Supermicro 4u 24 bay chassis with SAS2 expander

That's the front-panel I/O board. Just connects the front buttons & lights to that cable.

Not really a "board" per say, but a board to connect two sets of wires.

EDIT: beat me to it within seconds!

 

The issue you are having is you are trying to link to the PAGE where the images are hosted.
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And as mentioned, that cable is for the front I/O (power, reset, activity lights).

 

JayG30, thank you sir.

I didn't notice it in the other 2 and in this one it jumped out at me as soon as I removed the lid. Being what it is, no doubt the other 2 have it also and I plugged in into the right plug. Maybe the cable wasn't as long in the other 2, dunno. As soon as the MB arrives I'll be pulling one out so I'll see then but no doubt I'll still feel like a fool as I do now.

 

you're good man.

 

Just sent a request to them for a custom configuration to try and make it as quiet as possible. The SAS2 expander shouldn't have any issues with 5TB drives in combination with my 9265-8i right?

 

I can't speak for the 9265; but, 4, 5, and 6 TB work fine with my SAS2 backplane with my 9211-8i (as well as my IBM 1015s, flashed to the 9211-8i).

As quiet as possible... That was my goal as well.

* just make sure the chassis has 4-pin PWM fans.
* get a chassis without PSUs.
* pick up the lowest wattage, Platinum PSUs you can afford.

Connect the PWM fans to your motherboard and control them that way. Do not connect them to the SAS backplane (they will run at near full speed). If your mobo doesn't support 4-pin PWM, get a PWM controller.

If you flip back a few pages you'll see my eBay links to a vendor that stripped the chassis to exactly that for me with SAS2 backplane ($220).

And I posted another eBay link in the same post about 2x 740W Platinum PSUs I found with an Offer at $150 for both. They are very quiet. You can hear it, but we are talking Antec Twelve fans-on-medium sound level. Not very much. I can't imagine how quiet the SQs are as these are very quiet to me.

If you want the quietest possible, then you need to pay the premium for an 920-SQ PSU. Found one guy that would take $125 for one on ebay.

Unless you calculate you need it, a 600W is more than enough for dual 160W CPUs and SATA HDDs.

 

Has anyone found a way for more fine-grained fan control than what's offered in the X8DTE-F bios? In the BIOS, it's just 'low/medium/full/power saving' (or something similar), and I didn't see any way to directly control the fans via IPMIviewer either. Even on 'power saving', the case fans are awfully darn loud.

I'd prefer to be able to set my own temperature thresholds/targets and associated target fan speeds, etc.

 

On Linux, BSD, or Windows? If you're on Linux, you should be able to adjust the PWM fan zones with hwmon. On my X9SCM, /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2 is where the PWM control resides, though the hwmon number may differ on your board (if it even supports this at all).

To control the fans, its as simple as:

Code:

# echo 1 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2/device/pwm1_enable
# echo 128 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2/device/pwm1
# echo 1 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2/device/pwm2_enable
# echo 128 > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2/device/pwm2

Note that the value echo'd into any of the device/pwmN files is 0-255, so 128 gives you a ~50% PWM duty cycle. You'll have to figure out which header(s) "pwm1", "pwm2", ..., "pwmN" controls on your board as well.

I'm sure something similar exists in BSD, and there are probably Windows tools that will do the same, though I'm not familiar with either.

 

On Linux

I'll give this a try later today, but what I'm really looking for is a way to tell the board that...
* If tempSensorX < thresh_low, set fanY to minimum_speed
* If thresh_low <= tempSensorX <= thresh_med, set fanY to low_speed
* If thresh_med <= tempSensorX <= thresh_high, set fanY to med_speed
...etc (and ideally on a smooth curve between the different thresholds and speeds)

I want automatic fan speed control like the BIOS already implements, but I want to be able to change the thresholds and associated fan speeds; the defaults are too high. Most higher-end consumer boards I've used offer this, so I was surprised that I couldn't figure out how to do so on this Supermicro server board.

 

Keep in mind, consumer boards are meant to sit a few feet from you... Server-grade gear is meant for the DC.

Personally, I wrote a quick and dirty script for this. If drive temps reside in certain ranges, the fan speeds get set accordingly. It runs every minute. Even if the board could do a smooth curve, it would likely base it off the CPU(s) temps, which isn't really helpful for keeping drive temps low. I don't really care about CPU temps in my case, even under full load it stays under control with the case fans tuned down quite a bit.

