# Suggestions for low-end home server in 2021



## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

Hi FreeBSD gurus,
for more than a year now I have been experimenting at home with a headless FreeBSD 12 server running in VirtualBox on an iMac 2011 (!). The VM is configured with a mirrored UFS disk and 6 GB RAM. So far, it has served me well (!), resilvering correctly after several improper shutdowns of the VM (!) while the iMac was used normally for browsing, playing games, etc (!) Most of the time, the CPU is idle, and with the services I am running it uses ~2GB of RAM. The services provide support for mail (locally), CalDAV, WebDAV, DVCS (Gogs, Fossil), project management (Redmine), RSS (FreshRSS or Miniflux), databases (PostgreSQL), metasearch engine (Searx), and bookmarking (Wallabag). Each service is in its own jail. I am the only user. Sure, I took some risks (cough cough)—but I had a plan B anyway.

Given my positive experience with FreeBSD, I'd like to finally move everything to a physical server. I'd like to add some NAS functionality (probably with NextCloud—do you have better ideas?), to be used by three/five people. No multimedia/streaming at all. No GUI.

From my virtual experience, I think that my requirements for a home server are pretty modest. As is my budget: I'd like to keep CPU+motherboard around 200€ and the whole system with a couple of (2–4 TB) SATA disks around 600–700€—so I think I am bound to desktop-grade stuff (I have found a Supermicro X10SSL-SF for 150€, but is it worth it in 2021?). This is a combination that I have found:

- Core i3 10100F 3.60Ghz
- Gigabyte B460M DS3H

Although at my price point ECC is ruled out, I'd still like to replace UFS with ZFS (so I think I need at least 8GB of RAM). If you have experience with very low-end servers, especially with recent hardware, I'd like to know what you would look for, given the above.


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## VladiBG (Aug 8, 2021)

Check the HPE ProLiant MicroServer series


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> have found a Supermicro X10SSL-SF for 150€, but is it worth it in 2021?


Absolutely. I dunno currency rates but I would take a SM board over Gigabyte consumer board.
Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?

I just spent $600 on a new X10DRX to upgrade my SM chassis that had X9DRX.
The v4 CPUz are pretty affordable and the upper level ones are fast with many cores. (2697v4)


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## diizzy (Aug 8, 2021)

What actually might be viable would be the Quartz64 board paired with a SATA controller card such as Asmedia ASM1166 SATA card although there are still a few things that needs to be ironed out such as the PCIe driver.
https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-arm/2021-July/date.html (RK3566 posts). The RockPro64 also works but it might a bit optimistic trying to fit everything within 4Gb of RAM.


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

Use a 1220LV3 headless cpu on your X10SSL drawing 13W and you get dual Intel LAN and real BIOS...


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## malavon (Aug 8, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> Absolutely. I dunno currency rates but I would take a SM board over Gigabyte consumer board.
> Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?


I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD and that'll hang when booting Linux or MemTest (also a Linux). Windows is fine, just as is ESX.
For the record, nothing is wrong with the thing. It's been tested several times when it was still in warranty, all the SM support could say was: "FreeBSD isn't supported. Use Windows".
Just my anecdotal evidence of course, the motherboard is a X10SLV-Q. Definitely NOT recommended when it comes to FreeBSD.

Note that the motherboard that's referenced here (X10SSL) is the same generation but I can't say anything for it specifically.


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## neel (Aug 8, 2021)

malavon said:


> I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD and that'll hang when booting Linux or MemTest (also a Linux). Windows is fine, just as is ESX.
> For the record, nothing is wrong with the thing. It's been tested several times when it was still in warranty, all the SM support could say was: "FreeBSD isn't supported. Use Windows".
> Just my anecdotal evidence of course, the motherboard is a X10SLV-Q. Definitely NOT recommended when it comes to FreeBSD.
> 
> Note that the motherboard that's referenced here (X10SSL) is the same generation but I can't say anything for it specifically.


I have an ASRockRack X470D4U with two NVMe slots. FreeBSD and Windows Server see both SSDs without an issue, whereas Linux and Illumos only see the first SSD. I haven't tested ESXi.

If you don't want hardware RAID and want to use the SSDs, it's easier to run FreeBSD on this box. There are kernel flags that let Linux see both SSDs, but I haven't really run anything other than FreeBSD on bare metal servers (maybe a bit of ESXi but that's it). That with Microsoft itself paying me to develop on a Windows Server/.NET/Azure SaaS for a living.

