Need help comparing multiple Supermicro 826 offers

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NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
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Hey,

I'm planning to replace my Supermicro SC825 chassis with SC826 chassis and additionally equip the SC826s with a hybrid backplane (BPN-SAS3-826A-N4).

However, I cannot really decide on the offers and need your help to evaluate which offer is the best

Offer 1Offer 2Offer 3
Chassis RevisionUnknownUnknownUnknown
Caddies12x includedNONE12x included (4 of which with 2.5" Adapter and colour coded)
PSUs2x 501P-1R2x 920P-1R2x 920P-SQ
RailsMCP-290-00053-0NNONENONE
BackplaneBPN-SAS2-826-EL1BPN-SAS-826ABPN-SAS3-826A-N4
Misc-X9DRi-LN4F+ Mobo + 2x SNK-P0048P-
Price210,-€216,80€462,18€
Price + new BPN-SAS3-826A-N4 if necessary375,76€382,56€462,18€

A BPN-SAS3-826A-N4 costs me around 165,76€ per piece.

All three offers have their pros and cons...
All three have nice PSUs (Platinum).
Offer 1 has rack rails and the SAS2-826-EL1 backplane which I could try to sell.
Offer 2 has NO caddies and the simple 826A backplane (which isn't necessarily bad, but not worth much), but has the mainboard which I could try to sell...
Offer 3 has the 920P-SQ PSUs and the matching backplane already, but that's about it.

I don't know whether the 920P-SQ PSUs can justify the 86,42€ difference compared with offer 1. Additionally Offer 3 has no rails and when I buy the 826A-N4 backplane I can still try to sell the SAS2-826-EL1 backplane

What do you think?
 

BlueFox

Legendary Member Spam Hunter Extraordinaire
Oct 26, 2015
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There's essentially no demand for 826 backplanes, so it's unlikely you'd be able to sell the others for anything worthwhile. The SQ PSUs are also a lot more expensive (near $100 each) and considerably quieter, if that's of concern. If the chassis has an NVMe enabled backplane, it is likely a very recent revision.
 
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i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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How many u.2 ssds do you plan to use?
If 2 max then you could get just the rear hdd/SSD Kit with nvme Support (PN: MCP-220-82619-0N)
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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...just the rear hdd/SSD Kit with nvme Support (PN: MCP-220-82619-0N)
If the chassis in question is recent enough to support it :) Else a few more parts are needed which seem hard to come by...
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
I recently (last 3 months) rebuilt a pair of stripped down 826B's with N4 backplanes. if the 826's are going into a lab or home environment you really really want either the 501P psu's or the SQ. I can't tell the difference between either of those and have listened to the 920P-R and its a lot louder than the SQ or 501P (but everyone's ears are different and YMMV).

As @ blueFOX says you probably won't get much for the 826-SAS2-EL1.

I like your offer 1 best especially if you need the rails as you don't have to bother with selling items and have pretty much everything you need.

Notes and detail of my builds.

the 826 N4 backplanes I purchased both came without the FRAME. You need the FRAME. Fortunately you can take the frame off a SAS2-826-EL1 backplane and use that on the N4 if yours does not come with the frame. the frame mounting hole positions are the same.

I was unable to fit the SFF-8643 cables I used for u.2 through the fan wall gap at the PSU and had to route the LONG way around (fan wall gap furthest away from the PSU. I also found that right angle SFF-8643 to straight SFF-8643 were a very nice fit and used the right angle SFF-8643 end to connect to the backplane for my initial build and testing.

all costs USD and items purchased via the bay ~334.00 total
826B stripped chassis cost ~70.00 (no psu, no rails, had 826-EL1 backplane and sleds)
N4 backplane (no frame) cost ~150.00 (listed as "new system pulls untested" - worked great)
Rear window 2 drive bay cage ~30.00
qty 2 501P-R psu cost ~20.00 each
qty 4 yellow tab 3.5" SLEDS ~3.00 each (color makes no difference to the operation ;) but its a nice visual)
qty 12 DELL 2.5 to 3.5 adapters ~2.00 each
qty 6 Right angle SFF-8643 1M cables ~5.00 each

I tested using TNC with an X10SRL-F, E5-2620v4, 64GB, HPE/MLX354, 3008 HBA, and a pair of bifurcation required dual u.2 to PCIe adapters (from china). Drives were qty 2 Optane 900P u.2, qty 2 Intel P4510 4TB u.2, and qty 8 3.2TB HGST SS300's.

cse-826-n4.jpg
Testing the 826

(sorry did not take an interior photo of the 826 while I was building it)

These 826B chassis are now awaiting a time when I can mount dual node D1541's and try and make it all play nice together, Different right angle SFF-8643 (adaptec labeled) are needed for the Dual D1541 boards.

All of the 826 innards plus some additions were moved to a 216B that I upgraded with a BPN-SAS3-216A-N4 backplane - different mix of 8643 cables there and total of 9: 5 of the right angle type used in the 826 and 4 supermicro short nvme 8643.

cse-216n4-wired-up.jpg

216 wired up

cse-216n4-front.jpg

216 front