Now, about this Cobalt Qube 3 of mine...

[WANg]

The Xeon-D boards are nice, I have several version with diff NIC and CPU combos and will let you do a lot of actual work on the box if you get one with enough cores. If you are not in a hurry, may be worth going for the the AMD based boards once available just to be that much more cool in a cool case like that

You know, I gave the entire Xeon-D a good, long look, and I am not sure if I really want to go through with it.
The problem is like this:
a) They are expensive but getting on a bit (even a 4 core D1521 is close to $400), and once it's outfitted with PSU, RAM and storage, that number jumps to around $1000 for something that can boot. I still have to hunt down data center leftovers to populate it.
b) Copper 10GbE? *facepalms* Yeah, I'll have to buy 10GBaseT SFPs.
c) I kinda don't want to buy a Xeon-D just to shoehorn it into chassis that I would consider to be...hmm...disposable.
d)What can I learn on the Xeon-D that I cannot learn already on my existing setup? (HP t73, a iSCSI quadbay storage device and a soon-to-be-added 10GbE layer 3 router/switch)

Right now I am doing all the read-ups that i can on this bucket of magnificance.

So, what is it? It's a quadcore ARM A72 SoC with full virtualization and IOMMU capabilities. No guess as to whether the 10GbE ports can do SRIOV based PCIe VF partitioning. If it does, well, that would look pretty damned good for my needs.

 

[weust]

I loved the Qube and Raq models.
Had a Qube and Qube 2, plus the Raq 2 and or 3.
The Qube was aweful for running Gentoo linux on, in the days you started at Stage 1 (bootstrap) because that MIPS CPU didn't have any L2 cache making it crawl at anything.

The Qube 2 and Raq 2 were my firewall/router for a while. Replaced the fan because they are noisy, but loved the whole idea of them.

Interestingly, Symantec had the Raptor (iirc that was the name) firewalls which was basically rebranded Raq 2 or 3 models, but in Symantec yellow.

 

[WANg]

The Qube was aweful for running Gentoo linux on, in the days you started at Stage 1 (bootstrap) because that MIPS CPU didn't have any L2 cache making it crawl at anything.

Interestingly, Symantec had the Raptor (iirc that was the name) firewalls which was basically rebranded Raq 2 or 3 models, but in Symantec yellow.

They were called Velociraptors, and it was from a company named Axent that they bought out. They are nice quirky little machines with a distinct personality, but sadly not followed up upon afterwards.

 

[weust]

I was doubting if "veloci" was in front of them. It's been over 8 years since I last saw them
Didn't know they originally were Axent.

 

[WANg]

Hm. Looking at the size of the box, I am seriously thinking about swapping in the internals for a Dell 5020/Dx0q thin client (or 3). Why? They are cheap, readily available, and I don't have to worry about obsolescence for something that's already fairly obsolete.

The thin clients are about 185mm x 170mm x 40mm (which can in theory be smaller if I remove the motherboard from the chassis). I have no plans to retain the metallic frame within the Qube 3. I looked into the t620 plus and the t730 - the motherboard on both are too large to fit into the Qube plastic shell. I just ordered a Dell dx0q to get a better idea of the dimensions - I am working on a more interesting method of setting up a modular frame for it - something that can support both the motherboard and a bunch of auxilaries.

 

[ranjo364]

Yea this is a project I want to do, but have not had the time. I wish I was less time-constrained these days.

Patrick - I have a Cube 3 (Q39 302). Not in the case, Has one 32MB mem stick, no power supply and no hard drive. If this would be of use to you, and you can cover shipping cost - it's yours .
Best, JR

 

[Klauss35]

I just upgrade my Qube 2, installed a Gigabyte Mini-STX with an I3 7100t and 16 gb of ram, waiting for the new m.2 to install Server 2019, will post more pictures when is completed with a couple of Seagate Barracuda 2.5" - 5 tb hard drives

 

[Rehmat]

Strip the internals out and turn it into a beast of a sleeper itx workstation.

 

[BoredSysadmin]

.... d)What can I learn on the Xeon-D that I cannot learn already on my existing setup? (HP t73, a iSCSI quadbay storage device and a soon-to-be-added 10GbE layer 3 router/switch)
.

