EU Rackable NM46X 12-LFF chassis 60€ BO

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adel

New Member
Apr 28, 2020
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It seems a couple of us got one !
I received it today and it's pretty nice but the PSU is crackling faintly when plugged in (server shut down but the PSU switched on).
I planned on dumping the mobo and keeping the PSU but this crackling is making me nervous. It's not the usual coil whine or a buzzing, it sounds more like arcing....

Anyone care enough to check if the crackling is present for him too ?
It's really faint but it's there (chassis open, when listening closely, head almost in the chassis).

If it's there for someone else, I can probably discard it as normal.

Thanks you !
 

hmartin

Active Member
Sep 20, 2017
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It seems a couple of us got one !
I received it today and it's pretty nice but the PSU is crackling faintly when plugged in (server shut down but the PSU switched on).
I planned on dumping the mobo and keeping the PSU but this crackling is making me nervous. It's not the usual coil whine or a buzzing, it sounds more like arcing....

Anyone care enough to check if the crackling is present for him too ?
It's really faint but it's there (chassis open, when listening closely, head almost in the chassis).

If it's there for someone else, I can probably discard it as normal.

Thanks you !
Mine does the same, I don't have any concerns, the voltages are stable and the power consumption in standby is quite low.
 

adel

New Member
Apr 28, 2020
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Allright, still sounds pretty weird to me but I guess it's normal then if you have it too.

Any plans for it yet ?
 

hmartin

Active Member
Sep 20, 2017
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Allright, still sounds pretty weird to me but I guess it's normal then if you have it too.

Any plans for it yet ?
I already gutted mine.

* Replaced the chassis fans with Arctic F8 PWM PST CO (the included fans are really nice, but not PWM)
* I replaced the included PSU with a TFX PSU (FSP FSP300-60GHT; the stock PSU is nice, but the 40mm fan was too loud)
* Using a Dell 0637NC for the heat sink (requires a tiny bit of dremel work to remove material blocking the drive cage installation)
* Backplane is powered by molex to PCI-E 6 pin power cables that were extra from an old graphics card (re-wired to provide 12V/5V/GND)

The management board doesn't seem to play nicely with the Inventec motherboard I'm using. The motherboard won't POST if the power/reset buttons are connected, which is sad.

I'm waiting on the reverse SFF-8087 to SATA cable to arrive and then I can have all 12 drives. Currently I only have 8 usable because the integrated SAS2008 is dual port.
 

adel

New Member
Apr 28, 2020
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I already gutted mine.

* Replaced the chassis fans with Arctic F8 PWM PST CO (the included fans are really nice, but not PWM)
* I replaced the included PSU with a TFX PSU (FSP FSP300-60GHT; the stock PSU is nice, but the 40mm fan was too loud)
* Using a Dell 0637NC for the heat sink (requires a tiny bit of dremel work to remove material blocking the drive cage installation)
* Backplane is powered by molex to PCI-E 6 pin power cables that were extra from an old graphics card (re-wired to provide 12V/5V/GND)

The management board doesn't seem to play nicely with the Inventec motherboard I'm using. The motherboard won't POST if the power/reset buttons are connected, which is sad.

I'm waiting on the reverse SFF-8087 to SATA cable to arrive and then I can have all 12 drives. Currently I only have 8 usable because the integrated SAS2008 is dual port.
Nice !

I'll have to find some of those MOLEX => PCI-E cables it seems, and figure out the rewiring. I didn't expect the PSU to be that noisy...

If you want to show off your dremel skills with some pictures, color me interested. Curious to see the facelift !
 

Sync66

New Member
Sep 18, 2019
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I'm considering these...
How tall would you say a CPU heatsink would have to be to fit under the drives?
Do you think the back fans could be replaced with 12cm ones with some dremel work?
 

hmartin

Active Member
Sep 20, 2017
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I'm considering these...
How tall would you say a CPU heatsink would have to be to fit under the drives?
Do you think the back fans could be replaced with 12cm ones with some dremel work?
The CPU heat sink must be 1U height (<=30mm) or it won't fit under the drive cage. I used a Supermicro SNK-P0046P for testing and it fits without modification.

