Using a Supermicro chassis with another branded board?

[Gdourado]

Hello, how are you?
I have just registered in this forum as it seems the best place to get some help for my new project.

I am doing the research for my dual cpu project.
I went to a local it company that has an old backup unused server for sale.
It is a complete supermicro server.
It is an old x58 based server, but it is new and complete for an excellent price.
One of the better things in my opinion is the chassis.
It comes with a CSE-743T-665B.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Products | Chassis | 4U | SC743T-665B

I am really interested in it for a later upgrade to a dual xeon 2670 rig.
But I don't have experience with server chassis.

It seems high quality, but the build process seems different than a standard gaming case.

Can I use the chassis with an asus board like the Z9PE-D8 WS?
Or are there some propriettary connectors than require a supermicro board?

Is this a good case for a project?

Cheers! And thank you.

 

[britinpdx]

The SC743 chassis is indeed a very high quality and robust workstation/server chassis. I have the SC745 variant, it is built like a tank !

The thing that I absolutely love about the Supermicro (SM) designs is their modularity, and the ability to swap power supplies, cables, fans etc with other SM chassis.

The Asus Z9PE-D8 WS appears to be an SSI EEB form factor (12" x 13"), the SC743 supports a number of SM X8xxx Extended ATX form factor (12" x 13"). So as they are the same physical size the Asus motherboard should fit.

However, I believe the mounting points for an SSI EEB and E-ATX can be different. Here's a handy motherboard sizing article.

The other issue that you may run into depend upon the rev of the chassis. Older chassis revs have fixed motherboard posts, some of which may not line up with the motherboard mounting holes, and may indeed contact areas on the bottom of the motherboard and cause shorts. This can be remedied be either judicious amounts of electrical tape over the post (not my preferred solution as sharp contacts may still push through), or use physical mechanical means (drill etc) to the fixed post to remove it.

For missing post locations (the opposite problem) I use these 6mm tall M3 hex standoffs and attach them to the motherboard with an M3 screw prior to installing the motherboard. This provides support to the motherboard when pushing in connectors, memory, cards, cpu's etc to minimize motherboard flexing.

All of the SM chassis that I've dealt with use a flat ribbon cable to connect the motherboard to the front panel buttons/LEDs. SM make an adapter cable to connect to non-SM motherboards. Depending on header block placement on the Asus motherboard, you would need a CBL-084L or the longer CBL-0068L.

Again, depending on the rev of the chassis, the fans may be 3pin, not 4pin for PWM control. This can also be addressed by swapping out the older 3pin fan cables for a 4pin cable (such as the CBL-0088L), and using PWM fans in place of the non PWM fans.

 

[Gdourado]

The SC743 chassis is indeed a very high quality and robust workstation/server chassis. I have the SC745 variant, it is built like a tank !

The thing that I absolutely love about the Supermicro (SM) designs is their modularity, and the ability to swap power supplies, cables, fans etc with other SM chassis.

The Asus Z9PE-D8 WS appears to be an SSI EEB form factor (12" x 13"), the SC743 supports a number of SM X8xxx Extended ATX form factor (12" x 13"). So as they are the same physical size the Asus motherboard should fit.

However, I believe the mounting points for an SSI EEB and E-ATX can be different. Here's a handy motherboard sizing article.

The other issue that you may run into depend upon the rev of the chassis. Older chassis revs have fixed motherboard posts, some of which may not line up with the motherboard mounting holes, and may indeed contact areas on the bottom of the motherboard and cause shorts. This can be remedied be either judicious amounts of electrical tape over the post (not my preferred solution as sharp contacts may still push through), or use physical mechanical means (drill etc) to the fixed post to remove it.

For missing post locations (the opposite problem) I use these 6mm tall M3 hex standoffs and attach them to the motherboard with an M3 screw prior to installing the motherboard. This provides support to the motherboard when pushing in connectors, memory, cards, cpu's etc to minimize motherboard flexing.

All of the SM chassis that I've dealt with use a flat ribbon cable to connect the motherboard to the front panel buttons/LEDs. SM make an adapter cable to connect to non-SM motherboards. Depending on header block placement on the Asus motherboard, you would need a CBL-084L or the longer CBL-0068L.

Again, depending on the rev of the chassis, the fans may be 3pin, not 4pin for PWM control. This can also be addressed by swapping out the older 3pin fan cables for a 4pin cable (such as the CBL-0088L), and using PWM fans in place of the non PWM fans.

Thank you for your detailed reply.
Really appreciate it.