Same with my old Haswell homebuilt PC in my dad's place (that I'm typing this from): SSD caching only on Windows 7/8 or FreeBSD for many years. I never got it to work on Linux or Windows 10 in 2016. However, ZFS-on-Linux may work now since's it's more mature, while Win7 is EOL and Win8.1 is going that way too.


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## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

VladiBG said:


> Check the HPE ProLiant MicroServer series


I know the ProLiant Gen 8 was pretty good, but I can't find any… About Gen 10, I have read that FreeBSD had issues with it. Is there any other model that is well supported by FreeBSD 13+ that you would recommend?


Phishfry said:


> Was the X10SSL board new or used? With CPU?


It's new, without CPU.


Phishfry said:


> Use a 1220LV3 headless cpu


In fact, I would buy the Supermicro right now, but it seems that finding old CPUs (shipping to EU) is not that easy. But, I haven't searched very hard…


diizzy said:


> What actually might be viable would be the Quartz64 board paired with a SATA controller card


I had considered ARM-based boards, but I dismissed them for the lack of SATA ports. It didn't occur to me that you could add a controller card. Not sure about how reliable they are, though.


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## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

malavon said:


> I certainly wouldn't. I have a SuperMicro motherboard that simply won't boot FreeBSD


Ah. I took it from granted that Supermicro and FreeBSD was an unproblematic marriage. I'll do some research about that specific model then.


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## diizzy (Aug 8, 2021)

I personally have very limited experice with Supermicro but they seem to be a bit overrated compared to any other brand within the same category from my point of view.

lifepillar
Pretty much anything from Dell and Fujitsu will work just fine, some of their RAID cards might be a bit of a pain though (poor / no driver support).
In general they work just as good as your integrated SATA controller, some Marvell and JMicron controllers can be a bit interesting though...


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## kpedersen (Aug 8, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> Ah. I took it from granted that Supermicro and FreeBSD was an unproblematic marriage. I'll do some research about that specific model then.


Yeah that is very disappointing. And their solution of "just using" Windows instead is laughable.



> *Me*: Doctor, my mother is ill





> *Doctor*: Buy a pair of underpants instead



Possibly overkill for a home server usecase but can an iXsystems machine be an option?: https://www.ixsystems.com/ix-server-family/
You would hope it supports FreeBSD 

Edit: Just looked at the prices of these. Yes, they *are* overkill for a home server. How about a classic Intel NUC?


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## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> Possibly overkill for a home server usecase but can an ix Systems machine


I am all for off-the-shelf solutions, and those are nice systems, but I'd keep my profile low for now


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## neel (Aug 8, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> I know the ProLiant Gen 8 was pretty good, but I can't find any… About Gen 10, I have read that FreeBSD had issues with it. Is there any other model that is well supported by FreeBSD 13+ that you would recommend?


The Gen10's issues were ultimately resolved in newer releases. However, there is a Gen10+ which has many of the Gen8's features, but is more expensive.

I sold my MSG10 for a HPE ML110 Gen10, and later paired that with a homebuilt ASRock X470D4U-based server.


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

There is no wrong answer. One mans micro-server is another mans junk.


kpedersen said:


> How about a classic Intel NUC?


That is a good suggestion for space saving. They are widely used in digital signage now.
I use an old D525 Atom MSI Windbox with Intel 480GB datacenter drive for NFS fileserver among others on my network. Silent and rugged.

I have always been an advocate for PCEngines APU2/3 but they are out of stock until fall.


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## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> How about a classic Intel NUC?


I think those support only one SATA-connected disk, right? And the rest via USB, which I'd rather avoid…


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

Some of the newer ones have m.2 and 2.5" SATA. My NUC5 has both.








						Product Specifications
					

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.




					ark.intel.com


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## diizzy (Aug 8, 2021)

In some cases Gigabyte's Brix series are more interesting than Intel's NUCs (some carry dual Intel NICs), the gaming series also supports multiple SATA HDD/SSDs but they're more likely EoL by now.


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## neel (Aug 8, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> There is no wrong answer. One mans micro-server is another mans junk.
> 
> That is a good suggestion for space saving. They are widely used in digital signage now.
> I use an old D525 Atom MSI Windbox with Intel 480GB datacenter drive for NFS fileserver among others on my network. Silent and rugged.
> ...


Back in 2015, I wanted a "low power" Mini-ITX home server coming from a 3GHz Prescott Pentium 4. But I ended up with two power-hungry tower servers and a SFF OPNsense box. But hey, I have Gigabit symmetrical internet now and my next place also has it, versus the 10/5 I had then.


