Currently have a Supermicro X10SL7-F - is it a waste to get another for my backup box?

[RichTJ99]

I am pretty lazy & forgetful overall (after all - I am American) - I just dont think my backup would be reliable if I had to turn it on & off weekly. If I can automate the on & off that might be worth considering - I bet it can all be done.

I did buy the X11SSL-CF with a 1245 v5 Xeon because I think I might want it in the future. I am hoping to figure out how to dump those two older I7 boxes to cut down on the energy costs. I have been stuck in analysis paralysis for about a week - so at least that is done.

My current use for the box is either main or backup Freenas box - not entirely sure yet. It may turn into an Esxi box which would also be OK. The Dell T110 ii could change from the current VMware Esxi box to the new freenas backup (again not sure).

Having higher end machines hopefully will help me figure all this out.

 

[Dice]

Btw, how are your servers setup?
racked? randomly scattered in workstation chassis?

 

[RichTJ99]

All these boxes are either server towers or desktop towers. I have a full rack in server room #1 & was planning on getting the http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/?tag=ozlp-20 server rack box for the new freenas box but opted for another Fractal node 804 instead figuring I would get it at some point.

 

[Dice]

that amazon case looks real good.. specially for the money involved.

edit: If living in the US.
Shipped to my location: 391USD.

......nothing new under the sun as of today x)

 

[AVB]

I have the 8 bay case they show except I've put two 5 into 3 IstarUSB BPU-350 in it and a BPU 230 so I have 13 hot-swap drives in it now. I use it as my backup server. The cases are all pretty much the same and all fairly well built, especially for the money, with only the front panel and the length being the major change. Rosewill's drive mounting system in the 8 and 15 bay case pretty much sucks though.

 

[RichTJ99]

AVB - I was leaning towards it but the Molex & how involved it looked to remove the drives turned me off. On the non-hot swap it looks like you would have to remove the case from the rack, pop the cover & pull the drives. Very involved.

How do you like the hotswap bays? Can you snap a photo of your setup?

 

[AVB]

The mounting holes aren't an exact match for the Istar units so they are shifted over to the left 1/8" each. That caused a gap that I just filled with some black cloth. Someday I'll tear it down and drill some holes but I've been saying that for 2 years :)

 

[RichTJ99]

Looking good! Thanks!

 

[Dice]

Indeed!