DIY server build - MB/CPU recommendations?

[Rootless]

Right now I'm running a Dell R910. It is wonderful, though a little large and power hungry. And it keeps getting slower (comparatively).

I'm trying to find a MB/CPU that will support at least:

1) LSI SAS 9206-16e
2) LSI 9211-8i (flashed M1115)
3) 10Gb DAC


I tried the 9206-16e in a couple of MBs I have on hand (Gigabyte AX370GamingK7, ASUS TUF X570-Plus, a couple of Athlon 970 chipset MBs) without success.

I don't care about on-board SATA capacity. I only use that for boot & OS. Everything else sits on the various drive arrays.

Most of my drives now sit in a couple of Norco RPC -4224s. They connect to the 9211 and/or Chenbro CK23601, which then passes to the 9206 in the Dell.

Suggestions? It doesn't always appear to be an issue of PCIe lanes. The X370 and X570 boards both have more than enough PCIe lanes for at least the 9206, but won't see it. I've searched and searched the forums, reddit, etc. and typically end up with "just buy a commercial server". Which I have, but the noise is getting to be too much.
I've been doing this for a long time. I loved my SUN x4140, older Dell and HP hardware. With the newer hardware the inability to throttle fans for noise (while controlling for temperature) is a problem for me. Even if I have to give up iDRAC and iLO support.

Thank you.

 

[Tom5051]

you could do all that on a z170 so not sure why you can't get it to work on more modern boards.

 

[Rootless]

you could do all that on a z170 so not sure why you can't get it to work on more modern boards.

I tried both/all of the x16 slots. It just isn't seen. I don't need to boot from it, but I do need to see the disks. I don't know why it doesn't show up either. If there is a way to make it show up, all the better.

 

[Sean Ho]

SMBus incompat? Try masking pins B5+B6? It is, somewhat counterintuitively, precisely the newer boards that often have problems with older HBAs. A dirt cheap and ancient X10SLL-F or similar should work (albeit with a bit of compromise on PCIe). Tower cooler, consumer case, ATX PSU, and it can be very quiet.

 

[Rootless]

Masking the pins worked on the X370 (Gigabyte AX370GamingK7 ). That will do the job nicely. Thank you very much.

 

[TLN]

I got Asrock board with 10G and 8x SAS on board and still supports 3x PCIe 3.0 x8. Basically you'll keep two spare slots after you add that 16e card in there.

 

[Sean Ho]

Excellent, glad to hear SMBus masking got your 9206-16e working on an X370 board!

 

[Confused-again]

Glad the masked pins worked for you. It did not for me. Windows saw it, but I could not get into the card. Must be something with the newer boards. I'm still searching for a solution. Glad you are up and running.

 

[Sean Ho]

If Windows sees the card on the PCI bus, it's probably not an SMBus issue. Could be card config (in its BIOS option ROM), could be Windows driver. HBA/IT mode? Does it work in Linux?

 

[Confused-again]

I have another thread going... Don't want to intrude on this one:

Home Server (Plex, file storage, sync, etc) Need some advice

 

[Rootless]

Glad the masked pins worked for you. It did not for me. Windows saw it, but I could not get into the card. Must be something with the newer boards. I'm still searching for a solution. Glad you are up and running.

I'm running Linux on it. I didn't try Windows.