4 mode. 

don't worry about this, its more than enough for that 10gbe nic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
4 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

This is a really good Tipp. Thank you very much.

 I am going to take the Asus PRIME Z370-A II in my closer consideration.

 

The other option really would be to consider a different NIC. 

 

Did you have a specific one in mind? If it's a single port NIC, x4 should have enough bandwidth for full duplex 10G. 

 

There's cards like the Asus XG-C100C that use x4 connections (though as far as I'm aware, there's no driver support for it on FreeBSD, nor any plans to implement it). Something like an Intel X540 should still be able to operate at 10G on one of the ports using x4. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why? id get the one with the igpu so you don't need a graphics card.

As far as I am concerned, I don't need a gpu for freeNas (maximum for setup). The F is much cheaper at my place. 100€.

 

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why not get a used server board?

Good ones are hard to find in my area, and i want to have at least some years of guarantee on it.

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

don't worry about this, its more than enough for that 10gbe nic.

Oh ok, thanks. 

 

8 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Did you have a specific one in mind? If it's a single port NIC, x4 should have enough bandwidth for full duplex 10G. 

I have another HP NC552SFP at my home. But you are right, I just looked that card up:

An eight lane (x8) PCI Express bus based on the PCIe v2.0 standard.

"The adapter is backward compatible with four lane (x4) PCI Express, automatically auto-sensing between x8 and x4 slots."

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
Just now, Feanyest said:

s far as I am concerned, I don't need a gpu for freeNas (maximum for setup). The F is much cheaper at my place. 100€.

 

but most boards need a gpu to post, so you still need one. id get a pentium or celeron if you want it cheaper, or ger a 2200g

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

don't worry about this, its more than enough for that 10gbe nic.

I'll confirm this. I have at least one (maybe two?) x8 card running at PCIe 2.0 x4 at full 10G link speed.

 

18 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

You may need to go for an SLI capable board

x8/x8 doesn't automatically equal SLI certification. My Asus B350-F Strix is currently running x8/x8 (between my GPU and additional M.2 card (at x4)) and it isn't SLI certed. You'll just have to check each board.

 

31 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

Please don't mention the Supermicro Boards.

An X11SSL-F or X11SSM-F is roughly the same price (maybe a little bit more premium) as any of the Z390 boards I see, and has a better PCIe distribution. Plus you get the advantage of ECC RAM (assuming you get a supporting processor). Those boards are quite nice for NASes.

 

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

but most boards need a gpu to post, so you still need one

As a bonus, you won't need a GPU with a Supermicro board, to the best of my knowledge.

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 7 5800X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-14 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 960 PRO 512GB / 4× Crucial MX500 2TB (RAID-0) | Corsair RM750X | a 10G NIC (pending) | Inateck USB 3.0 Card | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB RAM (soldered) | Vega 6 Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi (all-around awesome machine)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | AsRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 64GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 4x 10TB WD Whites / 4x 14TB Seagate Exos / 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X540-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9207-8i HBA | Fractal Design Node 804 Case (side panels swapped to show off drives) | VMs: TrueNAS Scale; Ubuntu Server (PiHole/PiVPN/NGINX?); Windows 10 Pro; Ubuntu Server (Apache/MySQL)


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-22 | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | Mellanox ConnectX-2 10G NIC | LG UH12NS30 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Camera: Sony ɑ7II w/ Meike Grip | Sony SEL24240 | Samyang 35mm ƒ/2.8 | Sony SEL50F18F | Sony SEL2870 (kit lens) | PNY Elite Perfomance 512GB SDXC card

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

Retired/Other:

Spoiler

Laptop (Rozen-Zulu): Sony VAIO VPCF13WFX | Core i7-740QM | 8GB Patriot DDR3 | GT 425M | Samsung 850EVO 250GB SSD | Blu-ray Drive | Intel 7260 Wifi (lived a good life, retired with honor)

Testbed/Old Desktop (Kshatriya): Xeon X5470 @ 4.0GHz | ZALMAN CNPS9500 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3L | 8GB Nanya DDR2 400MHz | XFX HD6870 DD | OCZ Vertex 3 Max-IOPS 120GB | Corsair CX430M | HooToo USB 3.0 PCIe Card | Osprey 230 Video Capture | NZXT H230 Case

TrueNAS Server (La Vie en Rose): Xeon E3-1241v3 | Supermicro X10SLL-F | Corsair H60 | 32GB Micron DDR3L ECC 1600MHz | 1x Kingston 16GB SSD / Crucial MX500 500GB

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

but most boards need a gpu to post, so you still need one.