If learning is of interest and ARM-based boards are not entirely out of the play, may I suggest nVidia Jetson TX2 Dev Kit. There are some quite cheap options on the bay of E:
NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Developer Kit | eBay
NVIDIA Jetson Tx2 Development Kit - NEW SEALED 812674020402 | eBay

These are meant to run/develop edge AI/ML/other CUDA software and thus have quite powerful GPU.

 

[Klauss35]

Got a different idea now, received the M.2 yesterday and installed "nextcloud'", attached are some pictures of the qube running it, for now the storage is limited to the free space in the M.2 but will change after i get a couple of 5 tb drives.
Still have to find a way to connect the led bar to the power connector in the motherboard

 

[weust]

For the LED bar power, I don't know how much it requires in terms of V and A, but perhaps USB header might help you out there?

 

[Klauss35]

For the LED bar power, I don't know how much it requires in terms of V and A, but perhaps USB header might help you out there?

Good idea, thank you

 

[Klauss35]

Well finally made some progress today, mounted the 2 x 5 tb hard drives on an ICY DOCK Tool-less 3x 2.5 Inch to 3.5 Inch Triple Internal Hard Disk SSD Drive Mount Adapter Bracket Kit (EZ-Fit Trio MB610SP) , set windows 2019 to mirror them and now i'm almost done with this project.

 

[www]

Just came across this old discussion...I have a couple of complete Qube 3 Pros and wondered what Klaus (if he's still around?) did with his finished project. Or anybody else?

I found this site that lists retrofitted Qubes for sale Redesigned Cobalt Qube | CherryTree Inc. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Klauss35]

Hello www

I finally finished my qube project, added the 2 x 5tb drives (a co-worker 3d printed a very nice hard drive carrier) and is running windows server 2019 with Nextcloud running on Hyper-v, it is also running the NVR software for my security cameras, I added an external enclosure for an extra set of 2 x 5tb drives (raid 1 for the Nextcloud vm), I also replaced the mobo with an Asus Mini-STX (H110S2) with 2 nics (intel+realtek) teamed as one, it is been working since then with no issues at all I'm very happy with it

 

[WANg]

Just came across this old discussion...I have a couple of complete Qube 3 Pros and wondered what Klaus (if he's still around?) did with his finished project. Or anybody else?

I found this site that lists retrofitted Qubes for sale Redesigned Cobalt Qube | CherryTree Inc. Thoughts anyone?

735 USD as the base price? Eh, I am interested in the 3D printed "bones" that they used, but not necessarily the internals.

 

[www]

Thanks Klauss and Wang. Sorry for delayed ack...my chromebook that was logged into this forum crashed and I forgot all about my post. I'm gonna reach out to the cherrytree folks to see if they offer some kinda retrofit plans/kit

 

[AmiJIm]

Hello there , i am still using my qube3 upgraded to mobile k63+ ACZ core oc to 600mhz and 2 x 512mb ram and a 20gb samsung HD for OS and 1TB seagate HD using Strongbolt update to centos 6 and webmin and the kernels from the raqcop era.It is a very nice set up holding my older files.I have though the non SCSI version of Qube3 and i am wondering if anyone has for sale the internals of a qube3.I would be grateful to buy and upgrade to a 2.5 inch 36gb IBM scsi HD i aleady have for OS and two sata drives.thank you.

 

[Lickydog]

Hello there , i am still using my qube3 upgraded to mobile k63+ ACZ core oc to 600mhz and 2 x 512mb ram and a 20gb samsung HD for OS and 1TB seagate HD using Strongbolt update to centos 6 and webmin and the kernels from the raqcop era.It is a very nice set up holding my older files.I have though the non SCSI version of Qube3 and i am wondering if anyone has for sale the internals of a qube3.I would be grateful to buy and upgrade to a 2.5 inch 36gb IBM scsi HD i aleady have for OS and two sata drives.thank you.

Ping me, I have a couple of Qubes with and without SCSI...

 

[Lickydog]

Though I realise the thread is old, time moves more slowly on these machines