I am looking at a server with the specs:
Intel i7-950 3.06Ghz
6GB DDR3 ECC Unbuffered Memory (3x 2GB 10600E)
Supermicro X8STE Motherboard
Supermicro 743T-665B Tower Chassis
2x Toshiba 1TB 7.2K SATA Drives
DVD-Rom Drive
And it comes with a window 7 license.
I can get it in new condition under 400 euros.

Is it a good deal?
My thoughts would be to use the chassis for a board, memory and cpu upgrade.
Dual xeon 2670, 64 gigs rdiims.

Is this a good bet?
Or should I just go for a standard atx case like a tj07?

Also, if I need to upgrade the psu, can I use standard atx? Or is a supermicro psu needed?

Cheers

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[ttabbal]

I recently jumped into my first Supermicro chassis. It's a SC846 that claims E-ATX support, but not SSI-EEB. I put an Intel S5520HC SSI-EEB board in there without problems. Just had to move a couple motherboard supports. All the motherboard mounting holes are used in my case. I didn't have fixed stand-offs in the wrong places, just the outside corners and my board was able to use them. The others were the normal screw-in type. If I had one in the way, I'd just take a Dremmel to it and remove it.

My board didn't come with an I/O Shield, so I can't be 100% sure that's compatible, but the ports line up properly with the hole in the case where the shield would go, so I'm 99% sure it would work if I had one here.

I needed a couple extra parts, the front panel breakout cable already mentioned. I also needed a pair of 4-pin fan extension cables as the new motherboard didn't have fan connectors in the same places and 2 of them didn't reach.

The PSUs in my case are custom sized units. There might be generic replacements available, but they aren't standard ATX. Looking at pictures for your case's PSU (PWS-665-PQ), It sure looks like an ATX sized supply.

 

[cheezehead]

Running a CSE-836 chassis paired with Gigabyte E-ATX board, the only extra I needed to order was a front panel breakout cable as others have mentioned.

Depending on how old the chassis is, you might need to swap out the PDU with a more modern one unless you want to play around with a bunch of breakout cables for the power.

 

[Patrick]

You guys need to get on the SC732i bandwagon! Actually, the larger cases are nice but I like small and silent: My May 2015 Workstation Build

 

[ttabbal]

Mine is for a (primarily) storage server. There are currently 12 3.5" HDDs in there, and I'd like to do 12 more, eventually. That 732 is cute, but can't hold my array.

For this box, small and silent are non-issues. For a machine that will be in a more occupied area, something like that would be great though.

My workstation doesn't even have a case right now, the E-ATX board is too @#%$# big for any cases I have available and I'm being cheap. Besides, nothing like computing naked!!! Letting your ATX cable flap in the breeze from the CPU fan!

 

[Fritz]

I used a SM 732 case fora short time for my dual E5 2570 build and it just didn't cut it. Had major cooling issues and it was a bear to work with. Cable management was almost impossible and expansion options were limited. I upgraded to a SM 745 and now all is well.

 

[i386]

I got an almost new 836B chassis with the 4x multilane connectors backplane and I wanted to put an Intel S5520HC mainboard that I had lying around in it.
But many cables are too short: 3 of the fan cables, 1 of the the cpu power cables, the mainboard power cable and the front panel cable.

 

[ttabbal]

I got an almost new 836B chassis with the 4x multilane connectors backplane and I wanted to put an Intel S5520HC mainboard that I had lying around in it.
But many cables are too short: 3 of the fan cables, 1 of the the cpu power cables, the mainboard power cable and the front panel cable.

That happened to me with a S5520HC as well. Just get some extension leads. Way cheaper on ebay than local for me. Annoying, but meh.

I needed an adapter for the front panel connection anyway. The Intel board doesn't match the supermicro pinout. There's an extension/adapter lead that breaks out the individual signals. It worked perfectly for me. Until I got it, I just used IPMI to control power. [emoji1]

 

[Kybber]

All of the SM chassis that I've dealt with use a flat ribbon cable to connect the motherboard to the front panel buttons/LEDs. SM make an adapter cable to connect to non-SM motherboards. Depending on header block placement on the Asus motherboard, you would need a CBL-084L or the longer CBL-0068L.

Thought I'd just leave this here to prevent others from making my mistake: Note that the shorter CBL-084L contains the cable as well as a female-to-female adapter block? Unfortunately the CBL-068L doesn't contain that adapter, which is of course needed. Don't know if it's possible to obtain it separately, but I just went ahead and ordered the CBL-084L after receiving the CBL-068L.