New Build
-
That's a good find, enjoy!
In order to offset the high power usage, consider not building a standalone J3355 now that you have this box. It would just be another box to buy and feed power even if it's not much power
Use your new server as intended and virtualize as many services as you can on it! There's a subforum here dedicated to virtual pfSense setups and it works very well.
-
I'd suggest virtualising pfSense as well, but running pfSense stand-alone on it wouldn't be so bad either. You can change the profiles to down clock and lower the fan speeds dramatically. A bigger server doesn't always require a baseline of 100W, it really depends on the settings. PowerD and the likes help a lot too.
If you have more services you want to run besides pfSense, and are interested in virtualisation, it is worth it to set it up. The NICs in this server are excellent.
-
Ooh!!!
New things to learn. Will seriously look into virtualization and powerD etc. I might come back with a shit ton of questions. Be ready to answer them ;)
The one thing I am not sure about is the backplane on that server. It says SAS, but can't be 100% certain. I haven't been able to see the model number on the backplane.
-
Ooh!!!
New things to learn. Will seriously look into virtualization and powerD etc. I might come back with a shit ton of questions. Be ready to answer them ;)
The one thing I am not sure about is the backplane on that server. It says SAS, but can't be 100% certain. I haven't been able to see the model number on the backplane.
It's probably SAS with SATA fallback support, at least, that's what the cables and part numbers so far tell me. It is totally plausible that they are using a SAS controller, SAS cables and SAS connections but a SATA-only backplane chip. The disks themselves look like SATA disks.
-
The disks are definitely SATA. I pulled each one out and checked.
Will need to figure out the backplane once I get back home.
-
Found the case model number: its CSE-813M ( I have updated my previous post, to provide links where I can)
However I found 2 models with the 350W gold power supply : Not sure which one I have.
https://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1U/813/SC813MT-350CB
https://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/1U/813/SC813MTQ-350CB
Secondly the backplane is the Supermicro SAS815TQ, so I am assuming that my chassis is SC813MTQ-350CB, because the other one has SAS815T backplane, although I haven't found much difference between the 2 backplanes. How would I figure out if this was a SAS1 or SAS2 backplane ?
Also for the motherboard: I found 3 different X9SCLs. I am not sure what the difference is :
[Supermicro X9SCL+-F](https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C202_C204/X9SCL_-F.cfm)
-
After reading through the specs of X9SCL+-F and X9SCL-F, I found the following 3 differences:
| X9SCL-F | X9SCL+-F |
| Intel
82579LM and 82574L, 2x Gigabit LAN ports | Two Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controllers |
| 1x DOM (Disk on Module) power connector | N/A |
| Memory Voltage – 1.5 V, 1.35V | Memory Voltage – 1.5 V |How much would these differences matter?
And if not much, then why does Supermicro build similar boards like these? There is another board X9SCL that has the same features as X9SCL-F except that X9SCL doesn't seem to have IPMI.
These boards are also quite similar to X9SCMs where they have 2 SATA3 and 4 SATA2 ports vs all 6 SATA2 in X9SCLs
-
Here are the differences in Ethernet controllers: http://ark.intel.com/compare/32209,47620
it looks like one supports low power ram and the other does not.
also, one has a power header for sata doms that require them.
-
Here are the differences in Ethernet controllers: http://ark.intel.com/compare/32209,47620
it looks like one supports low power ram and the other does not.
also, one has a power header for sata doms that require them.
Thanks for the Ethernet controller comparison. Looks like 82579 works at a wee bit lower TDP and price, but does not have the Sideband interface. I have the X9SCL-F which means I get one of each ethernet controller :)
Also my board would be able to support low power RAM and has the power header for the DOM. -
I have one question regarding the case I have: Supermicro CSE-813MTQ-350CB
In the specs, it mentions
SAS or enterprise SATA HDD only recommended
Why would that be? I plan to use this as a FreeNAS box and convert my existing FreeNAS box into a pfSense router. Would WD Reds or Seagate Ironwolfs be ok to put in? I am still not clear why a chassis would care about what type of HDDs are installed.
Secondly a more pfSense relevant question is :
my current FreeNAS box uses TYAN S5533GM2NR-LE as the motherboard. It has 2 intel NICs, so I can use it for pfSense, but the only problem is that I chose a Pentium G3240 as the processor back then (about 2.5 years ago). It has served me well, but since I plan on using VPN services, I was thinking of getting a CPU with AES.
I found these 3 on ebay that will fit the LGA1150 socket that the TYAN board has:-
Intel Xeon E3-1220L v3 – 1.1 GHz, ~$50, TDP 13W
-
Intel Xeon E3-1230L v3 – 1.8GHz, ~$220, TDP 25W
-
Intel Xeon E3-1240L v3 – 2.00 GHz, ~$180 - TDP 25W
I'd love to get the 1220L-v3, because its cheap and has the lowest TDP, but will 1.1 GHz be sufficient for openvpn? I'd rather not spend the extra $120 on the 1240L-v3, if I don't really have to.