 

Yep, you'll have to script it. Remember to build in a lambda to "cushion" the changes once it temp changes X degrees (not for every degree). Else you'll get an annoying surging affect of constant up and down up and down.

For Windows, there is a tool called SpeedFan that handles automating this for you - if your IO chip is support that is. And even then it is expected to run in a user space so you have to jump through hoops (Use Task Scheduler) to set it up to run at boot.

Then there's the option of buying a PWM controller with TEMP inputs - he ch is all you want anyways. Place the temp proves where you want them and set the thresholds as you like. Adds cost though.

Another option, which is what I am doing in my server, is to Y-split the PWM control for CPU temp and connect it to two fans in the midplane and rear two fans of the exit fans that are all part of the fan shrouding. That way all four fans speed up and lower according to the CPU temps (I'm running a 12 Core).

This may change as I am not monitoring the HDD temps - yet - and will adjust accordingly.

Also remember that if you combine several fans to run off of a single PWM plug that a lot of these fan headers have AMP limits and you run the risk of burning them out. That's why I wire the 12+ and GND to the Molex directly and just use the one PWM wire spliced to all fans. (I use splitters to splice, so I don't hurt the Supermicro wiring).

Personally on desktop builds, I use Dell's 730x MCB for all my fan and LED wiring. I don't recommend this as you have to write your own software to control the MCB's input (I'll be publishing that soon). But its awesome, letting a $10 board hand temp monitoring fan ramp up/down for you, and calmly.

 

this a good candidate writing in Python

basically.. you can Not make very quite on server fans. they intend to suck off very quick and make grinding noise when low in rpm due on dual ball bearing structure.

you can tame the fan noise but still can ont be as quite as Desktop system

 

This kinda depends. I have three states for mine. 40% when the drives are idling (< 38C), 50% if temperatures are raised (> 38C), and 100% if temps are through the roof (> 43C). Even during periods of extended disk activity temps have never reached 43C in my experience*. As fast as the stock fans are, the difference between 40% and 50% is enough to keep my drives cool enough when temps raise in ZFS scrubs, and the switch between states is inaudible unless you're standing right next to it. I've got it setup to shoot me an email if temps ever get above 43C as well (as well as some basic SMART monitoring).

100% is quite loud though!

* Completely dependent on your drives and ambient temperature though! Experimentation required! I have a mix of HGST NAS drives, Seagate Desktop drives, and WD Reds.

 

Would anyone in here be interested in purchasing a 846 chassis with SAS2 expnder? Or trade for 2 of these 12 bay chassis?

 

this is easy to do for avoiding quick raising/lowering fan sympton.
you need a delay time when the fan is ready to lower/upper down PWM..
5 second -10 seconds would be great .

you are correct on my understanding, server fan drain much amps .
I do make a simple PCB board to make easy. one connector to PSU , and many 4 PIN fan connectors.

what dell 730X MCB? never heard that.

 

Just park it on the back porch and let the neighbors deal with the noise.

 

Platinum still make noise when fan is spinning .
If you load 50% and more, the fan is still noisy..
the best scenario on my test is lower 30% or lower is the best

the question is how much watt you gonna pull . I posted before on eff by comparison on 5ooW and 740 W platinum that 500W still the best on power consumption ~70W-200W. 74oW is ~ 200W-350W

SQ basically has lower RPM fan..

all PSU Platinum fans are loud when pulling more than 50%.....

 

Exactly, you have to size the Platinum according to your power needs.

My setup:

1x 2690 v3 12C/24T (135W max, very low Haswell idle)
12 HDDs @ 5W max.
846 chassis
1x HBA (9211)
1x SAS2 Expander chip in SAS2 backplane
Fans.

HDDs will be spun down the vast majority of the time. 2x SSDs in RAID1 for OS/ESXi VMs.

Even at max usage, with all HDDs powered on and active (say, 20 x 5W), CPU @ 100% and fans at high, I can't see more than 320W usage.

Hence, my choosing of the 740W Platinum PSUs - less than 50% !!

 

hahaha good suggestion, until someone call 911 or to Home Owner Association hihihih.

someone reported me due on my front grass is too high . how sweet ?

 

well... you decide it.
I only give the information that can be downloaded from SM site

honestly on your scenario where mostl idle... you rarely pull 200W or more .

I introduced 500W and 740W. let everyone decides to pick:...

500W and 740W platinum price is mostly identical... when buying the right time
740W is widely available mostly on Ebay, 500W is just poping out and disappear quick .

I bought $120 free shipping for 2X 500W platinum.