# Got this bad boy (SuperMicro SYS-5028D-TN4T) on it's way! :D



## tycoonbob

Have you already bought this new server? If so, where did you find one available at? I've been looking at buying just the board/cpu and putting that in my Norco RPC-4224 and doing CentOS 7 + ZoL + KVM + Kimchi, but haven't made a decision yet. I really like that micro box, but no way it could hold my 12 5TB drives, haha. Those Xeon D's do look great, especially for a small setup.

Unfortunately for me (based on MSRP), it's not worth it to buy this unless I would be putting it in a small chassis. In a large chassis (think 4U, 24-drive bays), I can get a LGA2011-v3 board and a E5-2630Lv3 for essentially the same cost.

I really want to use one of these Xeon D-1540 setups, but I just can't make it a cost effective decision, and I don't think it's more powerful than a E5-2630L. Hmm..


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Have you already bought this new server? If so, where did you find one available at? I've been looking at buying just the board/cpu and putting that in my Norco RPC-4224 and doing CentOS 7 + ZoL + KVM + Kimchi, but haven't made a decision yet. I really like that micro box, but no way it could hold my 12 5TB drives, haha. Those Xeon D's do look great, especially for a small setup.
> 
> Unfortunately for me (based on MSRP), it's not worth it to buy this unless I would be putting it in a small chassis. In a large chassis (think 4U, 24-drive bays), I can get a LGA2011-v3 board and a E5-2630Lv3 for essentially the same cost.
> 
> I really want to use one of these Xeon D-1540 setups, but I just can't make it a cost effective decision, and I don't think it's more powerful than a E5-2630L. Hmm..


Yea the boards themselves are sold out just about everywhere. Even the sites that do show it in-stock, if you place the order it won't ship till early June because all retailers are just drop shipping directly from SM and they are so backed up on orders (mostly because so many companies are buying these in droves for their datacenters).

However, I bought this bare-bones unit off WiredZone and spoke to their customer service about it. They are built to order directly through SM and it supposedly should ship sometime next week. But yea, certainly not a good option for any kind of large storage array like your RAID10 array.


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> However, I bought this bare-bones unit off WiredZone and spoke to their customer service about it. They are built to order directly through SM and it supposedly should ship sometime next week. But yea, certainly not a good option for any kind of large storage array like your RAID10 array.


Sweet.

I've been doing some reading over at STH while I sit at the airport waiting on my plane, and it seems it may be worth me looking more into these after all. Definitely a cost premium for what i want to do, but performance would be fantastic. I wish I could get some actual power draw usage stats though.

I'm currently looking at this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-X8DTE-F-2-x-2-26Ghz-L5640-Six-Core-48GB-2PS-Rails-/201339728740?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ee0c87364

And talking to the seller about doubling the RAM to 96G. Probably be right around $1000 shipped, but dual L5640's, 96GB RAM, dual 900W PSU's, 24-drive bay's with SAS Expander backplane (definitely worth mentioning), and would definitely do what I need.

Alternatively, I'm considering buying the chassis/PSU/backplane off eBay (for ~$300, shipped) + SM X10SDV-TLN4F (~$900) + 128GB DDR4 RAM (~$1,400?) + LSI 9211-8i (IT Mode; ~$100). That would put me at $2,700 for an awesome build, but I don't know if the additional $1,700 is worth it or not. If the power draw difference is 100W less with the Xeon D-1540, it would only equate to ~$.25/day for me (based on my current electricity rate of ~8 cents per kWh. A 100W decrease in power draw is worth about $8/mo for me, so it would take ~17 years to recoup my additional costs.

I would expect that dual L5640 to consume 250W or less, but it's worth it since I would be dropping down to a single box (instead of 3, that each pull 100-120W). Even if that Xeon D setup ran at 100W, my wallet would still be mad at me...even though I want that sexy new hardware!


