Advice on building a JBOD expander unit? How did YOU do it?

I

idea

Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
Messages
615
I'm looking to build a JBOD unit based off of a 12/16/24-bay chassis and a SAS expander card. I will be connecting it to a SAS HBA on a Linux or Solaris host to be used with ZFS. I need advice on pretty much everything. I haven't bought any parts yet.

If you don't know what I'm talking about check out this link: http://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-diy-cheap-low-cost-jbod-enclosures-raid/

  1. Where can I find the best deal on a JBOD chassis, and what PSU to use? I want it to be quiet with low-rpm 120mm fans
  2. Whats the best SAS expander to use?
  3. Whats the best SAS HBA with external ports to use on the Linux or Solaris host?
  4. Tell me how you set yours up!
 
Fanatic_Joker said:
Changing the Fans ?
Click to expand...

On the SGI unit? Yes, it is possible. Apparently they are 3-wire 80mm fans, and one 40mm PSU fan, which can all be replaced with novice skills. This SGI JBOD unit, plus replacement fans, plus shipping etc, would come to be about $250-300. Which is less than half of the price of a DIY JBOD unit (unless you find deals on the components). And it's about one quarter of the price of a SAS JBOD Expander from a popular manufacturer like Norco or Supermicro.

So yeah, it's hard to ignore this deal, especially because 16 drives is enough for me
 
Honestly, I think you'll have a tough time cobbling together an expander chassis for less than what you can pick up and modify one of those SGI units for. In the setup from STH, they still spent nearly $800 and only gained 8 bays over that SGI box.
 
idea said:
On the SGI unit? Yes, it is possible. Apparently they are 3-wire 80mm fans, and one 40mm PSU fan, which can all be replaced with novice skills. This SGI JBOD unit, plus replacement fans, plus shipping etc, would come to be about $250-300. Which is less than half of the price of a DIY JBOD unit (unless you find deals on the components). And it's about one quarter of the price of a SAS JBOD Expander from a popular manufacturer like Norco or Supermicro.

So yeah, it's hard to ignore this deal, especially because 16 drives is enough for me
Click to expand...

yes... I have one SGI unit. I modified 80mm-> lower rpm of 120mm, change PSU 40mm fan with lower RPM.

you need to remember, that unit only support 3G...

if you need some inspiration, I can post my unit...

if you buy sgi unit, Ask the seller to provide HD screws.

total cost fo me at that time:
* SGI unit including S/H $180.
* 2X 120mm fans(ball bearing),$8 ( bought years back when had rebates).
*1X 40mm fan (ball bearing), salvage from broken shuttle PSU.
* HD screws.$10.
total for me: $198
 
cantalup said:
yes... I have one SGI unit. I modified 80mm-> lower rpm of 120mm, change PSU 40mm fan with lower RPM.

you need to remember, that unit only support 3G...

if you need some inspiration, I can post my unit...

if you buy sgi unit, Ask the seller to provide HD screws.

total cost fo me at that time:
* SGI unit including S/H $180.
* 2X 120mm fans(ball bearing),$8 ( bought years back when had rebates).
*1X 40mm fan (ball bearing), salvage from broken shuttle PSU.
* HD screws.$10.
total for me: $198
Click to expand...

That is very helpful info, thank you. If you can post pics that would be so great. I understand the 3Gbps limitation will be a bottleneck, luckily its not much of a issue for me.

It is very very hard to justify spending 3-4x more for something with another 4-8 disk bays and 6Gbps. Im hoping to find a deal on the trade forums
 
idea said:
ttt please
Click to expand...

I do not see this thread, till today, you could PM ..

two taken pics of 120mm fan modding as follows,
vgC3EIL.jpg

Ij3ERfl.jpg

you need to trim 120mm fan bottom to fit nicely, I used dremel to do that.
I use 114m bimetal hole saw to make ~120mm hole, not precisely.. but OK.

GwI157Y.jpg

bi-metal hole saw.

you need to replace 40mm PSU fan too with lower RPMs~3000-5000RPMs
 
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