bbrodka Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 (edited) Not related to seller, just reporting good expericence and price. If you're looking for a 36 BAY server chasis these are pretty nice, this seller has included 2 hot swap -SQ power supplies whicj are the super quiet versions, and both the fron 24 port and back 12 port backplanes are expanders meaning you can get away with a low port HDA card and don't need external expanders. Both backplains are SAS3/SATA3 https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-846EL.pdf https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-826EL.pdf 36x 3.5" LFF Hard Drive Trays w/ Screws Included Sold as used, but could of passed as new, I couldn't find any hint of prior use, no dust or blemishishs anywhere! No rack mount rails, but I double many of us are rack mounting our stuff https://www.ebay.com/itm/204179662584 Keep in mind the motherboard area is low profile due to the 12 ports under it in the back. Standard motheboards can be used with an optional cable to connect the front pannel if needed https://www.ebay.com/itm/255893202956 Edited June 13, 2023 by bbrodka 2 Quote Link to comment
OrneryTaurus Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 Bought a similar case from another seller. Love it. Works great with a Tesla P4 for transcoding too. I was shocked that it runs pretty quiet even with 7 fans inside. Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 (edited) On 6/13/2023 at 7:01 AM, bbrodka said: Not related to seller, just reporting good expericence and price. If you're looking for a 36 BAY server chasis these are pretty nice, this seller has included 2 hot swap -SQ power supplies whicj are the super quiet versions, and both the fron 24 port and back 12 port backplanes are expanders meaning you can get away with a low port HDA card and don't need external expanders. Both backplains are SAS3/SATA3 https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-846EL.pdf https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-826EL.pdf 36x 3.5" LFF Hard Drive Trays w/ Screws Included Sold as used, but could of passed as new, I couldn't find any hint of prior use, no dust or blemishishs anywhere! No rack mount rails, but I double many of us are rack mounting our stuff https://www.ebay.com/itm/204179662584 Keep in mind the motherboard area is low profile due to the 12 ports under it in the back. Standard motheboards can be used with an optional cable to connect the front pannel if needed https://www.ebay.com/itm/255893202956 Hey, this is a great recommendation. I'd love to move to one of these as I am now running 19 HDDs in a fractal define 7 XL and I can't shove anymore in that thing. I have a few questions holding me back as I don't quite understand what else I'd need to switch over: I have two LSI 9207-8i HBA's right now, would those reusable or is it a problem that they are mini SAS and I'd need something else to connect up with the backplane. For SATA drives do you just use mini SAS breakout cables from the backplane to the HDDs? Also right now I have these plugged into the x16 PCI-E on my motherboard. One is PCIE-5.0 @ 16 lanes (the one intended for the GPU) and the other is just 4 lanes. Would this provide enough bandwidth to the backplane? Also were there any challenges to wiring both backplanes, does that take two cards or do you wire the two together? My cooler is also way too big right now. I've got intel, LGA 1700, was it easy to know what the max size for that would be? Sorry for all the questions. I'll keep researching but this listing looks good and I'd totally be interested if it's possible with only some slight alterations to my current build. Thanks! Edited February 4 by manofoz Quote Link to comment
OrneryTaurus Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 (edited) On 2/3/2024 at 9:02 PM, manofoz said: I have two LSI 9207-8i HBA's right now, would those reusable or is it a problem that they are mini SAS and I'd need something else to connect up with the backplane. Should only need 1 cable for each backplane (depending on the backplane's configuration). You'll need to get the correct cable depending on the backplane used (maybe: SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables) For SATA drives do you just use mini SAS breakout cables from the backplane to the HDDs? No breakout cables needed. This case is not like NORCO. The backplane provides power and SATA connections to all drives. Drives plug in to their spot and you just use a single cable from each backplane (depending on the backplane''s configuration) Also right now I have these plugged into the x16 PCI-E on my motherboard. One is PCIE-5.0 @ 16 lanes (the one intended for the GPU) and the other is just 4 lanes. Would this provide enough bandwidth to the backplane? Also were there any challenges to wiring both backplanes, does that take two cards or do you wire the two together? You should only need one card with this case Wiring up the backplane is a pain as you have to slide out the motherboard tray. Make sure you run all the power cabling first before installing the motherboard My cooler is also