BUILD New build - X10SL7-F - after recent/compatible version info

[lofgren]

Hi Folks,
TL/DR - I'd greatly appreciate a run sheet of any issues/steps performed on a recent build for this board.
Hoping to avoid any "gotcha's" to get this rebuild up and running fairly quickly.

More detail..
I ordered the X10SL7-F and E3-1231v3 a few weeks ago and they finally came in. I just need to pick up a cpu heatsink/fan as the distributor in HK has provided me with the OEM CPU and no heatsink...

Hopefully I will be in a position to start work on my new build later today.

I see lots of info for this board over time, starting from it's first release.
There were issues with firmware and RAM at specific times and manual CPU stepping commands, USB2/3 issues with certain FreeNAS versions.
All the guides for flashing the SAS controller seem to have caveats and updates and alternate recommendations etc that have altered over time.

I see there's also been a new FreeNAS release in the last few days..

Has anyone recently completed a build on this board and kept notes on which version/s worked/failed for install?

Thank you kindly

Edit: altered the tldr character so it didn't have a smiley face...

 

[styno]

I installed the X10SL7-F at the beginning of this year without any noticeable issues.
As always I upgraded to the latest bios (3.0a) / firmware (3.27) and flashed the onboard SAS controller to IT mode (you need PH20.00.04.00-IT.zip). As of today these versions are still 'latest' and are working great with the latest FreeNas build.

Please note that all 3 of them need to be flashed in a different way: iirc, one can be done from the web-gui, one from an uefi shell and one from dos mode. If only SuperMicro would provide 1 way to flash them all.

Edit: just for the sake of completeness: as per https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/16649 you'll see a warning when you are runnig PH20.00.04.00-IT in combination with FreeNas 9.10.1. This can be safely ignored.

 

[CraigD]

I got the X10SL7-F in May and had no problems. It shipped with the latest BIOS and firmware. I only flashed the SAS controller to IT mode P20 as above.

The only small tiny inconvenience is that is my 13 SATA cables look messy (8 drive RAIDz2, 3 drive RAIDz1, and a two way SSD mirror) and it is going to get worse when I expand to 18 drives

One of my old drives just stopped working and another gave errors for five days before failing (40,000+ hours on each drive) NO DATA WAS LOST!

FreeNAS setup costs are high but is money well spent

Have Fun

 

[Kei]

Hello,
I also run FN 9.10 on this mobo with no issues so far. This supermicro board is awesome imho.
However, if possibile, I'd ve grateful to have a clarification regarding the compatibility between the SAS version and the FN drivers: is there a chance to view, from the GUI or CLI, what is the Firmware versione that FN is expecting the controller to have?
Last thing, I would like to report that the SAS chip, at least in my case, is heating a LOT. The heatsink is the one exactly above the six blue SAS/SATA connectors, NOT the one near the CMOS battery. On idle, its temperatures goes up to 70°C / 160°F and I had to install a small FAN near it to bring it down to 55°C just to be cautious. That, even if the case is being well cooled. Does this happen with your X10SL7-F aswell?