Looking for recommendations (budget) Server Motherboard and CPU with ECC RAM support

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

Hi guys, im looking to pick up a budget server mobo and corresponding CPU, it doesn't need to be anything flash but does require the following:

-ECC Ram support
-a minimum of 2X8 pcie lanes (16x 2 slots with minimum 8 lanes each) for SAS and SFP+ cards
NVME m.2 slot

In my local market I have found this: ASRock C236M WS Micro ATX
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C236M WS#Specifications

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Budget?

Country?

Uses?

 

Theres many cheap china x99 boards with ecc support and xeon e5 2670 v3 are like 10$ last time i checked and those are 12 core cpus, you can lock allcore 3.1ghz with turbo unlock mod

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Budget?

Country?

Uses?

 

Theres many cheap china x99 boards with ecc support and xeon e5 2670 v3 are like 10$ last time i checked and those are 12 core cpus, you can lock allcore 3.1ghz with turbo unlock mod

Budget: mobo & Cpu: maybe around $600 USD

Country: Indonesia 

Uses: Media storage and use for content creators. also PC backup

I already have SAS HBA and 10gb SFP+ cards

 

[Dutch_Master]

Budget is a relative thing in the server world.

 

Here's what I got earlier this year:

 

Mainboard, Supermicro H11SSL-i

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005010591848.html

 

AMD EPYC 7551P CPU:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003104642841.html

 

2U cooler with fan:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004556694860.html

 

I got great prices for them at the time, now less so.

It's running on RDIMM RAM I had, but a 4 stick RAM kit should^(TM) be coming soon from Amazon.

 

In all, it cost me about 800€ and I already had the case and PSU (re-used). So, those aforementioned X99 boards are probably your best bet to stay within budget.

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

16 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

 

Theres many cheap china x99 boards with ecc support and xeon e5 2670 v3 are like 10$ last time i checked and those are 12 core cpus, you can lock allcore 3.1ghz with turbo unlock mod

OK im looking into this now... found the page for the CPU here: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/id/id/ark/products/81709/intel-xeon-processor-e52670-v3-30m-cache-2-30-ghz.html

I would assume this does not have an igpu, and I do not plan on adding a GPU. How would that work?

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

5 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

Budget is a relative thing in the server world.

 

Here's what I got earlier this year:

 

Mainboard, Supermicro H11SSL-i

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005010591848.html

 

AMD EPYC 7551P CPU:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003104642841.html

 

2U cooler with fan:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004556694860.html

 

I got great prices for them at the time, now less so.

It's running on RDIMM RAM I had, but a 4 stick RAM kit should^(TM) be coming soon from Amazon.

 

In all, it cost me about 800€ and I already had the case and PSU (re-used). So, those aforementioned X99 boards are probably your best bet to stay within budget.

dam that looks sweet! thats a lot of threads, ram space and connectivity. What are you doing with your server?

 

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

7 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

In all, it cost me about 800€ and I already had the case and PSU (re-used). So, those aforementioned X99 boards are probably your best bet to stay within budget.

This is actully a good price for me, although the specs seem overkill. (not a bad thing, good idea for future proofing and expansion)

I have no clue about this type of CPU, although I have seen the name 'EPYC' mentioned a few times while researching Truenas .

What OS do you run?
How can I learn more about the capabilitys of this system?

[mariushm]

Modern stuff... AM4 supports ECC, and b550 motherboards typically support ecc, gigabyte is good at it.  May not be 2 x8 slots, but there's the x16 slot and the second x16 slot usually has 4 pci-e lanes

 

But you can get refurbished servers or workstations if power consumption is less of a concern.Though they're heavy so shipping to Indonesia would be expensive and most won't do it.

