DIY Router with Supermicro X10SLH-N6-ST031

[Digilog]

A long time ago I got tired of store bought routers malfunctioning on me, so I started to use PCs as my router as was exposed with this concept a long time ago in the field.
One day while I was surfing around on ebay, I came across a server recycler "The Server Store" who I remembered seeing back in the days of the IT/Tech swap meets in the 1990s.

The Supermicro X10SLH-N6-ST031

This $60 find was hard to pass up.
3 x 10Gb with one interface having a 4 port switch, for a total of 6 10Gb ports plus 1 1Gb and RJ45 serial for out of band management.
I also went on their web site and purchased a 1U bare bones with power supply version ($160) so I can experiment with lower wattage CPUs that are available for the socket 1150. But eventually, I will put it into a PC case because I'm not a fan of the server fan noise.

Putting this board in a regular case took some looking around, as I had to find something that could handle the "Flex ATX" size board (9.6"x12").
CPU cooling was necessary to update but that is a non-issue since this heat sink profile was used on the socket 1151 intel processors.
Selecting a low cost power supply was not easy, as reading the manual I needed 3A of standby USB power so I ended up with a 650W power supply. Since I am not putting a graphics card in it, the power supply will initially start at 150W. Looking at how much power supply I have left also came into mind of adding and external 12V power block to power the cable modem, wireless access point, a raspberry pi server and switches.

 

[ddaenen1]

That will make one hell of a pfSense or OPNSense firewall/router

 

[Digilog]

That will make one hell of a pfSense or OPNSense firewall/router

I'm sure its not going to be a disappointment. I'm going to run IPfire on it with the tweaked network driver settings that I obtained by a tech in the hosting sector. He laugh when I told him I was going to turn it into a router and put a 2.5G nic card in for my cable modem. Even though this is pretty aged in tech (4 Gen I-core or 3/4 gen Xenon) it still cooks.

My choice for a new gateway server that I was going to get was cool too, but at $60 for the board (with processor), I couldn't pass that up.

X12SDV-8C-SPT8F​

not bad, Originally I was thinking about Router/Nas server with this, but I might get one of these one day and make a really nice NAS with it:

Intel® Xeon® Processor D-2733NT, CPU TDP 80W, Intel Quick Assist Technology
Up to 256GB Registered ECC RDIMM, DDR4-2667MHz; Up to 512GB LRDIMM LRDIMM, DDR4-2667MHz, in 4 DIMM slots
1 PCIe 4.0 x16
2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe x8 SlimSAS Internal Port
1 OCuLink Connector (4 SATA/PCIe 3.0 x4)
1 M.2 M-Key 2242/2280 (SATA/PCIe 3.0 x4)
Quad 1G RJ45 with Intel® I350-AM4
Dual 25G SFP28 with Intel SoC
Dual 10Gbase-T RJ-45 with Intel® Ethernet Controller X550-AT2

 

[sfx2000]

Make sure to either change out that heatsink or have it in a 1U case with proper fans...

 

[ddaenen1]

Make sure to either change out that heatsink or have it in a 1U case with proper fans...

i second that. I am running pfSense on a X10SDV-4C-TLN2F in a 1U chassis. CPU temp was the challenge. Even with 2 Supermicro 0100-L4 fans and the passive heatsink i was still hitting 70C under load. What eventually did the trick is a fan shroud that Supermicro designed specifically for the X10SDV in 1U but is not widely known and even isn't in their optional parts list of the board. I bumped onto it accidentally when browsing some pictures on how to get the cable routing done properly in an SC505-203B chassis. It has a Supermicro P/N (MCP-310-50501-0B) though.

 

[Digilog]

Make sure to either change out that heatsink or have it in a 1U case with proper fans...

Since it has the same mounting outline as the 3/4th gen i series processors, I'm using a 95W heat sink with fan.

But this is the case the router is going to live in:

 

[Digilog]

i second that. I am running pfSense on a X10SDV-4C-TLN2F in a 1U chassis. CPU temp was the challenge. Even with 2 Supermicro 0100-L4 fans and the passive heatsink i was still hitting 70C under load. What eventually did the trick is a fan shroud that Supermicro designed specifically for the X10SDV in 1U but is not widely known and even isn't in their optional parts list of the board. I bumped onto it accidentally when browsing some pictures on how to get the cable routing done properly in an SC505-203B chassis. It has a Supermicro P/N (MCP-310-50501-0B) though.

Socket 1667 is one of the oddballs that don't have aftermarket cooling or side upgrades like I was able to get away with with my socket 1150 processor.

The best aftermarket cooling for it off the top of my head, would be getting a GPU water block and drilling out the holes a little since the outline is similar to 50mm GPU outline.

 

[Digilog]

Update:

removed heat sink off the motherboard and noticed I bought a motherboard with out a processor.

ordered a used Xeon E3-1275L V3

 

[degrub]

LOL

 

[Digilog]

Looking at my invoice from the server store, the recycled 1U server that I'm going to use as NAS/ Dev/ OS debug & testing has a processor.

So I could transplant this motherboard and trade it out when I build up the $60 ebay special with the 45W processor.

 

[Crimliar]

Just one more thing, don't scrimp on the power supply!

 

[Digilog]

Just one more thing, don't scrimp on the power supply!

I really wanted to power this with a 200Watt power supply, but unfortunately the only supplies that have a 5V 3A standby/aux power are either the stock 350W Flex ATX noise makers like what is in the 1U server or 600W+ ATX-3.0 supplies. I purchased a 600W power supply but since its ATX, I will have to see if it will start at 150W or if I have to jumper one of the sense pins on the PCI power connector so it will start at 250W.
But theoretically it should start at 150W since the only drive that is going in it is a SATA SSD.