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## lifepillar (Aug 8, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> I have always been an advocate for PCEngines APU2/3


Love them, too, as networking equipment. But for storage/NAS use?


Phishfry said:


> they are out of stock until fall.


Yeah, too bad.


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

Same deal. They have SATA and mSATA

And this platform was what I was refering to in Neels retort.
Many would consider the APU a joke for a server. But in reality with SeaBIOS it is one of the most open platforms.
True the AMD Jaguar is seriously dated. But for example I am running Munin server on APU1 (a 10 year old CPU) and the box has very low cpu utilization. So much so I added APC daemon to monitor UPS. Still near zero load.
When Munin does its collection it does jump up but it is still a great micro-server.

So my point is anything reliable could be tasked as a server. Even if considered older junk to some people.
Like asking what is better. Car or Truck. Ford or Chevy. Football or Cricket.


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> But for storage/NAS use?


What other SBC offers ECC right out of the box? APU2/3/4 does.
For years it was built onboard but not enabled(SeaBIOS lacked support) now remedied.
There was also a manufacturing option on APU1 for two SATA2 ports.

The problem with 2.5" drives is there are no case options for brackets. They do sell the needed cable for cheap.
You must get crafty. I mounted mine on the lid. Used the bottom threaded holes on drive for mounting.
Lid then doubles as heatsink for the drive.


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## diizzy (Aug 8, 2021)

APU-series are very outdated even years ago...


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

They are very un-shiney. Outdated for what? PCEngines is still releasing firmwares.
Sure I would like to see a mobile Ryzen and SFP-10G but that would cost $500


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## Phishfry (Aug 8, 2021)

I see it as a utility tool. Providing a box with multiple functions but not particularly great at any.
For a firewall it can't even serve filtered gigabit throughput.
But I like the expansion slots. Only lately has Jetway started to match 3 full MiniPCIe slots on a SBC.


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## lifepillar (Aug 9, 2021)

After (a) pondering over all the above (very useful!) posts, (b) based on what I can find in my region, (c) what fits in my closet, (d) and stretching my budget a bit, I am considering a new ProLiant Microserver Gen 10 Plus with Pentium G5420, which I can get for ~435€. On Amazon, I have found 16GB ECC modules (Crucial CT16G4RFD8266) for about 100€. This may not be exactly _very_ low-end, but according to the reviews I have found online, it seems solid. Anything I should be aware of to run FreeBSD on that?

As a _very_ low-end option,  Quartz64+SATA controller card looks interesting, but maybe a bit too experimental for me right now (plus there are some availability issues currently).

NUCs, BRICs & co are a viable intermediate option, but I don't particularly like them—see Car vs Truck comment above 

As much as I'd love to assemble my own thing, it seems to me that the added flexibility comes at a price, be it economical or in terms of time spent to search for all the pieces of the puzzle.


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## diizzy (Aug 9, 2021)

A Dell T40 is most likely a bit cheaper in .eu and comes with a much beefier CPU (and works fine)


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## VladiBG (Aug 9, 2021)

You need to configure HPE Smart Array S100i SR in AHCI mode.
Also you may choose between Xeon E-2224 (4core / 71W) or Pentium G5420 (2core / 54W) depending of your processor requirements and power consumption. Note that this is max consumption while the cpu is at 100% + power consumption of all your hard disk or ssd. The server have 180W external power supply so it's easy to calculate how much it will cost you to run it 24/7.



> *Procedure:*
> 
> 
> Reboot the server.
> ...



Also if you don't need cpu power you can check the Supermicro Embedded and IoT servers like SYS-E302


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## lifepillar (Aug 9, 2021)

VladiBG said:


> The server have 180W external power supply so it's easy to calculate how much it will cost you to run it 24/7


Can you please elaborate on that? I am a total noobie re power supply.


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## diizzy (Aug 9, 2021)

There will be very little difference between pre-built products using the same hardware and you most likely will be running powerd/powerdxx anyway.
A very useful thread about the Dell T40 in german (use Google translate if you don't know german)








						[Sammelthread] - Dell EMC PowerEdge T40
					

Dell EMC PowerEdge T40      An der Front  Power button/Diagnostics indicator Drive activity LED indicator 3.5 mm Headphone port USB 2.0 Type-A port (2) Optical drive USB 3.1 Type-C port USB 3.0 Type-A port   Intern  Power Supply Unit (PSU) Intrusion switch Drive 01 Drive 02 System board Drive 03...




					www.hardwareluxx.de


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## VladiBG (Aug 9, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> Can you please elaborate on that? I am a total noobie re power supply.


