SOLVED Replacing my motherboard/cpu/memory on old system - need advice

[jordanthompson]

I have an old (10+ years) system that is beginning to fail. I want to replace it with more current (but not necessarily bleeding-edge) hardware. My budget is around $400 (not including memory that I can get from Dell credit.) I just want to replace the CPU, motherboard, memory, and CPU fan. Here are my criteria:

1) Either AMD or Intel is fine
2) Lower power usage (this is pretty important for me)
3) Needs to support TrueNAS and eventually SCALE, Plex server, a database server jail/VM and a web server jail/VM
4) Current system has:
1) 14 SATA drives (2 redundant for the OS, 4 for the Plex server, 8 for the main pool)
2) 32 GB DDR3 RAM
3) 8 cores
4) 4 port Ethernet card in a PCIE16 slot (I am only using three currently and it would be great to have all on the motherboard)
5) 16 port SATA card in a PCIE16 slot (it would be great to move as many of these to the motherboard)
6) The SATA card needs room for a separate fan assembly next to it
7) video card in a PCIE16 slot (it would be great to move this to the motherboard)
5) Dell does not have ECC memory so if that is a requirement it will cut into my budget.

My reasoning for moving as much to the motherboard is to reduce heat and increase airflow (maybe I'm wrong.)
I currently have 8 cores and don't want to go less (I don't think.)
I could go with more memory if that is suggested.
I have been looking at NewEgg and Amazon (and of course Dell for the memory). I am confused over the various combinations of CPUs and motherboards.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

[ChrisRJ]

With your budget even a used motherboard + CPU + RAM with so many ports will probably be a challenge.

 

[jordanthompson]

With your budget even a used motherboard + CPU + RAM with so many ports will probably be a challenge.

The ram is separate from the budget as I have Dell coupons

 

[jordanthompson]

So I wound up punting... I spent more that I really wanted to and the memory was so much cheaper than Dell:
$49.99 Cooling fan: ID-COOLING FROZN A620 Black Dual-Tower CPU Air Cooler 6 Heat Pipes All-Black CPU Cooler with Two 120mm FDB Fans
$169 Motherboard: ASUS Prime H770-PLUS
$193 CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K Desktop Processor with Integrated Graphics and 10 (6P+4E) Cores up to 4.9 GHz
$106 64GB DDR4: Crucial Pro RAM 64GB Kit DDR4 3200MT/s
=====
$519.97

I originally wanted to put as much on the motherboard as possible (to get rid of either the ethernet or SATA card), but no matter which one I looked at, there was none that put ALL of my ethernet or SATA onboard so I would need to use my two cards anyway. So I opted for a cheaper motherboard and plan to use all of the ports on my ethernet and SATA boards.

 

[jordanthompson]

Turns out that was a bust... Using the onboard video (from the CPU), the motherboard could see all the drives attached to the HBA, but there were no bootable drives to choose from. I tried putting the two boot drives directly on to the motherboard, but even that didn't help. After a conversation with Asus, the rep told me that the only way it would be able to boot is with a separate video card installed. I installed the video card, and this time two drives appeared on the boot drive list, but neither of them were the boot drives. Another boot button appeared and it produced a list of all drives and I was finally able to boot from there manually. I have returned the motherboard.

Can anyone please recommend a motherboard that will allow you to boot from an HBA without a separate video card?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Any server board should do

 

[jordanthompson]

Any server board should do

The ASUS Prime H770-PLUS did not work! Was it a bad board? Even Asus tech support said that I needed a video card to boot(?!)

 

[jordanthompson]

From what I have read, xenon processors are pretty power hungry (that's why I chose the i5)

 

[Etorix]

The ASUS Prime H770-PLUS did not work! Was it a bad board?

This is not a SERVER board. Server boards have IPMI (hence no use for a dedicated video card), use ECC RAM and conspicuously lack audio, RGB headers and other fancies.
For the purpose of buiding a NAS, the H770-PLUS is indeed a "bad" board. And, unfortunately for you, the way out is either to send back pretty much all of your shopping list for refund and get proper server-grade gear, or to spend another $500 for a W680 board which works with your i5-12600K (and that still would not be the most commendable combination).

 

[ChrisRJ]

From what I have read, xenon processors are pretty power hungry (that's why I chose the i5)

Well, that is a rather broad statement. Apart from the fact that at least some motherboards also work with Core i processors, it is also a question of performance relative to power consumption, the age of the CPU in question, and various other factors.

In other words: From where I stand excluding Xeon across the board was probably a bit premature. As @Etorix mentioned, sending the stuff back and start over might not be the worst idea in the world.

Unless I missed it, you never specified your requirements here. May I ask what you plan to do with it?

 

[jordanthompson]

Well, that is a rather broad statement. Apart from the fact that at least some motherboards also work with Core i processors, it is also a question of performance relative to power consumption, the age of the CPU in question, and various other factors.

In other words: From where I stand excluding Xeon across the board was probably a bit premature. As @Etorix mentioned, sending the stuff back and start over might not be the worst idea in the world.

Unless I missed it, you never specified your requirements here. May I ask what you plan to do with it?

Agreed. I have a running TrueNAS server that looked like it had died and I was in a panic to replace it quickly. Now, it seems to be working so the pressure is somewhat off, but I am away from the hardware I purchased and unable to return it in the timeframe required. I have returned the motherboard, but I still have the i5, memory, and CPU fan assembly.

I have a TrueNAS server that will eventually be converted to Scale. It mainly hosts family data as well as recorded movies in a Plex server. It provides a database server and a web server as well (again, low traffic, mostly family). As it is low traffic, I am very concerned about energy consumption over raw horsepower.

 

[jordanthompson]

It looks like I'll be able to return all the parts and start over... Can anyone please make some recommendations:
1) low power
2) run multiple cages (and vms later)
3) minimum number of cards (on board video)
4) at least 64gb ram
Or at least point me where I can start looking?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Supermicro has boards incl. low-power CPUs that might fit here. @Patrick M. Hausen is a big fan of those, IIRC

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Right. A2SDi series rocks.

 

[jordanthompson]

From what I can see, the A2SDi has no PCIe slots and no onboard video and only a handful of sata ports? How do you tweak the bios and handle many drives?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

One PCIe 3.0x4 slot, onboard video and IPMI, one onboard NVMe M.2 slot, 4x1G Ethernet, 12 SATA ports.

A2SDi-8C-HLN4F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

A2SDi-12C-HLN4F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

This board is a dream NAS platform.

 

[Etorix]

For what do you need "video"? If that's about setting up the NAS, this is handled by the BMC—remotely through IMPI, or directly with the VGA output.
How many cores do you need for apps/VMs? Any compute-intensive workload in there?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

or directly with the VGA output

VGA *is* video. Or am I missing anything? A board completely without would need to be setup via serial console. Even IPMI connects to the video console via your browser. So I consider an assumed complete lack of video to be a valid concern.

But of course more or less every server platform today still comes with VGA on board. Exception being smaller embedded devices like firewall appliances etc.

 

[Etorix]

VGA *is* video. Or am I missing anything?

You're not missing anything, but I do not know what the OP may mean by "video". Is it "display output" or "GPU for transcoding"? Or has he failed to spot the VGA port like he failed to spot the x4 PCIe slot?

 

[chuck32]

How do you tweak the bios and handle many drives?

You get an HBA card, you do not tweak the BIOS for that.