 

Other options... there's a Chinese seller on eBay that sells lots of  Epyc processors paired with decent motherboards and ram or heatsinks for some, here's the link to the store : https://www.ebay.com/sch/131511/i.html?_ssn=tugm4470&store_name=tugm4470&_oac=1

If he ships to Indonesia, there's some good deals there for a NAS

 

For example : $370 for mobo + cooler + Epic 7251 (about equivalent to a 12100F from Intel or a 8 core Ryzen 1700 /  bit slower than Ryzen 3600) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175498123795?hash=item28dc80da13:g:sH8AAOSwtfZircSU

You get 16 sata ports on board, 2 gigabit ethernet + management port, 6 pci-e slots ( 3x8 and 3x16), the only catch is that it needs ECC Registered DDR4 which is not expensive, but you just can't use standard DDR4  or ECC DDR4  ... Registered ECC DDR4 costs around 2$ per GB, for example same seller sells 2x16GB 2666 Mhz for 72$ : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175618085616?hash=item28e3a752f0:g:~ioAAOSwsiNj73fE

 

If you want more performance, there's  for example this bundle with Epyc 7371 for $500 : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175399648170?hash=item28d6a23baa:g:6H0AAOSwaERjDcr6

Scores about the same as an Intel 12700 or Ryzen 3900x

 

[Dutch_Master]

10 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

How can I learn more about the capabilitys of this system?

A good place to start is the Supermicro website.

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/H11SSL-i

Download the manual and make yourself familiar with the platform and terminology used. Same goes for the CPU. Note that you need a Torx screwdriver with #20 bit to mount the CPU and cooler. Ideally you need a torque-wrench, but manual mounting with care worked for me. (mind, I've been building PC's for about 2 decades, so I have some experience )

 

I'm running Linux, but TrueNAS, Proxmox and other OS-es will work as well. My usage is as file server.

 

Be aware you need RDIMM ECC RAM, normal ECC RAM won't work (guess how I know ) I was pointed to this kit, which I purchased, on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081K7STC4/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

One more thing: the BMC is probably unreachable as the seller doesn't have the password. Supermicro offers a tool to reset this, but be careful as it'll reset all Supermicro mainboards it finds on the network:

https://www.supermicro.com/wdl/BMC_Unique_Password/

Read carefully to understand what it does and how it works.

(don't tell Supermicro how you found it )

[Somerandomtechyboi]

45 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

I would assume this does not have an igpu, and I do not plan on adding a GPU. How would that work?

Why would you need an igpu?

Not familiar with this stuff

 

Most server hardware dont have igpus and you are kinda stuck to consumer hardware if you need igpu, i assume you wanna use intel quicksync? Or just as a display output? If the latter then theres a buncha cheap hd7000/8000 going for like 100rb on tokped which can do 2 displays

 

Btw why ecc?

59 minutes ago, K1LLA_KING_KONG said:

use for content creators

And i dont know what this means cause from the other 2 i would assume this is just a nas and a nas doesnt really need much more than an old i3

[manikyath]

1 hour ago, Dutch_Master said:

Budget is a relative thing in the server world.

 

Here's what I got earlier this year:

 

Mainboard, Supermicro H11SSL-i

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005010591848.html

 

AMD EPYC 7551P CPU:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003104642841.html

 

2U cooler with fan:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004556694860.html

 

I got great prices for them at the time, now less so.

It's running on RDIMM RAM I had, but a 4 stick RAM kit should^(TM) be coming soon from Amazon.

 

In all, it cost me about 800€ and I already had the case and PSU (re-used). So, those aforementioned X99 boards are probably your best bet to stay within budget.

if it fits in the budget i'd buy (the H12 version) from official sources, though.. always tricky buying from weird small-time retailers on aliexpress.. especially for something like this where so many little things could be wrong... and Epyc is defenately a picky platform. lots of high speed I/O, lots of potential power draw, etc.

 

having all that said.. probably rather overkill for what amounts to a powerful NAS...

 

if OP has a source for more of asrock rack's products, they sell relatively affordable µATX (so 4 expansion slots) boards with an embedded server CPU and all the server board fancies.

[K1LLA_KING_KONG]

2 hours ago, manikyath said:

 

if OP has a source for more of asrock rack's products, they sell relatively affordable µATX (so 4 expansion slots) boards with an embedded server CPU and all the server board fancies.

