Source
r/homelab•
Entropy

My Asrock C2750D4I KVM virt lab just blew up (3 months after the 1 year warranty expired). Looking for recommendations on a cheap replacement

That Avoton board was cursed. IPMI never exactly worked properly, and proved to be its undoing in the end. First, the IPMI web interface stopped working. When I finally picked up an SSD for it and went to mess with the OS installed, the video out crapped out as well. Brick city.

Problem: I have 4x8gb of nice DDR3 ECC DIMMS I want to reuse. I don't want to buy Asrock again, so that leaves me with the $450 Gigabyte avoton board if I want to get a replacement where the RAM fits.

Possbile solution: I'm thinking to go with an AMD AM3+ setup instead because CHEAP, I have a non-MiniITX case I can use, and there are boards which will take 32gb of ECC.

Can anyone give me tips on a setup? I don't have a spare discrete GPU, but I might be able to get one from a friend. I'd also prefer IOMMU support, but it's not necessary.

Posted Jan 16, 2016, 12:17 AM UTC

17
flux103•

Are you set on small? I would suggest a dell R610 or R710. Because they just work, and keep working....

2
confusingboat42U Rack Attack•

A Dell R210 II would also work if you're okay with one CPU, and they're damn shallow for rack servers. They also run newer CPUs than the rest of the 11G servers.

I've got a Dell R210 II, R410, R510, 2x R610 and an R710. 10/10 would rack, splendid reliability, even when they're abused (a not so long story, just irrelevant).

Edit: forgot a server in the list.

2
EntropyOP•

That R210 II is looking pretty compelling, and I've got a Lack sitting here that's begging to be racktified.

The big question: how loud is it? All the pizza boxes I've been around have been wind farms.

1
confusingboat42U Rack Attack•

All of the 11G servers are actually pretty quiet, except when first booting of course, with the 2U units obviously being quieter than the 1U units due to the larger fans.

I have no complaints of noise with my R210 II though. I'm pretty sure the two switches above it, in aggregate, are louder than that server. You could easily work next to it and not mind it being there, provided it's not under heavy load.

2
EntropyOP•

This is looking pretty compelling, since it has a e3-1240 v2 in it. Think I might pull the trigger. Thanks for the help!

1
UltimateShipThe2nd•

Supermicro makes a similar avoton board with full sized dimm slots

1
EntropyOP•

In mATX form factor, not MiniITX. Can't do a direct swap.

1