As I said a couple weeks ago, I got my DL380 server going. At least for a little while anyways. I started testing some services on it like WordPress and Grocy (the latter of which will be a post of its own in a couple weeks). I was satisfied with the web services, so I decided to try getting my stupid Ceton TV tuner card set up in the server. I got Proxmox ready to do a PCI passthrough of the card to a Windows 10 VM and then installed the card. To do so, I had to detach the SAS cables from the RAID card. Unfortunately, the server won’t boot up correctly with the tuner card installed. So I took the tuner out, which means I detach and reattach the SAS cables again. I made sure to connect them to the same ports as before. But, to my annoyance, when I started the server, it couldn’t boot from the hard drives anymore. I don’t know if disconnecting the cables ruined my arrays, or maybe I mistakenly connected the cables to the wrong ports on the RAID card, or what. This enterprise server seems so touchy. I guess part of that might be because I’m not really using it as it was intended. Anyways, I’m going to cut my losses and use some of the parts to put together my own “white label” server.
I should have built my own to begin with, but I couldn’t find any parts that could beat the price to performance ratio of the DL380 on paper. I think part of the reason for the DL380’s excellent price/performance is the relatively unloved socket LGA 1356 for the processors. LGA 2011 is from about the same era, but was used in a lot of servers and desktops. The processors and motherboards, even many years later, are decent amount more expensive than similar LGA 1356 parts. At the beginning of this, I was unaware of the relative rarity of 1356 parts.
I found a dual-socket Intel motherboard that should do the trick. I’m teaming that with a Dell H310 RAID card that I’ll be flashing for use in IT mode so I can use ZFS and an HP NC365T NIC. This motherboard has enough slots to accept my TV tuner card, so hopefully it’ll boot with it installed. There’s also a PCIe x16 slot, so if I’m really lucky I might be able to put my RX 480 GPU in there too. The motherboard is a CEB size, which the internet tells me is between a regular ATX and E-ATX in size, and uses the same IO shield size and screw holes as ATX. I picked an Antec P101 case to hold everything. It says it should hold an E-ATX board and eight 3.5″ hard drives. Plus, it has a 5.25″ drive space on the outside, so I can move my Blu-Ray drive from my desktop over there and set up an automatic ripper.
Right now the only part I don’t have on order is a power supply. I want something that’s at least 750 watts, and I’d probably go up to 1000 watts. I definitely want something 80+ Gold efficiency at the least, and I have to have two CPU power connectors for the dual socket board. This narrows down my selection, but not severely so. Both EVGA power supplies I have in my house right now meet those criteria. Unfortunately, it appears coronavirus has totally wrecked the supply of power supplies. Hardly anything is available, let alone decent power supplies, and what is available is two to three times more expensive than usual. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for reasonably priced used ones, but I may have to wait a while before I get this server going. I’ll update when I get it built.