SM CSE 826 sweet deal

[Fritz]

Ran across this chassis for $156 plus $65 shipping. I jumped on it because it comes with 2 920 SQ PSU's.

It just arrived and I was pleasantly surprised. It has a SAS3 backplane. Dropped a X10SRH-CF in along with some 12g HD's and all is golden. Sweet deal.

Supermicro SuperChassis 2U 826BAC4-R920WB Rackmount Case for sale online | eBay

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Crap, forgot to add I offered $150 and it was accepted.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

Great Deal indeed!

New Revision, 920P-SQ and SAS3 Expander backplane.

 

[EngChiSTH]

urgg. $65 for shipping to IL - is that normal?
want something to build bigger host for truenas for homelab. wondering if I can add existing asrock x370 I have laying around with ryzen 1700 and 64 GB RAM..

Also, any idea on the power consumption? or one of those 'if you have to ask, you can not afford it' things?

 

[Fritz]

urgg. $65 for shipping to IL - is that normal?
want something to build bigger host for truenas for homelab. wondering if I can add existing asrock x370 I have laying around with ryzen 1700 and 64 GB RAM..

Also, any idea on the power consumption? or one of those 'if you have to ask, you can not afford it' things?

Power consumption will depend on what you put in it. The 920SQ's are 90 Plus Platinum, don't think they get any more efficient than that.

 

[Markess]

Good deal! If you catch them on a good day, that seller will take really lowball offers. I got a few things recently for offers of about 50% off, but they're just as likely not to budge much at all.

urgg. $65 for shipping to IL - is that normal?

This seller's shipping defies understanding sometimes. Not sure if its a situation of different people pricing things differently, or if they just randomly pick a number. A few months back, I bought a chassis and motherboard from them (from separate listings). Shipping on the motherboard was $15 but the chassis was only $5 (a 1U complete with drive trays and power supply, so the actual shipping was definitely more than $5!) To make it more strange, they had a second listing for the same chassis at the same price, but shipping of $37. But, I've had good experiences with them, and great customer service the one time something wasn't right. So, I keep coming back.

 

[Markess]

It just arrived and I was pleasantly surprised. It has a SAS3 backplane. Dropped a X10SRH-CF in

@Fritz, I've got that exact same setup (although my chassis was a local purchase). How is your fan noise? Setting mine to "Optimal" in IPMI, it was still the loudest thing I owned. I've since tinkered with it (a lot), but I was definitely surprised initially.

 

[EngChiSTH]

Thank you both for your perspective. Now I want to decide if I am going in for $210 paperweight if I have no Supermicro MB... Will this work with any other 'normal' standard ATX motherboard (Asrock x370 Taichi)

 

[Fritz]

@Fritz, I've got that exact same setup (although my chassis was a local purchase). How is your fan noise? Setting mine to "Optimal" in IPMI, it was still the loudest thing I owned. I've since tinkered with it (a lot), but I was definitely surprised initially.

This thing is the quietest server in the farm. In fact, I had to open her up to make sure all the fans were running. Apparently SM managed to quiet down the chassis fans as well as the PSU's.

Looking on the SM website I see that this chassis does indeed come with the 920SQ's and SAS3 backplane.

 

[Markess]

Will this work with any other 'normal' standard ATX motherboard (Asrock x370 Taichi)

I have two of these chassis with the same power supply/backplane configuration as the one @Fritz posted above. One is set up just like his. In the other, I initially installed an MSI A320M with a Ryzen 5 1500. I recently upgraded the motherboard to an MSI B450 for better PCIe passthrough support. Both worked fine.

Please note, however, that since the chassis has a SAS3 expander backplane (which is worth almost as much as the asking price for the whole chassis), you'll need to get a RAID or HBA card and appropriate cables (if the included cables ones aren't long enough/the right type). You won't be able to plug drives directly between the x370 and the backplane.

 

[Markess]

This thing is the quietest server in the farm. In fact, I had to open her up to make sure all the fans were running. Apparently SM managed to quiet down the chassis fans as well as the PSU's.

Looking on the SM website I see that this chassis does indeed come with the 920SQ's and SAS3 backplane.

Thanks. I suppose my problem is less the hardware itself and more that I'm picky and my rack is 6 feet from my head. In any case, after trying a bunch of stupid stuff (I think sometimes I'm the king of stupid stuff), simply running an IPMI tool script at startup to set idle speed a bit lower worked like a charm.

 

[EngChiSTH]

Thank you @Markess - so for your MSI B450 system , did you installed a PCI card to make this work ? Do you also _have to_ go with SAS drives (these cards typically say SAS/SATA) like those advertised in other threads...

I am really tempted to dive in for storage(truenas) build to expose/share to my mini proxmox cluster. Wondering if I am diving too deep here..

 

[Fritz]

The worst server I own is a Quanta 2U. It's so noisy I hardly ever fire it up. Sounds like a Huey taking off and landing.

 

[Markess]

Thank you @Markess - so for your MSI B450 system , did you installed a PCI card to make this work ? Do you also _have to_ go with SAS drives (these cards typically say SAS/SATA) like those advertised in other threads...

