My Modded SE3016 with Intel SAS Expander

[DaSaint]

Hey all,

Just wanted to share my SE3016 Mod that i did just in case someone else gets interested in the same idea.

Mods that were done were
1) 80 to 120MM Noctua Fans ($20/ea) CFM went from 84.1 to ~65 CFM per fan
Amazon.com: Noctua 120mm, 3 Speed Setting Anti-Stall Knobs Design SSO2 Bearing Case Cooling Fan NF-S12A FLX: Computers & Accessories

2) Original SAS Expander replaced with Intel RES2SV240NC - Got for 110 on Ebay
Intel SAS RAID Expander Card Serial ATA/600 Serial Attached SCSI PCI Express x4 | eBay
FYI i mounted this to the top of the PSU using 2 of the screws that held the PSU together with some motherboard screws and stands, holds in there tight and hovers behind with the fans to keep cool!

3) SFF-8088 Connector Replacement (~50$ for all of this)
Amazon.com: Cable Matters Internal Mini-SAS to Internal Mini-SAS Cable 1.6 Feet / 0.5m: Computers & Accessories
and
Amazon.com: CableDeconn Dual Mini SAS SFF-8088 To SAS36P SFF-8087 Adapter In PCI bracket: Computers & Accessories
used the SFF Bracket it (Warning these units do not fit 2U) drilled and used the holes already created in the front to mount it from the front in then used some Machine screws to hold the back up from touching the top of the case.

4) PSU Replacement with SS-400H1U (got these way back when on ebay for 2 for 30$ but sadly not no more!)
I used a PSU Pin puller to use the original cables on the device since it had detachable molex connectors it seemed logical plus it made the unit way more quieter than the original PSU which was loud...


All in all about 220$ in parts and i got something quiet short depth and now works great with my new 8TB WD Reds that i got... Figured i would share what i had!!

 

[Patrick]

That looks cool!

 

[DaSaint]

Thanks Patrick!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[sporker]

Looks great! I have one that I was planning to do something similar with.

How are the drive temperatures with the fan replacements? Any recommendations for a similar PSU model I could look for?

 

[DaSaint]

I am waiting for a few more parts but from what i can tell u just Idle (No workloads) sitting in my office in colorado ~74 degrees inside the house the Temps out of the drives say around 34-37C with the mods

The basement where i plan on having it all is much colder down there usually hides in the mid to late 60's so typical temps are much lower on the other systems i have down there but havent gone through that testing as of yet.

 

[lucrat]

Nice
How is with noise level?
If you can compare to original PSU?

 

[DaSaint]

Original psu was high pitched I hated it with the one I replaced it with very quiet and the fan mods make good flow with silence

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[lucrat]

Original psu was high pitched I hated it with the one I replaced it with very quiet and the fan mods make good flow with silence

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Today I received fans and grills. I will try replace original PSU 40mm fan with 60mm Noctua NF-A6x25 (installed on top of PSU). If it will work, will cheaper; I can't find cheap ss400 or something similar SFF-8088 will installed on back, if will possible, of course
How is with SATA link speed in your raid card? In my case, 3ware 9690 + se3016, SAS has 3g link, SATA only 1.5. And no matter if settings are auto or manual [emoji14]
I wanna connect 6g SATA HDD to internal SAS port, and check speed without expander, but... "Where I put this f... cable"
Also, now 6g SAS hdds are not very expensive... I like WD Reds, but if speed will low...
(And I apologize for my English, but it's not my native language

Sent from my hlte using Tapatalk

 

[DaSaint]

Hey There,

The card i got does 6Gb SAS/SATA on the expander, right now my new configuration is still using that chassis the way i built it now is my main chassis has dual SAS-3008's with a 12Gb Expander on it connected to that expander and the other bays its frikken fast tho.. everything is 6Gb or 12Gb connected into the environment.

I never installed the connector on the back as you can see in my pic i modded mine to use that plug and used the SAS-8088 Cable connector duals to it.

In that chassis i have 8x4TB Seagate NAS Drives and 8x8TB WD Reds installed. depending on the OS you are using for the drives you can use caching mechanisms to deal with that...

I am running FreeNAS connecting some SAS-SSDs to those drives for the speed caching (ZIL/SLOG) and then i have a SSD Array with 8x400GB Hitachi SSDs connected on the SAS-3008 directly so im getting max performance out of those drives for my Virutals and using the 8x8TB setup for backups and what not.

 

[scobar]

Heh, I had thought about doing this exact mod a few years back but really didn't have a reason to other than "because I could". Ended up just putting quieter fans in it and calling it a day.

 

[falchionwielder]

Hey all,

Just wanted to share my SE3016 Mod that i did just in case someone else gets interested in the same idea.

Mods that were done were
1) 80 to 120MM Noctua Fans ($20/ea) CFM went from 84.1 to ~65 CFM per fan
Amazon.com: Noctua 120mm, 3 Speed Setting Anti-Stall Knobs Design SSO2 Bearing Case Cooling Fan NF-S12A FLX: Computers & Accessories

2) Original SAS Expander replaced with Intel RES2SV240NC - Got for 110 on Ebay
Intel SAS RAID Expander Card Serial ATA/600 Serial Attached SCSI PCI Express x4 | eBay
FYI i mounted this to the top of the PSU using 2 of the screws that held the PSU together with some motherboard screws and stands, holds in there tight and hovers behind with the fans to keep cool!

3) SFF-8088 Connector Replacement (~50$ for all of this)
Amazon.com: Cable Matters Internal Mini-SAS to Internal Mini-SAS Cable 1.6 Feet / 0.5m: Computers & Accessories
and
Amazon.com: CableDeconn Dual Mini SAS SFF-8088 To SAS36P SFF-8087 Adapter In PCI bracket: Computers & Accessories
used the SFF Bracket it (Warning these units do not fit 2U) drilled and used the holes already created in the front to mount it from the front in then used some Machine screws to hold the back up from touching the top of the case.

4) PSU Replacement with SS-400H1U (got these way back when on ebay for 2 for 30$ but sadly not no more!)
I used a PSU Pin puller to use the original cables on the device since it had detachable molex connectors it seemed logical plus it made the unit way more quieter than the original PSU which was loud...


All in all about 220$ in parts and i got something quiet short depth and now works great with my new 8TB WD Reds that i got... Figured i would share what i had!!

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Hi DaSaint,

I'm looking at doing something very similar to what you are doing since I somehow ended up with 2 of the SE3016s from several years ago. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions along the way?

1. Why did you go with the Intel card you selected? Isn't it a 24 port card? Would something like this not work just as well?

2. My SE3016 has a lot more PCBs than yours seems to have including an ethernet port connected to the small PCB where the on/off switch is as well as some sort of card that runs an ethernet cable to the front pcb with the on/off switch. Did you take that one out of your system completely? What does that daughter card do?

3. How loud is the fan on the PSU? Is it possible to get by without replacing it? The fans on the back seem like they're no issue but pulling the PSU looks like it won't be fun.

4. Is there a way to synchronize the power button from the server with this unit (i.e. make them both come on or turn off at the same time?)

I'm trying to decide if this is worth the effort or not for my use-case. Thank you for pulling off an amazing mod!