Server build config help?

[HandymanHandy]

So currently, I have Dell R720 as my server, and I have 5x12 TB HDD, 1x1 TB SSD for cache and Quadro M2000, and I run UnRaid on it.

The power draw is too much so thinking of upgrading it to make it more efficient.

 

This is what I chose, please suggest any changes, make it cheaper? Hoping to get it under $500. I already have A770 so it's $0.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wqgHH2

Edited March 9, 2023 by HandymanHandy
spelling

[HandymanHandy]

Budget (including currency): ~$500

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly as UnRaid server, plex main use. Might create couple of VMs.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Current details below

 

So currently, I have Dell R720 as my server, and I have 5x12 TB HDD (1 parity), 1x1 TB SSD for cache and Quadro M2000.

The power draw is too much so thinking of upgrading it to make it more efficient.

 

This is what I chose, please suggest any changes, make it cheaper? Hoping to get it under $500. I already have A770 so it's $0.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wqgHH2

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can probably get away with 16gb of Ram. Id get 16/32gb dimms as it makes it much easier to upgrade. This also pulls less power.

 

Can you reuse your 1tb ssd from the r720?

 

If power is your goal, Id skip the a770. The igpu will do all the encoding you need for a plex server.

 

750w is probably way overkill, 500w should be find, but not too much to save there.

 

Could probably get away with a i3 if you want to save money. Still pretty fast(I got a slower xeon e3 in a work system with 10 vms with no issues).

 

 

 

[HandymanHandy]

So my current SSD is SATA and it's quite old now so wanted to upgrade to M.2.

I run a lot of docker containers via UnRaid and also thinking of running Windows VM so that's why I went more RAM, but yeah I could get the two 16GB dimms.

 

I will continue using the Quadro M2000 for plex needs, should have clarified it more. A770 will be used for the VMs.

i3 does look like a good product, but even 12400 is 60W only, so wasn't overly worried about that.

Main reason for upgrading is my R720, chugs ~150W with my dockers running and no transcode happening. Gets up around ~$180 with couple of plex streams.

[manikyath]

since you have 32GB RAM and a GPU in this thing, i'm assuming you have some sort of particular workload on this thing. mind ellaborating on that a bit?

 

beyond that, how important is PCIe expansion?

 

something else to add is that between $100 for RAM, $100-ish for PSU and $150-ish for a case, there really arent many costs to cut anyore.. because we're literally looking at 150 bucks for cpu and motherboard.

 

something to consider, for example, is going with an (older) platform that supports whatever RAM is already in your server (which i presume is also 32GB).

 

also - out of curiousity, what is your power draw, and where are you hoping to end up?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, HandymanHandy said:

So my current SSD is SATA and it's quite old now so wanted to upgrade to M.2.

 

If you want to save money, that would be one of the first thing I'd cut.

 

1 hour ago, HandymanHandy said:

I will continue using the Quadro M2000 for plex needs, should have clarified it more. A770 will be used for the VMs.

Id use the iGPU for the VMs. Should be much better than the old m2000 and much lower power.

 

1 hour ago, HandymanHandy said:

i3 does look like a good product, but even 12400 is 60W only, so wasn't overly worried about that.

Those W numbers don't really matter, you can lower/raise(on supported boards) those as much as you want. Basically ignore the TDP

 

1 hour ago, HandymanHandy said:

Main reason for upgrading is my R720, chugs ~150W with my dockers running and no transcode happening. Gets up around ~$180 with couple of plex streams.

I got a old dual 2011 Sun server and with the other network stuff I'm at 300w so id be happy with that, but you can lower power a good amount still.

 

Id also measure power without drives and cards on the r720. That power difference will also apply to the new system. Often much of the idle power on these systems is drives and cards, and not the CPU and mobo. Also only use one PSU if you have 2. That will save a bit of power.

[HandymanHandy]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id also measure power without drives and cards on the r720. That power difference will also apply to the new system. Often much of the idle power on these systems is drives and cards, and not the CPU and mobo. Also only use one PSU if you have 2. That will save a bit of power.