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Sweet.
> 
> I've been doing some reading over at STH while I sit at the airport waiting on my plane, and it seems it may be worth me looking more into these after all. Definitely a cost premium for what i want to do, but performance would be fantastic. I wish I could get some actual power draw usage stats though.
> 
> I'm currently looking at this:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-X8DTE-F-2-x-2-26Ghz-L5640-Six-Core-48GB-2PS-Rails-/201339728740?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ee0c87364
> 
> And talking to the seller about doubling the RAM to 96G. Probably be right around $1000 shipped, but dual L5640's, 96GB RAM, dual 900W PSU's, 24-drive bay's with SAS Expander backplane (definitely worth mentioning), and would definitely do what I need.
> 
> Alternatively, I'm considering buying the chassis/PSU/backplane off eBay (for ~$300, shipped) + SM X10SDV-TLN4F (~$900) + 128GB DDR4 RAM (~$1,400?) + LSI 9211-8i (IT Mode; ~$100). That would put me at $2,700 for an awesome build, but I don't know if the additional $1,700 is worth it or not. If the power draw difference is 100W less with the Xeon D-1540, it would only equate to ~$.25/day for me (based on my current electricity rate of ~8 cents per kWh. A 100W decrease in power draw is worth about $8/mo for me, so it would take ~17 years to recoup my additional costs.
> 
> I would expect that dual L5640 to consume 250W or less, but it's worth it since I would be dropping down to a single box (instead of 3, that each pull 100-120W). Even if that Xeon D setup ran at 100W, my wallet would still be mad at me...even though I want that sexy new hardware!


Yea I'm not sure it makes financial sense given your needs. I mean honestly, it doesn't make huge financial sense for me either but that's usually how I operate. I sell my systems while they are still current and relevant enough to pay for half of whatever new technology I want/need.

BTW the server in that eBay link you posted is a MONSTER. Great value but I'd never have the room for that in my home.


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## Versa

100w load? I might want to jump on this but not sure on pricing


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> Yea I'm not sure it makes financial sense given your needs. I mean honestly, it doesn't make huge financial sense for me either but that's usually how I operate. I sell my systems while they are still current and relevant enough to pay for half of whatever new technology I want/need.
> 
> BTW the server in that eBay link you posted is a MONSTER. Great value but I'd never have the room for that in my home.


For me, physical space is not an issue. I have a large home office, and already have 14U worth of gear, even though I don't have a rack. I've also been deciding whether to get a rack, or to not get a rack and go to tower builds.

Hmm...I could always get two of those SuperServer 5028D-TN4T, and put 4 x 5TB drives in each, RAID 10. That would be over $3k, though.









Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing benchmarks from your setup!


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> For me, physical space is not an issue. I have a large home office, and already have 14U worth of gear, even though I don't have a rack. I've also been deciding whether to get a rack, or to not get a rack and go to tower builds.
> 
> Hmm...I could always get two of those SuperServer 5028D-TN4T, and put 4 x 5TB drives in each, RAID 10. That would be over $3k, though.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing benchmarks from your setup!


That would be a bad ass Hyper-V cluster Bob







.

Speaking of which, I've been all VMware since ESXi 4. I've been thinking of making the jump to Hyper-V but I'm not sure how tough the transition is. Any tips or advice on that front? Any limitations of using Hyper-V in terms of backups (I currently use Veeam to backup my vSphere host)? I know you need to use Server 2012 in order to cluster but I won't be clustering since I have no use (nor the money even if I did) for a multiple host cluster at home. Therefore would it be more advisable for me to just go with Hyper-V server or stick with Server 2012 R2 for the added Gui?


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> That would be a bad ass Hyper-V cluster Bob
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
> Speaking of which, I've been all VMware since ESXi 4. I've been thinking of making the jump to Hyper-V but I'm not sure how tough the transition is. Any tips or advice on that front? Any limitations of using Hyper-V in terms of backups (I currently use Veeam to backup my vSphere host)? I know you need to use Server 2012 in order to cluster but I won't be clustering since I have no use (nor the money even if I did) for a multiple host cluster at home. Therefore would it be more advisable for me to just go with Hyper-V server or stick with Server 2012 R2 for the added Gui?


Honestly, I transitioned away from Hyper-V about a year ago, and now run KVM. I find the plethora of open source management tools fun to try out, which is why my new build in the coming weeks will be CentOS 7, KVM, and Kimchi.

In fact, I really no longer use Windows, except for Active Directory, but I'm starting to play around with FreeIPA and OpenLDAP, but I just find Active Directory so easy to configure/manage, and working with Linux and AD has been pretty easy as well.


