Looking for replacement of power hungry SAN

[ddaenen1]

This is probably where this is going. I have a Supermicro PCIe riser and an i350-t4 lying around that i am going to use for a first trial. Should work fine as i did something similar with the X9SCM-F board and an X550-T2. If that works, i will probably get another X550-T2 or even an X710-T2L to make it 2.5/5/10Gb

We are already far along the way now. I did the setup as mentioned before which worked perfectly fine. I installed pfsense CE 2.7.2 and uploaded the config from my 24.03 box and after configuring the interfaces, it just worked. I had it running for several days now to look at load and temperatures as the Xeon D-1521 with passive heatsink runs warmer (61C) than the E3-1220v2 (50C) so i needed to know if this was stable or not. Putting it under full load pushes it to 68C so i guess it is safe to say it is not a concern. Actually, at full load (1Gbps), the D-1521 doesn't even blink an eye. Eventually, i did order an X550-T2 because i really couldn't find anything substantial to justify the 100 USD price difference on the X710-T2L. Also, i read some negative comments on the X710-T2L and i know the X550-T2 is perfectly fine since i have one running in my other pfsense box.

So, final setup is done now with the X550-T2 and i will let that run for a week now before i move it into the network permanently.

 

[coxhaus]

Nice. I bought an Intel X540-t2 as I found a real Intel one. It is not nbaseT so no 2.5g or 5g which I don't need any way. I could not find a deal on an Intel X710-T2L either so I will keep looking. They pull less power.
I could not find a good deal on an Intel X550-T2 so I will wait. I need 10gig for my Cisco switch and 1 gig will work for internet so I think an Intel X540-T2 will work for me.. Fiber is close to me but it has been for years now so I am not holding my breath.

 

[ddaenen1]

I still have one matter of concern left with the new box. The CPU temp. Every article i read talks about the CPU core temp being to high (now it runs at 63C on idle) on the X10SDV with the passive heatsink. There is an active version from Supermicro (SNK-C0057A4L) but impossible to find here in Europe. I now managed to buy the exact fan brand and type that is fitted on the Supermicro version and am going to try to find a way to attach it securely on the passive heatsink. I want to get it done before i assemble it in the rack and switch over.

 

[coxhaus]

The 10gig NICs generate a lot of heat. The Intel X540 and X550 2 port NICs generate around 12 watts. I read the Intel X710 four port fiber is up around 28 watts. The Intel X710 two port copper is much lower one of the most efficient 10gig NIC out there right now. I can't verify all this as I did not see power draws on Intel web site when looking at the specs.

And of course, the switches draw more power for 10gig.

 

[ddaenen1]

I still have one matter of concern left with the new box. The CPU temp. Every article i read talks about the CPU core temp being to high (now it runs at 63C on idle) on the X10SDV with the passive heatsink. There is an active version from Supermicro (SNK-C0057A4L) but impossible to find here in Europe. I now managed to buy the exact fan brand and type that is fitted on the Supermicro version and am going to try to find a way to attach it securely on the passive heatsink. I want to get it done before i assemble it in the rack and switch over.

The quest continues. I have been busy managing my business so not much time for this in the past months. I received the fan and managed to find a way to attach it to the passive heatsink but honestly, it didn't make any difference. The new box is now running for several days in a test environment and CPU is still generating 60C running on idle and moving towards 70C when under load which i think is too high (CPU temp with the current box under load is around 49C) so i am not comfortable with exchanging my current box with the new build. I am thinking now that the fan is not for 1U applications but rather when the board is used in an ATX case as without the cover on the chassis, it runs cooler with the CPU fan. Plan B is to use a shroud in combination with the passive heatsink and the two 40mm case fans i already have installed. Surprising enough Supermicro has a Mylar shroud specifically for the X10SDV in combination with the CSE 505-203B chassis but this is not advertised at all. I bumped into it by accident.

It took some time but i found it here in Europe (astronomical US shipping cost kills any attempt to buy it overseas). Once that arrived i will remove the CPU fan, put in the shroud which should be a drop-in and start another test, monitoring the CPU temps regularly. Hopefully yht will move the temp back to the high 40's which would be acceptable to me and i can finally make the swap...

 

[ddaenen1]

Hopefully it will move the temp back to the high 40's which would be acceptable to me and i can finally make the swap...

i monitored temps with the CPU fan on now for over a week where it was always floating around 59-62C. Today the shroud came in today. I removed the CPU fan and installed the air shroud which actually fits like a glove, once you figured out how to position it since as many things from Supermicro, it didn't really come with any instructions.

Booted the server again and now the server is running for an hour at 53C which is not high 40's but still a significant improvement i would say. I'll let it run now for a couple of days to see if the temp stays stable around 53C. After that, it is swapping time!

 

[ddaenen1]

...and back to pfSense CE 2.7.2. I swapped out the old pfSense+ box with the newer X10SDV box with D-1521 CPU and pfSense CE installed.Jjust replugged WAN and LAN cables and that was about it. Fairly uneventful. Needed to reconfigure my VLAN but that was about it. Running smooth at about 53C idle and 57C under full load. Now it is a matter of keeping an eye on it for the next weeks before i power off the old one and take it out of the rack for some well deserved maintenance after being up and running for several years.

 

[ddaenen1]

In the mean time more than 3 weeks down the line and not a glitch with the X10SDV. Temp stays around 52C, fan speeds at 4000RPM and i noticed Speedstep is keeping the CPU around 405MHz with 5% load. Surely this must have a positive impact on power consumption. Even on 1Gbps full load through speed test, the CPU clock hardly increases to 417MHz. I think i can call this a success.