homelab Server build for an additionnal homelab node

[Dogeek]

Hello LMG Forum community.

 

I come to you today to help me select parts for a server I intend for an additional k8s node on my homelab setup. My existing setup is straight up my old gaming PC with a few add in PCIe cards for SATA/networking needs.

 

First off, the requirements:

- budget wise, I'd like to keep it under $2,500 since it's already a consequential budget.

- I need mostly CPU and RAM availability.

- Storage is not a concern, since my main node has about 50TB raw already, most of which is available (maybe 6TB taken total, and I have like 6 empty drive bays for additional storage if need be).

- GPU not needed, I already have a GTX 1060 in my main node that I use for transcoding.

- case has to be rack mountable, I am waiting for my rack to arrive, but it's 12U. My main node is taking up 3U of that, I intend to add in a 1U networking plate, and a 1U shelf for my switch

- speaking of networking, my LAN is in a mix of 10G, 2.5G and 1G. 10G in SFP for my main node, 2.5G for my desktop PC, 1G for the rest. I still have an SFP 10G port on my switch which I'd like to use for my worker node.

- Power consumption is a concern since it's a server at home, hence I'd like to keep it under 500W

 

This will be a worker node in a 2-node kubernetes cluster, managed by kubeadm, both machines will run debian 12 and containerd for the container runtime (and runc of course).

 

With those constraints laid out, I picked out these parts on pcpartpicker : https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XHwXh3

 

It does include a Threadripper (high core count is desirable), lots of RAM, and the rest of the parts I chose to fill it in. Case is undecided yet, since I don't know good rack mounted ATX cases. The one I have for my main node works fine, but it's not great either. I mostly picked it for the ample amount of 3.5" bays.

 

I also plan on migrating my transcoding GPU to that new node, so that I free up an extra 2 bays for drives in my main node.

 

So if anybody can recommend cases I can look at (in the 3U to 4U range) or recommend things I have not thought of.

 

Thanks in advance

[Electronics Wizardy]

2920x seems like a odd pick to me. Pretty low core count, low IPC and clock speed compared to newer chips and you don't seem to be using the extra PCIe and ram the chip has. Something like a 5900x/7900x would be much faster and a simmilar price here. And the newer chips should use much less power too, and no numa issues. If you want a lot of ram capacity, I'd go with something like epyc or xeon scalable as they support much more ram than threadripper, and are likely cheaper now too.

 

I'd get a newer platform for the CPU + mobo here, and otherwise looks fine. 

 

DO you have the 960 evo already? Otherwise its a old drive and I wouldn't buy it new today. Same with the PSU. Thats a lot for a 500w PSU, and I'd go cheaper and non -fanless here. 

 

I'd be tempted to get a premade/used server for rackmount uses.

 

 

 

[Dogeek]

good to know, I was under the impression that a threadripper, even an older model would be a great CPU for workstation / server use.

 

I don't mind going for a bit of older hardware if I can get good enough performance for my requirements for cheaper, I'll look into the Epyc platform though. I was intending on going team red for price concerns, but maybe the Xeon lineup is not that much more expensive.

 

I wanted a fanless PSU for noise concerns. I know from experience that servers can get very loud, and I live in a 25m² appartment. I sleep right next to my bay so I can't afford super loud machines.

 

I do not have a 960 evo on hand (well I have one in my desktop). I picked it cause it's cheap, it's just going to be a boot drive and have occasionnal temp files on it, nothing mission critical (think ansible playbook, some config, maybe a lot of swap file hence the M.2 SSD choice)

[Electronics Wizardy]

12 minutes ago, Dogeek said:

 

I wanted a fanless PSU for noise concerns. I know from experience that servers can get very loud, and I live in a 25m² appartment. I sleep right next to my bay so I can't afford super loud machines.

Typically the PSU fan is near silent, and not the noise issue. I'd save the money, and I'd guess one with a fan will run much cooler than a fanless one. And its cheaper.

 

13 minutes ago, Dogeek said:

 

I do not have a 960 evo on hand (well I have one in my desktop). I picked it cause it's cheap, it's just going to be a boot drive and have occasionnal temp files on it, nothing mission critical (think ansible playbook, some config, maybe a lot of swap file hence the M.2 SSD choice)

Yea go ahead, I just woudln't buy it new.

 

13 minutes ago, Dogeek said:

good to know, I was under the impression that a threadripper, even an older model would be a great CPU for workstation / server use.

 

I don't mind going for a bit of older hardware if I can get good enough performance for my requirements for cheaper, I'll look into the Epyc platform though. I was intending on going team red for price concerns, but maybe the Xeon lineup is not that much more expensive.

 

Really Depends on how much you wanna spend and how much power matters to you. But I'm a fan of the desktop parts like the 5900x as its pretty low power, fairly fast, and cheap ish. 

 

I'd get a board like this for the ipmi and and its easy to make near silent. https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U-2L2T#Specifications. There are am5 and lga 1700 versions too.