Fan Noise on Supermicro Twin 2 Server

[ro345]

Hi,
I'm wondering how loud the fan noise is on a Supermicro Twin 2 server, specifically this one here:

Supermicro 6026TT-HDTRF Fat Twin 2 Node Barebone 2U Server 2x X8DTT-HF+ SAS827HD | eBay

I have been using a DL380e Gen8, but when I put a non-HP card in, the fans spin up real loud. I have no experience with Supermicro servers, but a lot experience with HP servers.

Anyone have any experience with these? I've seen various hacks with replacing fans and tweaking IPMI. Do these work to get the noise down?

I'm not looking for silent, but quietish. The DL380e in its normal state is very quiet.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Aestr]

I have an X9 series twin that is reasonably quiet with the right fan settings. It sits beside the couch and no complaints from anyone. Not sure what fans or speed options the X8 series has.

Supermicro | Products | SuperServers | 2U | 6027TR-DTRF

 

[ro345]

Aestr, Do you have any idea how much power each node uses? What configuration are you running in them? Thanks.

 

[Aestr]

The way the IPMI reports back it's for the whole chassis and I can't power one down right now but the following is using 190W:

- 2 x E5-2640
- 2 x E5-2643
- 16 x 16 GB DDR3 ECC DIMMs
- 2 x Intel X520-DA2
- 2 x Fusion-io ioDrive2 1.2TB

 

[ro345]

Thanks for that info, I think I will go for the X9, just have to wait for one to pop up at an affordable price on Ebay.

 

[Aestr]

What's your rough budget for a barebone 2 node chassis? I have some saved searches I could check for you real quick if I know what you're looking for.

 

[ro345]

I would like to spend about $300, including drive trays and rails, excluding memory, CPU, and drives which I have already. It looks like those systems go for about $400 on ebay. I will keep a look out for a few months, if it doesn't fall below $400 after a while, I may just pull the trigger at $400.

 

[Aestr]

The cheapest I found was $310 before shipping with no drive trays, but that was easy to fix for about $40. I'll probably pick up a second one in the next month or two.

 

[marcoi]

i been wanting to get this 4 node model and consolidate my 4 servers into 1.
SuperMicro F627R3-RTB+ 4U FatTwin SuperServer 4-Node X9DRFR 8x LGA2011 E5-2600v2 | eBay

I believe that beast would kill me (either due to weight or power it sucks up)

 

[Aestr]

I've had a 4 node like that before and really liked it. It's not that heavy when racking as you can remove all the PSUs and the nodes beforehand so it's just a metal shell. I like the twin vs the fat twin because it gives me more PCI-e slots with the same density.

 

[ro345]

Aestr,
Can all 12 drive bays be run off of one node? I'm not sure how that backplane works, are there 4 mini-sas connectors? But anyway, I would probably want to attach all 12 drive bays to one of nodes (I would boot from usb or network on the other node). Thanks.

 

[Churchill]

i been wanting to get this 4 node model and consolidate my 4 servers into 1.
SuperMicro F627R3-RTB+ 4U FatTwin SuperServer 4-Node X9DRFR 8x LGA2011 E5-2600v2 | eBay

I believe that beast would kill me (either due to weight or power it sucks up)

Why would you get that one when you can get a 4 node 2U instead? Do you really need that many 2.5" hard drives per server?

 

[Churchill]

Aestr,
Can all 12 drive bays be run off of one node? I'm not sure how that backplane works, are there 4 mini-sas connectors? But anyway, I would probably want to attach all 12 drive bays to one of nodes (I would boot from usb or network on the other node). Thanks.

No they cannot, the drives are split equally amongst the nodes in the plane. The 4 node one takes 4 drives per node. These cannot be modified. That's the limitation on these devices.

If you truly want a more modular array look at Dell's VTX line, now THAT is a blade chassis with drive configurations that will blow your mind.

 

[Aestr]

@Churchill is correct that there is no way to change the drive configuration. The VRTX systems are very cool and configurable, but they cost a lot more too.


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[marcoi]

@Churchill is correct that there is no way to change the drive configuration. The VRTX systems are very cool and configurable, but they cost a lot more too.


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I'm getting some quotes from Dell for vrtx tower because of this thread.

 

[Churchill]

I'm getting some quotes from Dell for vrtx tower because of this thread.

Please let me know what you find. I sooooo want one of these systems but I need a better location than my current rack to put it in....

 

[marcoi]

I'm still waiting for a quote on the vrtx tower. But the system guy seems to think it will be 15k to 25k range for a base system. He going to see if he can configure one with out blades. Dell outlet has two towers with 2.5 bays and some m630 blades. I price it out to over 7k. Still quite a bit of money. So before I even consider that level of money I wanted to make sure it does what I wanted.

So far I found out it doesn't seem like it will. I wanted the 3.5 system to load up the 8tb red drives I got from BB deal. But per the manual it only works with sas drives. Also the perc raid card is shared using sr-iov. Which means any installed need a vf driver installed.

The system cool from a design perspective, but doesn't seem to work how I want it to.

I was hoping for sata drive support and magical interface that transparently made storage show up at the system level as local HDD somehow.

 

[Churchill]

I checked around, the VRTX can support 3.5" drives and does look like it supports SATA but doesn't say so. I've installed many Dell R series systems and even though they swear up and down they don't support SATA all have supported SATA.

It's worth digging around more for what you want.