159$ US 'new' Quanta D51B-1U LGA2011-3 Server Best Offer

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Dwijadas

New Member
Dec 18, 2019
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The M.2 to U.2 adapter from Amazon works as intended and allowed me to use a couple EX920 drives. However, it seems that VMware dropped the support on these drives in ESXi 6.7U1, so I had to install an older NVMe driver in ESXi to get them to show up.
I want to know more about fixing NVME to this server. I haven't purchased the server or NVME yet.

Looking at getting one and the install two 1TB HP EX950 NVME. Can you elaborate what I need to fix this NVME onto below server ?

Is the storage configuration matters ? this server with 4LFF configuration. Will it still have NVME ports available ?

QuantaGrid D51B-1U 4LFF 2x 12 CORE E5-2678v3 2.5GHz 16GB RAM 4x TRAY RAIL | eBay
 
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eroji

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Dec 1, 2015
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I want to know more about fixing NVME to this server. I haven't purchased the server or NVME yet.

Looking at getting one and the install two 1TB HP EX950 NVME. Can you elaborate what I need to fix this NVME onto below server ?

Is the storage configuration matters ? this server with 4LFF configuration. Will it still have NVME ports available ?

QuantaGrid D51B-1U 4LFF 2x 12 CORE E5-2678v3 2.5GHz 16GB RAM 4x TRAY RAIL | eBay
This chassis doesn't have NVMe bays. You need the one with 10 2.5" bays. The first 2 bay should have U.2 connectors to the motherboard on the backplane. If you are planning to use the NVMe drives for ESXi, I'd recommend going with an enterprise model. The HP EX920 I had was no longer supported by VMware.
 
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funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
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Pictures 5 pallets of servers .
Please

What CPU goes inside ?
Not allowed to take photos at that part of the datacenter unfortunately. Where I can take pictures, the 5 pallets of servers definitely won't fit at one time.

CPUs, we don't have many of those yet, we'll order those as-needed. Going with Dual E5-2695v3 and Dual E5-2699v3 depending what our customers order from us.
 
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Dwijadas

New Member
Dec 18, 2019
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This chassis doesn't have NVMe bays. You need the one with 10 2.5" bays. The first 2 bay should have U.2 connectors to the motherboard on the backplane. If you are planning to use the NVMe drives for ESXi, I'd recommend going with an enterprise model. The HP EX920 I had was no longer supported by VMware.
First, thank you very much for your reply.

Will there be any performance difference due to M2 to NVME conversion ? I am also thinking of using to attach NVME. Since these servers has 2 PCIE port.

https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Adapte...T9CS7MJXWTE&psc=1&refRID=KBSQJ0P2ET9CS7MJXWTE

What is your suggestion ? for NVME I am planning to EX950 and I want to use for Windows server core 2019 to be used as a server to host a few Linux VM.

Thank you once again for your reply.

Regards,
Dwija
 
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eroji

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Dec 1, 2015
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NVME drives are typically just electrically wired PCIe 4x, so adapters should work just fine, and Windows should work with EX950.
 
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eroji

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FYI #2: This might be obvious to some, but not to me since I usually don't populate dual CPU's in these things. I shoved a Quadro P2000 in mine, and it would not show up in Ubuntu 18. I finally found somewhere that said the PCIE x16 slot is tied to CPU 1, so I inserted a second CPU in the box, moved some ram around, and voila! GPU shows up in Ubuntu. Sucks, but this will be a GPU accelerated PLEX server, so I guess it's fine.
How did you manage to install the P2000 in it? The stock fan on the card protrudes out far enough and runs into the SAS connector on the motherboard.
 
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SPCRich

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Mar 16, 2017
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How did you manage to install the P2000 in it? The stock fan on the card protrudes out far enough and runs into the SAS connector on the motherboard.
I left it on. It BARELY fits, the SAS connector causes the card to raise up slightly, but it still sits firmly in the slot, has no issues (over 30 days now). It's kinda ugly, but I hadn't considered removing the fan...Let me see what your pictures are. I had also thought about filing down part of the SAS connector, but I like the idea of removing the fan shroud a little better, because yeah the case fans should do a good enough job.
 
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SPCRich

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Mar 16, 2017
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So I removed the fan on the P2000 and kept the heatsink only. Since the chassis fan should provide more than sufficient airflow, the measly stock fan was not really doing much anyway. Here is what it looks like.
Did you take any heat measurements before/after via nvidia-smi or anything? With the orientation of the fins, it might actually cool better since they're in line with the airflow from the case.

Edit: I just removed mine, it dropped from 38-39 degrees C down to 32-33C. Also saving ~6W of power spinning the fan. looks like a win/win

temps.JPG
 
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eroji

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No, I did not do a before and after but I really doubt it would be any worse than the stock fan. I also applied fresh thermal paste on the GPU.
 
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funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
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Not allowed to take photos at that part of the datacenter unfortunately. Where I can take pictures, the 5 pallets of servers definitely won't fit at one time.

CPUs, we don't have many of those yet, we'll order those as-needed. Going with Dual E5-2695v3 and Dual E5-2699v3 depending what our customers order from us.
Unloaded 100 of them into our office.

1577836946503-1.JPEG
 

funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
848
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USA
ioflood.com
This is the seller i bought mine from, great deal, i'd highly recommend going with them
Yeah I buy a lot of stuff from them, good to work with. Sometimes there are problems but they always fix them for us. Like, this batch, didn't come with the caddies but my sales guy says they'll get that fixed.
 
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