way too big right now. I've got intel, LGA 1700, was it easy to know what the max size for that would be? For a 36-bay server you're looking at low profile PCIe lanes and limited mounting points. You'd be looking at either passive cooling or something like a 2U Dynatron Q5 for air. Edited February 13 by OrneryTaurus Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 1 hour ago, OrneryTaurus said: Thanks! This was great information, I think I have a plan on what exactly to do. I'll be moving in 9+ months when construction is done and plan to have a 42U rack at the new place. Starting with some networking equipment tomorrow I'll be provisioning what I can before I move. Will totally grab one of these, my Define 7 XL doesn't fit great in the small rack I grabbed to stage everything... Quote Link to comment
OrneryTaurus Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 7 hours ago, manofoz said: I have concerns about this rack being able to support the weight of a 4U server. You'll want to double check the maximum loads the rack supports. It might require permanent installation to increase the maximum load it can handle. Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 6 hours ago, OrneryTaurus said: I have concerns about this rack being able to support the weight of a 4U server. You'll want to double check the maximum loads the rack supports. It might require permanent installation to increase the maximum load it can handle. It may be running up against the limit, it was dirt cheap and says 500 lbs "max load bearing" on eBay. Not sure what it is when it's on wheels. Not really sure how to weigh the servers but I'd say the current build is around 100 lbs. Didn't think the 4U would add too much more weight until I added more drives and I'd be putting it at the bottom. Other than that I was going to put a dream machine special edition and a NVR pro on it. For the new house I was going to get something like this: I think I can have it delivered to the garage and then have the movers put it at the termination point of our ethernet cable drops. After assembling the little one I don't really want to assemble a 300lb one... Quote Link to comment
OrneryTaurus Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 7 hours ago, manofoz said: It may be running up against the limit, it was dirt cheap and says 500 lbs "max load bearing" on eBay. Not sure what it is when it's on wheels. I think the server weight itself is about 50-75 lbs before adding anything extra into it. Adding a full system of hard drives, you'll probably increase it to 150lbs. I would be more worried about the rails and sliding the server out to service it with the existing rack you have. Quote Link to comment
MrCrispy Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Looking at a similar SM chassis. Does anyone run these as a JBOD DAS? I want to use these with an existing server to add more storage. When you connect a DAS like this how does it turn on/off? Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 On 3/6/2024 at 7:01 PM, MrCrispy said: Looking at a similar SM chassis. Does anyone run these as a JBOD DAS? I want to use these with an existing server to add more storage. When you connect a DAS like this how does it turn on/off? The DIY JBOD's I've read about look to use a cheap motherboard to plug in an SAS expander so my guess would be powering on via a switch wired to the motherboard. I was thinking about going that route instead of getting one of these but I went with the 36 bay chassis. Since unRAID's array doesn't go over 30 drives I'm not sure I'd go the route of attaching more disks vs. making a standalone NAS if I needed more than that. I'm using 20TB drives so 28 wouldn't be bad assuming the 2 parity drives count against the 30. Quote Link to comment
MrCrispy Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 On 3/18/2024 at 8:11 PM, manofoz said: The DIY JBOD's I've read about look to use a cheap motherboard to plug in an SAS expander so my guess would be powering on via a switch wired to the motherboard. I was thinking about going that route instead of getting one of these but I went with the 36 bay chassis. Since unRAID's array doesn't go over 30 drives I'm not sure I'd go the route of attaching more disks vs. making a standalone NAS if I needed more than that. I'm using 20TB drives so 28 wouldn't be bad assuming the 2 parity drives count against the 30. Yes, I believe its the cse-ptjbod-cb2 motherboard. My qn was more about how to turn the DAS on/off along with the main server, and does it go to sleep? So you will have close to 600TB of storage? that is one hell of a server! Quote Link to comment
