Supermicro 4U 45 bay JBOD chassis - $300

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T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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Racing fall/winter... @whitey know that feeling :rolleyes: seems like we always wait tell the end of summer ha ha.
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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SMH, I know weak sauce...here in Colorado...winter is coming :-D

I got a month until I expect to see our first snow typically.
 

SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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I snagged the last one yesterday, sorry to all who missed out. FedEx says it will be here tomorrow. Super impressed with this seller. Been lurking here for almost a year reading. This place is an amazing resource!

Now I just need more hard drives.....
 
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whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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Racing fall/winter... @whitey know that feeling :rolleyes: seems like we always wait tell the end of summer ha ha.
Trick question o' the day, who can name/recognize that orange looking tool behind my gas can...had a blast using that beast! Good thing my neighbor let me borrow it :-D
 

Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Trick question o' the day, who can name/recognize that orange looking tool behind my gas can...had a blast using that beast! Good thing my neighbor let me borrow it :-D
A brick. That one was easy :)
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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Isn't that a plate compactor?
Ding ding, WINNER, guess that wasnt that hard considering the project, good to see we are handy w/ the back breaking work as well.

Luv that machine, makes quick work of compacting if you've ever beaten ypur hands to death w a hand plate tamper hah
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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I snagged the last one yesterday, sorry to all who missed out. FedEx says it will be here tomorrow. Super impressed with this seller. Been lurking here for almost a year reading. This place is an amazing resource!

Now I just need more hard drives.....
WHAT, why you no send me the goods hehe, asked the seller to tap me if they get their hands on any more.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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I did snag one of the 36 bay 4U's. Those are extremely handy if you are building a storage server ($250 + 65 shipping)
 

sfbayzfs

Active Member
May 6, 2015
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I hope you confirmed they are SAS2 backplanes in the 36-bay before buying, but as long as they are (same equipment batch, so probably,) that is a steal - free server with purchase of 2 backplanes!

Three years ago the only 36-bay unit I could find was packed by a fool in a giant box with a few phonebooks and packing peanuts and got really badly damaged of course. I got my money back after UPS took it away, but it took me almost a year to find another.

I jumped on the next 36-bay 847 units I found - they were bare with no PSUs or trays for about $200 each + shipping, which seemed great, but they had the SAS1 expander backplanes. Add $350 each for SAS2 expander backplanes, $40 each for a single PSU, and at the time $100 each for a set of trays was the best I could find, so ~$650 each after upgrades.

They served me well, and I really like how the motherboard tray slides out, so it's super-easy to trade boards around for testing and such, plus if you want power of 2 data drives in your VDEVs, 2 z2 VDEVs of 18 drives is perfect (36/2) - 2 = 2^4

Now I'm getting out of the 847 36-bay to use the 45-bay JBODs with an 836 3U 16-bay a head unit, that way I can use full height cards if I need to, and make 15-drive VDEVs, but I will miss the 36-bay units, they are especially well designed.
 
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Patrick

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@sfbayzfs I have a SC847 that I pulled apart in order to put SAS3 cabling into (straight through backplanes.) I am interested to see if this is an expander chassis. Worst case, if it is the tool-less rail kit that is $30 or so. 36 drive trays usually cost me around $150. Two 1400W gold PSUs are $70 each. Back planes/ fans are probably worth something. I can probably part the unit out and be OK in the worst case. In the best case, this may end up being a really cool Xeon D storage platform ;)
 
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SycoPath

Active Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Not sure about the 36 bay chassis, but I'm almost certain the 45 bay is sas2 expander with cb2 controller board based on the replies i got back from the seller.
 

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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sfbayzfs

Active Member
May 6, 2015
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That auction definitely has the older SAS1 expander backplanes which need to be replaced, so it is not such a good deal. Mr Rackables packs things well, but read their descriptions carefully - they must have a ton of inventory of old SAS1 expander backplane SC846 and SC847 units, that is why it has the warning about 3TB and 4TB drives possibly not being recognized in them.

To be clear Supermicro backplanes come in 3 main variants in all 3 SAS generations:
  1. Direct attached - older ones ended in -TQ and had one SATA connector per bay, newer ones have -A or -B suffix and have 1 SAS connector per 4 bays
  2. Single SAS expander -EL1 - these are made in all 3 SAS generations - SAS, SAS2, and SAS3
  3. Double SAS expander -EL2 - these are made in all 3 SAS generations - SAS, SAS2, and SAS3 - the second expander is connected to the secondary SAS port in the backplane for dual ported drives. That way you can compensate for failures of a drive's primary port or of either entire SAS expander or even do firmware updates on the expanders one at a time while your system is online and running.
BPN-SAS-846-EL2 = bad - double expander SAS1 generation, will not support large drives well, and only single cable-able
BPN-SAS3-846-EL1 - good - single SAS3 expander, probably expensive too :)
 

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
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Mine arrive today! Packaged in a big box. Chassis wrapped in bubble wrap. Power supplies also in bubble wrap separate. No Rails. All packed in the box with peanuts. I need a shelf, so I'll get it installed in the next few days when one arrives. Excited!
 

sfbayzfs

Active Member
May 6, 2015
259
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SF Bay area
Mine arrive today! Packaged in a big box. Chassis wrapped in bubble wrap. Power supplies also in bubble wrap separate. No Rails. All packed in the box with peanuts.
Woot! I have had chassis' broken and bent when they were packed that way before, glad yours arrived safely!

Which fans are in it? The Nidec 0.8A or the Nidec 0.6A, or another model?

They are probably wired to the backplanes, which will run them at or close to full speed - before you load it up with drives, fire it up and see how the fans are wired and what noise level is acceptable to you - the one I am running is quite loud with I believe 4 Nidec 0.6A fans running from the backplanes when compared to my motherboard controlled PWM 0.6A Nidec fans I had in my 36-bay 847 unit.

I used to run my 36-bay with an X9SCM and only 4x 0.6A Nidecs on the optimal profile with no problems in my cool-ish basement - they were usually on low, but would ramp a little under load. When I moved the drives to my 45-bay, it was quite warm here - the drives reported something like 45C when I booted the system up, but the fans on full tilt brought them to around 33C or so within 20 minutes.

I can't remember if connecting the fans to the power control board is supposed to run them slower than when they are on the backplanes.

I am not concerned about the noise as much, but at full tilt, 4-7x 0.6A - 0.8A fans is 28.8-67.2W just for fans, that's a ton of power draw that is probably unnecessary. I am therefore considering swapping mine for Notua or Panaflo, or wiring them to the power board with splitters and or using a LNA from the Noctua kits and see how that goes.

I have a bunch of new old stock Panaflo 80mm fans, sadly they are only 3-pin, but they were less than half the cost of Noctuas, and should be fine for this chassis. The 3-pin plugs on the Panaflows are about 2mm too long to mount to the hotswap socket on the fan carrier, and too narrow to stay positioned without a spacer, but they work fine if you run them directly to your motherboard/backplane/power board.
 

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
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Great info. Once I have my shelf on Monday, I'll get it into the rack and power it up and see how it does sound-wise.