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

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semidetached

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Sep 18, 2018
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I'd be interested in these. Do you also have the backplane from the server for the SSD?
There isn't a backplane in the server. It is just a collection of cables spread out to reach each drive position. I do have all the wiring if you need it.
 
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Arvid

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Jun 15, 2021
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This seems great for cheap colocation - just needs redundant PSUs. Not the worse thing with just one though

EDIT: After watching the video, no rails and not finding any could be an issue.
 
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M1ha

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Aug 29, 2021
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Hi all, does anybody know whether I can put 12 x 18TB drives here (sata). Is there any size limit per drive?
 
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sts950

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Sep 3, 2021
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I just purchased one of these servers a week or so ago and have problems if i connect 8tb drives to the non-lsi ports on the board. The system will boot fine with a 120gb (os) drive connected to sata0 but as soon as connecting an 8tb to sata1-4 the system displays post but will not get past it - also wont allow me to enter bios (hangs saying entering bios). Currently running v9b14 (2018) bios. Anyone have any ideas about this? Reached out to tyan but they say its eol... Should i try and flash back to the 2013 bios on their support page? Just worried what ill loose if i go back and i am unable to file the version that's currently flashed anywhere.
 

maxermaxer

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Oct 28, 2016
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I just purchased one of these servers a week or so ago and have problems if i connect 8tb drives to the non-lsi ports on the board. The system will boot fine with a 120gb (os) drive connected to sata0 but as soon as connecting an 8tb to sata1-4 the system displays post but will not get past it - also wont allow me to enter bios (hangs saying entering bios). Currently running v9b14 (2018) bios. Anyone have any ideas about this? Reached out to tyan but they say its eol... Should i try and flash back to the 2013 bios on their support page? Just worried what ill loose if i go back and i am unable to file the version that's currently flashed anywhere.
Hi sts950, how do you find the noise level? Is it very loud? I am planning to build a NAS server with this in my homelab. Thanks!
 

sts950

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Sep 3, 2021
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It isn't very loud at all(although i wouldn't put it in a bedroom that your sleeping in unless you like a little background white noise). The room that it was in (basement) was around 74f and the fans would start to spin up around 75 or 76f (room temp). Im replacing it with a r720xd and the dell is quite a bit louder.

Edit: if anyone in Maryland is looking for one of these let me know.. Trying to sell the one i bought - comes with all mounting screws /grommets for drive mounting... E3-1230v2, 8gb ram
 

expbaby

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Nov 23, 2021
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I'm trying to make my Chenbro NR12000 quieter. I was thinking of replacing the 6 delta fans with 6 Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX 12V Quiet Computer Cooling Fan 40mm with 3pin connector. Has anyone done this? The server is acting as a Chia server, so it's not doing too much. Also, I really feel (hear) the CPU fan as the real monster in here. Anyone replaced that fan? Or the CPU? Looking for some suggestions on replacement fans here.
 

Markess

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May 19, 2018
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I'm trying to make my Chenbro NR12000 quieter. I was thinking of replacing the 6 delta fans with 6 Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX 12V Quiet Computer Cooling Fan 40mm with 3pin connector. Has anyone done this? The server is acting as a Chia server, so it's not doing too much. Also, I really feel (hear) the CPU fan as the real monster in here. Anyone replaced that fan? Or the CPU? Looking for some suggestions on replacement fans here.
Those Noctua fans don't move much air. There's a good chance those fans wouldn't be enough to pull air through the chassis and they'd just churn. The fans that come with the chassis move a LOT of air at high speed.

If do you replace the fans, and connect them to the "conventional" 4 pin fan headers, you'll have to turn off the BMC alarm. Anything other than the stock fans in the 6 pin connectors will set off the alarm.

I had a bunch of 2.5" SATA drives installed in mine, so not a lot of heat and more room for air to move than if it was filled with 3.5" drives. I also had a 20w TDP Xeon 1220L processor, so not much heat their either. I replaced my fans with three Supermicro FAN-0100L4, which moved more air than the Noctuas, but were much quieter than stock. I blocked the empty spots from the other 4 fans with fillers I cut from acrylic.

You mention that the CPU fan is loud? My unit din't come with a CPU fan, it had a passive heatsink. But, since my chassis fans weren't moving as much air as before, I replaced the passive heatsink with an active one from Silverstone which was pretty quiet.

Once I replaced the stock chassis fans, the PSU fan was the loudest thing in the chassis. In mine at least, it didn't slow down much at idle. I didn't try to change that out. I don't like to mess with PSU cooling. :rolleyes:
 
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expbaby

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Nov 23, 2021
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thanks for the info. I mistakenly wrote CPU when I meant PSU. I believe the PSU fan is the fan that is the loudest. I was reading this thread on someone who swapped out his PSU fan, but the PSU will boot loop if you swap a fan out. So looks like this will not be possible.

