Need a really quiet 16-drive 3.5" dual-expander rack mount JBOD

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Wondersausage

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Dec 22, 2015
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I've outgrown the S3012 and while its build quality was cheesy as heck and generated some enclosure-management errors, at least it wasn't noisy.

So I'm looking for a 16-drive SAS3 dual-expander chassis that is really quiet. This is for an A/V recording studio and the server is nearby -- noise carries. 120mm mid-case fans would be ideal.

We don't need to cheap out with surplus like we did with the S3012.

Suggestions appreciated.
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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Define "quiet" :D

I would say supermicro SC836BE2C-R1K03B has most features you want:
  • dual expanders
  • sas3
  • 16 bays (20 with additional gear)
  • rackmount chassis
  • quiet psus and fans with pwm support
  • high quality (chassis/expanders/psus)
The only thing it doesn't have is 120mm fans.
 

bitrot

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Aug 7, 2017
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Whatever you do, buy Supermicro.

Great enterprise grade quality, a ton of options, the best 'ecosystem' - basically every part is replaceable and every chassis 'modable' to your needs, great availability, including second hand gear for cheap on eBay.
 
Sep 4, 2017
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Ironically, a loud Supermicro is what I'm trying to replace -- SC846A-R1200B. In quiet mode (which isn't particularly quiet) I'm seeing dangerous heat levels for the passively cooled CPUs and dual LSI RAID controllers, whereas in balanced mode it's loud and in cool mode it's a jet engine. Admittedly the current socket 1366 CPUs are old (X5670) but are only 95w TDP which is just 10w more than Scalable silver. I've also gone through a power supply a year which hasn't earned it any friends.

What really kicked this off is that I installed a Synology DS3617xs which holds 12 drives in almost complete silence. It's rated at 22.3 dB and while setting it up I had it on an office desk, it was perfectly OK to work right next to it. The question raised was, why don't we just use some little box as the Windows server and use iSCSI on the Synology for storage, but I'm not convinced that would be reliable.

I can't even look at Supermicro anymore (literally) because our corporate parent (or their security provider, it's unclear which) followed Apple's lead in blocking Supermicro.com on the firewall since the firmware malware incident earlier this year.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Well it sounds like a little more requirements are in order then.
If you need just *some* storage (ie Gigabit speed or 2-300MB/s bulk copy transfer) then a 12 bay Synology can deliver.
If you need more (space/speed/IOPS/flexibility) then you need something else.

So single user, workgroup (multi IO), workload type will help :)
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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I'm seeing dangerous heat levels for the passively cooled CPUs and dual LSI RAID controllers
:eek::eek:

With supermicros standard fans or others? (I can't imagine that supermicro would sell a system/chassis that can't cool all components)
 
Sep 4, 2017
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Well it sounds like a little more requirements are in order then.
If you need just *some* storage (ie Gigabit speed or 2-300MB/s bulk copy transfer) then a 12 bay Synology can deliver.
If you need more (space/speed/IOPS/flexibility) then you need something else.

So single user, workgroup (multi IO), workload type will help :)
Actually the Synology should not be underestimated, giving >1GBps sustained sequential over 10GbE with 9x WD Red 10TB in RAID6. It's used for our media files.

The Windows server runs documents during the day (only for 5 users) and client workstation backups during the night via Essentials (which may sound trivial but our workstations have 6TB each [3x 2TB NVMe SSDs] and have to be done by daybreak so they all have 10GbE). The server uses the direct connect backplane version of the 846 chassis with 8 bays run by a MegaRAID 9260-8i and the other 16 bays by a 9280-16i4e with SSD caching. I'm going to replace those controllers because Broadcom has disowned the 9280-16i4e and completely removed its drivers, firmware, etc. from their site :(
 
Sep 4, 2017
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:eek::eek:

With supermicros standard fans or others? (I can't imagine that supermicro would sell a system/chassis that can't cool all components)
Well you truncated my sentence there, I said with the BIOS "in quiet mode". My 2 MegaRAID adapters, as well as my Intel x540-T2 10GBase-T NIC, are fanless and have specific chassis airflow requirements. It would probably work fine with, say, Areca cards which have onboard fans.
 

bitrot

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Aug 7, 2017
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@KC@Gadgetblues
Let’s say that’s weird at least, as a 4U SC846 is actually one of the easier models to make quieter.

I even managed to make a 2U SC826 (Xeon Silver 4114 system) almost silent by replacing the stock fans with Noctuas and adding a 2U Supermicro active CPU heatsink, also modified with a Noctua fan. Temperatures are perfectly fine, both CPU (rarely exceeds 60°C, even after hours of abuse) and hard disks (12 x WD Red 8TB, even after 24 hours of constant read and write never higher than 45°C, 3 NVMe SSDs (the same), also 2 SATA SSDs that admittedly don't have a lot of work to do).

So it is possible to replace the stock fans with something quieter, either from Supermicro themselves (there are quieter models for their workstation line) or if that's not enough, third party aftermarket fans like the Noctuas, as long as you plan your system accordingly. Which means: energy efficient hardware (e.g. in my case, a Supermicro X11SPH-NCTF motherboard that has everything 'on board' - no addon cards necessary), energy efficient drives (e.g. WD Reds) and actually, energy efficient software, a factor that is often overlooked. A non-striped array of disks is a lot easier to cool, for example, as only the disks that are accessed actually have to spin. For media server purposes, as in my case, the drawbacks like lower performance (of the array - cache drives help a lot to counter that) are perfectly acceptable. It also helps to use some IPMI software to control the fans and not just use the bios settings for that, as they usually offer more options and a more fine-grained control.

A 4U SC846 actually gives you even more options. 4U CPU coolers are quieter and more powerful, you have a lot more air in the chassis to begin with. You could even mod the chassis and replace the 80mm fans in the front with 120mm ones.

Plus, you're comparing apples and oranges, a rackmount Supermicro enterprise grade chassis with a Synology desktop NAS. The rackmount Synology models are a lot louder actually. Don't get me wrong, I've been a long time Synology user myself, still have a few Synology NAS in my possession, including a 12 Bay variant similar to the DS3617xs noise wise. Synology offers good software, easy to configure and maintain, but you pay for that convenience with lower flexibility, both hardware and software wise. A truly powerful Synology system costs a fortune, and is still considerably less powerful than a DIY machine, or even a Dell, HP server etc. and the like. Not to mention that you can't really change or upgrade the hardware. The software, while easy to use and very good, still has its limitations, too, e.g. when it comes to virtualisation.

Those are some of the reasons why I actually went the opposite direction, from Synology / QNAP to Supermicro DIY and never looked back.
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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third party aftermarket fans like the Noctuas, as long as you plan your system accordingly.
If he had cooling problems with original supermicro fans, than noctua fans will make it even worse.
I have 3x industrial 140mm fans in the fron & 1x industrial 120mm in the rear in my workstation (lian li pc-a75) , they run way faster than standard "brown" noctua fans. But they don't provide enough static pressure to cool raid controllers*/hbas or similar add-in cards.

*I could hear the alarm signal from the adaptec 81605zq 4 rooms away when I put that controller in my workstation for firmware update :D
 

bitrot

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Aug 7, 2017
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He doesn't really have a cooling problem, though. He basically says that the IPMI settings are either too loud (with adequate cooling) or when they are not, the cooling is not adequate. Even just more flexibility by using some IPMI software could go a long way in his case, e.g. manually changing the temperature threshold of the fans.

But true, SAS addon cards are a a bitch to cool, not exactly the most energy efficient hardware, especially the older models.