Yeah I have two 750W PSU in that thing. I think the biggest contributer outside the main hardware use are those fans in R720, quite loud and running at high speed, but since it stays in my big closet(open), I don't want to lower it to increase the temp in there. 

[HandymanHandy]

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

since you have 32GB RAM and a GPU in this thing, i'm assuming you have some sort of particular workload on this thing. mind ellaborating on that a bit?

So these are the containers which are always on. And I have two VMs that I use infrequently, windows one to run specific software that doesn't run my m1 mac, and another linux VM to play around with.



I have 96GB ddr3 in my server rn, looking at my RAM usage in unraid with all containers on, it's using about 12GB, before the cache usage, after which about ~2GB is free.

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

beyond that, how important is PCIe expansion?

Not much, that's why I chose motherboard with 8ish sata ports and 2.5G, won't be extending anything like that PCIe. It will only be used for up to 2 GPU if I decide that.

 

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

something else to add is that between $100 for RAM, $100-ish for PSU and $150-ish for a case, there really arent many costs to cut anyore.. because we're literally looking at 150 bucks for cpu and motherboard.

Yeah that's a good point. I will be selling my R720 anyway if I do upgrade, so I will be getting back about ~$300ish I think, so i don't mind spending more necessarily, I was just planning on staying around $500. I can also just sell the A770 if I don't see the need for it, I haven't used it yet, it's still packed new.
 

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

something to consider, for example, is going with an (older) platform that supports whatever RAM is already in your server (which i presume is also 32GB).

It's 96GB DDR3 ECC.

 

3 hours ago, manikyath said:

also - out of curiousity, what is your power draw, and where are you hoping to end up?

About ~150W before any plex streams happens, and about 180W with 3-4 plex stream remote transcode.
I supposed with newer efficient chips, better fan etc it should drop by at least half of that if not more.
 

Edited March 9, 2023 by HandymanHandy
Pic added

[manikyath]

8 hours ago, HandymanHandy said:

Yeah that's a good point. I will be selling my R720 anyway if I do upgrade, so I will be getting back about ~$300ish I think, so i don't mind spending more necessarily, I was just planning on staying around $500. I can also just sell the A770 if I don't see the need for it, I haven't used it yet, it's still packed new.

i wrote a reply last night but it got eaten by bad timing when the threads got merged.. i'll paraphrase this.

 

assuming that you can push costs down to 500 bucks, and assuming you can cut 80 watts off your average power cost (which i deem a very generous estimate), you're looking at a return on investment of 1.5 years if you're in hawaii, up to a return on investment of over 6 years of you're in some areas of the midwest. this assumes that the heat output of the server doesnt contribute to  house heating at all. (like it does for me. every watt my server draws is a watt electric  heating i need less for 75% of the year.)

 

if you're doing this just for the sake of saving on the power bill, you'd have to be in a very expensive area, or just have terrible rates from your provider. there's just too big of a gap between the cost of a decent enough upgrade and the cost savings that will bring, unless you're looking at a very long term.

[HandymanHandy]

5 hours ago, manikyath said:

i wrote a reply last night but it got eaten by bad timing when the threads got merged.. i'll paraphrase this.

 

assuming that you can push costs down to 500 bucks, and assuming you can cut 80 watts off your average power cost (which i deem a very generous estimate), you're looking at a return on investment of 1.5 years if you're in hawaii, up to a return on investment of over 6 years of you're in some areas of the midwest. this assumes that the heat output of the server doesnt contribute to  house heating at all. (like it does for me. every watt my server draws is a watt electric  heating i need less for 75% of the year.)

 

if you're doing this just for the sake of saving on the power bill, you'd have to be in a very expensive area, or just have terrible rates from your provider. there's just too big of a gap between the cost of a decent enough upgrade and the cost savings that will bring, unless you're looking at a very long term.

Yeah makes sense. My current rate is $0.1438/kWh in my apartment. Yeah it's bad compared to many places.

