Buying Used Supermicro 24bay Chassis

[Roman2179]

I am in the process of putting together a storage server/moving my current server into a rack enclosure and have been looking for a suitable chassis. The Norco 4220 and 4224 have been at the top of my list but I'm not entirely impressed with the quality of Norco cases. I would like to pick up a SM chassis but they are ridiculously expensive new.

What are people's thoughts about picking this up:
Supermicro Pdsme Quad Core X3220 2 4GHz 8GB 4U 24 HD Bay Storage Server | eBay

I don't care about the mobo/cpu since I would be replacing those but I would get a 24bay SM chassis for a pretty good price if I just bought that.

Is there anything I need be aware of if I do buy that? Would I run into any issues with the backplane? Would I just need to use a bunch of forward breakout cables to connect to it?

Thanks in advance!
Roman

 

[Mike]

Good chassis although the PSU's are not swappable with your average off the shelf ATX models. Sounds like it has a normal backplane.

 

[PigLover]

That particular chassis is an old version and you'll want to upgrade several parts after you have it:

- those 900w PSUs are noisy as hell. There is an 800w version that is acceptably quiet but still not 80+. These can be found on ebay for $20-25 each (you need 2).

- if you need/want efficient PSUs then you want the 700w platinum ones that will run you $75ish each or the 1100w gold units that are more expensive.

- The fans are probably 3-pin and will run full speed (loud) all the time. SM pwm fans will cost about $20ish each (that case has 6).

- $100 shipping is steep...

You might want to search ebay a bit more for a better deal - newer version, 800w PSUs are relatively common. Just search 'supermicro 4u' on ebay.

 

[Roman2179]

Ideally, this is the SM chassis that I would want:
Supermicro | Products | Chassis | 4U | SC846E1-R900B
Currently its going for about $1000 on provantage.

The pricing of the Norco cases becomes a little deceptive once you start including everything that would be needed to get it running since they really don't come with all that much. I would still have to get rails, SAS cables, 120mm fan wall, and fans. So the 400 dollar case is now closer to 600 and that doesn't include the power supply. If I carry over my current power supply then there is no extra cost. If I go with redundant power supplies then the price between the SM and Norco cases becomes almost equal.

So it seems, the best deal is to find a used SM chassis and make a few upgrades as needed. I would be getting a better chassis with redundant power supplies for about the same price as the Norco without a power supply.

So what does everyone think? A new Norco 4224 or a used SM case?

Any more insight is welcome!

Thanks!