Lack of CSE 846 chasis
- Thread starter Bert
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You are living in the us? 
(In the eu I paid >1600€ for my 846)
I think it's a shortage caused by the "recovery" after covid; a bunch of business started to grow again and need more IT infrasturcture.
The 846 is perfect for a few reasons: together with the 826 it has the highest bay density per rack unit in a "general purpose" formfactor (compared to the massive jbods with >45 bay that require very deep server racks) and it uses "normal" spare parts (compared to the huge jbods)
(In the eu I paid >1600€ for my 846)
I think it's a shortage caused by the "recovery" after covid; a bunch of business started to grow again and need more IT infrasturcture.
The 846 is perfect for a few reasons: together with the 826 it has the highest bay density per rack unit in a "general purpose" formfactor (compared to the massive jbods with >45 bay that require very deep server racks) and it uses "normal" spare parts (compared to the huge jbods)
They were very popular because they used to be half the price and were also considerably higher quality than most alternatives (and arguably still are). At this point, supply has completely dried up as enterprise has switched many years ago to either all SSD or much higher drive densities. They aren't being bought in volume and therefore won't show up on the secondary market in any quantity anymore. To give you an idea of age, I bought my first 846 chassis used off eBay ~15 years ago. Even transplanted my desktop into one to take to Quakecon a long time ago (which some STH members have seen in person actually).
You can get 847 chassis for less, but they're going to be louder and only offer low profile cards (but you do get 36 drives). Expect availability to go down on those and price to increase over time as well. It already has been shifting that way.
You can get 847 chassis for less, but they're going to be louder and only offer low profile cards (but you do get 36 drives). Expect availability to go down on those and price to increase over time as well. It already has been shifting that way.
The 847's are nice for density in a storage server. As far as the MB compartment, 2U's seem to be easier to cool than 4U MB compartments since the 2U height seems to help keep airflow focused over the MB components. Just my observations though. The 847 is literally a CSE-826 chassis melted into a CSE-847. Pretty slick concept for certain uses.
Yep, air shrouds work too! I too use Supermicro active heatsinks in 2U chassis, helps keep things nice and quiet!I use the airshroud in my 836 and 846 in combination with active heatsinks
I don't know where they all went... They were few and far between for a while and now they seem to be almost nonexistent.
Glad I grabbed a few 846 a few years ago they weren't "cheap" ever though, just more avaialble and maybe 100-200$ less than they are now.
That's a lot of money but its' not $1000 more like buying new kind of thing
Personally, unless I needed the height I'd go 847 that takes a motherboard.
Then you can run 4x NVME on the backside with the other backplane that does 4x nvme the rest sas\sata.
That's my gameplan at least
That's a lot of money but its' not $1000 more like buying new kind of thing
Personally, unless I needed the height I'd go 847 that takes a motherboard.
Then you can run 4x NVME on the backside with the other backplane that does 4x nvme the rest sas\sata.
That's my gameplan at least
Sadly, I needed the height.Glad I grabbed a few 846 a few years ago they weren't "cheap" ever though, just more avaialble and maybe 100-200$ less than they are now.
That's a lot of money but its' not $1000 more like buying new kind of thing
Personally, unless I needed the height I'd go 847 that takes a motherboard.
Then you can run 4x NVME on the backside with the other backplane that does 4x nvme the rest sas\sata.
That's my gameplan at least
846s also have the issue where finding an NVMe backplane for them is pretty much impossible at the moment, whereas 847s can take the ~$120 BPN-SAS3-826EL1-N4. Plus, there's the riser-based version of the 847 if you need full-height card support, though you need specific motherboards for that.
I think the newer 846X models support the 2x rear NVMe backplane, but those are even harder to find.
I think the newer 846X models support the 2x rear NVMe backplane, but those are even harder to find.
I have three CSE-846 chassis that have been sitting in storage unused that I should probably get rid of. One is new/never installed and two are used. The new one is a CSE-846A-R1200B and has the BPN-SAS-846A direct attach backplane and 2x PWS-1K21P-1R. I believe the two used ones have one of the expander backplanes and some setup with a x9drd-7ln4f. I also think I have the "quiet" replacement power supplies for these as well. I'll take a look at them and post some details/pics later if you are interested.
BPN-SAS3-846EL1-N8 can be obtained from supermicro through resellers, they seem to have them a little more available. However they are 800+ euro.
I gave up on a cheap 846 and went with an off brand 847 as SM OEM for a lot of other brands and you can still get some bargains - I grabbed an OEM 847 with SAS2 backplanes (EL1) for the equivalent of $240 USD. OK I chose to upgrade from Gold to Platinum SQ PSU’s so that’s more like 300 USD all in, but my only real regret is not buying the other one they had at the time. The 2u build space is mildly restrictive, and the airflow on the back 12 drives is a tad warmer, especially right under the PSU’s, but all easily dealt with and my drive temps are topping out in the low 30’s. Sucks that the 9305 HBA’s are way more expensive than the 9300 though, so your wallet gets hurt one way or another.
In a 836 or 846, 100%. Not quite that simple with only 2U in an 847, that’s where the 9305 is useful, the 3008 based stuff works, but only 8i rather than 16/24i.
You can get low-profile expanders like the 82885T. Kind of a pain to route the cables if you have it right up against another card, but still doable.
Well I got CSE-847 (sas3 backplane with 2 2.5" caddies) and then another CSE-846. The dilemma is I have no good use for them and not sure if I should sell one of them or keep on chugging them around. Really having FOMO of Supermicro chassis
So is 847 the last of its type? That would definitely make them impossible to get in the near future.
So is 847 the last of its type? That would definitely make them impossible to get in the near future.
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There hasn't been a new one in a while (though there are third party clones), but there isn't really anything obsolete about it. Spinning rust doesn't need 24G SAS. Officially, it's only available with 4+8 NVMe slots, but if you can track down an -N12 backplane, you can have all 2 rear drive slots support NVMe. But that being said, if you really need that much NVMe, you're better off with an SFF chassis anyway.Well I got CSE-847 (sas3 backplane with 2 2.5" caddies) and then another CSE-846. The dilemma is I have no good use for them and not sure if I should sell one of them or keep on chugging them around
So is 847 the last of its type?