 

[Digilog]

Update: tried to dry fit the bare board into the case before I perform the transplant.
It fits the hole, but the board is too deep and its not aligning to the ATX standoffs. If the case had 1/2inch more depth, I would be in business.
So I will have to throw it into a standard EATX case or an extended depth ATX case which I do have lying around and use this case in a different project.

 

[Digilog]

Power supply and some other bits and pieces came in. I decided to use my EATX case I got for a liquid cooling project, However, It looks like I will need to do some cooling plans with this since its not that really optimized for passive cooling.

My new build case: the Thermaltake Tower 500.

I decided to use this case because the way the motherboard is mounted vertically with the rear panel pointing upwards.
I'm debating on if I want to install LED fans since I'm going to put this in a closet, but I am undecided if I want to use this case permanently for this application. But I might end up liquid cooling it considering where it going to be installed. Its hard to predict this until its built and tested thoroughly.

 

[Digilog]

Installed the motherboard and new heat sink. Planning cooling around static pressure method modifying the cooling around it instead of using passive thermal velocity the cooling of the case is designed around. Because its more suited to remove waste heat inside of an enclosure rather than it is designed to cool down devices directly. But they made this for their liquid cooling system instead of passive air cooling and its not going to be good at this.

Blocking the sides on the lower intake so just the front is pulling in air with high velocity and static pressure fans was the start, then sealing any air leaks and separating and establishing cooling zones was the next step in the process. I stacked four LED fans and aluminum tape origami them into place as well as extending the tape below the cover plate on the bottom. If I need to get aggressive with sealing the sides from the bottom section, I will add some weather stripping to this mix.

My front fans are Iceberg Thermal IceGALE Xtra that I took off of a decommissioned Antminer S9. I ordered more of these so I can replace the two wimpy fans they stuck in the back. These fans along with the heat sink are plugged into the motherboard fan headers. The aLED fans, I plan to run independently, and maybe even put the fans on a thermostat so when the air outside the case is above a certain temperature, they kick in.

 

[coxhaus]

Looking at my invoice from the server store, the recycled 1U server that I'm going to use as NAS/ Dev/ OS debug & testing has a processor.

So I could transplant this motherboard and trade it out when I build up the $60 ebay special with the 45W processor.

View attachment 62899

In the past I built all my PCs. But with the new UEFI bios I don't anymore. Security is my main issue. I need BIOS updates from whatever company is making the motherboard. SuperMicro might be OK. They did have some kind of BIOS issues in the recent past. I like Dell now as they have great support and are very close to me. My last Dell was less expensive than your $183.17 used. Lots of Dells around me. And it had a 35-watt CPU.
I am getting ready to drop Dell gen4 as I believe they are not going to support them anymore. A gen4 is my backup pfsense PC. I am only dropping Dell gen4 for firewall duties or exposure to the internet.

 

[sfx2000]

In the past I built all my PCs. But with the new UEFI bios I don't anymore. Security is my main issue. I need BIOS updates from whatever company is making the motherboard. SuperMicro might be OK. They did have some kind of BIOS issues in the recent past. I like Dell now as they have great support and are very close to me. My last Dell was less expensive than your $183.17 used. Lots of Dells around me. And it had a 35-watt CPU.

I think the whole UEFI vs BIOS argument has been settled since perhaps the Intel Haswell generation of CPU's...

Both Intel and AMD have put their focus on UEFI as the present, here and now, for all capabilities... on some boards, one can run UEFI in BIOS/CSM mode, but it's still UEFI under the hood.

Agree that there have been security issues all around - both UEFI and BIOS, esp with getting access in both pre-boot and realtime/runtime access from the Host OS.

 

[sfx2000]

I like Dell now as they have great support and are very close to me. My last Dell was less expensive than your $183.17 used. Lots of Dells around me. And it had a 35-watt CPU.

FWIW - Dell has better basic Linux support than many other OEM's - their UEFI implementation is pretty clean - all the way from low-end bottom dollar consumer laptops up to their business and professional boxes.

Major complaint with Dell is many of their machines for NVME default to "Raid on", which is Windows speak for Intel RST - but it's a quick UEFI setting to change that over to AHCI/NVME and all is good.

BSD - can't say much, except I would expect a 2-year Dell machine likely would boot any of the BSD's just fine...

 

[sfx2000]

But I might end up liquid cooling it considering where it going to be installed. Its hard to predict this until its built and tested thoroughly.

Stay on air-cooling - the intended use-case, air is fine, as the CPU isn't going to be loaded all that hard...

I've had bad experiences with water-cooling and leaks that damaged motherboards - yeah, it was a long time ago with Apple G5 PowerMac desktops, but once bitten with issues...

 

[sfx2000]

removed heat sink off the motherboard and noticed I bought a motherboard with out a processor.

I suppose this is good/bad - one would assume there would be a CPU under there, but at the same time, the application intent for the motherboard, having that CPU cooling heat-sink is important, as these are usually tailored towards the specific use-case for the board...

Would have been nice for the seller to mention that the CPU was optional on purchase...

Looking up thread - $60 for the board makes sense without the CPU

Just note that board is old-school Sandy Bridge on the XEON side...

Interesting to note that even old-school XEON's and Opterons are available, that market is on a up-swing with sanctions on some countries - these old chips run hot, but they're still reasonably fast, and can run some HPC code just fine given enough power and cooling...