I'm running 12 2TB drives in this thing. Do you think replacing the 6 fans with the SuperMicro fans you mentioned above would be enough airflow? Your system having only 2.5" drives is quite a big difference in temps.
 
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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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thanks for the info. I mistakenly wrote CPU when I meant PSU. I believe the PSU fan is the fan that is the loudest. I was reading this thread on someone who swapped out his PSU fan, but the PSU will boot loop if you swap a fan out. So looks like this will not be possible.

I'm running 12 2TB drives in this thing. Do you think replacing the 6 fans with the SuperMicro fans you mentioned above would be enough airflow? Your system having only 2.5" drives is quite a big difference in temps.
It might, but I've got no idea for sure. Not enough if you're going to pull a lot of watts for any length of time. But, if you're going to have typical home lab utilization...long periods at idle... it may be OK. I'm not familiar with Chia though, so YMMV.

One way to quiet things down is to put fans on the biggest heat producing motherboard components (CPU and SAS chip) . That way, the chassis fans aren't having to cool the CPU and SAS chip, they only have to pull some air past the hard drives and push the warm air out of the chassis. Hard drives don't need a lot of air flow, and the air doesn't have to move as fast if there's separate fans on the CPU & SAS heatsinks. On mine, I used a Silverstone active cooler (SST-NT07) on the CPU and a 40x10mm fan on the SAS chip's heatsink. The Silverstone has threaded screws (not push pins) so its a match for the threads on the motherboard's backplate. For the 40mm fan, I think I used some 3mm machine screws that were a friction fit between the heatsink fins.

I also had an open frame passively cooled PSU left over from an Asus ITX case that was damaged, so I replaced the PSU as well. The "new" one uses a power brick, so a lot of the PSU heat stays outside the case. But, my setup didn't draw much power even with the CPU at 100%, and I already had the PSU, CPU cooler, and Supermicro fans in my spare parts box. I'm not sure I'd have put much money into it if I'd had to buy everything. The motherboard in these is probably almost 10 years old after all.
 
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eduncan911

The New James Dean
Jul 27, 2015
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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.
For the record, the Tyan S5512 board uses all solid state capacitors - not the ones you are referring to that fail.
 
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eduncan911

The New James Dean
Jul 27, 2015
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Has anyone change the motherboard in these? The chassis that was donated to us won't boot/post due to some BIOS issue. I don't have the time to break out the SOIC8 connector and bin dump/flash it as this is all remote for the school. Rather just go in, dremel out the back I/O plate and stick in another mobo.

Or, does someone has a motherboard they wouldn't mind parting with? I see they are $37 on eBay with free s&h.
 
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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Hello guy,

I have a NR 12000 CHENBRO, but i have a problems with VGA output.
the server have a 32 GB of RAM and I put 3 disk HDD and SSD recommend in Craf Computing. and I would like to install Unraid.

In my Monitor, I can not see the boot system, someone have a user or tecnical manual for this server?


Chenbro NR12000 1U 1x 8m QUAD CORE E3-1220 3.1GHz 8GB RAM NO HDD
I've never seen the manual for the complete server. This is web page for the motherboard itself, which includes links to the manual & other documentation, which may help: Motherboards S5512 S5512WGM2NR | TYAN Computer

Can you tell us what CPU you have installed? The VGA output on the back is for the motherboard's Aspeed AST 2150 chip. In the past, people have experienced problems with motherboards that have the same chipset (Intel C204) when the CPU has its own integrated graphics.
 

cduart

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Apr 29, 2022
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I've never seen the manual for the complete server. This is web page for the motherboard itself, which includes links to the manual & other documentation, which may help: Motherboards S5512 S5512WGM2NR | TYAN Computer

Can you tell us what CPU you have installed? The VGA output on the back is for the motherboard's Aspeed AST 2150 chip. In the past, people have experienced problems with motherboards that have the same chipset (Intel C204) when the CPU has its own integrated graphics.
@Markess , I installed Intel Xeon E3-1220, What graphic card do you recommend me to install?
 

Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Northern California
@Markess , I installed Intel Xeon E3-1220, What graphic card do you recommend me to install?
That CPU has no graphics, so if you aren't getting any signal from the VGA output, there must be some other issue. You can try the usual troubleshooting of course: reset the BIOS and the BMC to factory settings (the documentation at the link I posted should help with that). If you are using an adapter to convert from the VGA connector to HDMI or other non-VGA connector on the monitor, that can sometimes be an issue too.

If none of that works, you should be able to install a graphics card. To fit the card in your chassis you'll also need a 90 degree angle riser card. Almost any single slot wide graphics card will work.

If you aren't going to do any GPU Passthrough in a VM, then you won't even be using the graphics card after Unraid is installed, since everything will be via a browser on a different computer on your network. Since you only need the graphics card for a few minutes, you don't need anything expensive. You could even "borrow" one from a different system long enough to do the install, if you have one handy. The graphics card doesn't necessarily need to have a VGA connector of course, so pick something that has the same connector as your monitor to minimize the chances of any issues.
 
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