What model card worked for you? I know you were saying that some newer cards are too large and/or not compatible.
Potential Deal: 2 x Dual 2011 nodes @$199, Quanta Openrack
- Thread starter abstractalgebra
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Two questions I didn't see answered so far:
1) does the BIOS support PXE boot? Can you enter "enough" of the BIOS to do it without the debug kit?
2) is the heatsink mount one of the socket 2011 standard formats?
Thanks!
1) does the BIOS support PXE boot? Can you enter "enough" of the BIOS to do it without the debug kit?
2) is the heatsink mount one of the socket 2011 standard formats?
Thanks!
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Yes PXE is the default boot unless changed. If you find a GPU to put on it, it acts like any other system and you can get to the BIOS that way.
OK, one more. What was the deal with the 10 GbE card? Are they cat6e? Are they worth the $100 for two of them? Getting excited 
I got mine with the 10Gb Mezzanine cards but no risers. They are SFP+ ports. I haven't used them yet.OK, one more. What was the deal with the 10 GbE card? Are they cat6e? Are they worth the $100 for two of them? Getting excited
PXE is the default. Heatsink format? Comes with two of them, so not an issue. They look standard but I haven't measured.
With a graphics card + monitor temporarily rigged, the debug kit is entirely optional. SOL (serial over LAN) will also give you much of what you can get from the direct serial connection. If you have just a few of these, my advice is to skip the debug kit.
Well, I'm ready to order. It looks like they messed up prices and photos for the auction that includes a riser card and the 10 GbE card and the one that does not. Can somebody confirm that? I tried messaging them but no reply yet:
QUANTA OPENRACK - OPEN COMPUTE 2 NODE SERVER 2x LGA2011 WINDMILL W. RISER BOARD
QUANTA OPENRACK - OPEN COMPUTE 2 NODE SERVER 2x LGA2011 WINDMILL W/ SYSTEM BOARD
Also, if I understand that correctly the $100 get me not only the two 10GbE cards, they also get me the riser cards. I understand at least one person didn't get the riser cards but they now say so in the title.
I feel a bit silly ordering the complete system (as opposed to just boards), but I want the connectors for motherboard power to make adapters to regular PSUs.
QUANTA OPENRACK - OPEN COMPUTE 2 NODE SERVER 2x LGA2011 WINDMILL W. RISER BOARD
QUANTA OPENRACK - OPEN COMPUTE 2 NODE SERVER 2x LGA2011 WINDMILL W/ SYSTEM BOARD
Also, if I understand that correctly the $100 get me not only the two 10GbE cards, they also get me the riser cards. I understand at least one person didn't get the riser cards but they now say so in the title.
I feel a bit silly ordering the complete system (as opposed to just boards), but I want the connectors for motherboard power to make adapters to regular PSUs.
I purchased the second link. It had the mezz cards but no risers. In the description, it mentions the 10Gb Mezz but not the risers.
The first link has the riser but no Mezz card. It DOES state though that it comes with 2 Dell 10Gb PCIE cards
That is very confusing. So I save $100 and get the riser card, but have to live with the Dell card instead of the Mezz? Is the Mezz considered that valuable?
Hi, had anyone tracked down a firmware update? Mine has a bios date of 06/03/2013 16:12:52 Ver:F03_3B01. Unfortunately it isn't new enough to support a Windows Server 2016 install as it gives the dreaded ACPI_BIOS_ERROR. One additional piece of info, a nvidia 640 card works well so that is another card folks could use for initial provisioning.
I have been looking at these servers for use in a renderfarm. We create 3D animations for architecture and these units would be great. Currently all our nodes run windows7 x64 because we run Autodesk 3DS Max which is only certified on desktop os. Has anyone here has setup windows 7 or better yet Windows 10 as a VM and run it on one of these? Would anyone suggest the Wiwynn over the Quanta system.
FYI, I found on the quanta (www.qct.io) under downloads for the Rackgo X, there is a product F03A and they have a bios F03A3A07 posted on 12/02/15. I wonder if that would work.
Another question for those with running systems....can you set the CPU speed to maximum in the bios? This runs the cpu at 3.0ghz not the 2.6ghz 'standard'.
Thanks again.
Another question for those with running systems....can you set the CPU speed to maximum in the bios? This runs the cpu at 3.0ghz not the 2.6ghz 'standard'.
Thanks again.
I am fairly sure that these are Wiwynn SV7210, not Quanta. Using a Quanta BIOS on a Wiwynn seems risky.
USB video is a good idea - I'll have to give it a try.
This really will not fit in any standard 19" rack. Standard 19" racks take equipment whose ears are 19" wide maximum, but the space between the rails - and the maximum shelf width - si only 17 3/4" or so. These are 18 7/8" wide.
Humor, I accidentally sent an empty reply, newbe...... Putting in the content now.
So thanks to grxlab and his pointer to the quanta site. I happen to have the Quanta version of the server (bought from Essio) and I was successful in updating the bios which then enables installing Windows Server 2016 TP4.
A couple of notes, links:
The bios version was a little hard to find, wasn't 100% sure of which version of the machine I had and the website had two different variants. F03A and F03C. From my bios I seemed to have F03B......
Looking at the readme.txt's that were in each download I noticed that the F03C's readme had the following text "System hardware revision supported: F03B PVT board."
Taking a chance, I took the dos install option and was able to do the firmware update(s). (There is actually two, one for the bios and one for the "ME Firmware".)
After that, there was a new bios experience and it supports installing modern OS's.
Link to the bios/drivers/etc.
Download Center
Hope this helps others, appreciate the thread and it is nice to see such an affordable solution for home lab expansion.