Supermicro Chassis 846 & 216 - getting cheaper?

[pc-tecky]

eBay seller tamsolutions has:
$125 + S&H for Supermicro SAS2-216 w/ 2x 1200W PSUs and older H8DME2 (AMD) system
$188 + S&H for Supermicro SAS846TQ w/ 2x 900W PSUs and older H8DME2 (AMD) system
other 846 and 216 systems and hardware/platform options

yes, they are older systems, but still a capable system for entry to virtual machine hosting or swap out with something newer, C2000/C3000, Xeon D, etc.

 

[iriscloud]

I'm just bit the bullet and ordered a 846TQ after waiting and searching for an 846 with the SAS 2 expander for a good deal. Seems its getting harder and harder to find them with the SAS 2 expander. I will probably use the Intel RES2SV240NC as the sas expander and see how that goes and maybe upgrade the backplane from the TQ later if i have issues. This should make a good ZFS system after throwing lots of RAM at it. I'm hoping the cpu doesn't become a problem due to the low clock speed but it shouldn't have to work too hard with only a 10G adapter to saturate.

 

[talsit]

I was looking at those too. The ones I found were cheap for the hardware but really expensive shipping.

 

[fossxplorer]

What is the issue with 846TQ back plane if any? TQs are direct attached backplanes IIRC, but requires more cabling to HBA in the server, while SAS2 expanders uses less cabling (3 in this case with 24 bays/ports).
Is there anything i should know about regarding 846TQ vs SAS2 backplane (wondewr if it's BPN-SAS2)?

 

[pgh5278]

What is the issue with 846TQ back plane if any? TQs are direct attached backplanes IIRC, but requires more cabling to HBA in the server, while SAS2 expanders uses less cabling (3 in this case with 24 bays/ports).
Is there anything i should know about regarding 846TQ vs SAS2 backplane (wondewr if it's BPN-SAS2)?

Dexterous fingers and more wires & connections than 846A version..

 

[cheezehead]

If your using ZFS, the TQ backplanes work well....plus they can go to 12GB. The SAS2 expander works better if your using traditional raid configurations or you have a requirement for dual-porting. I have a TQ on my 836 and even though my motherboard has SAS ports, all I needed to use were some SAS breakout cables to wire it up.

Outside of the backplane, unless you have the sleds laying around...make sure anything you buy has them. Know what PSU your getting....the original 800w ones were screamers. Lastly, if your planning on using rails but the chassis doesn't come with them....price them out...the 846 has two different styles of rails depending on how old the chassis is....in general the older-wide style rails are harder to come by and are more expensive to obtain.

 

[fossxplorer]

Thanks for the details! @cheezehead.
I've been following tamsolutions listings of these 846 chassis with different pricing for the nearly exact same HW.
Now they've even increased prices AFAICS, one listing went up from$198 to $220

 

[vl1969]

I am running one of this "SM-SC846(24 bay)| H8DME-2 Sata expander " form tamsolutions
for the last 3 years . bought it directly from them,not via ebay, 4 years back. total cost with shipping was $460 dollars. did about $200 or so worth of mods to it.
like it so far. very capable system. only gripe for me was that it is very loud.
had to do a lot of mods to make it quite.

 

[xhypno402]

They can defn be found for good prices with a little effort.

About 3 weeks ago I found a CSE-846BE16-R1K28B new in box (open, but never built in or plugged in) listed at $1187.48, or just about 21% off the retail price of the chassis new.

I made an offer of $650 and it was accepted. For most people this would seem high, but for a never used 4u 24 bay SM case with 1.2k redundant Platinum power supplies, and a SAS2 expander, it was a steal. The seller even threw in the rear mount 2x 2.5inch hotswap addon and the SM pmu -> atx front panel breakout so I could use it with my ASROCK ep2c602-4l/d16.

 

[hd2012]

what is a modern HBA to use for the 4U TQ? the system in there is old and has PCI HBAs

 

[T_Minus]

SAS2 - LSI 2008 or SAS3 - LSI 3008 based

 

[ttabbal]

what is a modern HBA to use for the 4U TQ? the system in there is old and has PCI HBAs

Most any HBA will work. The TQ backplane is just a bunch of SATA connectors, so grab some breakout cables and you should be good to go. I use 3 Dell H310s in mine flashed to IT mode to run ZFS.

 

[Rand__]

what is a modern HBA to use for the 4U TQ? the system in there is old and has PCI HBAs

Really? Or typo ?

 

[T_Minus]

PCI - Yes, is my guess. Some are old.

 

[vl1969]

PCI - Yes, is my guess. Some are old.

hell, I am running one of those with 3x8 PCI-X HBA cards in it.

 

[RyC]

I can't believe they still have these

I bought the 846TQ from tams minus the motherboard for $190 in 2013. Still going strong today!

 

[cheezehead]

SM has been selling the 836/846 chassis for many years, the TQ backplane is a passive one so if it was connected from a PCI-based HBA card circa early 2000's if the motherboard got swapped out to something more recent you could use a PCI-E based HBA and enjoy the extra bandwidth and speed available.

 

[fossxplorer]

I see ppl have bought direcltly form TAMSolutions before. I got in touch with them last week or so and asked to remove the motherboard/CPU/controller etc prior to shipping (since i'm using freight forwarder to Europe). They replied yes to that and followed up with another correspondence this Monday, then it all stopped. I've sent 2 email after that, still no reply.
Guess they are not interested to sell these chassis directly for a bit lower price perhaps?
Anyway, i'd appreciate a reply from them at least

 

[cheezehead]

I see ppl have bought direcltly form TAMSolutions before. I got in touch with them last week or so and asked to remove the motherboard/CPU/controller etc prior to shipping (since i'm using freight forwarder to Europe). They replied yes to that and followed up with another correspondence this Monday, then it all stopped. I've sent 2 email after that, still no reply.
Guess they are not interested to sell these chassis directly for a bit lower price perhaps?
Anyway, i'd appreciate a reply from them at least

Freight forwarder shouldn't matter, if they are shipping to the forwarder's address and that's US based it should be just their regular shipping.

 

[ullbeking]

I've been looking at various different SM chassis for similar reasons. I'm glad I found this thread because it seems there is important information that I need to know about.

I get the impression that there are two major different backplanes I need to understand: TQ backplane and SAS 2 backplane..? Can somebody please explain the difference, or at least point me to docs that have this information? Thanks!!

My main concern is that I want hot-swappable, front-loading SATA 3 drive bays that work with ZFS. Do I need a SAS 2 backplane, or will TQ suffice?