Is there any good reason to avoid a used SuperMicro server for my build?

[JTheNASBuilder]

My old Windows Home Server is getting dangerously old at this point and I really need to hop on building something better. As I'm shopping for parts for a FreeNAS build I'm finding that large multi-bay cases from the likes of Norco and SuperMicro cost $300-500 just for the bare metal and drive cages (not a spec of hardware inside). Yet on eBay and CL you can find used SuperMicro servers with all the hardware inside for $300-500.

Is there any good reason to avoid buying a used SuperMicro server off eBay? I don't need current generation hardware (my WHS is running on 10 year old hardware with a Celeron processor after all). I'm more than happy to upgrade from my very old consumer desktop-turned-NAS to a perfectly acceptable (albeit slightly outdated) set of actual server hardware.

 

[cyberjock]

Honestly, not really.

When you look at the cost savings, even if a fan is bad it's a $20 fix from ebay. In fact I recommend people simply buy a used Supermicro chassis and then gut it and put their favorite hardware in.

They may be a little dinged up.... bent corner or a scratch. But who cares! It's storing your precious data and I find functionality far more important than form.

 

[JTheNASBuilder]

That's my thoughts on the matter exactly! I mean hell, for most of the models I'm looking at... buying used is worth the price of admission just for the chassis and RAID cards alone (even if I end up scrapping the motherboard/CPU/RAM, etc. immediately).

Given that it's going to sit in a dark cold corner of my basement that sees a ray of light once a week or less... I don't care if it looks like it got hit by a bus as long as the hardware is good and the HDD cages pop in and out. ;)

While I'm keeping an eye out for a model, is there anything you'd recommend looking for in particular? I'm already leaning towards at least 16 bays, at least 24GB or more of RAM, and I'd like to find one with FreeNAS friendly RAID cards so I don't have to buy/flash my own and add another $200 and some time to the project.

 

[cyberjock]

Not really. There were *tons* of great 24 bay cases for like $350 in the spring. They haven't been well priced or in high quantities for 2-3 months. :/

 

[JTheNASBuilder]

Well boo. I've been thinking about this project since the spring. I should have just gone shopping then.

 

[diedrichg]

Won't you have to bypass the hardware RAID to allow ZFS to take care of the RAID functions, therefore, spending the extra money on a setup that specifically comes with RAID cards a waste of money if you stick with FreeNAS?

 

[Starpulkka]

Depens on your needs. Yes its cheap supermicro server case with supermicro board, is it loud yes its SUPER loud. Older xeons with buffered ecc memorys and mighty fans pulls constant 0.3Kwh of electric power. I think you would get better silent server with much more effecient powerdraw if you buy new stuff. Some sellers keep prices cheaper for their webpage than in ebay.

 

[cyberjock]

Won't you have to bypass the hardware RAID to allow ZFS to take care of the RAID functions, therefore, spending the extra money on a setup that specifically comes with RAID cards a waste of money if you stick with FreeNAS?

Some have hardware RAID, but if you are pulling out the MB, CPU, RAM, etc and throwing it away because you are only interested in the chassis, who cares if it has hardware RAID?

 

[Bigtexun]

Don't forget the recommended controller card is a hardware raid card

Not really. There were *tons* of great 24 bay cases for like $350 in the spring. They haven't been well priced or in high quantities for 2-3 months. :/

Amazon has THIS case that is complete with a 24 drive sas backplane, but no power supply, for $391... That is a bit over your "$350" pricepoint... But it isn't THAT much over.

EDIT: Oops, I have a headache and can't count... the above is a 12 drive case... Here is a 24 drive case, but it proves your point that the $350 prices are gone... This one is $473...
View: http://www.amazon.com/Chenbro-RM23524M2-L-Rackmount-Mini-SAS-Backplane/dp/B005HIF52S


As for the person asking about bypassing the hardware RAID to allow ZFS... yes, that's right... The recommended controller is a raid controller that has been reflashed so that it works as a normal controller. The people out there using non-recommended controllers have to put their drives in jbod mode, or in some way turn raid off... Most Dell motherboards also require you to turn raid off for FreeNAS. That is pretty normal...

 

[cyberjock]

The downside to that chassis though is that:

1. It's laptop drives. (yuk!)
2. It has no PSU, so you are still spending more. :/
3. It's not the same kind of build quality that Supermicro is.

 

[cyberjock]

*cough*

One in stock...

View: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-PDSME-Quad-CoreX3220-2-40GHz-8GB-24-HD-Bay-4U-Storage-Server-/291211795124?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item43cd935ab4


$400

Pretty sure that chassis fits 99% of ATX boards out there.

 

[cyberjock]

A friend called up the Mr Rackables store from ebay and asked about 4U 24 disk chassis and they had a bunch that they hadn't auctioned on ebay yet and sold one to him over the phone. While some people would be pretty freaked out about something like that Mr Rackables is very well known for selling servers on ebay. Almost everyone I know that has bought a used server chassis has bought at least one from them. So you might want to give that a shot too. ;)

I'm not affiliated with Mr Rackables at all in case someone wants to try to make that argument.

 

[JTheNASBuilder]

Thanks for all the good info; I happened to have just been scouring eBay and looking at ol' Mr. Rackables so it's good to know you can get in contact with them and get a fair deal. =)

 

[JTheNASBuilder]

Depens on your needs. Yes its cheap supermicro server case with supermicro board, is it loud yes its SUPER loud. Older xeons with buffered ecc memorys and mighty fans pulls constant 0.3Kwh of electric power. I think you would get better silent server with much more effecient powerdraw if you buy new stuff. Some sellers keep prices cheaper for their webpage than in ebay.

My current old teetering server currently pulls down 0.25Kwh and doesn't even give me half the performance I'd get out of a 5 year old Xeon-based server with a boatload of RAM. I'm following you on the energy efficiency bit, but to buy all new more energy efficient parts would rack up the bill and I wouldn't see a savings over my current rig for years and years.