Passive low power solution w/ Out of Band Management

[ansx]

Hi everybody,

I recently read the Fujitsu D3544 industrial mini-STX platform here on STH and was amazed by how much performance you can get out a fully passive system these days.
It got me wondering: is there any alternative that would come with out of band management capabilities?

In my particular case I am not interested in graphics or networking capabilities, anything with 1Gbit ethernet would do the trick.
The idea would be to install 2xSSD in RAID1, plug it, and forget about it for as long as possible.

The SuperMicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F appears to be one such option, although I don't think it is supposed to be used in a case with no airflow.

Are you guys aware of other passive systems with both a modern CPU and OOB management support?

 

[Evan]

Does vPro OBM count ? NUC or similar in passive case maybe.

Otherwise not anything I have come across.

A2SDI needs airflow for sure. With the low TDP you could make it passive but it would be a custom solution

 

[BlueFox]

This has only a 6W TDP vs 16W on the Atom board: X11SBA-F | Motherboards | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc.

If Intel AMT is good enough, though you'd need to mix mSATA and M.2, but it should fit your needs: Supermicro | IoT | E100-9S

 

[ansx]

Thank you for the replies.

I am not familiar with vPro OBM/Intel AMT.
After reading a few articles I believe it might be good enough for my needs.
Sadly it is not supported by the Fujistsu D3544.

NUC could be an option if I can find one with vPro/AMT and enough room for 2xSSD.
It also appears that some fully passive ITX cases might allow using Intel 8th gen. low power T series CPU such as the i5-8600T.

The I100-9S will not allow enough storage for my needs.

The X11SBA-F is the most interesting alternative I have seen so far.
I am now hoping to find a similar product with slightly more modern hardware (M.2 NVME, DDR4).

 

[PigLover]

If you're good with used how about an HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Mini. Not really passive, but neither are most of the NUCs. With i5-6500T you can get them $200-300. With i7-6700T in the $300-400 range.

Supports vPro AMT. You can't get 2 regular SSDs into the mini, but one m.2 NVME and one normal 2.5" should do the trick if you can live with the mismatched set.

 

[ansx]

I would rather avoid having moving parts because of my deployment requirements: absolute silence is non-negotiable.
Having 2 matching drives is also a requirement to maximize RAID1 efficiency.

 

[BlueFox]

Some SSDs are available in multiple form factors, so you could still have a matching set when mixing M.2, mSATA, and 2.5". Samsung 860 EVO would be an example.

 

[ansx]

I went with this option for my personal router at home because of the limited connectivity of the Qotom box I'm using: 1 mSATA 860 EVO and 1 SATA 860 EVO.
To my surprise they are not a perfect match and required me to use partitioning to get RAID1 to work properly.
They are also different performance-wise for some reason, making it a less than ideal solution for RAID1.

 

[BlueFox]

Use 2 of the mSATA versions and get a 2.5" to mSATA adapter for one of them? They would be identical then.

 

[ansx]

That could work if I can't find another alternative.