Potential Deal: 2 x Dual 2011 nodes @$199, Quanta Openrack

[voxadam]

Firstly, is there any chance someone can grab a high res shot of the area that's supposed to have MiniSAS connectors? I know the Quanta boards aren't fitted with them, but I'm curious if it's just the headers that are missing.

I'm curious about these connections as well. According to the OCP docs (§4.5 and §10.2) PCIe port3a/IOU1 and 3port3b/IOU1 of the CPU should be routed to the miniSAS connectors. These PCIe connections are/were designed to allow for multiple systems to be connected together using PCIe NTB (non-transparent bridging).

Even if the only part missing from these boards are the miniSAS connectors there are a few more potential issues to overcome. First, the system firmware must support NTB. I'm guessing that even if the shipped firmware doesn't support NTB it may be possible to enable support via a mod, though, that's wild speculation. The other issue is that from my understanding of things until the E5-2600v3 series there are some fairly serious hardware bugs related to interrupts and NTB.

Anyway, even forgetting the possibility of NTB having access to two additional x4 PCIe ports is intriguing.

--adam

 

[vejmarie]

What about Imgur, Google Drive, Dropbox or whatnot?

I sent them through email finally. I will try to push them on our website as you could access to them. I do not really know how to setup a public google drive, but I will try to do that tonight.

 

[vejmarie]

Is anyone running these in a datacenter on 220V?

Yes any specific technical questions ?

 

[vejmarie]

What about Imgur, Google Drive, Dropbox or whatnot?

Ok, I setup a drive Windmill – Disk Google

I think it shall work, just let me know if not. If people need any other pictures feel free to ask I will add them on the drive

 

[Taverner]

I'm curious about these connections as well. According to the OCP docs (§4.5 and §10.2) PCIe port3a/IOU1 and 3port3b/IOU1 of the CPU should be routed to the miniSAS connectors----

---Anyway, even forgetting the possibility of NTB having access to two additional x4 PCIe ports is intriguing.

--adam

So the purpose and usage of the external PCIE links is over my head, but I've been looking into what's not attached on the boards. The specification includes 5x MiniSAS headers - 2x Right angle external (presumably 8088 connectors) and 3x vertical 8087 connectors.

People have been discussing potential BIOS compatibility between the Quanta F03a/b/c - I'm not sure what the outcome of that was, but It appears that the F03A has the internal SAS ports installed. I'd be guessing it's just a matter of adding the connector, and perhaps one or two passive components.

 

[Janiashvili]

Hello everybody!

I found these units on eBay and Googling sent me here! They seem to be.. Well quite good on paper.

I've read its power supply works for 220v and that's good for me, but it had some issues as well..

So I'm 3D artist and just newcomer for freelancing, so I'm on very low budget, and that dual node seems to be perfect for me...

I have read some people say it doesn't work with Win 8+, others say it works with both new GPUs and newer Win OSes (Win 10)..

So can anybody help me deciding to buy it and what should I do if I decide so.

I'm thinking to set double workstation out of it, or is it possible to use both of them as one 4p unit?

Cheers everybody!

 

[smithse79]

The Quanta version can be made to work with recent versions of Windows. My understanding is that the Wywynn version would need a BIOS update that they either won't release, or never made. As for GPU, they work fine if your GPU doesn't require external power (most quadro, etc.. don't require extra power). If it does require power, you'll have to find a different way to power the system and, IMO, you lose a lot of the advantages of this type of system. Also, note that the PCIE slot is PCIEV2 not PCIEV3. Cards should still work, but they won't be quite as fast.

All that said, I have a Quanta setup with one node running Centos 6 and the other running Windows Server 2012R2. They both run flawlessly and both have older GPUs that have no issues. For power I bought one of the 120V to 220V transformers mentioned earlier in this thread for ~$50 and it's been working great.

I think that these are a great deal in the grand scheme, maybe not quite as great as they once were with the day of super cheap E5-2670 (I'm running 4 in my setup), but still good.

