Used Supermicro server.

[Nr42]

Hi all,

I am looking in to buying a used Supermicro server, and I was hoping someone could take a look at it and see if I am so far of course that I'm going over the edge or if it is an OK buy.
The server:

Case: Supermicro 2U SC826
CPU: 1st Xeon E5-2660 Base Frequency 2.2Ghz Turbo Frequency 3.0 Ghz Octacore
Motherboard: 1st Supermicro X9DRi-LN4F+
Ram: 4x8GB
Raid Controller: Dell PERC 6 H200 SAS-RAID Controller RAID 0 1 och 10, JBOD
Power Supply: 2x1200W

To this I will buy 5 Seagate Iron Wolf 8TB drives, and I already have some older WD 3 TB drives. I have not decided what I will run FreeNAS on and would love some recommendations on the whole sata vs. usb thing and if mirrored boot devices is the way to go. I know that the Raid Controller needs to be flashed, and I have no problem with that. From what I have seen on this forum people often use the X10 and X11 motherboards, will this motherboard cause any problems? I really wanted a motherboard that could use more than 64gb of ram, so I could expand. As I am pretty much going to fill this case with disks from the start, will I be able to put in another raid controller with external sas ports and connect them to an external disk case like the Dell Compellent SC200?

Hope you can ease my mind.

 

[Dice]

Hi, welcome the forums.
I recon you've things under control.
As for USB or SSD. You've probably noticed that posts more recent than 6 months rarely if ever attempts to convince OP to use USB in favor of SSD. That would be enough confirmation to me.

I don't know the details about the SC200. In general, there should be no problems adding another diskbox to a controller like you plan.

Are you completely confident noise won't be a concern?

 

[Chris Moore]

Personally, I would never recommend a 2U chassis, because you can't use full height cards slotted into the system board. The artificial limitations imposed by 1 and 2U chassis make them (in my opinion) worthless for the home. They are for data-centers where you need to stack 20 of them in a 42U rack for virtualization or something. We do that where I work (or blade chassis) but your best bet is to get a 3 or 4U chassis where you can use larger, quieter fans and stand as many expansion cards up as your system board allows instead of being artificially limited by a small chassis.

This is a much better chassis selection:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-Your-...483625?hash=item23778b7569:g:2D0AAOSwo4pYNgDK

It is tall enough that you can stand a card upright instead of having to use some type of riser card and have the expansion card laying in the chassis sideways.

NOTE: I did not sort for price, that is an example, not a specific recommendation.

 

[Nr42]

Thanks for the reply guys, and sorry for not getting back sooner.

This sound issue really got me thinking and looking for other options. You are probably right that 2U will be to loud and I really would like to get some more drive bays from the start. This configuration came up a few days ago:

Chassi: Supermicro 4U SC846
Cpu: 1st Xeon E5-2603 1,8Ghz Quadcore
Motherboard: X9SRL-F
RAM: 32GB (4x8GB PC8500R) max 256GB (8x32GB DDR3 RDIMM) or 512GB (8x64GB LRDIMM)
Disk: 24st x 3.5"
Raid controller: 1 3Ware 9750-8i
Psu: 2x920W
Backplane with 6st SFF 8087 contacts, 2 SFF 8087 cables is supplied and connected to the Raid card.

Some questions about this:
Will I need to get another raid controller to cross flash?
Does the back plane require all 6 connections to work?
Will the CPU be enough?
Something else I should think of?

 

[Dice]

Do not by any means even commence manifesting thoughts in the general vicinity of 4U SM SC846 is being a solution to:

This sound issue really got me thinking and looking for other options.

 

[depasseg]

Look up the C2100 posted by @Mirfster. It's quiet, powerful, holds 12 drives and is ~$470 shipped.

 

[BigDave]

I bought an SC836 super cheap, but then had to upgrade the
backplane to SAS2 AND upgrade the power supplies to the more modern Super Quiet models so I could tolerate the noise level. The sound issue with the older Supermicro chassis is all about the power supplies! If your proposed build is gonna be in your home, I would make sure the noise level will be acceptable before spending the money on an older rack mount unit.

 

[Nr42]

Hi again. Thanks for the comment they are really helpful, though right now I am at a loss for what I should do.

@Dice Thanks for telling me this, it would have sucked to buy something that was not right for me.
@depasseg Thanks for the recommendation and the link, the problem for me is that I live in Sweden and I cant really find any c2100 on the used market here, the shipping from other countries can cost more than the server and I cant find one on e-bay that has the right specs.
@BigDave Thanks for the info I will look in to this.

I will keep looking in to different options to see what I can come up with and continue posting my dilemmas here.

 

[depasseg]

I'm pretty sure I saw someone here recently buy from the same seller and they were from Europe. It's possible, and I don't think it was that expensive (IIRC, it was cheaper than a comparable system bought locally).