It's best to measure it over a week period to average the power consumption. Let say your server consumption is 100W per hour. Then for 24h multiply by 100W it will consume 100W*24h=2400W/h (2.4kW/h) per day. Multiply this by 31 days for a month and you get 2.4kW/h*31day=74.4kW/h per month. Then depending of your electricity price per kW let say it's $0.26 for 1kW/h multiply 74.4kW * $0.26 = $19.34 per month.


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## lifepillar (Aug 9, 2021)

Ok, but why does an external power supply make the calculation easy? Would it be different for an internal power supply?


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## VladiBG (Aug 9, 2021)

It doesn't matter if it's internal or external power supply. It's allows you to calculate what is the worst case scenario when the server operate at 100% plus all disk and expansion cards it cannot exceed the rating of the power supply and it will never be more than 180W.

If you want to size your server rack you can use HPE Power Advisor to calculate how much VAC you need for the UPS.

For HPE Microserver 10 plus with Xeon E-2224, 2xDDR4, 2HDD the max load is 115.3W


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## Tieks (Aug 9, 2021)

lifepillar said:
			
		

> why does an external power supply make the calculation easy?


Maybe because you can easily use a multimeter between power supply and device. But it doesn't give you a good reading because it doesn't account for the (in)efficiency of the power supply itself. If you want to know real power usage as described by VladiBG, google 'power consumption meter'. For about 20 USD you get an electricity meter that you plug into a power outlet, then plug the power cord of the computer into the meter. It will show you real power consumption during 24 hours. Recommended. You'll be amazed when you see the power consumption of older hardware. Especially those external ones that still get warm when the attached device is switched off.


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## hardworkingnewbie (Aug 9, 2021)

The low low budget version of that server would be a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB of RAM, as long as no NAS is involved. Also low low power consumption as well.


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## diizzy (Aug 9, 2021)

hardworkingnewbie said:


> The low low budget version of that server would be a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB of RAM, as long as no NAS is involved. Also low low power consumption as well.


It's probably also the worst hardware to use when it comes arm64 ;-)


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## hardworkingnewbie (Aug 10, 2021)

Might be when considering it's driver support state in FreeBSD, but also the most powerful at the moment from the Raspberry line.


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## diizzy (Aug 10, 2021)

You're much better off with the Rockchip solutions in pretty much all regards, I'm running a few RockPro64 as firewalls/gateways just fine with dual port Intel NICs on 13-STABLE


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## lifepillar (Aug 14, 2021)

Thank you all. Eventually, I went with a Dell Poweredge T40. Is a headless installation possible?


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## Geezer (Aug 14, 2021)

Don't skimp on the power supply. Get one that should outlast the rest of the machine.


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## eepete (Aug 14, 2021)

I've made up 4 severs from the SuperMicro A2SDi-[4C or 8C]-HLN4F servers in the SuperMicro SCE300 chassis. Runs FreeBSD no problem. For version 13.x, consumes about 1.8 amps at 12V in. Takes single supply 12V in, use a 12V 5A wall wort with 5.5mm/2.5mm. It's an Atom, but, has 4 or 8 cores. 8 core has 15 MB L3. Here's a fun one: the memory is 2400 MHz dual lane and *ECC*.  It's like Intel go the memo that "ECC is not just for Xeons anymore". Had a Samsung memory stick that got a few ECC errors, very uncharactoristci for Samsung- I still use them. Chaning load order made error go away, was pattern sensitivity. But that was one out of 10 sticks. I put 32GB on the 4 core, and 64 GF on the 8 core. Lots of SATA ports available, I think SM was thinking NAS for this board. Might price is just a bit over your target, but this has surprising performance for its size and fits in a middle ground between low end and high end. Basically, you get to "play" with the 4 or 8 cores, how much M2 or SATA, how much memory. And as for that memory, "Life is too short for any big system that does not have ECC." Note also the M2 only supports 2 lanes (the hand of marketing there...) so don't waste money on high end M2s.

