Help with motherboard and CPU for new FreeNAS build

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itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
I'm no further along. Every search that has a picture is like what I've been showing you.

As for asking in another forum, I'm not convinced I won't end up with a bracket that won't work. Especially since the ebay ad that specifically said P3600 had the wrong bracket.
I should be working on lab things in a couple of hours. I'll take a look and and see what I did. I have a P3605 (same phys specs as a P3600) sitting on the spares shelf. Right now it has the stock Intel vented HH bracket. I've had these in 3U and Mid-Tower chassises. Just need to remember what I did and how. My memory seems to think I either filed off the threaded inserts from the back of the bracket *or* the diameter of the screws was less than the threaded inserts and the screw length was long enough to reach the thread receiver on the card itself. As @Markess stated previously drilling or using a dremel on the backet's threaded inserts will remove them leaving you flat holes in the bracket. I don't know if I have any FH vented brackets but for sure have some FH solid brackets with the correct spacing.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Well this is the same forum here so I would hope that ppl are more knowledgeable than your average Ebay seller.
Just make sure to ask for a pic before getting it sent to you and you should be fine

In the end (afaik) all Intel NVMe cards use the same brackets, so any fitting either of them should fit your's too.
Can you snap a pic of your bracket
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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My phone seems to take bigger photos than this server can handle. Here's a link to a photo of the bracket: IMG_4558.jpg

If we look at the product on Amazon: Amazon.com: Intel DC P3600 Series Solid-State Drive SSDPEDME400G401: Computers & Accessories

I have the bracket in the same orientation as what is shown on Amazon. The card will lay on top of the bracket, and the screws will come from the back. We're looking at the bottoms of the screws in the Amazon photo.

Given that, what is being filed/drilled/dremeled?
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
Given that, what is being filed/drilled/dremeled?
so here's a purported Intel P3605 FH bracket (same spacing on the HH bracket) from CH. I put red oval's around the threaded inserts.

Screen Shot 2021-01-12 at 7.33.49 AM.jpg Click to enlarge

Here's a listing from CH for an intel P36xx FH bracket - hard to really see the threaded inserts sticking out. But they are there. This bracket has the intel Hex vent cutouts on it, has both a long "narrower" diameter flat head screw (for the intel P3605) and then thicker screws that work with using this bracket on a standard LSI HBA. You'll note the bracket is impressed with the SAS 12Gb/s logo...

If the intel screws are narrower (my memory says yes) and long enough then you may not need to file off or remove the little insert nubbins. The only other caveat is that the bend for the attachment fingers is a slightly different depth (top of card) version bottom of card. However again my memory says it was not a big deal as there's enough play in most chassis to handle this.

I should be in the lab in a bit and will pull my spare 3605 and a couple of brackets and take a picture.
 
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rskoss

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Oct 9, 2020
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Ah k, now I see what you guys are saying. The little nubbins over the screw holes are the issue.

Shipping from Europe is sounding better and better.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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You could actually ask that seller if hist auction actually is for the bracket pictured or if you might not actually get the correct bracket instead.
He has a lot of brackets, maybe is just using the wrong pic...
Good idea. Done.

Seller is in China so I'd be astonished if this works. I think I'm going to end up filing and/or drilling.
 

itronin

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Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
My chassis holds 12 drives but my motherboard only has 10 SATA connections. Will this board do the job of letting me add those last 2 drives?

Just curious, what chassis? I went back and looked didn't see it posted but might have missed it.

That HBA will certainly work. You're actually buying from China with that seller Nothing wrong with that but there have been discussions in the past about counterfeit cards not that I recall with this specific seller but the clues are: NEW for a very old card, the extended shipping time...
jiawen2018 Based in Hong Kong, jiawen2018 has been an eBay member since Apr 01, 2013
Shipping is from Walton, KY but I believe that's the import/customs clearance location.

You might take a look at
LSI RAID Controller and HBA Complete Listing Plus OEM Models

the key part is IT Mode - but I think you have a handle on that. FWIW I have a couple of DELL H310's I can flash to P20 IT mode. PM me if you'd like.
The H310 is basically a 9211-8i and has the SFF-8087 ports at the rear of the card as opposed to the TOP like the 9200-8i
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
1,233
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Denver, Colorado
I should be in the lab in a bit and will pull my spare 3605 and a couple of brackets and take a picture.
so the DELL H310 tall brackets don't work without drilling out the holes. I used the vented LSI knock off brackets I ordered from China. The holes are those are large enough they do not need to be drilled out. The stock screws are long enough to accomodate the height different from the threaded inserts/nubins.
IMG_3653 2.jpg
 
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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Northern California
...but the clues are: NEW for a very old card...
Yeah, what @itronin says. Its certainly possible that there's a supply of "new" cards that were sitting in a warehouse unsold for a long time...but probably not as likely as counterfeit or something else questionable (like that its actually used but cleaned up well). Not that used is bad, these things last pretty well. But, if it is used, $52.88 is pretty darn pricy unless you're getting some sort of added value, like having already been updated to the newest firmware ahead of time for you and guarantees to be genuine.