 

[voxadam]

One thing to keep in mind about GPUs is the limited clearance, a full length card isn't going to fit. It should be possible to install a larger card using something like a flexible PCIe extension, external PCIe bay, just know you'll be much more on your own when it comes to such solutions.

It's unfortunate that E5-2670 have increased in price so dramatically. Personally, I'm thinking about going with slightly slower E5-2660 CPUs. While they're clocked at 2.2 GHz instead of 2.6 GHz their TDP is a bit lower at 95 W instead of 115 W and they can be had for less than $60 OBO on eBay.

 

[Janiashvili]

Thanks guys,
I'm on old world's standard, we are having 220v so that's not a problem.
Though for video card (650 GTX) - it has 6 pin PCIe power, though on NVidias' website only 175 w is its requirement (I know you guys know what it means , PCIe slot should be providing that much), however isn't it possible to use second power supply (desktop PSU)?


Guys I have very little understanding of servers, so don't mind if I ask something strange


And what about external ports, it got only two USB ports which I'll have to use for a keyboard and a mouse? ()

And about price - yeah, I just begun freelancing from a space my university provided, and my budget expands very slowly, want to buy the working computer to build shiny portfolio. So to say truth at the moment I'm still awaiting payment from two clients
So, if budget continues growing this slow (I really hope not) even 2670s may experience price drop

Anyway, E5-2660s suit well since new AMD products release old HW prices may drop quite a lot, so that means soon tile will come for the v2s

 

[billchurch]

I have one of these Quanta Windmill boxes (2 node) and it's working great so far. 2 x E5-2660 w/ SR0KK stepping (supports both VT-x and VT-d).

However I was wondering if anyone has gotten VT-x or VT-d to enable and successfully boot. When I enable VT-d in the BIOS, system seems to hang at boot. I don't even get the boot menu (after post).

Otherwise system is running great, but need the VT-x action.

 

[billchurch]

Just an update. So I think I was just impatient on the boot process of this. All the BIOS settings worked and VT-d is working just fine (setup a 2012R2 server and dedicated a GPU as well as USB Keyboard and Mouse. Pretty easy, using proxmox and followed instructions here: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Pci_passthrough and USB physical port mapping - Proxmox VE

 

[server_lol]

I am not experienced with power supplies, so please help

If I buy the breakout board adapter and the HP PSU, how would I plug the Quanta power plug (C14?) into the breakout board?

In the event that not everyone is comfortable with hacking power supplies, or simply would prefer a premade solution I found that there are adapters available for the HP Common Slot power supplies. It seems that the PSUs are quite popular with *Coin miners and someone decided to fill a void and market a fairly turnkey solution.

Original source:
GIGAMPZ Power supplies for Bitcoin & Ethereum mining, Industrial grade, Energy Efficient, unbeatable value.

Much cheaper eBay option:
Breakout Board Adapter for HP 1200 Watt DPS-1200FB Power Supply Bitcoin - US$26.98 eBay

EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention something.

I also found another adapter that was designed to power up to eight PCIe GPUs which I thougth may be of interest to someone.

Breakout Board Adapter for HP 1200w DPS-1200FB Power Supply GPU - US$29.00 eBay



DISCLAIMER: I have no association with either of these products, their sellers, or manufacturers nor have I used any of the products mentioned. I simply discovered them while doing some personal research and thought others might find the information useful.

 

[Jaket]

Was going to pick a few of these up for some colocation however was told they wouldn't fit in normal racks. Great deal if they do fit in them however!

 

[server_lol]

You mean, I couldn't just plug in the keyboard and use it? I would just need the keyboard. Thanks

Just an update. So I think I was just impatient on the boot process of this. All the BIOS settings worked and VT-d is working just fine (setup a 2012R2 server and dedicated a GPU as well as USB Keyboard and Mouse. Pretty easy, using proxmox and followed instructions here: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Pci_passthrough and USB physical port mapping - Proxmox VE

 

[craigdabbs]

Hello everyone,

new member here and signed up after reading this thread, lots of good info to digest.

