2u Chassis help

[pitt1717]

So with 10 around the corner I have been thinking about upgrading my hardware. I have a crappy 3u case now (no back plane, drive caddys etc) just a basic case. With that said, I would like to start with getting a new chassis now for my existing build. this is home use but I have 2 Cisco switches, a pfsense 1u server and my 3u freeness server already in a rack. I am currently looking at the Supermicro 2U chassis (825 series) .
my questions are:

I use SATA WD RED drives. I'm am confused about the cabling (SAS/SATA) from the backplane to the mother board. do I have to use individual cables between the 2 or is there a break out cable?

I can't afford these cases new. so I'm thinking about a used one of eBay? good or bad idea? My 2 concerns are the back plane and the power supply(s). Is there another brand you would recommend to keep me in the ~200 range?
- the backplane worries me due to my data going across, do these typically go bad? using SATA, is there a backplane I should be looking for?
- the power supplies - these chassis seem to all come with the supermicro branded ablecom (are these any good) should I look for a chassis with none?
What are good 2u power supplies if thats the route I should take? looking at ~600watt
will a regular PC p/s work? will it fit or do I need the specialized piece? I know I would be giving up the redundancy

for efficiency, will I gain anything going to 3u? I would like to move to a 2u for its size but if the efficiency due to fans etc warrant it, I am ok with another 3u

with that said, as long as I mark the drives cables, should I have any issues mounting my existing hardware over into this chassis or should it all be plug and play.

Future, and for another thread, I'm eying a SM X11 board, Xeon CPU and possibly staring with 32g of men)

 

[danb35]

Supermicro make/rebrand good power supplies, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'd suggest an 826 chassis over an 825, though. Ideal would be one with the E16 SAS expander backplane, but the -TQ model isn't too much of a PITA in a 2U system.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm am confused about the cabling (SAS/SATA) from the backplane to the mother board. do I have to use individual cables between the 2 or is there a break out cable?

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

I can't afford these cases new. so I'm thinking about a used one of eBay? good or bad idea?

Good idea. Used Supermicro chassis are very popular and work well.

My 2 concerns are the back plane

• Passive backplane (individual SATA connectors or SFF-8087): No problems at all
• SAS1 expander: Might as well try it, can easily be replaced later on most chassis
• SAS2 expander: No problem
• SAS3 expander: No problem

the power supply(s)

Generally nothing to worry about, except for insane noise from the fans of older PSUs. Easily replaced, but proably won't be cheap. Looking for one with Platinum PSUs should help.

- the power supplies - these chassis seem to all come with the supermicro branded ablecom (are these any good) should I look for a chassis with none?

Supermicro or any server-grade PSUs are no problem.

will a regular PC p/s work?

Not in a 2U. No chance in hell of cramming an ATX PSU in there.

as long as I mark the drives cables

You mean so that the drives stay in the same ports? That's a pure waste of time. No RAID solution I've ever seen is sensitive to which port a disk is in. ZFS couldn't care less.

 

[pitt1717]

thanks for the info guys. glad the p/s mfger isn't an issue... rack is in the basement so noise isn't much of a concern.

so the backplane thing is bothersome.
-if I go to a sas2, they start at 12 ports. this will obviously no line up with an 8 drive chassis of the 825 correct?
-so basically I'm stuck with the sas1 backplane unless I go to a 826 which 1 raises my cost with shipping and 2 puts me in a 12 bay
chassis (not a negative) but then I lose the front com, usb ports and dvd drive of the 825.
-will this 825tq backplane cause any slowdown with my WD RED drives?
-Passive backplane (individual SATA connectors or SFF-8087)- Do I lose the hot swap capabilities ? what are the negatives?
-is there a >2tb limit on the 825 backplane?

I've been googling and searching these forums and only found 1 thread ( https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/sas-1-backplane-question.40190/ ) that has given me any info, but its old and not sure if its still relevant

 

[danb35]

The TQ backplane will not slow down your drives or impose a size limit. It does support hot-swapping. If the cost of the 826 is too high, that's up to you, but the DVD drive is absolutely useless in FreeNAS. I don't really see how front com or USB ports would be helpful either, but I guess they could. The only real downsides to the TQ backplane are that (1) you don't have a SAS expander to run lots of drives with one controller, and (2) cabling gets messy. Neither of these is too bad in a 2U chassis, but they get worse with larger ones.

 

[pitt1717]

I was thinking when I go to a ssd for the os drive, using front usb or cd in the front would make it easier than getting to the back of the rack. but your right, not a deal breaker. the com would have been used for console connection to my Cisco devices, but again, I could use the one on the MB
so since I will be using SATA, it would connect 1 for 1 from the backplane to the MB? a SAS controller allows the use of the breakout cable?
sorry for the dumb questions, just want to weigh my options to see if the added cost is worth it. as I said, I want to get new MB,CPU and mem

I appreciate all the help