Hi all, my name is Rob. New to ServerBuilds.net, the Forums, and Discord. Still exploring and finding out where info is and where to post questions. But here is an intro as to what I’m looking to do, where I’m at, and some questions. Thanks to all the contributors!
I’ve been interested in a home UnRaid server for a while now. I’ve played with it on an old desktop on and off. But this will be my first build. I’ve been lurking on the UnRaid forums for a while but discovered ServerBuilds.net only a month or so ago. My intention is to build a server for UnRaid … NAS, Plex (mostly photos initially, movies and video gradually over time), a couple of VMs, and perhaps cloud storage.
I’m following the Anniversary 2.0 Guide. It’s overkill for what I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future. I was focusing on the X9DRL-iF ATX board. Checking out eBay listings. Hesitating as I saw that I would be needing to make decisions on a power supply, cooler, memory and probably a CPU upgrade before even being able to test anything. Then I came across the Combo for $199. Seeing the Tech Deals posting and comments gave me more confidence. And then seeing the BFL 850W Fully Modular PSU Deal pushed me to jump in !
I received my Supermicro X9DRL-iF ATX, 2x E5-2650 V2, 16GB bundle and the BFL PSU last week. Visual inspection looks good. My board came with two Kingston SL8D316R11S4KF 8GB 1Rx4 PC3-12800R. And two Supermicro SNK-P0048P 2U Passive CPU Heat Sinks.
I’m building and testing outside the box as recommended.
The passive coolers seem to be pretty ‘hefty’ but the airflow is from the front of the board to the back. So air through the cooler for the first CPU has to pass through the cooler for the second CPU before exiting toward the back of the case. The tops are solid so I didn’t think I could add a fan. I saw in a build post that someone installed 2x 60mm fans onto the 2U heat sinks but that was an update to the post and there weren’t any pictures. So I’m not sure how he did that. Also, his board is a different layout. On this board the CPUs / Coolers are right next to one another. Maybe these can be rotated 90 degrees so both pass air vertically ? Anyway, I decided to go with the ARCTIC Freezer 12, $24 each. They arrive tomorrow. Anyone interested in two Supermicro SNK-P0048P 2U Passive CPU Heat Sinks ?
The memory came installed in the wrong slots, at least as far as I can see from the Motherboard Manual. I’m still confused as to the type of memory and specs which can be used and/or mixed. I probably spent a little more than I needed to but I purchased two more of the exact same 8GB modules for $15 each. I’ll be starting off with 32GB.
I did a quick power on test but I need to check things out more carefully. Board POSTs and I can enter BIOS. CPUs and memory recognized.
I’m not exactly sure where to post these questions … but here goes…
Recommendation to just put a new battery in before building?
Would it be best to leave the BIOS settings as is? Or reset to Default settings and work from there? ( I don’t know if there are settings which depend on the CPUs or memory. )
What else to Test? I’ve seen comments about testing the Memory. I haven’t booted UnRaid yet but I believe there is an option on the GUI for a memory test. How to test memory as far as which tests to run and how long? Also saw someone say test one memory module at a time. Will this boot with 2 CPUs and only one memory module?
Any other tests to run? To exercise the CPUs for example? Or just check that UnRaid boots?
Thanks ! I’m looking forward to my first build and starting to work with UnRaid.