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Honestly, I transitioned away from Hyper-V about a year ago, and now run KVM. I find the plethora of open source management tools fun to try out, which is why my new build in the coming weeks will be CentOS 7, KVM, and Kimchi.
> 
> In fact, I really no longer use Windows, except for Active Directory, but I'm starting to play around with FreeIPA and OpenLDAP, but I just find Active Directory so easy to configure/manage, and working with Linux and AD has been pretty easy as well.


Interesting. What brought on this switch? I remember you being such a big Windows guy.


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> Interesting. What brought on this switch? I remember you being such a big Windows guy.


Windows stuff worked fine, but at work I found myself moving more and more toward Linux, so my home environment also moved in that direction. Honestly, that's the only reason.

Hyper-V is a great tool, no doubt about it. Another important factor is I no longer have access to Windows licenses, and I don't feel like dealing with cracks or eval version.


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Windows stuff worked fine, but at work I found myself moving more and more toward Linux, so my home environment also moved in that direction. Honestly, that's the only reason.
> 
> Hyper-V is a great tool, no doubt about it. Another important factor is I no longer have access to Windows licenses, and I don't feel like dealing with cracks or eval version.


Ahhh I see. That makes a lot of sense.

As for me, one of the biggest reasons I haven't made the move to Hyper-V at home is that I use VMware at work and like you I don't have access to Windows Server licensing. I have one Server 2012 R2 license for my home network and that's all. And as silly as it may sound, I really like being able to run my hypervisor off of a USB instead of needed an SSD to do a full Windows install for run Hyper-V. Although that will change with my new server since the SM X10SDV-TLN4F board doesn't have an onboard USB port. I'll have to make the move to an mSATA drive.


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ahhh I see. That makes a lot of sense.
> 
> As for me, one of the biggest reasons I haven't made the move to Hyper-V at home is that I use VMware at work and like you I don't have access to Windows Server licensing. I have one Server 2012 R2 license for my home network and that's all. And as silly as it may sound, I really like being able to run my hypervisor off of a USB instead of needed an SSD to do a full Windows install for run Hyper-V. Although that will change with my new server since the SM X10SDV-TLN4F board doesn't have an onboard USB port. I'll have to make the move to an mSATA drive.


Yeah, I've always ran my server OS on SSD's. I've collected a plethora of small SSD's that are just sitting around anymore (like 5 60GB and 4 128GB not being used). However, may I suggest switching to SATA DOM instead of mSATA. Supermicro is a big fan of SATA DOM, and that specific board has the yellow SATA port just for that (it's a "powered" SATA port). SATA DOM's are relatively inexpensive, and that would free up the mSATA port for a 500GB SSD for VM storage!


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ahhh I see. That makes a lot of sense.
> 
> As for me, one of the biggest reasons I haven't made the move to Hyper-V at home is that I use VMware at work and like you I don't have access to Windows Server licensing. I have one Server 2012 R2 license for my home network and that's all. And as silly as it may sound, I really like being able to run my hypervisor off of a USB instead of needed an SSD to do a full Windows install for run Hyper-V. Although that will change with my new server since the SM X10SDV-TLN4F board doesn't have an onboard USB port. I'll have to make the move to an mSATA drive.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, I've always ran my server OS on SSD's. I've collected a plethora of small SSD's that are just sitting around anymore (like 5 60GB and 4 128GB not being used). However, may I suggest switching to SATA DOM instead of mSATA. Supermicro is a big fan of SATA DOM, and that specific board has the yellow SATA port just for that (it's a "powered" SATA port). SATA DOM's are relatively inexpensive, and that would free up the mSATA port for a 500GB SSD for VM storage!
Click to expand...

That's an idea. However my original plan was to use two 500GB SSDs in RAID1 for my local VM datastore. I backup my VMs every night but I like the redundancy for uptime.


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> That's an idea. However my original plan was to use two 500GB SSDs in RAID1 for my local VM datastore. I backup my VMs every night but I like the redundancy for uptime.


Nothing wrong with that!


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Nothing wrong with that!


Right but I still need to put my hypervisor somewhere. So I'd have to put it on the mSATA slot in that case otherwise I wouldn't have enough SATA ports to populate all my HDD bays. Just seems like a waste to use an mSATA drive for the hypervisor unless it was Hyper-V.


