I hope you’re all well and thanks for reading my post.
I’ve had a very reliable 24/7 G4560 + X11SSM-F combination that I use for personal and work for 3 years now, but I’m wondering if I should update it. I’m also moving away from SyncThing slightly and intend to edit (very small) files directly via SMB, I would use the TopTon machine I have (see sig), but I’m loathed to trust it even though it’s performed very well for a year now.
Hard drive port used
1x jails/apps (NVME via PCI adaptor)
1 x SATA for Boot
3 x SATA for storage (RAIDZ1)
1 x SATA for stripe (see bottom for use)
1 x spare when used for replacing a drive
Total: 6 available/used out of 8.
It's done the following without any performance issues (work and personal)
File storage (SMB)
SyncThing
Media player (Plex, Jellyfin)
I don’t have to transcode, so when I play media on a TV/Computer, the CPU peaks at 5% worst case and I don’t watch anything remotely or on a small screen (though it can do it, just about).
The only slight upgrade I’m interested in, is putting jails/apps on a Mirrored pair. I only refer to jails as this machine currently has Core. I’ve upgraded all my other machines, this one will also get Scale when time permits.
I had in mind:
CPU: Intel i3-14100
Motherboard: Supermicro X13SAE
However ECC memory is only vaguely supported (mentioned on reviews, but not by intel directly).
As an alternative:
CPU: E-2324G
Motherboard: Supermicro X12STL-IF
Welcome any thoughts for comparable hardware configs, thanks in advance!
When it comes to Intel and ecc , the focus is on the board if you’re using a Xeon. A lot of the older Xeon chips are strong single thread performers without doubling your power bill , especially if they have an on die GPU . I used a 4 core Xeon for years and honestly, probably still could.
If you want more CPU power, just buy a Xeon E3v6 for your X11SSM board; these should be damn cheap. You have not filled the PCIe slots, and it may be possible to get x4x4 in one of the x8 CPU slots.
Thank you, I did see that the Supermicro board would allow ECC, I was also hoping for a more current CPU/Motherboard arrangement, rather than going for an older model. If there isn’t anything current, perhaps I should just get another of the same board, I already have a spare G4560 as they were so cheap.
I would welcome knowing what Xeon you have though?
That is a shame about the i series of Intel CPU’s.
Thank you for that, I haven’t really any need for more power, I just wish to get a modest chip similar to the G4560 as that appears to be all I need. I have to say that one of the aspects to the CPU I like is the low power nature, something that’s welcome in the UK due to the high electricity cost.
Perhaps having an 8 year old CPU is OK and should just get another of a similar vintage. I just thought generally it was time to get a more current setup?
The general lack of ECC in consumer lines from Intel is a shame.
Which parts do support ECC is… a headache. (Up to 9th gen: i3. 10-11th gen: nope. From 12th gen: i5 and up.)
You have a decent board, and are reportedly satisfied with the CPU. Core i3-6100/7100 or Xeon E3v5/6 are low idle power and possible upgrades for more cores and/or more RAM if needed.
Keep your money for more storage, for backup system… or for anything else.
It’s still sitting here , built a new box with a newer chip that could use the old architecture. The Xeon is an E-2124g. 3.4ghz ,quad core I think, on die GPU. Socket 1151 probably. A fairly old and capable chip.
Thank you, if age is not a problem, I’ll stick with what I have, I was just concerned that there’s more risk of failure with an older system. I do have another machine (Server3 in my sig), perhaps I can use that is a secondary ‘always on’ rather than a destination for cold storage replications. It’s fairly low power, may be I could swap around Server3 and Server 5.
I’m probably going over the top, but I would be sad to lose an hours work and have to redo it. I’ve got the disk redundancy through RAID, but I like having a whole system that is a duplicate that I could simply switch over to. All it would take it disabling read only and creating shares.
Oh, I never knew that some Xeon’s had on die GPUs, learn something every day. Thanks for that.
Yeah I think that’s what the G designation was for, and it supports Quicksync which is a monster at transcoding. Really crammed a lot of power into that little dude.
Possibly but… what’s the issue?
Drives will eventually fail. And replacing for more capacity can take care of that.
A motherboard or CPU failing should not take teh pool with it. An ageing PSU may be more dangerous.
You have five systems and en extensive replication scheme, so if one system fail it should be easy enough to turn any of the backups into the new primary: Remove read-only, turn on sharing, adjust replication flows.
No real issue, I was just concerned about having an 8 year old platform, but from others that have commented, perhaps I’m unnecessarily overconcerned.
Yes, I should focus on drives (I have spares) as well as older PSU’s. I do monitor part ages, but I’ll review more closely I think.
Yes I do hope I never suffer a problem, but at least I’m protected as best as I can be. My ongoing concern is really the age of the CPU/Motherboards I use, some of approaching if not exceeded 10 years old (bought new).