Actually I just came accross an ASRock Rack board: C236M WS 
Details;

1. Micro ATX 9.6" x 9.6"
2. Single Socket LGA 1151 H4 Intel^® Xeon^® processor E3-1200 v5/v6 series
3. Supports Dual Channel DDR4 2133/1866 ECC DIMM, 4x DIMM
4. Supports 8x SATA3 by Intel^® C236
5. Supports 1 PCIe3.0 x16, 1 PCIe3.0 x8, 1 PCIe3.0 x4, 1 PCIe3.0 x1, 1 M.2
6. Support 2 x GLAN by Intel^® i219LM and i210
   
   The Memory QVL list is very short, none of which comes up in search in my online marketplace. Can this be problem if I run a different ram but is still ECC and max 2400 (same max as QVL list)
   Same goes for HDD QVL

[Blue4130]

5 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Why would you need an igpu?

Not familiar with this stuff

 

Most server hardware dont have igpus and you are kinda stuck to consumer hardware if you need igpu, i assume you wanna use intel quicksync? Or just as a display output? If the latter then theres a buncha cheap hd7000/8000 going for like 100rb on tokped which can do 2 displays

 

 

Most server boards do have igpu's, they just aren't integrated in the cpu, they are integrated on the motherboard. That is what the aspeed chip does if you ever see it on the board. Just don't expect hdmi or display port. You'll be getting vga.

[Bersella AI]

If you don't even care about noises & power bills... Take a used bare bone server like Dell R730XD, used Xeon processors & ECC REG memory modules in pretty cheap prices. The server should have plenty of room for a bunch of hard drives & PCIe cards, and support M.2 SSD's via a PCIe riser card.

 

However, if noises & power make sense, consider a fresh build with a recent Core/Xeon E or Ryzen processor, and a motherboard sufficient for expansion. In case of 2~6 M.2 SSD's, install a riser card in PEG slot (has connectivity of PCIe x16; may require proper configuration for PCIe lane splitting in BIOS, which could be x4/x4/x4/x4 in Ryzen builds or x8/x4/x4 in Core builds).

[Bdavis]

Serve the home has a great deals section in their forums and even lists if the deal is in the EU. Here's a link:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?forums/great-deals.8/

 

[Needfuldoer]

Used workstations with server sockets can be a relatively inexpensive way to get into "real" Xeons. (That is, not desktop processors with ECC support.)

 

I don't know about Indonesia, but here in the US you can get an HP z440 workstation for $150. That's a standard ATX layout LGA2011-3 motherboard (with proprietary power connectors) and 8 slots to fill with cheap registered ECC DDR4. You can step up to Skylake and beyond with an HP z4 or Dell Precision 5820, but their motherboards have proprietary layouts.

[KingVeder]

On 5/29/2023 at 3:44 AM, Dutch_Master said:

Budget is a relative thing in the server world.

 

Here's what I got earlier this year:

 

Mainboard, Supermicro H11SSL-i

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005010591848.html

 

AMD EPYC 7551P CPU:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003104642841.html

 

2U cooler with fan:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004556694860.html

 

I got great prices for them at the time, now less so.

It's running on RDIMM RAM I had, but a 4 stick RAM kit should^(TM) be coming soon from Amazon.

 

In all, it cost me about 800€ and I already had the case and PSU (re-used). So, those aforementioned X99 boards are probably your best bet to stay within budget.

I've been considering a similar build for my home server. Mind sharing what the energy draw is like ? 

[Dutch_Master]

Quite a bit, actually. Both systems are currently offline, but just the BMC is about 10W each. Idle easily gets to 200-250W per system but I've seen spikes up to 400W idling (probably some background processes). I haven't put a big load on it yet (it probably never will, this is a home-lab environment) so I can't tell you about full power draw. If local energy costs are high, consider a different platform (ARM!) or make extensive use of the BMC remote power management options (primarily boot+shutdown).