Any EE-ATX cases out there?

[superloopy1]

I have purchased a Supermicro X10DRi-LN4F board to replace an ageing X8SIA-F. Proble, which I should have anticipated and no doubt I'm not the first to have made this mistake, is that my Fractal XL-R2 is not big enough (and it's huge!) to take the board. There must be similar large boards being used so can anyone recommend a decent large case which takes an EE-ATX board?? Thinking now might be a good time to go rack server so anything of that type big enough do es anyone know. There's a good few EE-ATX Supermicro boards out there so what's everyone using?

[uldise]

what is your budget? how many disks would you like to connect?

[SimonF]

I have a Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 HPTX PC Case Black for my X9DR3

 

https://www.nanoxia-world.com/page/view.product.php?x=51&y=38&id=1JBocV-LJuKX5-Lb00a0-oAAriR

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DR3-F.cfm

 

 

Attached an image, looks like it would fix, issue will be more around the screen holes for the posts.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by SimonF

[superloopy1]

Thanks, keep them coming!

 

Budget? I suppose a 'reasonable' budget would be £300-£500 because i currently have 13 drives in a Fractal XLR2 with a 5-in3 in use and eight internal trays (can i do more?).

 

I'm thinking that maybe a rack server might be better this time around unless i can get around the 18 drive bays inside a suitable ee-atx case, possible??

[uldise]

i have only experience with rack-mounts.. with Supermicro 846 series, you can go up to 24 drives, like this one https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/chassis/4U/846/SC846BE2C-R1K23B

with 847 series you can go to 36 or 44 drives, but this is a bit overkill..

these ones will be out of your budget, you can go cheaper, but build quality can't be compared with SM ones..

see this one for example: https://www.inter-tech.de/en/products/ipc/storage-cases/4u-4424

i recently got their 16-bay version, it just works, but as i said, SM ones is a different league..  

[SimonF]

3 hours ago, superloopy1 said:

have 13 drives

I have 12 drives internally with one spare with 6 SSDs positions in an icydock. https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=231

 

There are total of 4 5.25 positions. I just have the icy dock and 4k Bluray player for makemkv ripping.

 

So with a 5 in 3 and 13 internal you could do 18.

[superloopy1]

9 hours ago, uldise said:

i have only experience with rack-mounts.. with Supermicro 846 series, you can go up to 24 drives, like this one https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/chassis/4U/846/SC846BE2C-R1K23B

with 847 series you can go to 36 or 44 drives, but this is a bit overkill..

these ones will be out of your budget, you can go cheaper, but build quality can't be compared with SM ones..

see this one for example: https://www.inter-tech.de/en/products/ipc/storage-cases/4u-4424

i recently got their 16-bay version, it just works, but as i said, SM ones is a different league..  

I'm wary og going to SM as they use 'proprietary' parts obviously , fans & psus which i find are very noisy and way overkill for what is effectively an unraid system which sits idle for most of the time. I much prefer to use of the shelf parts which i have control over. Does that make sense? Ideally a 24 bay Norco, not available here in the UK is what I would hop to from my tower cases as i do have a server rack and a bit of space still to fill. Having said all of that i AM looking at either a CE836 or CSE936 (whats the difference) to take up to 16 drives although i'm not convinced that would be a good move longer term.

Edited March 21, 2021 by superloopy1

[uldise]

8 hours ago, superloopy1 said:

I'm wary og going to SM as they use 'proprietary' parts obviously , fans & psus which i find are very noisy

this is why i'm choosing 4U SM case:

- to place bigger and more silent fans - my last SM case was 743 Series (sadly will not fit your EE-ATX), swapped out middle fans for 12cm Noctuas, removed read fan.

- to use standard ATX PSU - 743 came with ATX PSU, fan is not so loud.

 

for 3U i see 836 only, but again - noise is an issue in my use-case..

and for EE-ATX boards you cant use ATX PSU - no room for that..

[superloopy1]

Guys .... i ducked out of the SM case mainly due to noise issues which i'd not be practical enough to sort out of the box, i'm hopeless! I hace decided to go with a Fractal Define 7/XL case which will allow an EE-ATX board at a squeeze and upt o 18 hard drives and 5 ssd so well within my current drive capacity. Problem i've got now is the psu and how i manage to supply to the maximum number of drives.? I'm out of the psu arena for some time, last one i nought was a Corsair HX750, still running my current setup. I'm guessing an 850w should just about cover an unraid system with a LOT of drives and just the one GFX card, RT2060. BUT,BUT BUT ... where do i get the sata connectors from?? Do current psu's run to that many (18), i doubt it so whats a good recommendation with a good number of sata connectors to get me going? Wow, havent psu prices gone up!!