I measured carefully and determined the Dell heat sink would fit with some minor modifications given the location of the socket on the motherboard. The area of the Dell heat sink is not superior to the Supermicro, but as it clears the drive cage, I can use the stock blower fan which doesn't require me to construct any ducting for the 80mm fans to the heat sink (as I would need to do for the Supermicro to have enough airflow for cooling).

120mm fans shouldn't be a problem to install in the rear. It will be a lot of work though, the chassis is quite solid.
 

skaffatwitter

New Member
Jun 3, 2020
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@hmartin could You post more photos of the system and measure the depth of the case? Is it really 3u?

Machine looks very nice, I'll put a mini itx mobo there somehow
 

hmartin

Active Member
Sep 20, 2017
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@hmartin could You post more photos of the system and measure the depth of the case? Is it really 3u?

Machine looks very nice, I'll put a mini itx mobo there somehow
Yes, it is really 3U. See below for dimensions:

I don't know if the backplane supports 6Gbps, the included controller is only 3Gbps and I don't own any SAS devices to test the backplane at 6Gbps. I don't think it has a port multiplier (each row of 4 drives has its own SFF-8087 connector), so the speed should only be limited by the controller.

The chassis is 36.5cm deep from the mounting ears, and the total depth is 39.5cm (the rack ears are not flush with the front of the chassis).

Edit: I just plugged an SSD into the backplane of a Rackable 2U chassis (4 drive bays, individual SATA connectors instead of SFF-8087) and it's showing up as 6Gbps in smartctl, so I would say that this model should support 6Gbps too.
 

hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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What @bob_dvb says is correct, that's an FSP TFX PSU (FSP300-60GHT) so you have roughly 175mm from the back of the drive cage to the rear of the case. The actual clearance is slightly less than shown in the above photo, as the drive cage was not fully installed when I took the photo. If you use a TFX PSU, you need to trim the plastic of the 4 pin ATX power connector to the bottom backplane if you want to power it, as there isn't enough room between the drive cage and PSU for the unmodified connector. I don't have my reverse SAS cable yet so this hasn't been a priority for me.

As per your PM request for a video of the CPU fan. I'm sure someone has a YouTube video of the noise of a Dell 9010/7010/790/990SFF makes at idle/load, which you can use to gauge whether this is the right solution for you. The PCB you see on top of the fan is a temperature based PWM fan controller, you can find them on AliExpress for ~$3.

The full part number of the fan is PFC0251BX-C010-S99, maybe you can find an official datasheet that lists the noise in sones or decibels.

The included chassis fans are 3 pin anyway and way louder (hence why I replaced them, see previous posts for details).

Likewise, the stock PSU is good (very efficient), but the 40mm fan is loud (by office standards, it is very quiet by 1U equipment standards, similar in tone to the Dell R210 II PSU fan). Hence why I replaced it with a TFX PSU.
 

fiftynine

Member
May 12, 2020
31
8
8
What's the difference between Rackable Tyan and Arima? I was considering buying one to use as a disk shelf to accompany my R520, just add a power button straight to the psu and connect dell h310 to the backplate - any thoughts?
 

hmartin

Active Member
Sep 20, 2017
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What's the difference between Rackable Tyan and Arima? I was considering buying one to use as a disk shelf to accompany my R520, just add a power button straight to the psu and connect dell h310 to the backplate - any thoughts?
The Tyan (socket F) is much newer than the Arima (S940), though both are obsolete. I have both the 2U chassis (4 hot swap bays) and 3U chassis (12 hot swap bays) and you want the Tyan version. The PSU has PWM control of the fan, it's much more efficient, the drive caddies are plastic/metal as opposed to metal in the older Arima, and the remote management card is newer. Basically, you're going to gut in the inside anyway, but the Tyan has a newer and nicer design, get it over the Arima.

