I wanted to provide an update on some experiments I've been making lately. My aim was to use P350s in a boot drive + ZFS mirror configuration with 2x 10GbE. I've managed to do all that and my 3D printed baffles from the nice chap on Reddit arrived today - he had no issues shipping overseas to me (I'm in the UK) and was very prompt. So I've done my first full assembly at last and I took some photos before putting it into production.
I bought and shucked a standard 2.5" SSD (Patriot P210 but any should do), two 1TB NVMe drives, a Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S, a SATA ribbon cable/caddy FRU, and an x16 riser for each P350 I have. I was very impressed with the quality of the printed baffles, they have metal nuts and screws built in so they are sturdy and feel like quality item. My photos focus a bit on that, since I've not seen any other pictures of the baffle and I figure some of you will be interested.
First of all, the interior :
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... you will note judicious use of duct tape to keep the SSD isolated.
Then a couple of shots of the baffle itself :
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... note the knockout you can use if you need to run a cable out the back.
Then you attach it to the card itself (note all the screw holes have metal screwpoints) :
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... and finally we have the finished article :
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I feel more proud of this than I should, given that all I really did was screw some parts together... but it's exciting to have so much power in a small unit and it's taken a while to get all the parts plus the 10GbE switch, DACs etc. together at a reasonable price. The baffle is great because it really makes the whole thing look neat and "as intended."
The configuration for each P350 (I have four) is :
CPU : i5-11500 (6c/12t, 65W)
RAM : 64GB 3200MHz (2x 32GB)
Drives : 1x 128GB Patriot P210 boot drive, 2x 1TB WD SN570
LAN : 2x 10GbE + 1x 1GbE onboard
Technically I also have a WiFi card fitted but I don't use it. I could replace it with a 2.5GbE Realtek card - I have one coming for my M75q Gen 2 - but I don't need a 4th NIC.