Which SC846 for modding for quietness?

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
506
70
28
45
London
Hi, I've decided to bite the bullet and try modding an SC846 with -SQ PSU's to be as quiet as possible.

Which is the best model for this?

Is it worth getting a SAS expander BP?
 

kapone

Well-Known Member
May 23, 2015
1,095
642
113
Umm...putting an SQ PSU in an 846 is not exactly "modding". It's simply swapping one PSU for another. You just need to make sure that you have the right PDB (Power distributor board, that the PSU plugs into).

As far as SAS Expander BP...that's a much longer discussion.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
He will be referring to his other thread https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...lower-temperature-and-quiter-operation.31405/ ;)

I think in the end I think most ppl got what they could for cheap enough and then worked with it.
Unless you have specific requirements that is (re extra OS drive slots etc).

BPN wise its a good question (and basically a trade off) expander backplane means less HBAs, less cables but more heat from the expander.
-A backplane is more cables, more hbas but grow as you need option

Totally depends on your drives again (as does total heat generation)...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ullbeking

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
4,221
1,540
113
34
Germany
I have a "x11 ready" 846b with the single sas3 expander backplane where I replaced the fans with the older fan models (6.3k rpm instead of the stock 11k rpm) and the psu with the 920 sq.
System and psu fans are audible, but not as annoying as the noise of the hdds seeking :D

Get some sort of ssd caching (cachecade, maxcache) to avoid as much as possible random small io.
 

ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
506
70
28
45
London
I have a "x11 ready" 846b with the single sas3 expander backplane where I replaced the fans with the older fan models (6.3k rpm instead of the stock 11k rpm) and the psu with the 920 sq.
System and psu fans are audible, but not as annoying as the noise of the hdds seeking :D
Indeed!! I've been making a list of hardware that is useful for mounting spinning HDD's and reducing vibration.

Get some sort of ssd caching (cachecade, maxcache) to avoid as much as possible random small io.
You know, SSD caching or implementing a fast tier with SSD's is one of the most fascinating problems I'm working on right now. I'm not hugely enthusiastic about ZoL, Btrfs is more interesting, and I'm most interested in bcache, bcachefs, and LVM+XFS+dm_cache. Re: dm-cache I have a few SLC SAS3 HGST SSD's 100 GB and 200 GB, and I wonder whether these would be good for the fast part of the pair in dm-cache.

Actually, I've been thinking about creating an all-SSD filer (might be expensive, but remember, the "I" in "RAID" means "inexpensive"). In the background, it syncs with the backing filer that is implemented using large-capacity spinning SSD's.
 

ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
506
70
28
45
London
BPN wise its a good question (and basically a trade off) expander backplane means less HBAs, less cables but more heat from the expander.
-A backplane is more cables, more hbas but grow as you need option
I have a local Supermicro specialist white box seller, who are very supportive and have good prices on used hardware. I've written to them to get a quote on an SC846 with 920-SQ PSU's and an expander BP. It's the only option. I may regret this if I can't even pick it up however...