Qotom Denverton fanless system with 4 SFP+

[blunden]

This is port 9.
View attachment 39930

I forgot that the rack mounted model has the motherboard upside down compared to the fanless model. The one you marked is the slot I was talking about though.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the DAC. I suppose it could behave differently with a passive DAC since those simply connect the internal links used by the switch together. Not sure how it would be able to calibrate the signal parameters, which is definitely a thing if you look at the source code of some switch firmwares, if it can't read cable details from its EEPROM.

 

[Maunose]

There's something really wrong with this "fix" they applied... I just got a xgs-pon stick today (WAS-110 based, to try to bypass my ISP ONU) and while I was testing it, I tried plugging it to the werid port and guess what? It's up... although it doesn't show likn speed, it's up and I can connect to it. If I connect it to another SFP+ port it shows as a 10GBase-LR media.



Tests before were done using 10Gtek 10GBase-SR and 10Gbase-T (80 meters version), which both worked on the other 3 ports, but not on ix3 (Port 9)

 

[Tismo]

Hello everyone. I purchased Qotom 1U Rack Chassis Mini PC 5*2.5G Lan 4x 10G SFP+ Atom C3758R last night from Aliexpress and I was just wondering since it has the fan on the bottom and with the placement of the ports if I could flip it upside down so the fan would be on top and the ports would align better with my sg2218 omada switch? Would that hurt it somehow?
I am planning on transferring my current opnsense config to it for a small home network. I don’t plan on transferring massive files or anything.

 

[AaronS]

Hello everyone. I purchased Qotom 1U Rack Chassis Mini PC 5*2.5G Lan 4x 10G SFP+ Atom C3758R last night from Aliexpress and I was just wondering since it has the fan on the bottom and with the placement of the ports if I could flip it upside down so the fan would be on top and the ports would align better with my sg2218 omada switch? Would that hurt it somehow?
I am planning on transferring my current opnsense config to it for a small home network. I don’t plan on transferring massive files or anything.

Hi, The fan pulls from the bottom and vents to the left side of the case.I don't see how mounting the inlet up would hurt.

 

[koifish59]

I purchased Qotom 1U Rack Chassis... could flip it upside down so the fan would be on top

It's a rackmount, so you can, but this would mean it would have to be at the very top of the rack so the intake fan wouldn't be blocked by anything else. It's what I plan to do as well.

 

[blunden]

There's something really wrong with this "fix" they applied... I just got a xgs-pon stick today (WAS-110 based, to try to bypass my ISP ONU) and while I was testing it, I tried plugging it to the werid port and guess what? It's up... although it doesn't show likn speed, it's up and I can connect to it. If I connect it to another SFP+ port it shows as a 10GBase-LR media.

View attachment 39943

Tests before were done using 10Gtek 10GBase-SR and 10Gbase-T (80 meters version), which both worked on the other 3 ports, but not on ix3 (Port 9)

Very weird indeed. Does it otherwise appear to work at full speed?

 

[Tismo]

So this device doesn’t come with a powercord?!

yeah I just received one with nothing but the mini pc in the box and a business card lol
Found it. Smh lol

 

[sko]

So this device doesn’t come with a powercord?!

yeah I just received one with nothing but the mini pc in the box and a business card lol
Found it. Smh lol

seriously: it uses a standard C13 power cord - the type you throw out by the dozens over the year...

 

[Arjestin]

I really wanted this machine to virtualize TrueNAS Scale, but it starts to look more and more like a pipedream. Kernel 6.* based Linux has a broken driver for Intel X553 and that's it. Yes, I read about the workaround for Proxmox here, but will it work for TrueNAS Scale? Will it last or will it stop working when I update something? Unfortunately, a proper fix to the X553 driver is not expected in the foreseeable future, so I guess it's a deal breaker for me.

