HP S6500 and SL230s Gen8 - CRAZY deal

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frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
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@OBasel there is a known issue with HP fan-control where in IT mode the onboard controller doesn't properly send some kind of data back causing higher than normal fan speeds. I can't find it anymore though.
 

funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
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ioflood.com
OK here's the link: HP ProLiant S6500 Enclosure Chassis + Bare SL230s G8 Gen8 Nodes Fans + Rail Kit

If you've been buying or were thinking of getting those open compute servers, I think these have a case to be made.

8 nodes in 4U for $600 and says free UPS 2 day shipping.

That is $75 per node and these look like they take E5 V1 and V2 processors.

That's $2580 without BO's for 8x nodes:
  • 8 core/ 16 thread (e5-2670)
  • 64GB RAM
  • 2x 1Gb, 1x SFP+
  • iLO 4 - no idea of the status

And you have many expansion options for new CPUs and RAM. Looks like these support V2 chips as well so they aren't just V1's like the Dell C6220. Heck, you could throw 2 of those $100 4TB SATA drives in there and have an 8 node cluster with 64TB of storage, 512GB RAM, 64 cores/ 128 threads all in 4U and for $4000. Double the RAM and CPUs is easy.

I'm thinking about getting one or two and setting it up diskless with single CPUs. Then when the V2's flood the market putting the 8 CPUs in 4 nodes and getting 8x V2's.
I bought the chassis in your first link. It does -not- support v2's. Has latest bios. Not sure what else to try.
 

funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
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ioflood.com
Take a look at the quickspecs for the sl230s :
http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04128238.pdf

Around page 25 it lists the 10GbE options for the FlexLOM slot or you can use whatever you want in the PCIe 3 .0 x16 slot on the other side.
Should work with a mellanox "qsa" adapter (qsfp->sfp adapter). Haven't tried on this specific card yet, but that works on other mellanox 40g nics. <$20 per adapter.
 

Oscaru

New Member
Mar 3, 2017
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I bought the chassis in your first link. It does -not- support v2's. Has latest bios. Not sure what else to try.
Hi, I bought one S6500 chassis too, and it doesn't work with Ivy Bridge V2 CPUs. All nodes have latest Bios and iLO.

Any thoughts or tip will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
 

funkywizard

mmm.... bandwidth.
Jan 15, 2017
848
402
63
USA
ioflood.com
I've not had any luck with that and the v2's. There are motherboard versions that support the v2's. The most foolproof way is just to buy the modules with v2 cpus already installed -- they would have to screw up pretty bad to give you an incompatible motherboard at that point.