Fujitsu TX1320 M3 - Cheap low power server (barebone)

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Bjorn Smith

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If only we could get the print tested, then I would for sure order 20 - 3.5 EUR including shipping for a single "caddy" is too good to be true
 

Bjorn Smith

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If only I knew what the correct material should be - it seems like its possible to get 20 3d printed for less than 35 EUR including shipping if ASA material is okay.
 

joeribl

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If only I knew what the correct material should be - it seems like its possible to get 20 3d printed for less than 35 EUR including shipping if ASA material is okay.
The guy on thingyverse used PLA. But beware if this gets warm it will start sagging.
 
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Bjorn Smith

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The guy on thingyverse used PLA. But beware if this gets warm it will start saving.
I am reading up on materials and I think PETG is the best one, since its similar to plastic bottles, which mean flexible and strong. Still pretty cheap if you order a bunch - 53 EUR appx including shipping for 20, which is a good price - if they work :)
 

Bjorn Smith

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In fact I will order one on craftclud3d and see how it turns out - if its good, then we know it works and we can get reasonable cheap caddies.

Seems like its always "Prinjekt" from Germany that is cheapest :)
 

Rand__

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I am sure they'll have a black week deal, so a good time to order a sample now :)
 

richard.dzavoronok

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Jun 23, 2021
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The guy on thingyverse used PLA. But beware if this gets warm it will start sagging.
Not going to sag as it's only holding drive in place. I printed 20 caddies myself for DL380p Gen8, used them with 15k drives and never had an issue.

If only I knew what the correct material should be - it seems like its possible to get 20 3d printed for less than 35 EUR including shipping if ASA material is okay.
ASA is very good material, it can warp a little, but good strength/weight ratio and very heat resistant. Just beware, it stinks, literally. And it's not very pleasant.
 

dbram

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Mar 3, 2021
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Did you run a powertop --auto-tune with Proxmox?
Not with auto-tune, used powertop --calibrate --html thingy. and then the idle went to down 10-12W, averaging around 11W. Even saw numbers as low as 9W. I wonder if the iRMC is disabled how low this can go.
the autotune refuses to start normally with an error "glob returned GLOB_ABORTED"

Found a posting where one should run twice the command powertop --calibrate --html with a reboot in between, but that didn't solve the problem.
installed latest 2.15 version but still no luck. seems to be something the default settings for proxmox and how those are configured differently.

Some other things:
  • Added a fujitsu dual intel NIC i350 and a VM with opnsense and that still only draws 14W (after the powertop command, not the autotune). So for my goal, I'm guessing a total of 20w idle should be possible. a little proxmox host, opnsense with dual i350 nic in pcie passthrough with a couple of lightweight LXC containers.
  • By disabling more things in the bios it should be possible to go as low as 5-10W. That's what people with other Fujitsu boards are achieving in Dutch and German low power forums.
  • I booted the 2nd server with an identical memory and cpu (e3-1230v6 and 64GB of ram), but I got a strange orange blinking led and buzzer error codes. Removed all sata cables, half of the memory and tried again. Until it finally booted, used another sata cable and added the other 32GB of memory and all is fine now. It seems the boards are bit picky after hardware configuration changes.
  • also keeping an eye on the 2.5" drive bays, might print one myself. Would actually prefer to house 2x 3.5" sata drives in one of the servers. that should be possible but is going to be for one of the winter days.
  • resetting the ipmi password never worked on a linux install using the ipmitool. Cleared the whole iRMC / BMC from the mb bios and that worked fine.
 

da8833

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Nov 14, 2022
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I might chime in here, as I happen to have played a litte with one of these really nice little machines, too.

Happy to share some takeaways, too:
  • power consumption: 9W idle is the lowest I managed to get (proxmox/debian + powertop --auto-tune, just one SATA ssd). I doubt you can get any lower given that the iRMC draws about 4.5 W alone (if someone would find a way to switch it off, though...)
  • CPUs: tested Pentium G4560, Xeon 1220 v6, and Pentium G4600 (which is not on the official compatibility list, marginally faster than the G4560, works fine)
  • caddys: the previously mentioned STL file on thingiverse works sort of (3d-printed a few myself), at least for blind caddies. BUT: the screw holes are "on the wrong side" and not within the right distance from the backplane to let you connect hdds/ssds (at least for my TX1320 M3). Also there is a slightly thicker part on one of the side pieces, that does not really seem to go too well with the the TX1320 once you have screwed in a ssd or hdd. So I have been fiddling for a while with tinkercad (I'm no engineer!) to "fix" this in the STL file and ended up with something that's actually working well enough for my needs. Did not bother to upload the new file on thingiverse yet as the result is certainly far from perfect, but happy to share it here (check it out for yourself and only use at your own risk, of course!). Printing in PLA and PETG both works fine, could not test ABS (would be my preferred material due to highest ruggedness). Stiffness etc. is good enough in either material. Temperature should be no issue as you probably do not plan to let temps go up higher than 50 Celsius among the drives, I presume.
  • orange blinking led: whenever you change CPU or RAM that's detected (hence the blinking led); to turn that off just go into BIOS (it will report the hardware change very briefly on screen, if I remember correctly), maybe saving (unchanged) BIOS settings is required too, to get rid of the blinking led (can't remember). After a new start the blinking led should be gone.
  • 3.5" hdd: it's quite possible to fit in one in the big bay near the power supply. I had to very slightly bend the pretty stiff sheet metal guiding rail, though. And there are even two nicely fitting holes on the outer side of the cage to fix the drive with standard screws, which I found sufficient. No vibrational decoupling from the rest of the case, however.
It would be absolutely great to find some way to mount a second 3.5" hdd for a zfs mirror. But that seems almost impossible given the cramped space (without removing the 2.5 bays, of course).

Also, should someone find a simple way to elegantly improvise a 2x 3.5" cage for the space the 2.5" bays occupy (without having to purchase the OEM parts), I might consider getting a second machine. ;-)
 

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Bjorn Smith

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I got this message from the seller of my units today:
Which cpu did you use? They are working just with 7th generation. You have to do a bios update, then they work also with 6th generation.

So that confirms my thoughts thatI need a v6 Xeon to update, then I can use my v5's :)
 

Rand__

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So v6 support only was originally planned but reality made them go back and patch in v5 support at a later point ... interesting
 

Bjorn Smith

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So v6 support only was originally planned but reality made them go back and patch in v5 support at a later point ... interesting
Probably :) Its also a possibility that its a mistake :)
So beware updating to even newer version, who knows if they remove support gain.
 

Rand__

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Which version did your seller specify to be the first to support v5 again?
It was working fine on the latest (which was on the testbox) after all...
 

Bjorn Smith

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Which version did your seller specify to be the first to support v5 again?
It was working fine on the latest (which was on the testbox) after all...
They did not, they just wrote exactly what I pasted, that it had to be updated, to a non specified version :)