Personally, I find the included power supply too noisy to use for a homelab, but it's easy to modify the case for a TFX power supply, or you can even just buy a Dell DA-12 and have a step-down converter for 5V and it would be fine, 12 drives shouldn't exceed 180W. If you really want to be fancy, you can buy an adapter to change the SFF-8087 to SFF-8088: US $15.57 |Mini SAS for Internal SFF 8087 sas 36P to 2 Port External HD sas26P SFF 8088 Front Panel PCI SAS Card Adapter|pci panel|mini sasmini mini - AliExpress


I tested the backplane with the reverse SFF-8087 to SATA cable that I received, and it works perfectly. So you can just buy those and use a motherboard with 12 SATA ports, no need for a SAS card, there are no port multipliers in the backplane.
 

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legen

Active Member
Mar 6, 2013
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Sweden
I was looking for a short-depth 12 bay chassi so i bought one of these units to convert into a DAS.

It took some work to cut out the metal to fit the PSU and the SFF-8088 to SFF-8087 apdapters.
I replaced the PSU with the Corsair SF450 V2 450W. It fits perfectly and is really silent. The 12V rail should have no problems running all 12 bays populated.

Will be running the DAS towards a LSI 9206-16e.

Sadly i have not been able to actually test the chassi yet since the cables for SFF-8088 to SFF-8644 has still not arrived from China...
 

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ari2asem

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
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The Netherlands, Groningen
I was looking for a short-depth 12 bay chassi so i bought one of these units to convert into a DAS.

It took some work to cut out the metal to fit the PSU and the SFF-8088 to SFF-8087 apdapters.
I replaced the PSU with the Corsair SF450 V2 450W. It fits perfectly and is really silent. The 12V rail should have no problems running all 12 bays populated.

Will be running the DAS towards a LSI 9206-16e.

Sadly i have not been able to actually test the chassi yet since the cables for SFF-8088 to SFF-8644 has still not arrived from China...
did you power up your system ?? and tested with a hdd ??

are you sure that power cables to backplane are correct one ?? and correct pin lay-out ??
 

legen

Active Member
Mar 6, 2013
213
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Sweden
did you power up your system ?? and tested with a hdd ??

are you sure that power cables to backplane are correct one ?? and correct pin lay-out ??
Yes I have powered up the system with a hdd. It spin up correctly. I have not connected it to a HBA yet due to missing cable.

I made a cable between psu, backplane and fan controller. Since hdd does spinup and fans work I'm pretty sure the pin layout is correct :)
 
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hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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Really nice work! I think it makes a really nice low-power and quiet DAS for the price. Plus, you have some room to mount some Raspberry Pi in the bottom 1U, or put even more non-hot swap HDDs ;)


are you sure that power cables to backplane are correct one ?? and correct pin lay-out ??
Powering the backplane is easy. The connectors are Molex 5557 (aka "P4 power") with the following pin layout (as seen from the rear of the connector, where the wires are inserted):
GND 5V
GND 12V

FireShot Capture 117 - Untitled spreadsheet - Google Sheets - docs.google.com.png
 
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legen

Active Member
Mar 6, 2013
213
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28
Sweden
Really nice work! I think it makes a really nice low-power and quiet DAS for the price. Plus, you have some room to mount some Raspberry Pi in the bottom 1U, or put even more non-hot swap HDDs ;)




Powering the backplane is easy. The connectors are Molex 5557 (aka "P4 power") with the following pin layout (as seen from the rear of the connector, where the wires are inserted):
GND 5V
GND 12V

View attachment 14987
To be honest the cost of parts and time put into this was more than i had anticipated. I decided to build on this chassi since i did only have a half-rack requiring front mounting. However about one month after i finished the chassi i got my hand on a real 19'' 18U rack. If i would have known that i would have gone with a supermicro 846 build instead :).