Gen8, all things spin-down and fans.

[HellDiverUK]

Hi folks.

 

OK, so I hear the fans in the Gen8 only cooperate if the on board SATA is running in RAID mode.  Happy with that.  I also hear drives don't spin down when they're set up as single disk RAID0 containers.

 

So, I'm thinking:

 

1. Fit 2x500GB drives in RAID1 for OS (2.5" WD Blues on a schoondoggy bracket)

2. Fit my M1015 (IT mode)

3. Fit 2x5TB Reds in the 3.5" bays which will be wired to the M1015.

 

Am I right in thinking the drives connected to the M1015 will spin down OK in Windows?  I'll be running 2012R2 and Stablebit Drivepool.  The fan should also run quietly in this arrangement, too, shouldn't it?

Edited December 2, 2014 by HellDiverUK

[schoondoggy]

I have not played with spin down on the LSI based cards, but if it works in other systems it should work fine here as well. The only issue that comes to mind is fan noise. When iLo sees a non-supported card it sets the fan speed at higher levels. You can play with the profiles in the BIOS to change the speed a little.

[HellDiverUK]

Thanks.  I'll see how I get on, I might just use a single SSD off the ODD port.  Or I'll just live with the noise, as long as it's quieter than the Synology DX513, it'll be fine.

[Shonk]

My fan usually spins at 11% in ahci mode not doing alot

 

Thats with a Xeon Quad core in it as well

 

Its encoding with handbrake atm and its at 14%

though its cold in here atm its usually at 19% encoding

[HellDiverUK]

Well, my Gen8 arrived at my parent's house today.  I ordered it off a supplier on eBay last night at 20:45, and the delivery driver was on the doorstep at 11:20 this morning.  Not bad for something due to be delivered on Monday, and the parcel had to take a flight in that time, too.

 

Will collect it on Saturday, then the fun begins.

 

Still in two minds about running ESXI on it to P2V a machine I have running 24/7, and also Server 2012R2. The always on machine only uses 8-10W, so I'm not sure if it's worth the bother, and I'll just run Server 2012R2 on the Gen8 natively.

 

@Shonk if it runs that low in AHCI, I'll be pretty happy.  

[Shonk]

Just do what i do

Run Windows as the main os so you dont get a massive performance hit

 

Then run any vm's Type2 in VMware Workstation 11

 

No way i would ever take such a huge performance penalty running a Type1 hypervisor

 

This is pretty much best case scenario in a vm

 

Edited December 5, 2014 by Shonk

[HellDiverUK]

Does VMWare Workstation allow USB passthrough?  I need to pass through a USB Bluetooth dongle and a USB power meter (I use the VM to monitor power use and production from my PVs).

[Shonk]

both usb 2.0 and usb 3.0

 

Edited December 5, 2014 by Shonk

[HellDiverUK]

Ah, cool.  I don't suppose you know if VT-d is required for USB passthrough?  I have a choice of chips to upgrade my Gen8 with, and I'm swinging towards a Sandy Bridge i3 rather than the E3-1220V2 I bought, mainly for power consumption reasons.  The i3 doesn't support VT-d, where the Xeon does.

 

I won't be passing anything through other than the two USB devices.

[Shonk]

I dont sorry

 

with regards to the 1220v2 i wouldnt be supprised if the power requirements are identical to my 1265l v2

if you turn turbo off too keep at at 3.1ghz

 

see my thread with indepth power details for the 1265l v2

would be good if you could post a comparison with the 1220v2

 

Scroll down..

http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/8499-on-die-cpu-temps/

Edited December 5, 2014 by Shonk