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## PuffinMyLye

Here's the build so far. Just need to pick out a M.2 SSD. Will post pics once everything is here.

*CPU:* Intel Xeon D-1540 2.0Ghz 8-core SoC
*Motherboard:* SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F
*Chassis:* SuperMicro Mini-tower CSE-721TQ-250B
*SSDs:* Intel 730 480GB SSD (x2) + M.2 SSD (undecided on this)
*HDDs:* 4 x 8TB Seagate Archive (shingled) drives
*RAM:* 64GB (32GB x 2) Samsung DDR4-2133 RDIMMs
*Add-in Cards:* IBM ServeRAIDM1015
*Power Supply:* Built in 250w PSU
*Other Bits:* 1-2 USB boot drives for ESXi/unRAID


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## dir_d

I was looking at this for a exsi host pfsense/freenas/random VM. Is there room for HBA?


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *dir_d*
> 
> I was looking at this for a exsi host pfsense/freenas/random VM. Is there room for HBA?


Yup. If you look at my post just above yours you'll see I'm using an IBM ServeRAID M1015. There is only one PCIe expansion slot on the board so unfortunately I won't have any room for expansion cards beyond the HBA in the future. However I can't really see what I'd need adding any other cards for since this case won't be able to fit any more drives than what I've got now.


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## dir_d

I wanted to use my 6 3tb raidz2 but it looks like I'll have to pony up for some 6+TB drives.


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## chrismo16

Quick question. Why use the hba when you have enough onboard sata ports? Trying to learn more about esxi. I know esxi doesn't play well with software raid. Would it be possible to use the in board sata with a storage vm?


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *chrismo16*
> 
> Quick question. Why use the hba when you have enough onboard sata ports? Trying to learn more about esxi. I know esxi doesn't play well with software raid. Would it be possible to use the in board sata with a storage vm?


It's not that ESXi doesn't play well with software RAID, it's that it doesn't play well with most onboard RAID controllers. So to use any kind of RAID with ESXi you need a supported storage controller such as an LSI card. And on top of that if you plan to use a storage solution within a VM you almost always want to pass through the storage controller to that VM which is what I'll be doing with unRAID.


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## chrismo16

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> It's not that ESXi doesn't play well with software RAID, it's that it doesn't play well with most onboard RAID controllers. So to use any kind of RAID with ESXi you need a supported storage controller such as an LSI card. And on top of that if you plan to use a storage solution within a VM you almost always want to pass through the storage controller to that VM which is what I'll be doing with unRAID.


Thanks for clearing that up. I'm looking to buy this same system (that's how I found this thread) and was hoping to leave the pcie slot free for future expansion but I guess I'll be filling it with an hba.


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## 350 Malibu

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> Here's the build so far. Just need to pick out a M.2 SSD. Will post pics once everything is here.
> 
> *CPU:* Intel Xeon D-1540 2.0Ghz 8-core SoC
> *Motherboard:* SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F
> *Chassis:* SuperMicro Mini-tower CSE-721TQ-250B
> *SSDs:* Intel 730 480GB SSD (x2) + M.2 SSD (undecided on this)
> *HDDs:* 4 x 8TB Seagate Archive (shingled) drives
> *RAM:* 64GB (32GB x 2) Samsung DDR4-2133 RDIMMs
> *Add-in Cards:* IBM ServeRAIDM1015
> *Power Supply:* Built in 250w PSU
> *Other Bits:* 1-2 USB boot drives for ESXi/unRAID


You start adding up the cost of all those components, and man it adds up quick...

But that Samsung RAM...


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *chrismo16*
> 
> Thanks for clearing that up. I'm looking to buy this same system (that's how I found this thread) and was hoping to leave the pcie slot free for future expansion but I guess I'll be filling it with an hba.


Yea when I first bought the system my plan was to keep that PCIe open as well for the future but once I decided to consolidate my storage into this server as well I had no choice. Plus I really can't think of anything else I'd need to put in there since 4 NICs should be plenty with 2 of them being 10gig.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *350 Malibu*
> 
> You start adding up the cost of all those components, and man it adds up quick...
> 
> But that Samsung RAM...


