R730XD Homelab Storage Server Knowledgebase

The Dell R730xd is still an amazing piece of kit for homelabbers, local media storage hoarders and a perfect for budget high performance 10 or 25 GbE network shares to storage. While some may lament the system being out of current support, please DO NOT put any of your servers on the edge of your network without fully understanding the ramifications. Homelabs are best ran inside VLANS or isolated networks with overlay networks for services you need to expose remotely to provide the best security surface for average users. That said, as long as your not exposing your iDRAC or network to the WAN or hosting services for strangers you will be fine. Storage servers should not be on the edge traditionally either, they should be networked to high performance switching and providing file shares and/or remote iSCSI mounts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np34T1ZRxdQ

Base R730xd Systems
Dell R730xd 12×3.5″ https://geni.us/R730XD
Dell R730xd 24×2.5″ https://geni.us/R730XD_24_2_5
Dell R730xd 18×1.8″ + 8×3.5″ https://geni.us/R730xd_Combo_Server

Motherboard
The same MOBO is used in all R730/xd variants https://geni.us/R730XD_MOBO

Chassis
Dell R730xd 12×3.5″ https://geni.us/r730xd_3_5_chassis
Dell R730xd 24×2.5″ https://geni.us/R730xd_2_5_Chassis
Dell R730xd 18×1.8″ + 8×3.5″ https://geni.us/R730xd_Rare_Chassis
R730 Ear Kit https://geni.us/R730XD_EAR_KIT

Backplanes
12×3.5″ Front https://geni.us/R730XD_3_5_Backplane
24×2.5″ Front https://geni.us/R730XD_2_5_Backplane
18×1.8 + 8×3.5 Front Combo https://geni.us/R730XD_Rare_Backplanes
2×2.5″ Rear https://geni.us/R730XD_Rear_Drives

This is possibly the coolest addon part for an R730xd as it allows you to bring in 4x additional drives. Either 2.5 or 3.5 and is perfect for adding 4x SAS SSDs. Perfect for creating a ZFS array that uses them for metadata and cache special devs. You need to use the low profile CPU heatsinks for it to fit however and run lower wattage CPUs. The tray has a backplane which needs SAS connection and power connection as well.

4x LFF/SFF Drive Midplane Expansion
https://geni.us/R730XD_4x_Mid_Tray

The Haswell and Broadwell lineup of CPUs E5 V3/4 delivered a large uplift in the available core counts per socket over the prior Ivy Bridge lineup of E5 processors. Also there is a jump in QPI speed to 9.6 GT/s in this generation of Dell servers. The nice part is these CPUs are almost all rather cheap now aside from the top end 2696v4 and 2699v4 CPUs. If you feel the need to max out your cache and core count, the 2696v4 is a much cheaper option vs the 2699v4. You need to account for lower profile heatsinks if you get the midplane so likely not fan ideal to run the hottest 165w cpus in that instance. I will update this when I get mine in.

Suggested CPUs
E5-2618L V4 https://geni.us/E5-2618L-V4
E5-2667 V4 https://geni.us/E5-2667-V4
E5-2695 v4 https://geni.us/E5-2695-V4
E5-2696 v4 https://geni.us/E5-2696-V4

The E5-V3 Haswell line of CPUs utilizes 2133 DDR4 ECC RDIMM and LRDIMM speeds. The E5-V4 Broadwell can use 2400 speed DDR4 ECC RDIMM and LRDIMM. The quad channel CPUs utilize slots 1-4 on the board for each CPU in various colors denoting the DIMMs Per Channel (DPC) for each channel. In general, look for 2Rx4 RDIMM RAM a good choice. Utilizing the White (1DPC) tabbed 1-4 slots, then black (2DPC) tabbed 1-4 slots and finally the green (3DPC) tabbed slots if you are using RDIMM. The green tabbed slots will not work for LRDIMM.

uSATA 1.8″ SSD

The unusual R730XD 18×1.8″ uSATA SSD drives combo appears to support drives that peak at 960GB capacity and you should check part numbers for RI (Read Intense) WI (Write Intense) or MU (Mixed Use) if it is not mentioned in a listing. MLC drives are actually VERY good for endurance and performance, and Toshiba produced very good ones.

Samsung PM863 https://geni.us/Dell_1_8_960GB
Intel S3610 MLC RI https://geni.us/dell_1_8_800

3.84TB SAS SSD offer great performance for the value in decent capacity sizes thankfully as in current time, flash has experienced a shocking jump in prices recently. This inflation is hitting especially DDR4 hard as Samsung has just stopped churning out DDR4 RAM at the same time, a perfect storm on that front but at least we have one thing that has not skyrocketed.

https://geni.us/3_84-SAS-SSD
https://geni.us/Toshiba_PX05_3_84TB

Bulk Storage HDDS have gotten pretty cheap in the highest range of capacities but please know and plan for a rebuild to take a REALLY long time if you have 24TB or 26TB drives and do not deploy a raid-z1 or similar bad ideas. 16TB is my top size target on rebuilds before I need to add another +1 drive to parity ops which is less utilization. The cheap 14TB drives are still around and do good for my bulk storage needs.
14TB HDD https://geni.us/14TB-HDD
24TB HDD https://geni.us/24TB-HDD
26TB HDD https://geni.us/26TB-HDD

