EU Dual E5-2600 Foxconn Server £250

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Jack-BH

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Oct 21, 2016
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@Calcipher

Hi there. Yes our boards do support V2 processors however they do require a BIOS update. If you're specifically looking to order one from Bargain Hardware, please leave a note to ask for the BIOS update to be done (if you're not selecting V2 processors, if you select V2 processors this will be done automatically). If you have any questions just give us a shout.

(THIS POST IS IN REGARDS TO OUR QUANTA SERVERS - NOT FOXCONN)

Cheers.
 
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hmartin

hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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Jack-BH said:
@Calcipher

Hi there. Yes our boards do support V2 processors however they do require a BIOS update. If you're specifically looking to order one from Bargain Hardware, please leave a note to ask for the BIOS update to be done (if you're not selecting V2 processors, if you select V2 processors this will be done automatically). If you have any questions just give us a shout.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Hi Jack! Quick question:

Does the Chenbro E5-2600 deal on your site also support v2 processors? I ask because you cannot configure it with v2 processors.

Can you provide the model # of the motherboard in the server?

(sorry for off-topic)
 
J

Jack-BH

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Oct 21, 2016
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Hi there.

The Chenbro's do not support V2s with the BIOS we have for them, however they may be updatable. We've truly struggled to find that BIOS! Model number for the Chenbro or Quanta?
 
J

Jack-BH

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Oct 21, 2016
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I'm sorry, there isn't a recognizable model number on the Chenbro board. It's a strange one!
 
D

darngeek

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Dec 26, 2017
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Jb boin said:
...
The BMC firmware can be backuped (and should be flashable) using "socflash" :
Click to expand...
This was of great help actually, I've been wanting to control the fan speed using IPMI raw commands,
and never even heard of socflash

But after using "socflash" to dump the BMC firmware and using "binwalk" '-Me' to figure out whats on there,
there is a squashfs with a lot of interesting startup scripts, ipmihandler.so, some ipmi handler tests.
and its looking like a lot of these "custom" ipmi libraries are compiled with symbols still in there :)
a jjfs2 that seems to hold a backup of the vmlinuz that you can also unpack using 7zip
there are some kernel modules that seem custom for this board, that should've been licensed GPL but couldn't find any source.

haven't had much time with the holidays to check it out but hope to run some custom fan control scripts because they keep oscillating between 6000 and 8700 rpm which gets on my nerves :D
 
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hmartin

hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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darngeek said:
This was of great help actually, I've been wanting to control the fan speed using IPMI raw commands,
and never even heard of socflash

But after using "socflash" to dump the BMC firmware and using "binwalk" '-Me' to figure out whats on there,
there is a squashfs with a lot of interesting startup scripts, ipmihandler.so, some ipmi handler tests.
and its looking like a lot of these "custom" ipmi libraries are compiled with symbols still in there :)
a jjfs2 that seems to hold a backup of the vmlinuz that you can also unpack using 7zip
there are some kernel modules that seem custom for this board, that should've been licensed GPL but couldn't find any source.

haven't had much time with the holidays to check it out but hope to run some custom fan control scripts because they keep oscillating between 6000 and 8700 rpm which gets on my nerves :D
Click to expand...

Nice, hopefully bugging Quanta will get the source code released.

Regarding fan control, you can purchase PWM controllers quite cheap from eBay/AliExpress. Many have a UART interface you can attach to a UART->USB adapter to control from the OS. (Search AliExpress for "DC5-30V/Micro Usb 5V Power Independent PWM Generator" you'll need an additional UART to USB adapter like the CP2102)

If the fans annoy you and you can live with control from within the OS, it's very easy to script reading lm_sensors and adjusting fan speed. Won't help you if you don't run Linux or Windows, and you do run the risk of overheating if the OS crashes.

I've done this on the Quanta Windmill and other servers (Dell R210 II) with success. As long as you wire the fan's tach wire to the motherboard and don't run the fan RPM below the BMC minimums everything is happy. Easy and cheap method to quiet PWM fans without firmware hacking.
 
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D

darngeek

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Dec 26, 2017
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hmartin said:
Nice, hopefully bugging Quanta will get the source code released.

Regarding fan control, you can purchase PWM controllers quite cheap from eBay/AliExpress. Many have a UART interface you can attach to a UART->USB adapter to control from the OS. (Search AliExpress for "DC5-30V/Micro Usb 5V Power Independent PWM Generator" you'll need an additional UART to USB adapter like the CP2102)

If the fans annoy you and you can live with control from within the OS, it's very easy to script reading lm_sensors and adjusting fan speed. Won't help you if you don't run Linux or Windows, and you do run the risk of overheating if the OS crashes.

I've done this on the Quanta Windmill and other servers (Dell R210 II) with success. As long as you wire the fan's tach wire to the motherboard and don't run the fan RPM below the BMC minimums everything is happy. Easy and cheap method to quiet PWM fans without firmware hacking.
Click to expand...
Thats my problem tho, the fan control through the OS I can't seem to get working,
lm_sensors only seems to find the CPU ISA sensors, nothing with fans for the "Pangu-A 020118B00-600-G"
motherboard.

IPMI atleast seems to have access over the fans, so i was able to change the Fan thresholds, and read their sensors, but haven't been able to find the raw commands for setting fan speed (YET), hence the firmware reverse engineering :)

but if you have any suggestions on how to get lm_sensors to do anything with fan speeds, that would be muuuch easier
 
D

Drewy

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Apr 23, 2016
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Jack-BH said:
@Calcipher

Hi there. Yes our boards do support V2 processors however they do require a BIOS update. If you're specifically looking to order one from Bargain Hardware, please leave a note to ask for the BIOS update to be done (if you're not selecting V2 processors, if you select V2 processors this will be done automatically). If you have any questions just give us a shout.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Any chance of getting that BIOS update for previous customers?
 
J

Jack-BH

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Oct 21, 2016
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Hi Drewy, just to confirm, i've changed the message now, this was in response to another members question about the Quanta not the Foxconn. The Foxconn does not have an update. Do you need it for the Quanta?
 
H

HeyBig

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Feb 11, 2019
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Could anyone with a working Foxconn board with V2 CPUs let us know what BIOS version they have? Would it be possible to read out the BIOS with flashrom or BMC IPMI?
 

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aido

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Feb 23, 2017
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These were a great buy - the two I have are still running and I upgraded to the latest ESXi 6.7 this weekend and so far it's working great!
 
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Jóhann Ólafur Jóhannsson

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Feb 22, 2019
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Hey all! I have this server and I bought it from a friend. Everything I learned is pretty much on my own. I'm running a Plex server on Unraid with about 30 users. I Kind of need to upgrade my CPU. I have two Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2650 0 @ 2.00GHz. Can I upgrade to just any Intel Xeon CPU or would a strong one maybe be too strong for my motherboard ? Sorry if this is not sufficient information. All help greatly appreciated :)
 
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aido

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Feb 23, 2017
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I think with the standard BIOS there was no support for the v2 range - are you after purely clockspeed or more cores?

Some of the most powerful chips from that era were the E5-2690 with 8 cores / 16 threads per socket @ 135w or the E5-2687w - again 8c / 16t but at 150w. The E5-2687w was a workstation chip so these 1U servers may well not have sufficient cooling.

I don't know if anyone has tried them on this board as cooling may be insufficient with the E5-2687w - likewise I can't easily get to the PSU of mine to check the specs but power draw would need checking - the E5 2650 is a 95w chip.
 
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