-
-
it will work for 100Mbps openvpn. I can't say exactly where it will cap out but probably before 300Mbps.
You can use gateway groups to harness both cores, but that has its own set of limitations. In practice it is a worthwhile implementation in most scenarios.
-
it will work for 100Mbps openvpn. I can't say exactly where it will cap out but probably before 300Mbps.
You can use gateway groups to harness both cores, but that has its own set of limitations. In practice it is a worthwhile implementation in most scenarios.
I was originally going to build a low power box with J3355 SoC which according to most on this forum would also provide upto 300Mbps openvpn. My internet connection would be as high as 150Mbps. 300, 1000 & 2000 Mbps are prohibitively expensive in my area currently. So I guess Xeon E3 1220L v3 would work about the same as the J3355, albeit with a tad more power usage 13 W compared to 10W
-
The J3355 will almost certainly outperform that xeon in OpenVPN. OpenVPN is single threaded and depends a lot on clock speed, the J3355 has higher clock speed and is much newer. The J3355 also has acceleration for SHA, and it likely has a better implementation of AES-NI given the large time gap between the two processors.
All that having been said, so long as you stay <100Mbps it won't matter.
-
agreed on ECC ram with pfbasic, its fine if you got the money to throw around and want insurance, but I have worked with ZFS not using ECC for several years and have never come across the nightmare scenario that the freenas admins like to portray.
-
The J3355 will almost certainly outperform that xeon in OpenVPN. OpenVPN is single threaded and depends a lot on clock speed, the J3355 has higher clock speed and is much newer. The J3355 also has acceleration for SHA, and it likely has a better implementation of AES-NI given the large time gap between the two processors.
All that having been said, so long as you stay <100Mbps it won't matter.
I'm considering going the J3355 route as it seems to check a good number of my boxes - mainly low power and modern processor. My Comcast internet connection is 100Mbps right now (though could move to 150 soon), so I think it should be capable of handling that even with a good handful of packages.
Has anyone found a good case for use with this board? It seems tough to find something small and cheap that ALSO handles the PCI Express card, which is needed because the board itself only has a single nic.
(Maybe we should have a dedicated thread for this board?)
-
If you're handy something like an m350 with picoPSU would be your most compact option.
It doesn't have an opening cut in the case for a nic though so you'd have to make that yourself (Dremel). On top of that you'd need a ribbon riser cable.
If you don't want to DIY I'd say look for a case similar in size to the m350 that already has a pcie slot. The smallest cases will require a ribbon riser cable. Unfortunately I've never looked into doing this (and if I did I would just DIY the m350) so I can't recommend you one that meets the above requirements.
Please let us know if you find something!
-
If you're handy something like an m350 with picoPSU would be your most compact option.
It doesn't have an opening cut in the case for a nic though so you'd have to make that yourself (Dremel). On top of that you'd need a ribbon riser cable.
If you don't want to DIY I'd say look for a case similar in size to the m350 that already has a pcie slot. The smallest cases will require a ribbon riser cable. Unfortunately I've never looked into doing this (and if I did I would just DIY the m350) so I can't recommend you one that meets the above requirements.
Please let us know if you find something!
It looks like the m300 is compatible with a riser card, but it is quite a bit bigger than the m350, and ugly for that matter. I may go that route because at least it's priced well.
http://www.mini-box.com/M300-Enclosure-w-Bootable-CF-Reader_2
-
Excellent find! I'd say that's a go-to case for mini-itx boards needing a NIC!
-
The J3355 will almost certainly outperform that xeon in OpenVPN. OpenVPN is single threaded and depends a lot on clock speed, the J3355 has higher clock speed and is much newer. The J3355 also has acceleration for SHA, and it likely has a better implementation of AES-NI given the large time gap between the two processors.
All that having been said, so long as you stay <100Mbps it won't matter.
I'm considering going the J3355 route as it seems to check a good number of my boxes - mainly low power and modern processor. My Comcast internet connection is 100Mbps right now (though could move to 150 soon), so I think it should be capable of handling that even with a good handful of packages.
Has anyone found a good case for use with this board? It seems tough to find something small and cheap that ALSO handles the PCI Express card, which is needed because the board itself only has a single nic.
(Maybe we should have a dedicated thread for this board?)
I was going to build one based on J3355 and had been looking for a 1U case for a long time. I found this –
PlinkUSA WebITX125 which allows front to rear mounting which would be great for a router application like pfSense, because you could easily connect the WAN and LAN ports from the router case to your switch
They have a bunch of IO plates for different motherboards, but they don't have one for AsRock J3355. You'd have to buy the universal plate and cut it accordingly with pliers.