The server has now been in use for some time as needed and has revealed its strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I am very satisfied, although Proxmox and Debian have sometimes been a bit finicky—but only when “fiddling” with them.
Positive aspects:
- The server is really quiet for a computer in this performance class, even under full load.
- Good performance. I run either five Windows 10 or Windows 11 VMs, each with a vGPU and 4 GB RAM, configured with 16 GB RAM and 6 cores.
- I left the RGB on the cooler activated because it sticks out of the top of the case.
- A very powerful system for the price.
Negative aspects:
- Power consumption is high, especially when idle, always consuming over 100 watts. At the limit it’s no surprise that it’s well over 800 watts.
- The rather weak motherboard limits a possible CPU upgrade to 32 cores with SMT (TR 2990WX).
- Nvidia vGPU is unofficial and has already broken several times during system updates. Very time-consuming.
Next time again?
For the current application, anytime. Next time, based on my experience, I would make different decisions on various matters:
- RAM expansion to the limit (even though 128 GB is easily sufficient at the moment), which would then be 256 GB
- Use ECC RAM, which is important for ZFS
- Replace the CPU cooler instead of messing up the case
- Possibly just leave out the GT 710 and run another NVMe SSD in the now free PCIe 2.0 x4 slot
I think that the way the “TR server” is currently configured, it will run unchanged for a long time.
Photos of the current status
