Cheap dual 2011 Brebones

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DrunkenLoliOni

New Member
Feb 19, 2016
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4
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I haven't ordered them yet. Doing stress tests first.

Regarding the shroud, nothing is missing. According to the technical manual, the various mounting locations on top of the shroud are for addon raid modules (BBU, etc).
Interesting, I guess I don't need to worry about that then. Thanks.

Be sure to update the BIOS and BMC. Fixed booting an existing gpt EFI drive for me.
I'm still waiting on my ram and CPUs, the seller is something like 2 hours from me so it got here first. I'll be sure to do that though when I get the rest of the parts.
 

frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
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I'd love to know the efficiency ratings for those PSU's. The nice thing about supermicro systems is you can tell if its a gold, or platinum, etc... supply from the model number.

Thanks!
Mike
Chances are if it doesn't have any of the 80 + certification labels on it that it doesn't have a rating from them. The C6100 PSUs are the same I'm pretty sure.
 

DrunkenLoliOni

New Member
Feb 19, 2016
24
4
3
I heard back from the distributor this afternoon. They have the bulk packs of the rail kits. I think it's going to be around $100 shipped, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there are at least two rail kits in the pack.
I'll post again when I get some more info, but it also sounds like they have other parts for these servers available.
 
May 8, 2015
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I'd love to know the efficiency ratings for those PSU's. The nice thing about supermicro systems is you can tell if its a gold, or platinum, etc... supply from the model number.

Thanks!
Mike
Conference ended today. The servers are waiting at home for me and I'll be home tomorrow so ill let you know if theres any indication of an efficiency rating. Looking forward to checking them out!
 

DrunkenLoliOni

New Member
Feb 19, 2016
24
4
3
Be sure to update the BIOS and BMC. Fixed booting an existing gpt EFI drive for me.
I updated the BMC but when I went to do the BIOS the updater said that it wasn't for my system and might break things. Just wanted to check if you had the same message. I downloaded the BIOS update version: S2RS4A17 with date: 14/09/2015

If you have the same and got the same message I'll ignore it and update anyway.
 

h0tw1r3

Member
Oct 30, 2014
44
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United States
zaplabs.com
I updated the BMC but when I went to do the BIOS the updater said that it wasn't for my system and might break things. Just wanted to check if you had the same message. I downloaded the BIOS update version: S2RS4A17 with date: 14/09/2015

If you have the same and got the same message I'll ignore it and update anyway.
You need to use the smaller size BMC and BIOS. System comes with the first generation motherboard.
 
May 8, 2015
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I'd love to know the efficiency ratings for those PSU's. The nice thing about supermicro systems is you can tell if its a gold, or platinum, etc... supply from the model number.

Thanks!
Mike
They're 80+ Platinum. Says so right on them. They came today. Packaging wasn't great but they seem have to made it unscathed. A few odd things so far. One of the top covers seems to be jammed. (I cant push the button down enough to release the clasp to slide the top off. Also, they came with a rail kit but as far as I can tell the rails need to be screwed on to the chassis and it didn't come with any screws to do so. Really liking the build quality of these so far. Will install all 6 E5-2670's tomorrow and some memory to test them out. The memory I purchased for them hasn't arrived yet so I only have a few dimms to test them with... If anyone wants to know anything specific about them be sure to let me know.
 
May 8, 2015
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I am very interested to hear about your experiences with those.
So spent some time with these today. Overall, I'm extremely happy with them. Realized that the screws for the rails were indeed included, they just happened to all be in the only set of rails I had not opened yet. I purchased 10 E5-2670s from esiso, which arrived today and I installed 6 into these three servers. (The others are for some other projects.) I had no issues with the CPU installs. All the servers booted up on the first try without any issues. The sockets had no bent pins and the heat-syncs were already cleaned perfectly. One of the easiest installs I've had recently. Just drop the CPUs in, apply thermal paste and reattach heat-syncs. Unfortunately, I haven't purchased the memory for this project yet. Planning on purchasing in the next few days, I'm just looking around for the best deal. Because of this my testing has been limited but with some memory I had lying around, I've managed to poke around in remote web utility and I've posted some screenshots in the link below.

In terms of build quality, I rather like these systems. One of them appears to be a bit of an older revision than the other two and required a bit more work to install the second CPU. (There was a bracket preventing me from accessing one of the screws.) These are very much like Dell servers I've worked with in the past. Pretty much everything that can be removed is field serviceable. The bracket getting in the way of installing the second CPU was part of the PCIe assembly. It only took about a minute to remove the two PCIe trays and the support bracket as you just flip a few levers and everything slides right out. As I mentioned in a previous post I was pleased to find that the PSU's were 80+ Platinum rated.

Not sure if anyone cares too much but I will say the noise level of these are extremely bearable in a home environment. Sitting right next to it, its about as loud as one of the newer revisions of the Supermicro 2u cases. It's not quiet but definitely not so loud that I cant be in the same room for an extended period of time.

I only really have one caveat about these and I haven't confirmed this yet but it looks like in order to download the latest firmware and bios updates you need a support contract with Cisco. I can access the pages where the downloads are located on Cisco's site but every time I try and download one of the items it tells me I need to register an address with them, which I have already done. If anyone has any previous experience with that I'd appreciate the help.

If anyone has any other questions about these I'd be happy to answer them. Definitely recommend these though as a cheap solution for dual LGA2011. As of writing this I believe the same seller has multiple left. Seller was fine to work with. Communicated well and responded quickly to all my questions.

Remote Management Pictures: Cisco Remote Management
 

DrunkenLoliOni

New Member
Feb 19, 2016
24
4
3
I haven't ordered them yet. Doing stress tests first.

Regarding the shroud, nothing is missing. According to the technical manual, the various mounting locations on top of the shroud are for addon raid modules (BBU, etc).

Be sure to update the BIOS and BMC. Fixed booting an existing gpt EFI drive for me.
I heard back from the distributor this afternoon. They have the bulk packs of the rail kits. I think it's going to be around $100 shipped, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there are at least two rail kits in the pack.
I'll post again when I get some more info, but it also sounds like they have other parts for these servers available.
As it turns out, there is only one set of rails in the kit. I am told that bulk is referenced because of QCT's packaging.

If the C2100 rails don't work then there is this route. I may just get the quanta rails and not bother dealing with trying out the dell rails if someone hasn't tried it/ knows for sure.
 

StammesOpfer

Active Member
Mar 15, 2016
383
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Did anyone ever find out for sure about the rails. I just got one of these. It came with the inner rails only.
 

DrunkenLoliOni

New Member
Feb 19, 2016
24
4
3
Did anyone ever find out for sure about the rails. I just got one of these. It came with the inner rails only.
Not that I know of. I currently have mine on an unused shelf in my rack, but that is really just a stopgap measure since I haven't had much time or money lately. It's on my list of things now, and unless someone knows for sure that the dell rails fit, I will just get a set from a Quanta distributor.