Yea it definitely adds up fast. However I've got 2 fairly current servers, one VM server (Xeon E3-1245v2, SM X9 board, 24GB ECC, etc.) and one storage server (i3-4130, SM X10 board, 8GB ECC, 7X3TB drives, etc.) that I'm selling to pay for most of this build so it's not a huge hole in my wallet. And yea the RAM is sweet. I love how I still have the capacity to add another 64GB down the road. This server should have me set for my home network for a long time







.


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## PuffinMyLye

So my server was delivered middle of last week but I didn't get to actually play with it till this weekend. Some first impressions...

Holy crap is this thing small. I knew it was going to be small but I'm quite amazed that I've got an 8 core/16 thread, 128GB of RAM, 4 NIC (2 10gig), 33.5TB (4 x 8TB, 2 x 480GB SSDs, 1 x 512GB M.2 SSD, 1 x 16GB SATA DOM) server that isn't much larger than a toaster (I kid you not).

Unfortunately since this SuperMicro board is so new there isn't a lot of documentation on it in terms of getting the components to play nice with different OS's. Windows detected my M.2 drive right away but not the 2 10gig NICs. Although even after getting the drivers installed for those I"ve decided not to go with Hyper-V mainly because of the need for it to be installed on an SSD plus of course the licensing.

VMware ESXi 5.5 has been even more difficult to configure. I had to load a custom .vib file to get it to recognize my M.2 drive and I'm still having trouble finding a .vib file to get my two 10gig NICs to show up. Once I can get those installed I can install my pfSense VM and transfer all my other VMs over to put this thing into production.

Overall I'm really happy with this purchase so far and I can't wait to get it up and running so I can start having some fun with it.


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## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> VMware ESXi 5.5 has been even more difficult to configure. I had to load a custom .vib file to get it to recognize my M.2 drive and I'm still having trouble finding a .vib file to get my two 10gig NICs to show up. Once I can get those installed I can install my pfSense VM and transfer all my other VMs over to put this thing into production.


Why did you go with ESXi 5.5 vs ESXi 6.0?


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> Why did you go with ESXi 5.5 vs ESXi 6.0?


I have an vSphere 5 Standard license which I need to use a host level VM backup solution (Veeam).


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## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> I have an essentials license for vSphere 5.


What benefit does the essentials license provide you in this case over the free license? Not being a smart-ass lol. I really don't know. Thought it was mainly for the high availability, live migration, DR, etc features but that's not needed only for one server.


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> What benefit does the essentials license provide you in this case over the free license? Not being a smart-ass lol. I really don't know. Thought it was mainly for the high availability, live migration, DR, etc features but that's not needed only for one server.


I edited my last post.


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## tinkererguy

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *350 Malibu*
> 
> You start adding up the cost of all those components, and man it adds up quick...
> 
> But that Samsung RAM...


Finally, easy to find and get this system, and I located those 32GB Samsung DDR4 sticks quite a bit cheaper than Newegg, detailed in my article:
Supermicro SuperServer mini-tower ordered with 64GB of memory for $1900 starts the ultimate 24x7 home virtualization lab

and shown working nicely at full 2133MHz demonstrated live yesterday, and in the screenshots:
TinkerTry's Xeon D-1540 fueled ESXi 6.0 home lab build begins LIVE!


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tinkererguy*
> 
> Finally, easy to find and get this system, and I located those 32GB Samsung DDR4 sticks quite a bit cheaper than Newegg, detailed in my article:
> Supermicro SuperServer mini-tower ordered with 64GB of memory for $1900 starts the ultimate 24x7 home virtualization lab
> 
> and shown working nicely at full 2133MHz demonstrated live yesterday, and in the screenshots:
> TinkerTry's Xeon D-1540 fueled ESXi 6.0 home lab build begins LIVE!


Very nice! Let us know if you have any luck getting the 10 gig NICs to work in ESXi. So far no one has gotten them to that I know of.


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## tinkererguy

You're right, and the usual way of finding out about this "Intel 10G LAN D-1500_SoC" doesn't work:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1031534
will work on it, when I get a chance to...


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## MrKoala

D-1540 but 128GB DDR4 2133.










Won't going with a DDR3 system way cheaper? It's not like you can't get faster CPUs from last gen.