Encloses is pix with text I added that shows the motherboard in the chassis. The power supply (purple, on the left) is one I designed so I can use this in mobil applications with a vehicle battery that auto boots and shuts down. There is a bracket available that would let you put a PCIe card in here, but with all the SATA ports not sure what that could even be. I've had one in the basement for about 18 months running 12.x, no problems, no re-boot. This is a mother board that moves from the big ATX connector to a "12V only in", which really makes the power supply simple.
For use in a home, there are 12V 5A (60W) wall worts out there with the 5.5mm/2.5mm connector on them that work fine, I'm using one on the unit in the basement.
The power supply I did was a dual 50W Boost-Buck, so I use one output for 12 V for the motherboard, and the other output goes to the existing barrel jack on the chassis to output 12V to run a monitor and WiFi box. Needed something that could power the system with input voltages in the 6.5 to 18V range.


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## diizzy (Aug 14, 2021)

lifepillar said:


> Thank you all. Eventually, I went with a Dell Poweredge T40. Is a headless installation possible?


I don't know if its enabled by default by it should be working using a serial adapter, you might need to enable support in the installer (loader) though.


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## lifepillar (Aug 14, 2021)

diizzy said:


> it should be working using a serial adapter, you might need to enable support in the installer (loader) though.


I have updated loader.conf to enable serial connections. But it seems that the system doesn't boot from USB, so I'd have to enter the BIOS anyway—or, maybe, boot from a CD.


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## diizzy (Aug 14, 2021)

It won't boot from USB automatically but I would imagine that it supports console redirection perhaps that's not working with UEFI or is enabled though.


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## robroy (Aug 14, 2021)

eepete, how much noise do your SCE300-housed computers make?

I've eyeballed similar combos for a while but I've been wary of how loud those small fans would turn out.


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## eepete (Aug 14, 2021)

robroy said:


> eepete, how much noise do your SCE300-housed computers make?
> 
> I've eyeballed similar combos for a while but I've been wary of how loud those small fans would turn out.


There are two fan speeds available.  The FAN-0065L4 is the "loud" one, but it really moves the air. The FAN-0100L4 is the "Not so Loud" (not to be confused with "quiet") one. The fans in the picture are a loud one and 2 not so loud ones, but, I need this to work at 120° ambient. For normal room temps, a single "not so loud" in that position where you see the FAN-0065L4 (the loud one) would work OK. The CPU doesn't really get warm running BSD doing "normal things". I suspect if you were transcoding video or some other operation that runs all the cores at once it would need the "loud" fan or two "not so loud" fans. These fans are $15 each, so the price of making a change is not too bad. You can remove the fan holder and change fans without taking the motherboard out.
On my big 1 RU severs (max CPU power 160 W), the fans are both _really_ loud and dual (in case one fails). None of the 40 mm fans for this chassis are anywhere close to that loud.
FWIW, I put a smaller 40mm fan in just for fun.  IDK the CFM, but the fan was .11 amps at 12V. It's pretty quiet. I think that would be fine for room temp use also, but you have to make your own fan connector.
Possible plan of action depending on your hardware skill: Try a single 40mm fan that is just on all the time by putting the right 4-pin connector on the two wires. Put it in as the fan closest to the front panel. If things are too hot, order the Not so Loud fan. Just the max dissipation of the M2 (8W, but typical much lower) and the memory (3-4W each stick)  and the CPU max dissipation makes it hard to run this as a "fan-less" system. FWIW, the large amount of memory is just to take full advantage of how well ZFS caches files, and let me have a /tmp that's a RAM disk.

One other piece of data on this motherboard/chassis. Enclosed is a thermal image of the FLEX version of this same motherboard The motherboard I'm using the mini-ATX form factor, the chassis is a FLEX form factor, that's where the extra room for the small format PCIe (or my power supply)comes from. This was the 1st motherboard I evaluated. The image is a bit misleading, as the coloring has the range adjust based on the relative temperature. The lower left is the M2 card. The actual temperature of the card was about 90° F (ambient was about 73° F). The back DRAM row runs a bit hot here, about 96°. All still OK for normal indoor use. Note in the picture how cool the CPU is, the heat sink on that is really good. The system had FreeBSD running, nothing special going on, the +12 was at 1.8 amps.
If you look closely at the picture of the ATX-mini motherboard (the one with my supply on it), on the lower right just behind the front panel and under the 16 wire ribbon cable, you'll see a small fan. It's a 30mm size and is always on. It cools that back memory stick, and the power supplies between the ATX power and the memory stick. I added that because of my high operating temperature constraint.
Note also that I made my own 16 pin connector to the front panel, in the thermal image you can see the very long cable SuperMicro supplies. In the lower right of my power supply you can see a 2 pin connector with wires 1 (red) and 2 of the front pannel. This is how the power supply can boot the machine and take it down.

Lots of info, hope it makes sense. 

 - pete


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