[SimonF]

You will need dual eps12v for the board.

 

This is my psu. 

 

https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/rm-series-config/p/CP-9020056-UK#tab-tech-specs

[superloopy1]

What is dual eps12v and why would i need it? That psu only has 10 connectors, is that just an example? They make psus with more than 10 dont they? Think i need to do a lot of reading up soon!

[SimonF]

For the dual cpu each needs an eps connection and the atx24 for the motherboard.

 

This has two as i have 2 xeon 2697v2

 

The modular cables break out to multiple sata power connections.

 

I have molex to sata converters also.

[BRiT]

10 minutes ago, superloopy1 said:

What is dual eps12v and why would i need it?

 

They're saying your new motherboard requires it for power.

[BRiT]

 

On the right hand side at the bottom in all white is the ATX 24 Pin connection. Right above that is a single EPS connection (8 pin). A little bit above that one is the other EPS connection.

[superloopy1]

Thanks! I'm learning as I go here.  My board looks like the one pictured. So, as welll as the 24 pin, I need to plug 8pin eps12v into EACH of the other two, yes? Do all PSU's come with those plugs? And one more ... if I intend to use all disks, I'd need as many dedicated sata connectors (I've seen as many as 12 on some power supplies) with the remainder feeding from spare molex (I've got no molex devices). Is that about it?

Edited March 23, 2021 by superloopy1

[uldise]

That's is why larger rack cases comes with backplanes - for example SM 846 have 24 port backplane and you power it with just 6 Molex connectors for all 24 drives. this is very common - 4 drives per one Molex.

if you have case with no backplane, then yes, you must use some power splitters - and use them with same - 4 drives to one Molex.

1 hour ago, superloopy1 said:

I need to plug 8pin eps12v into EACH of the other two, yes?

Yes

 

1 hour ago, superloopy1 said:

Do all PSU's come with those plugs?

No! dual EPS12v are not so common, but there exists another splitter to make PCIe cable to CPU cable - many consumer PSUs come with much of PCIe cables. 

[SimonF]

Yes that is correct, Not all PSUs will have two.

 

You dont have to use the molex as you could get additional sata modular cables.

 

These are the ones they shipped with my PSU. But you could buy additional SATA ones and not use the Molex(Peripheral) My PSU allows 5 SATA Peripheral connections.

 

 

[uldise]

huh, i purchased Seasonic Prime Gold unit recently, but could not find where to get additional cables. i needed Molex ones..

and don't use cables from another manufacturer PSUs - you can fire your equipment..

[superloopy1]

Understood so far. Are the 'peripheral' Sara connectors ok to use in drives themselves? How many sata drives can you split off of one actual connector?

[uldise]

1 hour ago, superloopy1 said:

How many sata drives can you split off of one actual connector?

as i wrote, 4 drives to one Molex.. this is very typical..

[SimonF]

Here is an example of spare Type3 to 4 x sata.

 

https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/Categories/Products/Accessories-|-Parts/PC-Components/Power-Supplies/Ribbon-Style-SATA-Cable-with-4-Connectors%2C-Type-3-(700mm)/p/CP-8920116#tab-tech-specs

 

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by SimonF

[uldise]

@SimonF Seasonic please  

[superloopy1]

How many sata to sata splitters can you use rather than using molex, lots of psus dont have molex these days as far as i can see ...

[JonathanM]

19 minutes ago, superloopy1 said:

How many sata to sata splitters can you use rather than using molex

Very few. I would be scared to push more than 2 drives worth of power through a single SATA connector. They are very poorly designed. Not saying molex are ideal, but they can handle LOADS more current than a SATA connector.

 

 

[SimonF]

30 minutes ago, superloopy1 said:

How many sata to sata splitters can you use rather than using molex, lots of psus dont have molex these days as far as i can see ...

How many sata connections do you require?

 

If they have 5 like the rm850 then with 5 x 4 Sata cables you have 20 devices covered. Bigger PSU may have more outputs.