Supermicro SuperChassis CSE-743 / SC-743

[thn80]

Hello,

excuse my longer post with multiple questions, please.
For my new server I am looking for a chassis and highly tend to the Supermicro CSE-743. The chassis shall be able to hold a maximum of 8 harddrives (at the beginning 6 drives will be installed) and 2 SATA SSDs. All drives shall be hot-swappable. As I don't have the space for a rack at the moment, the chassis shall be a tower chassis which is able to be converted into a 4-5 HW rack mounted chassis.
An important goal for me is to save energy as the electricity is very expensive in Germany and, therefore, I plan to use an Intel Atom based A2SDi-8C-HLN4F motherboard (I am aware that the board will have some "free space" inside this chassis) and its onboard SATA ports which come as MiniSAS HD connectors. This board comes as form factor "Mini-ITX", but the documentation of the Supermicro CSE-743 mentions "12" x 13" E-ATX and ATX" as well as "E-ATX 12" x 13"/ATX/Micro ATX" as supported form factors. Regarding the ATX standard the mounting holes of Mini-ITX are a subset of those of Micro-ATX, which are a subset of those of ATX (also see the images on ATX EATX Mini-ITX DTX Motherboard Form Factors Explained). Meaning, that for my understanding even a Mini-ITX board should fit into the CSE-743. However, I tried to contact supermicro with this question and got the response that it will not fit. My assumption is that the Supermicro support only checked the datasheet and did not find Mini-ITX listed as it is unusual to install such a small board in such a large chassis.
Question A)
Is someone here in the forum who could confirm if a Mini-ITX motherboard fits into the CSE-743 or not?

Question B)
If eight harddrives of the type WD Red Pro will be installed into the hot-swap bays of the chassis, will the "SQ" (Super Quiet) version with 2-3 Green Mid-chassis-Fans (FAN-0104L4) be able to keep the harddrives in a temeprature range of 30 to 40 °C?

Question C)
Is someone here using the Supermicro CSE-743 with eight drives and 3 Green Mid-chassis-Fans and can say something about the sound level in dBA?

If I got it correctly, the chassis supports three different backplanes:
BPN-SAS-743TQ: 8x SAS-Port towards the motherboard
BPN-SAS3-743A: 2x SFF-SAS-Port (SFF-8643) towards the motherboard
SATA-743: 8x SATA-Port towards the motherboard

Question D)
The motherboard A2SDi-8C-HLN4F has two MiniSAS HD connectors providing SATA3 (6 Gbps SATA, no SAS). Can all of the mentioned backplanes be used with the SATA ports of the A2SDi-8C-HLN4F if only SATA drives (no SAS drives) are connected?

To reduce the cables my preferred backplane is the BPN-SAS3-743A with its SFF-SAS-Ports (if compatible, depending on your answers on my question D).

Question E)
Which exact versions of the SuperChassis 743 are the correct ones? If I got it correctly, the 743AC versions should have the BPN-SAS3-743A backplane, right?

If I got it correctly, the motherboard as well as the backplane should have SFF-8643 connectors.

Question F)
Can I simply use each available SFF-8643 to SFF-8643 cable to connect the motherboard to the backplane? Is there a specific model number for such a cable from Supermicro?

Question G)
Will the A2SDi-8C-HLN4F motherboard be able to correctly control the drive bay LEDs via this setup?

Question H)
Even that I really tend to the CSE-743 are there any other chassis you recommend?

I already had a look on the Chenbro SR107 Plus which is almost similar to the CSE-743, but I am a bit afraid that in some years it could be challenging to get spare parts, while I don't have this concern on Supermicro parts.

Thanks a lot in advance for all your comments and recommendations,

Thomas

 

[thn80]

Has really noone experience on the Supermicro SuperChassis CSE-743 / SC-743 and could answer some of my questions?
@RedX1, @anomaly, @i386 do you have any information?

 

[i386]

a) I never had a mini itx board, the smallest board that I put in a 745 was a xeon d based flex atx board. One of the flex atx boards mounting holes didn't align with with the spacers

b) this will depend on the ambient temperature.
mine is about 20°c (the air "stands still" in this room, that's why I was allowed to make it my home office ) and my wd red 10tb are around 31°c with the slow fans (3x 2.8k rpm 80mm in the fan wall + 1x 2.8k rpm 92mm fan in the rear)

Spoiler: screenshot from maxview

c) I'm using 4x 10tb hdds + 2 sas 400gb ssds, I replaced the tq & a backplane (I have two 745) with "BPN-SAS3-743A-N4" (bought them for about 150€ each, they support up to 4x nvme 2.5 ssds)

The noise will depend on the cpu load.
My cpu is a 280watt threadripper pro doing all kind of weird stuff D), the fans are audible but I don't find it annoying.

d) with the correct cables, yes. for the tq backplane you would need cables with the reversed direction (google and this forum are your friends)

e) there are many skus that come with different fans and psu combinations.
The 743 skus have all a single "standard" looking psu while the 745 chassis have redundant 1u psus.
yes, the 743ac chassis should have the BPN-SAS3-743A backplane.

f) I think yes (I don't use sata via minisas connectors).
Supermicro has different products numbers with different lengths, I recommend you to take a look at their cable matrix to find a decent length (I prefere "mid length" cables as they allow more flexibility with the cable routing inside the chassis and they are not to long to obstruct the airflow)

g) no idea (and experience) about this

h) the 745 chassis
it's basically the same but allows you to use redundant supermicro "server" psus (or like I do 1 psu plus the battery pack)

about chenbro (or other vendors): almost ten years ago chenbro chassis + psus + fans would be almost the same price as supermicro chassis minus the aftermarket/used market. Looking at some semi recent posts it still seems to be the case that chenbro spare parts are hard or impossible to find.

 

[thn80]

d) with the correct cables, yes. for the tq backplane you would need cables with the reversed direction (google and this forum are your friends)

If I use a Mini-SAS HD to Mini-SAS HD cable, is there really a "reverse" version?

h) the 745 chassis
it's basically the same but allows you to use redundant supermicro "server" psus (or like I do 1 psu plus the battery pack)

It is the first time I hear about the battery pack. Do you have a model number that I can get some more information on this topic?
Is the battery pack used like a simple UPS?

 

[i386]

If I use a Mini-SAS HD to Mini-SAS HD cable, is there really a "reverse" version?

The comment about reverse direction was related to the tq backplane and multilane sas connectors on the host side.

It is the first time I hear about the battery pack. Do you have a model number that I can get some more information on this topic?
Is the battery pack used like a simple UPS?

PWS-1K03B-1R according to their store it's eol: Supermicro 1000W 1U Redundant Battery Backup Power Module (PWS-1K03B-1R)

https://store.supermicro.com/us_en/pub/media/wysiwyg/productspecs/PWS-1K03B-1R/PWS-1K03B-1R_quick_spec.pdf

This battery pack is put inside the second psu slot and will provide power in case of a power outage.

 

[RedX1]

Hello



Be careful with your CSE 743 choice. These chassis do not easily accept an ATX Type power supply and are limited to the smaller motherboards. The Supermicro AT Type PSU’s are still available.

If you are buying a brand-new chassis the CSE 747 may be a better choice, they are slightly larger, with better mounting rails and more options for future expansion / technologies.



I hope this helps.



RedX1