How long did your ASROCK c2550d4i or c2750d4i last

[Pitfrr]

Will you get another mini-itx board?

The C2750 was my backup server in a dedicated and "homemade" enclosure and for sure the C3558 replacement from AsRock seems great, or there is one from supermicro as well (A2SDi-4C)... But I'm a bit cautious now... The C2750 was not cheap and didn't last long, I don't want to have again similar surprises... and the C3558 replacements are not cheap.
I also thought about changing the mainboard and eventually repurposing some old hardware lying around (xeon L5640) but I couldn't find a suitable (i.e. rather small size) mainboard.

So in the end, I'm considering using a X9SCM mainboard in a standard enclosure that I have. It'll be perfect for a backup solution and it's gonna be off site as well.

 

[Pitfrr]

Ohh I heard back from AsRock and they confirmed that this can not be covered by the warranty (which sucks for a C2000 bug!! which is actually a design issue and not a warranty).
But they propose to repair it for..... 210$!!

Well at least it's a proposal but still I'm very frustrated because the board was not cheap, it didn't last very long and died one year out of warranty and I'd have to pay 210$ (which adds to the initial costs of the motherboard) to repair it, that's not interesting at all!!

Well if I change the board, I definitely will stay away from AsRock... :-O

 

[TooMuchData]

Alternatively, bargain for a 3 year warranty on the repair. If they agree, you'll be way ahead of the game. I'm considering buying a used C2750D4I for almost that much. Alternative boards for my Node 304 would cost much more (after factoring in 32G of DDR4 memory or DDR3 SODIMM).

 

[TooMuchData]

I should have added that a three year warranty was standard on the free RMA boards. So why shouldn't you get it if paying. If you don't want the repaired board I will buy it from you. I need to keep my Node 304 in place or risk fisticuffs with my wife. My current C2750D4I is in fine shape, but I want to be prepared for the inevitable. I wouldn't bat an eye to buy and resilver a disk for $100+ (and will have to do many of them eventually). So, $200 for the uniquely sized board seems a simple choice IMHO.

 

[Pitfrr]

So why shouldn't you get it if paying.

In a normal situation I woudn't mind but in the case of the C2000 bug (or the watchdog bug) these were known issues before the end of the warranty, during the product lifetime and are design issues/flaws. And since they are deadly for the product, AsRock should have made a recall.
So yeah, I don't want to pay for it, granted that 200$ could have been acceptable in a different context (i.e. not related to a design flaw).

From a product quality perspective and from a customer's satisfaction perspective that is not acceptable. Because as the manufacturer you know your product is going to die and you just cross your fingers that it will happen after the warranty period, nice... And this type of devices are not supposed to fail right after the warranty period at least not server grade hardware...

 

[HAL 9000]

My c2750d4i has died after 4 years of intermittent use.

 

[nojohnny101]

Purchased a C2550D4i on 11/30/2015 and it just died about a month ago. Not even going to bother with warranty claim at this point as they are likely not honoring.

 

[rosabox]

Give it a shot, you have nothing to loose

 

[Pitfrr]

And let us know here, I'd be curious to know! :-D

 

[FreeNASBob]

My third C2550D4I failed the other day. In case you're wondering, I wasn't dense enough to buy a third one after the first two failed: The first one failed by the well-known bug, the replacement was DOA, and the third worked for another 2 years and dropped dead the other day.

 

[crackedSTRG]

That thread never gets old!

Got my C2550D4I Feb 2017. It was running almost fine (except the battery kept dying). Today freenas was not accessible and frozen, A hard reboot later I was able to boot but after unlocking the encrypted pool everything froze again. From that point during reboot the fans start for 3-4 secs and stops, no POST, no VGA. Removed battery, disks and RAM, used one RAM (on different slots), used a different PSU without any difference/luck. The BMC LED1 flashing and IPMI is accessible but there is no way to revive it.

 

[Constantin]

I'm sorry you too got bitten by the bug. I hope ASRock will send you a replacement ASAP.

Seeing that I've cycled through about 4 boards or so before I had a working solution, keep an eye out for the motherboard revision (v1.03 seems to be safe - look for the silkscreening near the PCIe slot) and the version of the BIOS they're sending you (p0.035 is the one you want.) That way, you can salvage the RAM and the rest of your server setup.

