Chenbro-Cleversafe-Slicestor-1440

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SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Not what I was hoping to hear...thanks for letting me know though.
The rails for these are monsters, like 3in wide and 5-10lbs each rail. Also they attach with a key hole and latch, only 1 actual screw. Your going to need the chassis specific rails for this. I'll try to post a few pictures tomorrow. Also, these servers clear 130lbs before drives. I'm 6'1" 270lbs and I could not get it into my rack without help. Do not try and patch something homebrew together if you value your drives. Remember, your drives are probably higher cost than the chassis by a factor of 10, and will almost certainly not survive a plummet to the floor while powered on.
 

SparXalt

New Member
Nov 23, 2016
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Just got mine and racked it tonight, my rails (included in auction) were monsters too but they were just threaded, 4 screw holes in the front and 2 in the back. For those who were asking earlier in the thread; it pulls about 190 watts idle (bios screen) and the fans make it run about 43dB 12" from the exhaust. Mine came equipped with a X9SRL-F with a E5-2603.

Let me know if anybody wants more info.
 

modder man

Active Member
Jan 19, 2015
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How do these chassis's do at cooling the drives? Does the density cause any issues with drive temps?
 

theregoesplanb

New Member
Oct 17, 2016
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Just got mine and racked it tonight, my rails (included in auction) were monsters too but they were just threaded, 4 screw holes in the front and 2 in the back. For those who were asking earlier in the thread; it pulls about 190 watts idle (bios screen) and the fans make it run about 43dB 12" from the exhaust. Mine came equipped with a X9SRL-F with a E5-2603.

Let me know if anybody wants more info.
How many PSUs did you have hooked up with the 43dB reading?
 

SparXalt

New Member
Nov 23, 2016
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That was with all 4 supplies run through a power strip and into a killawatt. The chassis alarms if even one supply is left unplugged. That matches my assumption that it is indeed running as 3+1. Each supply is an 820w (zippy technology MTW-5820V)
 

theregoesplanb

New Member
Oct 17, 2016
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That was with all 4 supplies run through a power strip and into a killawatt. The chassis alarms if even one supply is left unplugged. That matches my assumption that it is indeed running as 3+1. Each supply is an 820w (zippy technology MTW-5820V)
Cool, I ordered one. Is it a pair SFF-8087 connectors on the backplane? Roughly how long are the cables from the Adaptec RAID card to the backplane? I'm going to swap out the Adaptec with an LSI card that has SFF-8643 connectors and am wondering if my existing 2' SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables are going to cut it.
 

SparXalt

New Member
Nov 23, 2016
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Cool, I ordered one. Is it a pair SFF-8087 connectors on the backplane? Roughly how long are the cables from the Adaptec RAID card to the backplane? I'm going to swap out the Adaptec with an LSI card that has SFF-8643 connectors and am wondering if my existing 2' SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables are going to cut it.
To answer your question, yes each of the two backplanes use 3 SFF-8087 (1 in, 1 out, 1 dipswitchable) but it's worth noting mine shipped with an Adaptec 7805 and a pair of SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables. I didn't pull those out to see how long the were but I would estimate 1m with plenty of slack so a 2ft should reach.

For more info on the backplanes do a search for the Chenbro NR40700, that's the same chassis, and their page has a nice document.
 

SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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To answer your question, yes each of the two backplanes use 3 SFF-8087 (1 in, 1 out, 1 dipswitchable) but it's worth noting mine shipped with an Adaptec 7805 and a pair of SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables. I didn't pull those out to see how long the were but I would estimate 1m with plenty of slack so a 2ft should reach.

For more info on the backplanes do a search for the Chenbro NR40700, that's the same chassis, and their page has a nice document.
You got a 7805? I'm jealous lol. One of mine was missing a card but they overnight shipped me a new 6805 with new battery and low+full brackets sealed. I was fairly impressed with these guys. No argument, no haggling, just oops we'll overnight a replacement. Very impressive since these are already being sold as a loss. I'll definitely be watching these guys on eBay.
 

Geran

Active Member
Oct 25, 2016
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You got a 7805? I'm jealous lol. One of mine was missing a card but they overnight shipped me a new 6805 with new battery and low+full brackets sealed. I was fairly impressed with these guys. No argument, no haggling, just oops we'll overnight a replacement. Very impressive since these are already being sold as a loss. I'll definitely be watching these guys on eBay.
Mine came with the 6805 as well...I'm just debating if I want to get two more cards (LSI 9211-8i) to have all 6 SFF8087 connected or work with only two for now. Thoughts anyone?
 

SparXalt

New Member
Nov 23, 2016
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You got a 7805? I'm jealous lol. One of mine was missing a card but they overnight shipped me a new 6805 with new battery and low+full brackets sealed. I was fairly impressed with these guys. No argument, no haggling, just oops we'll overnight a replacement. Very impressive since these are already being sold as a loss. I'll definitely be watching these guys on eBay.
Yeah mine arrived missing the extra Dual Port Intel NIC. While they didn't have any in stock to ship, out they made it right by me with a refund. Great guys to buy from in my opinion.

Mine came with the 6805 as well...I'm just debating if I want to get two more cards (LSI 9211-8i) to have all 6 SFF8087 connected or work with only two for now. Thoughts anyone?
I'm uncertain if there is a configuration where you can run all 6. According to the backplane manual you could do 2 by using the CB1 ports, and 2 by switching Dip7 into the on position which will allow CB2 to become a SAS IN port. The question remains of CB3 who's dip setting switch it between "HDD" or "DAISYCHAIN/LINK." Presumably the later is SAS OUT as indicated elsewhere in the manual but I'm uncertain what "HDD" indicates.
 

SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Yeah mine arrived missing the extra Dual Port Intel NIC. While they didn't have any in stock to ship, out they made it right by me with a refund. Great guys to buy from in my opinion.


I'm uncertain if there is a configuration where you can run all 6. According to the backplane manual you could do 2 by using the CB1 ports, and 2 by switching Dip7 into the on position which will allow CB2 to become a SAS IN port. The question remains of CB3 who's dip setting switch it between "HDD" or "DAISYCHAIN/LINK." Presumably the later is SAS OUT as indicated elsewhere in the manual but I'm uncertain what "HDD" indicates.
In my experience, I would strongly recommend that you only use one connector per expander unless your using 100% dual port aware SAS drives, even then it can be hit or miss. SAS doesn't have spanning tree protocol and your essentially making a routing loop. Many expanders don't handle it well and the drives will all work, but bandwidth will be terrible. You would think that since SFF-8088 connectors are just aggregated single channels it would aggregate more, but it usually won't.
 

SycoPath

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Oct 8, 2014
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So what 12GB/s card would y'all recommend?
I assume your looking for a non-raid HBA card? Anything LSI you can find cheap, brand doesn't seem to matter very much. Most LSI variants have IT mode firmware available directly or via crossflash, just verify before you buy.

Unless you want hardware raid, those get expensive fast and the card recommendation depends heavily on what your doing and the performance target.

Also, this case only supports 6gb/s any way, and the 12gb/s sff-8644 to sff-8088 cables cost a lot more than straight sff-8088 do.
 

Geran

Active Member
Oct 25, 2016
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I assume your looking for a non-raid HBA card? Anything LSI you can find cheap, brand doesn't seem to matter very much. Most LSI variants have IT mode firmware available directly or via crossflash, just verify before you buy.

Unless you want hardware raid, those get expensive fast and the card recommendation depends heavily on what your doing and the performance target.

Also, this case only supports 6gb/s any way, and the 12gb/s sff-8644 to sff-8088 cables cost a lot more than straight sff-8088 do.
Thanks mate! I'll look for a LSI 6gb/s card since the 12gb/s isn't really needed.
 

muhfugen

Active Member
Dec 5, 2016
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Former Cleversafe employee here. Just a FYI but you should be careful torquing down the screws for the drive sleds. I'm not sure why, but they made us use a absurdly priced torque limited electric screwdriver when we worked on them. There was no such requirement on the SuperMicro based chassis. Also you should avoid the 1410s which didnt use drive sleds, there was some problem with vibration which had to be worked around with placing rubber bands around the disks.
 

SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Former Cleversafe employee here. Just a FYI but you should be careful torquing down the screws for the drive sleds. I'm not sure why, but they made us use a absurdly priced torque limited electric screwdriver when we worked on them. There was no such requirement on the SuperMicro based chassis. Also you should avoid the 1410s which didnt use drive sleds, there was some problem with vibration which had to be worked around with placing rubber bands around the disks.
Thanks for the heads-up.

Any known issues with backplanes or other quirkiness, common failures or things to look out for?
 

Terry Kennedy

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Jun 25, 2015
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I'm not sure why, but they made us use a absurdly priced torque limited electric screwdriver when we worked on them. There was no such requirement on the SuperMicro based chassis.
Normally the use of a torque-limited electric screwdriver with a magnetic bit is recommended when assembling a bunch of drives into sleds. Otherwise the employees tend to go crazy manually installing the hundreds of screws that a reasonably large chassis uses on the sleds. I've never seen it be mandatory, though.

Unless the drive tray is made out of cheap plastic, the limiting factor is the aluminum case of the drive as the screws just go through holes in the trays. It would take a fair amount of "oomph" to either strip the drive threads or break off the screw. I'd expect the screwdriver tip to give way first, actually, given the pseudo-Phillips head JIS B 1012 screws commonly supplied with cases.
 

SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Normally the use of a torque-limited electric screwdriver with a magnetic bit is recommended when assembling a bunch of drives into sleds. Otherwise the employees tend to go crazy manually installing the hundreds of screws that a reasonably large chassis uses on the sleds. I've never seen it be mandatory, though.

Unless the drive tray is made out of cheap plastic, the limiting factor is the aluminum case of the drive as the screws just go through holes in the trays. It would take a fair amount of "oomph" to either strip the drive threads or break off the screw. I'd expect the screwdriver tip to give way first, actually, given the pseudo-Phillips head JIS B 1012 screws commonly supplied with cases.
The sleds are super flimsy. I really lost a lot of respect for Chenbro after my hands on with the sleds they designed. The case itself is a tank. Good solid handles, rails that could hold more weight than I think my entire rack could support. The sleds attach securely enough, but they are definitely a handle with care item. Little more than a plastic U with 4 nubs and 2 screw holes. Designed to work with drives with 6 screw holes on the sides, would probably work fine with the HGST drives that only have 4 screw holes if you used write cutters to trim two nubs off.
 
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I M

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Dec 6, 2016
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What was the maximum torque to be used for those sleds?

Are SATA2/SATA3 drives supported? And if yes, any issues with using SATA2/SATA3 and SAS2 drives on the same SAS2 controller channel?

Thanks.

The sleds are super flimsy. I really lost a lot of respect for Chenbro after my hands on with the sleds they designed. The case itself is a tank. Good solid handles, rails that could hold more weight than I think my entire rack could support. The sleds attach securely enough, but they are definitely a handle with care item. Little more than a plastic U with 4 nubs and 2 screw holes. Designed to work with drives with 6 screw holes on the sides, would probably work fine with the HGST drives that only have 4 screw holes if you used write cutters to trim two nubs off.