R2224GZ4GC4 E5 v1/v2 24x2.5 Barebones HINT

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
973
113
NYC
Similar to this one For Sale: Intel R2308GZ 2U Server

The one you has is a 24 bay x 2.5"
The one in the FS has a sas2308 ($100), 2x E5-2660 ($120), 32GB RAM ($100), iKVM activated ($50) and is $469 + ship

I guess the ebay one is new but if you can use 3.5" there's a cheaper option.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
973
113
NYC
Yea you're right. Seems like building one of those is expensive as opposed to just getting a decommissioned full system.
 

Paul Roland

Member
Jul 10, 2015
63
5
8
39
True.
If I would have 24x of those slowish 4TB 2.5" Samsungs I would definitely buy 3x of those R2308GZ because it's a better deal and easier to stack them up.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
973
113
NYC
True.
If I would have 24x of those slowish 4TB 2.5" Samsungs I would definitely buy 3x of those R2308GZ because it's a better deal and easier to stack them up.
I've been thinking the same thing. I sent a note to the powers that control our budget about getting 16x of those 2U's in the FS forums and having a $40k 1PB raw capacity cluster.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pgh5278

Paul Roland

Member
Jul 10, 2015
63
5
8
39
With a quick note that on this architecture Intel will downgrade all pcie 3.0 devices to pcie 2.0 unless it's intel branded stuff.
 

JayG30

Active Member
Feb 23, 2015
232
48
28
38
I bought 3 of these a few months back for $500/each from their old listing HERE. Work related purchase. $500 was the lowest offer he was accepting on them at the time (I tried various offers up to $490 at the time). I really wanted to get them for what I spent on the 12bay versions he was selling ($300) but couldn't. These are really great servers though and were definitely worth it. If they dropped to $300 I might need to think about purchasing a bunch more. The trays are nice, runs quiet and cool, plenty fast for my needs. 2U servers with 24 2.5" bays tend to be a bit pricey compared to 3.5" servers.

I filled them with various deals on 2.5" disks from STH as well. Like the 400GB Intel S3710 SSD, various larger capacity Samsung SSDs (read optimized disks), and those 450GB Hitachi 10k drives that sold for like <$15 (which were surprisingly nice and quick). Connecting them with 3 x LSI 9340-8i/IBM M1215 12Gb HBA's per chassis (flashed to 9300-8i). The HBA's were cheap for 12Gb (future use perhaps) and I don't want an expander slowing down the SSD's.

All Intel servers from this generation have a list of pcie 3.0 devices that will run at 3.0 speeds when running E5-2600 V1 chips. Anything outside that list will run at 2.0 speeds. Upgrading to V2 chips will unlock 3.0 speeds however.Info of the issue HERE and compatibility list HERE. As you can see, you can get 3.0 speeds without "intel branded stuff". LSI and Mellanox devices especially. My flashed HBA's appear to support 3.0 for instance.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
768
251
63
not sure about the 2.5" bay version, but even without expander my 12gb sas ssd connected to 12gb adaptec raid controller on a 3.5" bay version shows maximum speed of only 6gbps.
 

Paul Roland

Member
Jul 10, 2015
63
5
8
39
JayG30 forgot to mention the v2 indeed. I did have issues with v1 and pcie 3.0 to 2.0 + loads of issues with pcie SSD (Samsung 950 pro)
Otherwise it's still a great server being new for that money.
But why use LSI/Crossflash adapter instead of let's say RMS25JB080 ?
 

JayG30

Active Member
Feb 23, 2015
232
48
28
38
not sure about the 2.5" bay version, but even without expander my 12gb sas ssd connected to 12gb adaptec raid controller on a 3.5" bay version shows maximum speed of only 6gbps.
I'm not sure what you are saying. Obviously if you are using a 6Gbps backplane that will limit your disks and controllers as the connection passes through it.

My statement was to the use of an expander in these types of cases. There is a strong possibility (depending on the expander used) that you will saturate the 1 (possibly 2?) SFF-8087 links from the expander to your controller before you reach 24 SSD's.
 

JayG30

Active Member
Feb 23, 2015
232
48
28
38
JayG30 forgot to mention the v2 indeed. I did have issues with v1 and pcie 3.0 to 2.0 + loads of issues with pcie SSD (Samsung 950 pro)
Otherwise it's still a great server being new for that money.
But why use LSI/Crossflash adapter instead of let's say RMS25JB080 ?
Intel RAID controllers only work in Intel Servers. Given the same exact controllers for the same exact money, I'd always choose the LSI (non-Intel) model simply because you can move them to whatever server you want (Supermicro, HP, Dell, etc).

Some of the Intel controllers however can be had drastically cheaper then the LSI (or Dell/HP/etc branded) equivalents so sometimes it makes sense to go with the Intel. And certainly if you use any controller that uses the proprietary Intel storage controller port you have to get an Intel controller.

Basically the reason I purchased the LSI controllers I did was because they were the best thing I could find for the money. I got a bunch of them for $55/each if I remember right. They are 12Gbps controllers so they have the ability at a later point for me to slip them into a server with a 12Gbps backplane and use 12Gbps disks. They are using the LSI 3008 which from what I've heard provides better performance at deeper queue depths. They aren't proprietary and can be moved to any server I want. And like I said, they weren't much more then other options that were older generation and had more restrictions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aero

Paul Roland

Member
Jul 10, 2015
63
5
8
39
Cool, I would prefer RMS25JB080 since it can be flashed to IT mode. And then if you need to upgrade just buy another controller.
Saves one pcie slot sometimes that can help.
Regarding previous for 24x ssds I would use 3x hbs (1 per 8 port or dual sas). It's the only way to push all that throughput.
This server would be ideal for an all flash storage in my opinion
Also, you can actually put 28 ssds. 24 HS, 2x in the air duct and there is a kit for 2x above the psus.