 

[blunden]

I really wanted this machine to virtualize TrueNAS Scale, but it starts to look more and more like a pipedream. Kernel 6.* based Linux has a broken driver for Intel X553 and that's it. Yes, I read about the workaround for Proxmox here, but will it work for TrueNAS Scale? Will it last or will it stop working when I update something? Unfortunately, a proper fix to the X553 driver is not expected in the foreseeable future, so I guess it's a deal breaker for me.

It has been fixed in later Linux 6.x kernels. I guess TrueNAS Scale is just using an outdated kernel.

 

[Arjestin]

It has been fixed in later Linux 6.x kernels. I guess TrueNAS Scale is just using an outdated kernel.

Oh. I might have missed that while searching. Could you point to the relevant article, where it says something like "Starting from kernel 6.x the driver for Intel X553 has been updated"?

 

[cyben76]

Has anyone tried using the two onboard SATA and the SFF 8087 for a total of 6 SATA as a NAS?

 

[blunden]

Oh. I might have missed that while searching. Could you point to the relevant article, where it says something like "Starting from kernel 6.x the driver for Intel X553 has been updated"?

Some googling suggests that it was reverted in kernel 6.9 and backported to LTS kernels 6.6 and 6.1 back in May 2024. You can find more details earlier in this thread, I think. Ubuntu also backported it to their 6.8 kernel, which is what Proxmox base their kernel on.

 

[Arjestin]

Some googling suggests that it was reverted in kernel 6.9 and backported to LTS kernels 6.6 and 6.1 back in May 2024. You can find more details earlier in this thread, I think. Ubuntu also backported it to their 6.8 kernel, which is what Proxmox base their kernel on.

Thanks! The current Kernel version in Proxmox is 6.8.12 and TrueNAS Scale still uses Kernel version 6.1.63. If the updated X553 driver was indeed backported to both Kernel versions, then this Qotom device has the potential to be an awesome virtualized firewall and NAS.

 

[tokyovigilante]

Here’s the manual for anyone who is interested.
Just a heads up, it’s a 12 pages PDF with no mention of BIOS whatsoever, basically just pinouts.

Microsoft OneDrive

1drv.ms

Thanks for sharing the console pinout, did you get it working? I've tried to connect an old Cat5E cable up to my unit with to a USB FTDI serial adaptor I have while I wait for a VGA cable in the post, but have only managed to get (reproducible) gibberish out.

 

[gai6948]

Got the rackmount model, the NVMe drives runs VERY hot (~70C) even when idling. Is there any good cooling solution? The fan header on the top of the MB seems to be used by the CPU cooler at the bottom (not sure why they didn't use the fan header at the bottom for that...).

 

[sko]

Got the rackmount model, the NVMe drives runs VERY hot (~70C) even when idling. Is there any good cooling solution?

What kind of drives are you using? As with any low power (and hence low-cooling) systems you're not supposed to put space-heaters in them.

 

[cyben76]

Got the rackmount model, the NVMe drives runs VERY hot (~70C) even when idling. Is there any good cooling solution? The fan header on the top of the MB seems to be used by the CPU cooler at the bottom (not sure why they didn't use the fan header at the bottom for that...).

The motherboard-only model shows that the CPU cooler is plugged into the bottom headers; I'm sure you can move it.

 

[gai6948]

The motherboard-only model shows that the CPU cooler is plugged into the bottom headers; I'm sure you can move it.

Interesting... Mine has the cooler connected to the upper fan header (by looking at the wire) and I'm having a hard time taking the motherboard from the case

What kind of drives are you using?

The stock one with the rackmount model, guess I'll have to add some external source of airflow there.

 

[Maunose]

Thanks for sharing the console pinout, did you get it working? I've tried to connect an old Cat5E cable up to my unit with to a USB FTDI serial adaptor I have while I wait for a VGA cable in the post, but have only managed to get (reproducible) gibberish out.

I got it to work, even installed pfsense via serial. Ubuntu was a no go though.