Hmm. Ok that is a new one for me. There are bords which don't boot without GPU

 

I evaluated Intel for me, because of the recommondations of FreeNas

 

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
11 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

An X11SSL-F or X11SSM-F is roughly the same price

Sadly my chosen CPU isn't compatible with those boards, because it's based on the 200th chipset. 9th gen needs 300 chipset

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
5 minutes ago, Feanyest said:

Sadly my chosen CPU isn't compatible

What can you do with a i3-9100F that you can't do with a i3-7100 (aside from the 4C/4T vs 2C/4T bit)? It also cheaper (probably). Keep in mind, this is a FreeNAS server, not a gaming machine. I've never been bottlenecked by the i3-4170 in my server, and there are many people running FreeNAS on Atom-based boards.

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 7 5800X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-14 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 960 PRO 512GB / 4× Crucial MX500 2TB (RAID-0) | Corsair RM750X | a 10G NIC (pending) | Inateck USB 3.0 Card | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB RAM (soldered) | Vega 6 Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi (all-around awesome machine)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | AsRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 64GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 4x 10TB WD Whites / 4x 14TB Seagate Exos / 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X540-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9207-8i HBA | Fractal Design Node 804 Case (side panels swapped to show off drives) | VMs: TrueNAS Scale; Ubuntu Server (PiHole/PiVPN/NGINX?); Windows 10 Pro; Ubuntu Server (Apache/MySQL)


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-22 | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | Mellanox ConnectX-2 10G NIC | LG UH12NS30 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Camera: Sony ɑ7II w/ Meike Grip | Sony SEL24240 | Samyang 35mm ƒ/2.8 | Sony SEL50F18F | Sony SEL2870 (kit lens) | PNY Elite Perfomance 512GB SDXC card

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

Retired/Other:

Spoiler

Laptop (Rozen-Zulu): Sony VAIO VPCF13WFX | Core i7-740QM | 8GB Patriot DDR3 | GT 425M | Samsung 850EVO 250GB SSD | Blu-ray Drive | Intel 7260 Wifi (lived a good life, retired with honor)

Testbed/Old Desktop (Kshatriya): Xeon X5470 @ 4.0GHz | ZALMAN CNPS9500 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3L | 8GB Nanya DDR2 400MHz | XFX HD6870 DD | OCZ Vertex 3 Max-IOPS 120GB | Corsair CX430M | HooToo USB 3.0 PCIe Card | Osprey 230 Video Capture | NZXT H230 Case

TrueNAS Server (La Vie en Rose): Xeon E3-1241v3 | Supermicro X10SLL-F | Corsair H60 | 32GB Micron DDR3L ECC 1600MHz | 1x Kingston 16GB SSD / Crucial MX500 500GB

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Yeah. I ran a freenas server based on the C2550D4L board until fairly recently, and it's perfectly adequate as long as you don't have a multiple high load clients (like say over 2 1080p streams at once).

 

Older (not really old, but like Haswell Xeons) server parts tend to be highly cost effective compared to new motherboards, plus you get ECC and all that.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
42 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

x8/x8 doesn't automatically equal SLI certification. My Asus B350-F Strix is currently running x8/x8 (between my GPU and additional M.2 card (at x4)) and it isn't SLI certed. You'll just have to check each board.

No, but all SLI cert boards will be at least x8 / x8, which is why I suggested looking for them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
2 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

I've never been bottlenecked by the i3-4170 in my server

Same here, I also have one in my NAS and have yet to see it go anywhere near 100%. 

I paired mine with an Intel S1200v3RPS server board, which would be perfect for the OP (three x8 slots and an x16 one).  However it looks like they shot up in price since I bought mine. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

So sorry for the late Response.

I just ordered a used supermicro board with CPU and RAM I found on ebay. 

X9Scm-f with a Xeon 1220v2 and 16 GB of ECC Ram. For about 100$.

Full setup will be listed later:

Thank you all for your help, I will update this forum, when I got my parts and did some tests.

 

Intel i7 5820k - MSI X99A SLI Plus 3.1- HyperX Furry 2666Mhz - MSI GTX 970 - Intel 730 250Gb and 3 TB WD RED - RM650i - H440 Red Black

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory

×