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MrKoala*
> 
> D-1540 but 128GB DDR4 2133.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Won't going with a DDR3 system way cheaper? It's not like you can't get faster CPUs from last gen.


Of course it would be cheaper but there's no system you can buy that packs this much punch and is very low power in a system that is so small that I know of. I can't emphasize enough how physically small my server is. And considering its got an 8 core CPU, 128GB of RAM, 4 NICs (two of which are 10 gig), and 33.5TB of storage I couldn't ask for a more flexible micro server.


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## jpiscaer

What about graphics cards? I've read Paul's blog and he's plugged in a card. I'm trying to find out if I can find a Geforce GTX970-based card that physically fits this server, as that would make a nice addition!


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## tycoonbob

I can't remember...are you using this purely for a storage box, or do you run VM's on it as well? I'm considering using these boards with the newer D-1541 in a 3-node Proxmox cluster. Gigabyte has new boards coming out with SFP+ ports onboard, which I'm quite interested in, but I'm really curious what kind of VM power these are capable of. I imagine only 64GB RAM per node, so not looking at running a ton on each, but am talking about Ceph using only SSD for VM storage.

Anyway, how has your VM performance been, if you're running VM's on this box?


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jpiscaer*
> 
> What about graphics cards? I've read Paul's blog and he's plugged in a card. I'm trying to find out if I can find a Geforce GTX970-based card that physically fits this server, as that would make a nice addition!


I imagine any of the short PCB version 970's (I have the Zotac short PCB 970 myself in a separate PC) would work with a low profile bracket.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> I can't remember...are you using this purely for a storage box, or do you run VM's on it as well? I'm considering using these boards with the newer D-1541 in a 3-node Proxmox cluster. Gigabyte has new boards coming out with SFP+ ports onboard, which I'm quite interested in, but I'm really curious what kind of VM power these are capable of. I imagine only 64GB RAM per node, so not looking at running a ton on each, but am talking about Ceph using only SSD for VM storage.
> 
> Anyway, how has your VM performance been, if you're running VM's on this box?


I currently use it as an ESXi box (with about 10 VMs on it) and it's fantastic. 16 vCPUs and 45W CPU, can't get much more efficient than that. I'm giving serious consideration to dumping ESXi though and moving my UnRAID instance (currently in a VM) to baremetal as it comes with KVM built in so I can run my VMs on that.


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## jpiscaer

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *PuffinMyLye*
> 
> I imagine any of the short PCB version 970's (I have the Zotac short PCB 970 myself in a separate PC) would work with a low profile bracket.


Do you have a Zotac product number I can search for?


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## PuffinMyLye

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jpiscaer*
> 
> Do you have a Zotac product number I can search for?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500362&cm_re=Zotac_970_gtx-_-14-500-362-_-Product

Just realized though that there's no way you could use a low profile bracket with this card. Doubting you could with any of the higher end GPU's based on the inputs they provide.


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## jpiscaer

Do you think a 2-slot card would fit the chassis?

Agreed on the physical port placement restricting a low profile bracket..

EDIT: also: I think most graphics cards wouldn't work with the 250W power supply..


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## a5ian300zx

Am I thinking of doing similar build with case and motherboard. It's use will used as home Lab for nested esxi setup.

What do you think of it so far? Is it worth putting a raid card in it?

I was about to use the dom sata port for the esxi install.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk


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## jpiscaer

I wouldn't use a hardware RAID-card anymore. Instead, rely on direct disk configs (with proper backups, of course) or software solutions, like Nutanix CE, VSAN or others. And I'd install ESXi on a 4-8GB USB stick and stick it in one of the internal ports.


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## a5ian300zx

mine is up and running esxi.

Thanks to tinkerguy for his website and guides.

CPU: Intel Xeon D-1540 2.0Ghz 8-core SoC
Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SDV-TLN4F
Chassis: SuperMicro Mini-tower CSE-721TQ-250B
SSDs: Samsung 950 pro 512GB M.2 SSD
HDDs: 2 x 4TB Hitachi Hdd (datastores)
RAM: 128GB (32GB X 4) Samsung DDR4-2133 RDIMMs
Power Supply: Built in 250w PSU
Other Bits: 1 USB boot drives for ESXi


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