bbrodka Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 On 2/4/2024 at 12:02 AM, manofoz said: Hey, this is a great recommendation. I'd love to move to one of these as I am now running 19 HDDs in a fractal define 7 XL and I can't shove anymore in that thing. I have a few questions holding me back as I don't quite understand what else I'd need to switch over: I have two LSI 9207-8i HBA's right now, would those reusable or is it a problem that they are mini SAS and I'd need something else to connect up with the backplane. For SATA drives do you just use mini SAS breakout cables from the backplane to the HDDs? Also right now I have these plugged into the x16 PCI-E on my motherboard. One is PCIE-5.0 @ 16 lanes (the one intended for the GPU) and the other is just 4 lanes. Would this provide enough bandwidth to the backplane? Also were there any challenges to wiring both backplanes, does that take two cards or do you wire the two together? My cooler is also way too big right now. I've got intel, LGA 1700, was it easy to know what the max size for that would be? Sorry for all the questions. I'll keep researching but this listing looks good and I'd totally be interested if it's possible with only some slight alterations to my current build. Thanks! Backplane is 4-lane 8087 connectors, cables were included. there are mini SAS to 8087 adaptors available, but personally I would just upgrade my HBA to a sas3 one, ot only to eliminate the extra cables, but also bring your speed up yo 12gb/s allowing you more futureproofing upgrades to sas3 12gb/s drives in the future. You don't need breakout cables, the backplanes handle all of that, it can hadle sas or sata drives, or a mixture of them There are sas3 inputs and outputs on the backplanes, so you can daisy chain them if desired., I run one HBA to front, and one 8 port HBA to back, but you could use one HBA to run all the bays if desired. (It was how it was wired this way by default) Low profile cooler and expantion cards are needed as the motherboard cavity is only low profile (Since the lower chassis onter it is used for 12 more drive bays) As far as bandwith, realistically the only bottleneck have to worry about is during parity checks and rebuilds. Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 On 3/23/2024 at 3:36 AM, bbrodka said: Backplane is 4-lane 8087 connectors, cables were included. there are mini SAS to 8087 adaptors available, but personally I would just upgrade my HBA to a sas3 one, ot only to eliminate the extra cables, but also bring your speed up yo 12gb/s allowing you more futureproofing upgrades to sas3 12gb/s drives in the future. You don't need breakout cables, the backplanes handle all of that, it can hadle sas or sata drives, or a mixture of them There are sas3 inputs and outputs on the backplanes, so you can daisy chain them if desired., I run one HBA to front, and one 8 port HBA to back, but you could use one HBA to run all the bays if desired. (It was how it was wired this way by default) Low profile cooler and expantion cards are needed as the motherboard cavity is only low profile (Since the lower chassis onter it is used for 12 more drive bays) As far as bandwith, realistically the only bottleneck have to worry about is during parity checks and rebuilds. I made the switch yesterday! I was quite nervous because my server was very stable and gets a lot of use but thankfully it was smooth sailing. All I needed was one LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i and a low profile CPU cooler. My temps are great, CPU idling at 35 right now and no disk is any higher. On full speed the fans that come with this beast are turbines but I had been using the "Fan Auto Control" plug-in and after configuring that for the new fans it quieted down quite a bit. My server is in utility space so some noise doesn't hurt anyone but if it was in living space new fans would be needed. I also happened to have enough four pin fan cable splitters & extenders on hand to get them all plugged in (7 chassis fans + CPU fan was more than my motherboard could handle). I was able to build out my temporary rack a bit more and it doesn't seem overly strained. I'm not using the rails yet as it's not sturdy enough for those but I have them ready for when I move. For now it's sitting on a diesel shelf. Will need some blank panels to hid the wires but it took me all day until ~2AM yesterday to get this far... Quote Link to comment
bbrodka Posted March 31 Author Share Posted March 31 Looks nice, I’m real happy with mine too, but got 36 disks in it now, thinking about getting another case, now I got to decide if it’s going to be another unbraid server, or just an expansion shelf to the current on with its own hba. Rumor has it that unbraid will support more then on unbraid array in the future. Then again I could move some dockers to the new server, lots to think about.. Quote Link to comment
jimmorges Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Hey, this is a great recommendation. Could you please share more details for SuperMicro CSE 847. Quote Link to comment
bbrodka Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 Well, you run out of space with this one, just add one of these This is just a 45 bay disk shelf, no room for any motherboard I'm trying my best not to hit the buy button lol Supermicro 45 Bay JBOD Expansion Server Shelf 847E16-RJBOD1 ALL Caddies w/ RAILS Comes with the jbod controller (CSE-PTJBOD-CB2) to manage power on and fans https://www.ebay.com/itm/156133905029?itmmeta=01HX6T8450K9SA25CVB6NP3K0C&hash=item245a4e5285:g:76MAAOSwopVhDGJ1&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4NCrpd20shyoO5jOTPtem7JjS86Zq3oe%2F8j6rNVuHrVyMVw6fYaBOna9szFBL6cRqpCFv1az0A985DSNQVpW41077atzqQcY1i5HLQ6Y8vDgQmZTjgXu8XB4%2FR1ZZcQ3pNBv4bSwZ6TKm520vmCXoyvo8VUwVKV77NgixAqMKLszrH8oXc8HwgwrotzmFZe9jYqqS%2BSEk%2Bk%2B884UhFUcbpxiUEUxOqWmdwYCeFN9pv8IhsGZpRU219i51ZEks5n%2FcZA%2BQzIRe1ffTtqhpSP2dyTIdQINLzWrR1GyietkHBm0|tkp%3ABk9SR9DCoNrpYw Quote Link to comment