Also, be very. careful with your RAM as you handle it between boards. I must not have been as careful as I should have been as two of my memory sticks went bad - one with occasional, but correctable, ECC errors, the other so bad that the machine would not POST. That was pretty painful since these sticks were the unobtanium 16GB UDIMM variety pretty much custom-made for this series of Atom processors.

 

[crackedSTRG]

The truth is that almost 4 years later I dont feel confident even trying to RMA the mobo. The truth is that even if they try to replace it sending it back and waiting for the replacement will take many many days (mainly because of covid and increase of online sales postal services are really really slow) so I'm looking for an alternative (started a thread here )

 

[FreeNASBob]

The truth is that almost 4 years later I dont feel confident even trying to RMA the mobo. The truth is that even if they try to replace it sending it back and waiting for the replacement will take many many days (mainly because of covid and increase of online sales postal services are really really slow) so I'm looking for an alternative (started a thread here )

I decided to see if Asrock will replace the third C2550D4I I've had. Probably not, but doesn't hurt. I feel kind of sorry for them. I think when they gave me this RMA nobody knew about the C2000 issue with the Intel chips. They got bitten twice on the same board, once from their own problem and then again by Intel.

 

[FreeNASBob]

I decided to see if Asrock will replace the third C2550D4I I've had. Probably not, but doesn't hurt. I feel kind of sorry for them. I think when they gave me this RMA nobody knew about the C2000 issue with the Intel chips. They got bitten twice on the same board, once from their own problem and then again by Intel.

I thought it was funny that I spent the afternoon troubleshooting with William and he suggested I send an RMA request. When I went through my records for the request I found my email thread with him in 2017 and every symptom and steps he suggested was precisely identical to today. I hadn't remembered.

For posterity, here's what you'll see on the screen when your C2550D4I or C2750D4I dies. It will stay on this screen forever.

 

[FreeNASBob]

Just FYI. Asrock finally got back to me and told me that product is no longer supported and they aren't doing warranty or repairs for them.

Now to find a mini-ITX board that supports 7 or more SATA drives and ECC RAM that doesn't cost $500.

 

[Etorix]

Now to find a mini-ITX board that supports 7 or more SATA drives and ECC RAM that doesn't cost $500.

Many Supermicro X10SDV (Xeon D-15xx) ITX boards have 6 SATA ports. I have one in a Node 304, booting off a M.2 drive. Sub-$500 second-hand.

If you do want 7+ SATA, have a look at (the lower part of) the Supermicro A2SDi range, or at C236/C246 boards:
Gigabyte C246-WU2 (SFF-8643 breakout cable not included)
a handful of ASRockRack boards, if you are willing to keep on with them: https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbxeon&xf=1244_8~4400_Mini-ITX

 

[Constantin]

I'm a big fan of the SuperMicro gear and the D-15xx series.

The best SOHO bang for the buck is the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F - It is bigger than Mini-ITX but it offers 20 SATA ports (2 of them SATADOM), one m.2 with PCIe 3.0x4 (great for a SLOG like the p4801x), one m.2 mSATA (great for a L2ARC), two PCIe3.0x8 slots, 2 SFP+ ports, IPMI, and a 25W TDP processor with RAM up to 128GB. I found the Motherboard to be very finicky re: RAM but as long as you buy the qualified stuff, it should work.

The board is less than $500 on Amazon (plus RAM) but it's pretty much future-proof for home use unless you want to get into transcoding. The only downside is the need for a new server case as the board size is Flex-ATX. I almost shoe-horned it into a Lian-Li Q26A but was ultimately stymied by a metal cross brace that I didn't want to remove even if it wasn't strictly needed.

 

[FreeNASBob]

The best SOHO bang for the buck is the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F - It is bigger than Mini-ITX

Unfortunately, that's a deal killer. I'm already irritated at being forced to spend $500+ to fix Intel's screw up. I'm not buying new case hardware and reconfiguring the server closet for it too. I'd rather just wipe the drives and toss the NAS system. I haven't been using it since the third board died and haven't been missing it terribly. My desktop systems turned out to be far more reliable than that server system, as ironic as that is.

 

[Constantin]

I hear you and if the system doesn’t bring you happiness then it should go.