I am really tempted to dive in for storage(truenas) build to expose/share to my mini proxmox cluster. Wondering if I am diving too deep here..

I used a Dell branded PCIe RAID card based on the LSI SAS3008 chip (a Dell H330 04Y5H1 a.k.a. 4Y5H1). I used this amazing thread by forum member @Sleyk to reflash the RAID firmware on the Dell card to the LSI "generic" HBA (non RAID) firmware. As you may have seen various places here, buying a "name brand" RAID card and flashing the LSI HBA firmware, for use in TrueNAS etc., can save some money. You have to be somewhat comfortable with firmware updates, but the guide in the post is laid out pretty well. For me it was literally "cut and paste": https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-card-to-hba330-12gbps-hba-it-firmware.25498/

I've run both SATA and SAS drives with these chassis with no issues. As for "diving in" with rack mount configurations, this is a pretty nice choice. The 920SQ power supplies are about as close to desktop style power supply behavior as you're going to get in a redundant set-up. Unlike many others, the fans dont run if the system is powered off and they really are "S"uper "Q"uiet.

 

[Fritz]

Just wanna add I have several PWS-1K28P-SQ's and they are nowhere near as quiet as the 920's. I now understand why the 920's sell for a premium.

 

[EngChiSTH]

One more question if I may - you do need drive caddies for all of these enclosures (i.e. I can not plug in the 10 Gb HE drives in different thread directly to the backblane, correct)? If considering, what should I be searched for (I assume on ebay) in terms of getting the drive caddies.

$220 for chassis plus shipping
$100 for the Dell card to reflash
exiting MB + CPU + GPU (GPU will be taken out once installed as it is not needed) + 64 GB RAM
SAS storage drives at $13/TB
unknown power consumption ..
go or no go is the question ...

 

[Fritz]

Yes, you will need caddies. You cannot plug a HD directly into the backplane. You have to have caddies. This chassis does not come with caddies.

 

[anemoiac]

One more question if I may - you do need drive caddies for all of these enclosures (i.e. I can not plug in the 10 Gb HE drives in different thread directly to the backblane, correct)? If considering, what should I be searched for (I assume on ebay) in terms of getting the drive caddies.

Looking at the Supermicro product info page for this chassis (SC826BAC4-R920WB | 2U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.), it looks like the caddies it takes are P/N: MCP-220-00075-0B. It might also take other (older) models, but I don't have the experience with Supermicro gear to say.

You should also add $100 for the rail kit ( MCP-290-00053-0N ) to your cost estimate if you plan to put this in a rack.

As for power consumption, that will depend on the setup you plan to put in the chassis, including drives. The chassis won't turn a 150W rig into some sort of power-hungry monster just because it's a server chassis with 920W PSUs.

Edit: I should add that I bought one of these last night, so the value proposition obviously seemed reasonable to me. That said, as someone with a couple servers stacked on top of a mostly-full half rack that's not doing anything important, I may not be the best judge of server value...

 

[itronin]

Looking at the Supermicro product info page for this chassis (SC826BAC4-R920WB | 2U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.), it looks like the caddies it takes are P/N: MCP-220-00075-0B. It might also take other (older) models, but I don't have the experience with Supermicro gear to say.

Yes, that's a newer rev. However I've found that even the old style with the metal side rails work fine so long as you have that distinctive curved front on the drive tray. I've tried a couple of the square / OEM drive trays and it is hit or miss. If you are scouring ebay then look for lots. I've been able to score the older yellow tabbed trays (old penguin computing) for ~2.00/tray in lots.

You should also add $100 for the rail kit ( MCP-290-00053-0N ) to your cost estimate if you plan to put this in a rack.

If you want slide out locking rails then that is pretty much the going price whether new or used (chia effect?).
typically ~$100+ship - so probably a little more in total.

If you are going for density and can simply pull the server from the rack for maintenance then the generic 2U static rails work okay and don't take up space at the bottom of the U like L-bracket shelves will. Those are only about $40 each plus shipping.

This is a good find @Fritz especially with dual 920SQ's.

 

[Fritz]

Yes, that's a newer rev. However I've found that even the old style with the metal side rails work fine so long as you have that distinctive curved front on the drive tray. I've tried a couple of the square / OEM drive trays and it is hit or miss. If you are scouring ebay then look for lots. I've been able to score the older yellow tabbed trays (old penguin computing) for ~2.00/tray in lots.



If you want slide out locking rails then that is pretty much the going price whether new or used (chia effect?).
typically ~$100+ship - so probably a little more in total.

If you are going for density and can simply pull the server from the rack for maintenance then the generic 2U static rails work okay and don't take up space at the bottom of the U like L-bracket shelves will. Those are only about $40 each plus shipping.

This is a good find @Fritz especially with dual 920SQ's.

Yes, caddies with metal rails will work with this chassis as will caddies from an old SC933 chassis.

Fortunately I had enough spare caddies to fill this puppy.

 

[anemoiac]

If you want slide out locking rails then that is pretty much the going price whether new or used (chia effect?).
typically ~$100+ship - so probably a little more in total.

I bought them from Provantage. $99.72 out the door, including tax + shipping. Looks like they only have a couple left in stock right now, but maybe someone here can save a few bucks.