I have been looking to upgrade my home server to something more powerful and have been looking into dual xeons.
The purpose for my server is serving media via emby, with the new HVEC codec becoming more popular my current server is having to transcode it. My current setup uses Arch Linux so i hope it would run ok on these.

This seems the cheapest way of getting a dual xeon setup working, i have a couple of questions if someone could help that would be great.

1. I live in the UK (240v standard )so is it possible to just install a plug on the power cord and plug in
2. Internal power cables for disk drives, i could not see any in the pictures
3. Is it possible to only power up one node at a time as i would not need the second for a while
4. I see a rj45 port on the mainboard, is this for network or remote management (dnt want to waste a pcie slot for a nic)
5. Only 2 sata ports, they mention a mini sas connector but i assume the hardware is not physically connected and unusable?
5. I have a duel satellite tuner and pcie raid card. Would these run ok together on the dual riser card. After removing video card.
6. Im tempted with the QUANTA windmill as it has the updated bios for the newer v2 cpus.

Hope someone sheds some light on these questions.

thanks for your time

 

[StammesOpfer]

My experience is with the quanta windmill
1) UK 240v will work fine.
2) Each side has one power and sata cable. If you need a second the power cable will be difficult to find and there isn't really a place to put more than 2 drives total (1 for each half).
3) Yes each half can be powered up independently. Small red button on the board is the power button. When power is applied they return to last state (turned on when power removed they will power on. Turned off when power was removed they will not power on).
4) RJ45 can be used as standard NIC
5) No one that I have seen has SAS working.
5 again) On the one that has the riser it should work as long as the power draw isn't excessively high.
6) If you want to run Windows or an OS the requires the newer features then get the Quanta. Are v2 CPUs worth the cost? (I got the cheap $55 2670v1) If not it shouldn't matter.

 

[smithse79]

My experience is with the quanta windmill
1) UK 240v will work fine.
2) Each side has one power and sata cable. If you need a second the power cable will be difficult to find and there isn't really a place to put more than 2 drives total (1 for each half).
3) Yes each half can be powered up independently. Small red button on the board is the power button. When power is applied they return to last state (turned on when power removed they will power on. Turned off when power was removed they will not power on).
4) RJ45 can be used as standard NIC
5) No one that I have seen has SAS working.
5 again) On the one that has the riser it should work as long as the power draw isn't excessively high.
6) If you want to run Windows or an OS the requires the newer features then get the Quanta. Are v2 CPUs worth the cost? (I got the cheap $55 2670v1) If not it shouldn't matter.

I'm gonna second what he said except the disk power cables, I found them on Aliexpress and ebay pretty easily. Granted they take weeks to ship from China but they do arrive and do work. Also, I'm using SSDs in mine and just have them stacked up in the disk area. Not secured at all. If I feel like they need to be, I can velcro them in later. If I were using spinning drives, I'd plan on something different however.

 

[craigdabbs]

thanks for the quick replies.

checking ebay there is not much of a difference between the v1 and v2 in the uk. Most of the cheap ones on there come from the hong kong. I take it its best to stay away from engineering samples with these boards?

 

[voxadam]

Has anyone even tried to bring the SAS controllers up?

 

[some1else]

thanks for the quick replies.

checking ebay there is not much of a difference between the v1 and v2 in the uk. Most of the cheap ones on there come from the hong kong. I take it its best to stay away from engineering samples with these boards?

I've tested with stepping QA8Z, QA8X and QDU4. With the firts 2 and bios A13 the board made to POST, although only with CPU 0. With 2 processors installed - it's a no go. When I used only one CPU with the first 2 steppings, the CPU worked only at 12x multiplier not ever trying to go higher and the node worked extremely slow - like such CPU should make about 750 Cinenebench points and it did ... 56. Very very slow.

Not sure what the situation was with QDU4 but as far as I can remember it didn't boot at all.

QA8X and QA8Z should be E5-2660 V1 ES processor and QDU4 should be 2640 V2.

Of course, it doesn't mean that there are no ES processors supported in this board.