[Jarsky]

I would get 16GB DIMM's, so you can always add more Ram later if you need to. 

Id also go something like a WD SN770 or a Samsung 970 Evo Plus. Ive been through using NVMe's of that level, and while theyre great for a single OS, theyre poor once you start loading them up with containers and VM's. 

Also i'd look at something more like the Define 7 if you want a new case. You need the drive sleds for that Enthoo Pro 2. The drive sleds are easier to get hold of, and I think are just better since you mount them all at the front, and are individual per drive so you can just pull drives in and out with the single screw. 

 

So something more like this....

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($182.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Steel Legend ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($79.97 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($179.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $742.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-09 14:48 EST-0500

[Jarsky]

14 hours ago, HandymanHandy said:

So these are the containers which are always on. And I have two VMs that I use infrequently, windows one to run specific software that doesn't run my m1 mac, and another linux VM to play around with.



About ~150W before any plex streams happens, and about 180W with 3-4 plex stream remote transcode.
I supposed with newer efficient chips, better fan etc it should drop by at least half of that if not more.
 

 

FYI WireGuard is built into UnRAID now, so you can just run that natively  http://tower/Settings/VPNmanager

Also the integrated graphics on Intel 10th Gen+ will do all the hardware transcoding you want to do, which will drop your power draw even further. 

[manikyath]

25 minutes ago, HandymanHandy said:

My current rate is $0.1438/kWh in my apartment. Yeah it's bad compared to many places.

that's a KILLER price.. i pay like 40-ish cents, if it's not more.

[HandymanHandy]

5 hours ago, manikyath said:

that's a KILLER price.. i pay like 40-ish cents, if it's not more.

Wow that’s rough. My teammates were quoting like 8-9 cents for their houses so I was thinking I’m paying more in apartment. 

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, HandymanHandy said:

Wow that’s rough. My teammates were quoting like 8-9 cents for their houses so I was thinking I’m paying more in apartment. 

8-9 cents per kwh sounds like they're either near "energy made from falling water", or their power company is fudging the numbers a bit to make prices seem better.

 

i only pay "15 cents per kwh", but that means nothing if i also pay "25 cents per kwh in additional fees". so when you're looking at the pricing.. make sure you're looking at bills, not billboards.

[Needfuldoer]

You might be able to lower the R720's power consumption. (And you can definitely keep an eye on it through iDRAC.)

 

If you have two CPUs, and you're not fully utilizing them, drop down to one CPU. Note that you'll have to rearrange your RAM and some PCIe slots will be diabled (because they're connected to the second CPU).

 

Since you've got a GPU, it might be ramping up the fans under the assumption that they're passive and require airflow. You can poke it with a couple IPMI commands to override that and spin the fans down. High pressure server fans gulp down a surprising amount of power.

 

https://github.com/White-Raven/PowerEdge-shutup

 

Also make sure the power profile is set to OS controlled, or energy efficient.

 

It's still going to draw more power than a modern PC, but tuning the R720 won't cost you anything but time.

 

13 hours ago, manikyath said:

i only pay "15 cents per kwh", but that means nothing if i also pay "25 cents per kwh in additional fees". so when you're looking at the pricing.. make sure you're looking at bills, not billboards.

This! Take the final price on the bill, subtract fixed subscriber costs, then divide that by how many kilowatt-hours you consumed.

 

iDRAC on the server will log its power consumption, but a Kill-a-Watt meter is a useful tool as well.

[HandymanHandy]

14 hours ago, manikyath said:

i only pay "15 cents per kwh", but that means nothing if i also pay "25 cents per kwh in additional fees". so when you're looking at the pricing.. make sure you're looking at bills, not billboards.

 

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

This! Take the final price on the bill, subtract fixed subscriber costs, then divide that by how many kilowatt-hours you consumed.

 

iDRAC on the server will log its power consumption, but a Kill-a-Watt meter is a useful tool as well.

 

I don't have any shady thing going on, so that's good. Only about 10% tax on total kWh usage x 0.1438.