New To Server Building - Have SuperMicro Chassis

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Ryan Williams

New Member
Sep 23, 2017
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Hello all! I found myself coming back to these forums time and time again trying to research about these SuperMicro chassis that I have. So, I thought why not just sign up and participate. I own an electronics salvage business, usually getting mostly consumer grade things, but sometimes stuff like this...

I have a cryptocurrency hobby. I already mine Burstcoin (Proof of Capacity), and Storj. You can look those up if you want to know more about them (or ask me), but basically the more space I have available, the better. I currently am mining with a few SFF desktops with mostly external drives totaling about 100TB. These server chassis I have seemed to be the right fit for me. I have about 30 3TB and 2TB drives to be put to work right now. I am very glad to have found this forum!

The first picture below is a SC836 Chassis that I'm wanting to put together. It's unused, but only has the SAS836TQ backplane for it. There is no PDU or PSU, motherboard, extra cabling...nothing. The second is much older, as is Silicon Mechanics branded with a SuperMicro H8DAE motherboard, and 3 x GIN-3650P power supplies.

So, the first order of business was for me to get power supplies into the first chassis. I was about to buy a power distribution unit, and power supplies, but thought perhaps I should ask if anyone has any input on if I am choosing the wrong ones. I have picked the PDB-PT825-8824 and two PWS-801-1R . I normally use what I have lying around, but these need parts purchased...noise is not a factor, just going for cheap parts to get this running. Are these going to fit into my chassis?

Thank you all for reading.

Ryan

Edit - Of course, I think I put this post into the wrong section...please move if necessary.





 
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Jeggs101

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Dec 29, 2010
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What I do is I go to SM's site and find servers based on the case I bought. They've got a show parts list feature near the bottom that lets you look all this stuff up and see options.

For the next time you do this, buy a case with a power supply already in it. Servers aren't like desktops. You'll find it much easier to get both. On ebay, cases with psus are cheap.
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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I seem to think that the newer chassis shipped with the PD826-8824, but as far as I remember, the 1U gold finger type power supplies were all pretty much interchangeable. I haven't done this myself, so wait till someone here with more experience with them chimes in :)

Oh and welcome to the madhouse m8 :D
 

Terry Kennedy

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Jun 25, 2015
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The first picture below is a SC836 Chassis that I'm wanting to put together. It's unused, but only has the SAS836TQ backplane for it. There is no PDU or PSU, motherboard, extra cabling...nothing.
That looks like a very old SC836 case - it has 3-wire fans and a PATA optical bay. The Dell / Compellent SC836 you can find on eBay are somewhat newer, w/ 4-wire fans. Those aren't the "B" version of the chassis which has a removable blank below the dual power supplies which you can swap with a 2 * 2.5" drive bay, but if you don't need that, the Compellent chassis can be a good deal.

You may end up paying more for 2 * PS + PDU than you would for a whole chassis that already has them. Even if the chassis you find has an old SAS1 expander backplane, you can swap it with the backplane from this case.

If you do decide to purchase the loose power parts, make sure you have the right PDU for that power supply model - not all of them interchange (wider connectors). You may also need a 8-pin EPS12V extension, depending on what motherboard you use - on some boards, the PDU cables won't reach.
 

Ryan Williams

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Sep 23, 2017
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Thank you all very much for your replies! These chassis, I got for free, which is why I would like to use them. I hardly ever purchase equipment, but it was convenient that I was wanting something that could power a lot of hard drives, and have these available.

@Jeggs101 @pricklypunter I have spent a lot of time browsing through the SM website, and looking at the different combinations they have, but I was looking for an even cheaper solution than what I found .. So I have been browsing these forums to find other parts that would fit. I can't find the thread now, but I had read that the SC835 PDU would work in the SC836 case that I have (PDB-PT825-8824). I can get that for around $20-25 used. I assumed from there that the PSU units listed on the SC836 PDF spec sheet would work with this PDU as well....and the PWS-801-1R power supplies are also inexpensive at around $25 ea.

@Terry Kennedy Thank you for points on this regarding the extension, and compatibility with PSU/PDU. I have thought that this SC836 case was older than what I find on the SM website. I have read that there was a connection size difference with some models, but also read about dremeling the edges of the female connector away. I haven't found a motherboard that I will use yet on this, but I have a constant supply of desktops coming in...I should only need something with 4 cores, and 16GB memory. I have looked at a lot of different chassis on ebay, and think that if I didn't go with using these, that perhaps a JBOD setup would be a better solution for me... I have also just considered cutting the entire power supply cage out of this chassis.

If anyone is using a PDB-PT825-8824 PDU in their SC836 chassis, let me know! I can live with spending another $100 on this right now as long as the PWS-801-1R are able to work with it (even with some modification).