Rack Network Daughter Cards (rNDC) that are both cheap and high performance is a great reason to consider an R730XD as a storage node in the first place. Dual 25GbE Mellanox CX-4 for under $10, yes. rNDC-25gb-Mellanox-CX4 and it is not picky about optics and of course DACs will “just work” and also there are nice quad 10Gb options like the Quad 10Gb Intel X710 for SFP and Dual X540 + Dual i350 Intel for CAT based networks. The intel SFP+ will be picky about approved optics just FYI. I have ran the Broadcom quad sfp+ 10Gbe rNDC and it is not picky as well but there are a lot of options. The Mellanox CX-4 25Gbe really does come out on top IMHO if you are transceiver or DAC based.

Cosmetics
Front Bezel https://geni.us/R730XD_BEZEL

Power Supplies come in either Platinum or Titanium and you need them to have a green EPP part on their label. There are many many part numbers but it is a decent idea to match your part numbers for your PSUs if you can. You might be tempted to just go with the 1100w PSUs however they are less efficient at low wattages so if you are not running full tilt + 2x GPUs consider the 750w a good option and if running no GPUs and not full ram/top spec’d CPUs the 495w versions. It is a good call to get both, and run them in redundant mode. Do not enable PFC correction unless you want to use more wattage.

495w PSU https://geni.us/Dell_495_PSU_EPP_VKDD2
750w PSU https://geni.us/Dell_750_PSU_EPP_KNHJV
1100w PSU https://geni.us/Dell_1100W_PSU_EPP
PSU Blank https://geni.us/DELL_PSU_BLANK

Pay attention to the CPU and x8 or x16 as I mentioned in the video for your layout. Keep your HBA/NIC on the same CPU is a good idea. Running a “filer” type setup on just a single CPU is a good call for maximizing performance and keeping wattage in check.

Risers
Riser 1 https://geni.us/R730xd_riser_1
Riser 2 https://geni.us/r730xd_riser_2
Riser 3 https://geni.us/r730xd_riser_3

Integrated Mini Mono SAS Controllers

The H330 works okay for ZFS on hdd’s in HBA mode, which you can set in the PERC startup screen. However this does not enable que depths that you can utilize for SAS SSDs efficiently. So while you are OK to use the H330 in HBA mode without formally flashing it if you are mainly using HDDs, if you want the performance of your SAS SSDs to shine you do need to flash it or get a flashed version. I think you should avoid the H730 as it is the only HBA I bricked unrecoverably during a flash attempt and I am not eager to attempt again.

H330 Mini Mono preflashed P16 https://geni.us/H330_FLASHED_IT

Caddies and Fillers
Dell 1.8″ Caddies https://geni.us/dell_1_8_Caddy
Dell 1.8″ Filler Blank https://geni.us/dell_1_8_caddy_blank
Dell 2.5″ Caddies https://geni.us/Dell_2_5_Caddy
Dell 2.5″ Filler Blank https://geni.us/Dell_2_5_Blank
Dell 3.5″ Caddies https://geni.us/R730XD-Caddies
Dell 3.5″ Filler Blank https://geni.us/DELL_35_FILLER_BLANK
3.5″ to 2.5″ Adapter https://geni.us/Dell_3_5to2_5

Can a R730 run GPUs?

Somehow the fact that the R730 as well as the R730xd can run GPUs doesn’t seem widely known. YES! THEY ALL CAN! You do have restricted back clearance if you have the 4x 3.5″ tray in the xd installed but I have ran a variety of GPUs in my R720XD and R730XD without issues over the years. A few GPUs I have ran first hand in them.

A4000 16GB (Single slot, 6 pin, blower) Riser 6

MSI 3060 12GB (dual slot, not blower, 8 pin) Riser 4

GPU Power Cable https://geni.us/R730XD_GPU_CABLE

Internal Blanks are a GREAT idea to utilize if you do not run both CPU sockets. Possibly to avoid numa contention if you have no need to load your R730xd up with PCIe cards. It is also advisable to cover your MEM slots that are not populated especially if you are running in say a garage or a basement. Bugs.

2011V3 Socket Blank Cover https://geni.us/R730XD_Socket_Blank
DDR4 RAM Slot Blanks https://geni.us/Dell_DDR4_Blank

Heatsinks
Dell Low Profile Heatsink https://geni.us/r730xd_lowTDP_heatsink
CPU2 High TDP Heatsink https://geni.us/CPU2_165w_heatsink
CPU1 High TDP Heatsink https://geni.us/CPU1_165w_heatsink

Rails and CMA
Dell B6 Ready Rails https://geni.us/Dell_B6_Readyrail_2
Cable Management Arm https://geni.us/R730XD_B6_Cable_Arm

USEFUL TOOLS
Electronics Probe Set https://geni.us/electronics-probe-set

Videos featuring R730XD
TrueNAS Storage Server 125TB R730XD Homelab for $2000 https://youtu.be/dgjBdhS1rCE
Home Datacenter Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLarJAzZsWRGBtM_dOlkbgVts7z9oAC0TE