The card in the Ebay listing has an IBM (Lenovo) spare part sticker on it (closest to the bracket) , The part number, FRU 46C8937, is the spare part code and 46M0912 (not present on this card, but helpful for looking it up on Lenovo's website) is the code for it as a stand alone Option kit.

Lenovo's product page has a picture and there's some differences from the Ebay listing. The heatsink is different (full length fins vs pins) and the jumper for an IBM Advance Raid Key is on the picture on the Lenovo site (above the heatsink in the picture), but is missing on the one in the Ebay listing. Kind of fishy, but then again I'm no expert on these. So, it could just be a variance or different production run.

6 Gb Performance Optimized HBA (Withdrawn) Product Guide (withdrawn product) > Lenovo Press

From what I read, the chances of a counterfeit are lower with OEM branded parts, but I understand there are still some out there.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Just curious, what chassis? I went back and looked didn't see it posted but might have missed it.

That HBA will certainly work. You're actually buying from China with that seller Nothing wrong with that but there have been discussions in the past about counterfeit cards not that I recall with this specific seller but the clues are: NEW for a very old card, the extended shipping time...
jiawen2018 Based in Hong Kong, jiawen2018 has been an eBay member since Apr 01, 2013
Shipping is from Walton, KY but I believe that's the import/customs clearance location.

You might take a look at
LSI RAID Controller and HBA Complete Listing Plus OEM Models

the key part is IT Mode - but I think you have a handle on that. FWIW I have a couple of DELL H310's I can flash to P20 IT mode. PM me if you'd like.
The H310 is basically a 9211-8i and has the SFF-8087 ports at the rear of the card as opposed to the TOP like the 9200-8i
The chassis is a 4U Rosewill: LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA 9200-8i IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID + 2*SFF-8087 SATA US | eBay

Plenty of room to work, very well constructed, and the real selling point for me was hot swap drives.

Wow - you certainly know how to read between the lines in an ebay ad :). I typically don't use ebay just out of fear of being ripped-off, but I couldn't find a new card already flashed to IT mode.

I will PM you.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
126
26
28
Yeah, what @itronin says. Its certainly possible that there's a supply of "new" cards that were sitting in a warehouse unsold for a long time...but probably not as likely as counterfeit or something else questionable (like that its actually used but cleaned up well). Not that used is bad, these things last pretty well. But, if it is used, $52.88 is pretty darn pricy unless you're getting some sort of added value, like having already been updated to the newest firmware ahead of time for you and guarantees to be genuine.

The card in the Ebay listing has an IBM (Lenovo) spare part sticker on it (closest to the bracket) , The part number, FRU 46C8937, is the spare part code and 46M0912 (not present on this card, but helpful for looking it up on Lenovo's website) is the code for it as a stand alone Option kit.

Lenovo's product page has a picture and there's some differences from the Ebay listing. The heatsink is different (full length fins vs pins) and the jumper for an IBM Advance Raid Key is on the picture on the Lenovo site (above the heatsink in the picture), but is missing on the one in the Ebay listing. Kind of fishy, but then again I'm no expert on these. So, it could just be a variance or different production run.

6 Gb Performance Optimized HBA (Withdrawn) Product Guide (withdrawn product) > Lenovo Press

From what I read, the chances of a counterfeit are lower with OEM branded parts, but I understand there are still some out there.
You guys really know how to tear apart an ebay ad and research a product and seller. That explains why you don't fear ebay like I do.
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
1,146
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Northern California
You guys really know how to tear apart an ebay ad and research a product and seller. That explains why you don't fear ebay like I do.
It comes from being a cheap skate. Only the wife rates"all new" :cool:. The rest of the extended family pretty much always gets some amount of used/recycled, so I've gotten used to Ebay as a main source. I'm not perfect, and i know a LOT LESS than many of the folks here. So, I still get the short end of the stick occasionally.

It seems that Disk RAID/HBA cards are one of the most counterfeited components, so I've had to read up a bit....including a number of posts on this forum.
 

zack$

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Aug 16, 2018
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My chassis holds 12 drives but my motherboard only has 10 SATA connections. Will this board do the job of letting me add those last 2 drives?

Your MB actually supports a minimum of 18 sata drives without the need for an add-on card. Are you using your onboard 3008 HBA for anything?

If you use an expander with your onboard HBA you easily support much more than 18sas/sata drives in all.
 
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rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Your MB actually supports a minimum of 18 sata drives without the need for an add-on card. Are you using your onboard 3008 HBA for anything?

If you use an expander with your onboard HBA you easily support much more than 18sas/sata drives in all.
WHAT?? Where would they plug in??

I'm looking at the Quick Reference guide and I see ports labeled S-SATA0, S-SATA1, I-SATA0-3, and I-SATA4-7. Where is this onboard 3008 HBA thingie of which you speak?