bbrodka Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 3 hours ago, jimmorges said: Hey, this is a great recommendation. Could you please share more details for SuperMicro CSE 847. What would you like to know? Quote Link to comment
jimmorges Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 @bbrodkaComplete product specification. Quote Link to comment
bbrodka Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 12 minutes ago, jimmorges said: @bbrodkaComplete product specification. There are links to the Super micro docs for the back planes of the unit I linked Keep in mind they configured these with different backplane configurations The ones in this unit are sas3 with built in SAS multipliers, you can use an 8 port sas 3 hba to drive all 36 drives Other then that its a big case and redundant power supplies, this unit has the -sq super quiet power supplies, so less noisy then the standard power supplies Quote Link to comment
jimmorges Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 I have gone through document but they seem very confusing to me. Could you please share the doc for the exact product. Quote Link to comment
manofoz Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 2 hours ago, jimmorges said: I have gone through document but they seem very confusing to me. Could you please share the doc for the exact product. Hi @jimmorges - this is the manual I followed for the 36 bay chassis I got on ebay: https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/chassis/4U/SC847BE1C-2C.pdf. One thing I wish I knew was that it's probably a bit random how many dummy drives you get in the hot swappable bays. I ended up removing dummy drives from some bays to add real drives and then re-adding them to empty bays that didn't have dummy drives when I could have just swapped the trays around. I landed with 24/36 bays so far w/ HDDs and have about 4 dummy drives left so I must have had close to 16 in total. I think they are important for airflow, not sure what I would have done with out them. The chassis also came with plenty of screws for the HDDs but they weren't like any I had so if it didn't I would have had to dig up the Supermicro part # to order some. Quote Link to comment
jimmorges Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 Hi, Thanks for sharing this buddy. I found this PDF useful. Quote Link to comment
nosirrahdrof Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 On 3/24/2024 at 2:20 PM, manofoz said: I made the switch yesterday! I was quite nervous because my server was very stable and gets a lot of use but thankfully it was smooth sailing. All I needed was one LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i and a low profile CPU cooler. My temps are great, CPU idling at 35 right now and no disk is any higher. On full speed the fans that come with this beast are turbines but I had been using the "Fan Auto Control" plug-in and after configuring that for the new fans it quieted down quite a bit. My server is in utility space so some noise doesn't hurt anyone but if it was in living space new fans would be needed. I also happened to have enough four pin fan cable splitters & extenders on hand to get them all plugged in (7 chassis fans + CPU fan was more than my motherboard could handle). I was able to build out my temporary rack a bit more and it doesn't seem overly strained. I'm not using the rails yet as it's not sturdy enough for those but I have them ready for when I move. For now it's sitting on a diesel shelf. Will need some blank panels to hid the wires but it took me all day until ~2AM yesterday to get this far... Very nice build. I am looking at migrating to something similar for current and future expansion needs. One concern I have is noise with the stock fans. I would like to keep the high static pressure fans (FAN-0126L4) AND use an off the shelf low power mobo/CPU combo (14th gen i3 and appropriate mobo). How are you controlling the fans? My understanding is that in this configuration it would be best to leave the fans plugged into the fan headers on the backplane but I've also read that causes the fans to always run at 100%. The fans are rated at 0.6 amp each and I fear that might be too much for the motherboard headers. I live in a ranch style house with an unfinished basement, though the area where this server would go is enclosed in a largish room with a hollow core door. Basically I'm wondering if the fan noise is noticeable throughout a house at 100% and if not; are the fans are controllable in this configuration. I see this barebones chassis is sold through the OP's link via the vendor's actual storefront. (https://www.theserverstore.com/supermicro-4u-sas-3-barebone-server.html) Quote Link to comment
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