1U server with space for 12 - 3.5" hard drives (+ 1- 2.5" hd) via eBay

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Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
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That's a super old system. No way I'd run that.

These are 9-9.5 year old systems guys. At that age you've got to worry about the caps and other components failing.

I mean a 5 year old system running for 2-3 more years is fine these days but 10 years ago servers weren't as good and this isn't big brand quality 10 years ago either. That looks like someone's just trying to get affiliate $$$$$$$$s.
 

ChilliConCarnage

New Member
Dec 24, 2020
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I just bought two of these off eBay. Filled the first one with random SATA drives I had and installed WIN10 Pro on an SSD. Used Stablebit drivepool and transferred about 10TB of files to it. Everything works great.

For the second one, will I be able to take all the 4TB SAS drives I have in my Dell SC200 and transfer them into this server? The Dell is just too damned loud!!!
 

mayli

New Member
May 18, 2019
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I just bought two of these off eBay. Filled the first one with random SATA drives I had and installed WIN10 Pro on an SSD. Used Stablebit drivepool and transferred about 10TB of files to it. Everything works great.

For the second one, will I be able to take all the 4TB SAS drives I have in my Dell SC200 and transfer them into this server? The Dell is just too damned loud!!!
The system only has 6 SATA + 8 SAS, so, if you only have 8 4TB SAS drives, they should work fine. This 1U system is noticeable quieter than other 1U systems.
 

ChilliConCarnage

New Member
Dec 24, 2020
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P.S. For anybody that may be wondering, I loaded 9 SATA drives into my first server (plus one SSD OS drive), so SATA drives work on all the ports. On my second one, I will attach 8 x SAS drives and 4 x SATA, plus an SSD OS drive.
 

Tcalp

Member
Oct 15, 2020
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Their website does not work and they don't reply on facebook. :) Maybe nexttime.
Well they have a phone number (lol), but whatever floats your boat. Though, I generally agree with you, it is quite annoying how un-contactable they are, I'd venture to guess they are busy enough not to care about anyone that "needs" to contact them with custom instructions/requests.
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
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Northern California
These are 9-9.5 year old systems guys. At that age you've got to worry about the caps and other components failing.
True! While mine looked completely clean, not even a hint of dust in the corners or under/in the heatsink or PSU (I checked :)), at the end of the day its still old.

I use mine for playing around with different Host OSs & configurations (I think a meaningful test of a different Host OS in a VM on my main Server/NAS would be hard?). Its not for storing important data. I got mine when the seller was having a weekend sale & on a lark gave them a pretty low-ball offer (about 50% off between the sale and my BO) which they accepted.

I had a bunch of 2.5" drives & a 1U active heatsink left over from Laptop Upgrades and other teardowns, plus access to a laser cutter to make simple 2.5" to 3.5" adapters for free. So, I populated mine with a mix of 2.5" 1TB HDDs and 120GB SSDs. Having 13 drives lets me try lots of configurations, and since its for testing/exploration the low capacity and performance aren't an issue. With less heat, better airflow, and an active heatsink, I got the fan setup quieted down without temps going crazy.

If it dies eventually, I can drop in a more modern motherboard and/or power supply.
 
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Tcalp

Member
Oct 15, 2020
52
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That's a super old system. No way I'd run that.

These are 9-9.5 year old systems guys. At that age you've got to worry about the caps and other components failing.

I mean a 5 year old system running for 2-3 more years is fine these days but 10 years ago servers weren't as good and this isn't big brand quality 10 years ago either. That looks like someone's just trying to get affiliate $$$$$$$$s.
These are more about the format rather than the mainboard / cpu it comes with. Even if you are worried about component failure, just buy a 2nd one as a spare *shrugs* :)
 

eduncan911

The New James Dean
Jul 27, 2015
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What's the noise level like for this machine?

Anyone replace fans to quiet it down?

For comparison, my SC846 with SQ (silent) PSUs and all fans IPMI turned down to 0% duty cycle is about the limit of noise she can bare in the rack under the stairs.
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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How are you guys mounting the HD's? Did you find the brackets somewhere?
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
1,146
761
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Northern California
What's the noise level like for this machine?

Anyone replace fans to quiet it down?

For comparison, my SC846 with SQ (silent) PSUs and all fans IPMI turned down to 0% duty cycle is about the limit of noise she can bare in the rack under the stairs.
Its pretty typical "1U loud". And I don't think there's much you can do about it without replacing parts. On mine, which had a pretty old UEFI/BIOS version, there's only a simple fan duty setting. I set mine on the lowest (30%) and it was still the loudest thing I owned. IPMI (at least on mine) didn't allow changes to fan settings other than thresholds.

Mine came with 6x40mm Delta FFB0412UHN fans, which max out at 18,500RPM and 62.4 db each. So, even at 30% duty cycle they are pretty loud. On top of that the power supply fan isn't all that quiet either.

I've set mine up to be very quiet, but I did a lot of modifications using parts I already had in the "spare parts bin" so it didn't cost me anything extra. This included a different PSU and much quieter fans. But, I've got 2.5" drives in mine and a 20w TDP E3-1220L CPU with an active heatsink. It idles at less than 30 watts and maxes out at a little over 60w. So, I felt safe trading out the fans for quieter ones that move a lot less air. But, If it was loaded up with 3.5" disks and a quad core CPU under the included passive heatsink, it would probably cook itself in the weak airflow.

How are you guys mounting the HD's? Did you find the brackets somewhere?
This one doesn't use brackets. It uses rubber grommets and "shoulder screws". Something like this (picture is just for illustration, I have no idea if this particular one works). 4 of those on the bottom of the 3.5" drive and then it slides into keyed slots in the chassis.

1614906984679.png1614907274486.png

But, I found that purpose made drive mounting screws like that are pretty expensive, and this was a definite "budget" build. So for mine, I bought a pack of 100 of these for $14 and some plain screws, which I threaded in until they just began to compress the rubber. Worked fine.

 
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mayli

New Member
May 18, 2019
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What's the noise level like for this machine?

Anyone replace fans to quiet it down?

For comparison, my SC846 with SQ (silent) PSUs and all fans IPMI turned down to 0% duty cycle is about the limit of noise she can bare in the rack under the stairs.
It's pretty low when idling, similar to a GPU running at full speed. But the fan speed can easily gets to 50% or 100% when cpu under load, which is what similar to you can expect from a 1U cisco switch.
 

zaphod042

New Member
Mar 13, 2021
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I just purchased one of these gems and would like to increase the RAM to 32GB - the 8GB it has now is marked crucial mt18ksf1g72az-1g4e1zi --- I am having trouble finding this item - what/where would you suggest I purchase the remaining 3 sticks of 8GB of DDR3 memory?
 

mayli

New Member
May 18, 2019
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Any DDR3 ECC UDIMM will work; look for the E after the speed: PC3-12800E, PC3-10600E, etc. PC3L (1.35v) also works.
Which is pricier and harder to find compared to DDR4 UDIMM, DDR3 UDIMM or DDR3 ECC RDIMM.
I am thinking to swap the CPU to non-Xeon ones, and try non-ECC DDR3 DIMMs, anyone had tried that?
 

semidetached

Active Member
Sep 18, 2018
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Does anyone need/want 2.5" trays for this server? I have 9 of them with grommets on the bottom and mounting holes for a SFF drive. My server died and I don't need them anymore.
 
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