This SuperServer can be both a virtualization lab and a triple 4K monitor Windows 10 workstation, simultaneously!

[tinkererguy]

I haven't been this excited about a home server purchase in, like, forever. It's pretty amazing, being able to cram 8 Xeon cores, 8 drives, 128GB of RAM, and a slim video card all in this tiny chassis, while remaining pretty easy to work on.

 

Just published moments ago, eager to get feedback!

TinkerTry.com/superserverworkstation

 

FYI, the Wiredzone links I reference look like affiliate links, but aren't. Yep, no commissions, I just needed to give buyers confidence in the Supermicro reseller I chose, who simply drop-ship straight from Supermicro in San Jose, CA. FYI, Amazon and Newegg don't sell this little Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T.

 

So, what do you think of this little server?

• videos and more details to come...
• hoping to get myself to the meet-up this year, working on a way that could help make that happen...

[tinkererguy]

From:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/midtower/5028/SYS-5028D-TN4T.cfm

 

Key Features:• Space-efficient, compact design
• Network Security Appliance
• Cloud and Virtualization
• High Performance NAS Servers
• Business Critical Applications
• Small and Medium Business

 

1. Intel® Xeon® processor D-1540,
    Single socket FCBGA 1667;
    8-Core, 45W

 

2. 4x 3.5" Hot-swap drive bays;
    2x 2.5" fixed drive bays

 

3. 1x PCI-E 3.0 x16 (LP), 1x M.2
    PCI-E 3.0 x4, M Key 2242/2280

 

4. Up to 128GB ECC RDIMM DDR4
    2133MHz or 64GB ECC/non-ECC
    UDIMM in 4 sockets

 

5. Dual 10GbE LAN and Intel® i350-AM2
    dual port GbE LAN

 

6. 250W Flex ATX Multi-output Bronze
    Power Supply

[Poppapete]

Absolutely amazing board and case. Has IPMI too. Did you use the M.2 for the SSD and if so what SSD for the OS? Only problem is my server is not old enough for an upgrade. How noisy is it when under a bit of pressure?

 

SuperMicro have some great stuff at present not just for enterprise.

[Trig0r]

Oh my, so much want

[Joe_Miner]

Wow oh Wow, What a machine.

 

Great article, great specs, hoping to hear more!  Trying to figure out how I would explain this to the CFO!

 

Of course you know you are a BAD influence -- don't stop!

[Joe_Miner]

How did you get 8 drives in there?

 

Never mind -- I think I see how you did it..............

Edited July 15, 2015 by Joe_Miner

[tinkererguy]

For some reason, I don't get notified about replies to my posts in this forum, I'll hunt down the issue tonight.

 

Glad you found answers without my response, likely buried in my long articles, here's straight to the part of this article:

TinkerTry.com/superserver-enhancements

that you're asking about:

• 1 M.2 drive socket (M.2 PCI-E 3.0 x4, M Key 2242/2280) OR 1 SATA DOM (yellow SATA port on motherboard) (BIOS doesn't allow both)
• 4 3.5" drives (4 removable 3.5" drive carriers included, can be replaced with optional 2.5" carriers)
• 2 2.5" drives (Hot Pluggable, but requires screwdriver/bracket that's inside the case)
• 1 PCIe (PCI-E 3.0 x16 (Low Profile) slot) for more storage, or other expansion needs

Yep, total is 8 drives!

[tinkererguy]

Absolutely amazing board and case. Has IPMI too. Did you use the M.2 for the SSD and if so what SSD for the OS? Only problem is my server is not old enough for an upgrade. How noisy is it when under a bit of pressure?

 

SuperMicro have some great stuff at present not just for enterprise.

I haven't gone M.2 quite yet, so just using a Runcore mSATA SSD I already had (inserted into a 2.5" adapter) for Windows 10, which can be booted as a VM, or natively. It's freaking awesome, and the excitement over getting this all working so well still hasn't worn off! So many more stories to write, and videos to share....with so little time before VMworld 2015...

[tinkererguy]

Yeah, saving my pennies for screaming fast NVMe, as far as the use of my M.2 slot. Should be a fun year!

[Poppapete]

You will of course need one of these:

 

Asrock U.2 Kit (M.2 to U.2 adapter)

 

"For even faster speeds, ASRock presents the U.2 Kit. A tiny add-on card that may be installed into the onboard PCIe Gen3 x4 Ultra M.2 slots, and then support the fastest Intel^® SSD 750 Series. To add icing on top, the U.2 Kit also breaks limitations allowing PCIe SSDs to create RAID 0 arrays for ludicrous speeds. ASRock's lab has demonstrated building RAID 0 with three Intel^® 750 SSDs connected to U.2 Kits and without question, an ASRock motherboard. The results were insane as you could have imagined, 3561 MB/s read speed and 3245 MB/s write speed!"

 

http://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?id=2877