[USED] Ultimate File Server - 24 Bay SuperMicro Opteron Servers w/24 Port RAID $299+

The two I ordered are much better than my two Norco boxes. I only wish they supported IOMMU.

What is everyone using their setups for?
 
lol ...

Just curious .. who ordered more than one ? :) ...

(I ordered two)
 
I got two. I really wanted to get three but I didn't see a need. Ill donate the cpu/board to the local hackerspace and keep the other to screw around with. Both boxes will have e3 xeons in them.
 
I had to order a pack of screws for my 1 QC version. Do they all have 3x AOC SAT2-MV8 cards? Are your drive caddy LEDs lighting up? Mine aren't. Do I need to pick-up some 10-pin LED cables to run from the cards?

Fascinating.
 
Anyone running ESXi on these boards?

I know they dont support IOMMU. According to the CPU specs they support AMD-V and should allow me to run a virtualized 64bit OS yes?
 
Anyone run a watt test on what these pull?

I have a small dual xeon dual core tower server right now with no physical space for more drives and I am down to 500gb of space left. Thinking of picking up a quad version and making it a bit more home friendly. Mine can be heard from the basement steps now so not that concerned with noise but the quieter the better. This seems easier to quiet than my current one. I only use my server for media storage and streaming but the current was a freebie from work.

How easy is it to install WHS or something like Win8 on one of these boxes? I am not an IT guy just a home hobbyist. I would rather stick with windows. I have WHS2011 on my current system but would rather go to win8 since all my computers are right now. Win8 has some drive pooling built in as well.

Do these have a dedicated OS drive or is that housed on one of the 24 bay drives?
 
Power5 said:
Anyone run a watt test on what these pull?

I have a small dual xeon dual core tower server right now with no physical space for more drives and I am down to 500gb of space left. Thinking of picking up a quad version and making it a bit more home friendly. Mine can be heard from the basement steps now so not that concerned with noise but the quieter the better. This seems easier to quiet than my current one. I only use my server for media storage and streaming but the current was a freebie from work.

How easy is it to install WHS or something like Win8 on one of these boxes? I am not an IT guy just a home hobbyist. I would rather stick with windows. I have WHS2011 on my current system but would rather go to win8 since all my computers are right now. Win8 has some drive pooling built in as well.

Do these have a dedicated OS drive or is that housed on one of the 24 bay drives?
Click to expand...

With just one one drive installed it was pulling 200w from the wall with a quad build. There is a spot in the main area for one drive, either IDE or Sata that can be used for the main drive.
 
Awesome, thanks for the response.

Last question. Are the raid cards installed enough to fill all 24 bays? Not that I have any where near that many drives yet but just wondering. Only have 8 drives right now.
 
Power5 said:
Awesome, thanks for the response.

Last question. Are the raid cards installed enough to fill all 24 bays? Not that I have any where near that many drives yet but just wondering. Only have 8 drives right now.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is enough for all bays.
 
Are the case fans 4 pin? I am thinking about replacing the internals with a Supermicro X10SLM+-F motherboard + Intel E3 proc. Will the motherboard be able to control the speed of the fans so that it does not sound like a jet engine.

How about the PSU fans? Are they loud? Can they be speed controlled?
 
Man, I was just looking up a ZFS setup for home or colo.. too bad the wife would kill me :D
 
Power5 said:
Awesome, thanks for the response.

Last question. Are the raid cards installed enough to fill all 24 bays? Not that I have any where near that many drives yet but just wondering. Only have 8 drives right now.
Click to expand...

Only 8 drives? Get a crackin' on filling that beast up! :p
 
coolrunner84 said:
Are the case fans 4 pin? I am thinking about replacing the internals with a Supermicro X10SLM+-F motherboard + Intel E3 proc. Will the motherboard be able to control the speed of the fans so that it does not sound like a jet engine.

How about the PSU fans? Are they loud? Can they be speed controlled?
Click to expand...

The case fans are 4pin pwm. (fan header). The psu are LOUD and not controllable. (Alternatives are ghetto mod a atx psu or buy PWS-920p psu's for $150/ea)

Honestly, the avsforums thread linked in the 8th post is full of great info. BTW, 8425 HE's work with Rev 2.01a board and 3.5 bios.
 
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Does anyone know if Windows Server 2012 Essentials will support the hardware in either of these setup...?

I looked up drivers for the controller cards and does not have Win7 or Win8 drivers so I am curious if it has WS2012E driver...

I do not need the most up to date hardware and SATAII should be fine for my needs. I like the mass hotswap bay but WS2012E is a must.

Please let me know either way.

If there are drivers, please direct me to it.

Thank you in advance.
 
nothing4free said:
Does anyone know if Windows Server 2012 Essentials will support the hardware in either of these setup...?

I looked up drivers for the controller cards and does not have Win7 or Win8 drivers so I am curious if it has WS2012E driver...

I do not need the most up to date hardware and SATAII should be fine for my needs. I like the mass hotswap bay but WS2012E is a must.

Please let me know either way.

If there are drivers, please direct me to it.

Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...


Not sure about WS2012E, but here are the latest drivers.

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=342&expand=_a3&action=b150#b150

ggplay,
Yes, cables are included. These are pretty much ready to go, add drives and off you go.
 
So I just finished setting this server up.
I replaced the PSU with a corsair TX950 and added a Zalman Fan Controller to tame the stock fans.

I made two youtube videos, one with the server stock, and one with the server after my mods, so you can get an idea of the volume:
Original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0uHos09Cc

After Modding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALnmSf_OLEs

I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 64 and everything is working flawlessly. still have to muck around with the network drivers and find some that work with teaming though. (if i cant get that to work i will throw in a dual port intel card).

Detects 4tb drives no problems, shows up as 2tb in boot, but windows sees 4tb just fine.

The server is decently fast, will definitely upgrade the ram and two faster processors in the near future as they are dirt cheap on ebay. But for a backup server (my purpose for it) it is fine.

Dont expect anything out the stock video card, it sucks, cant even run aero. does anyone have another video card working with this board?

Overall very happy with the server and its price.
 
darren700 said:
So I just finished setting this server up.
I replaced the PSU with a corsair TX950 and added a Zalman Fan Controller to tame the stock fans.

I made two youtube videos, one with the server stock, and one with the server after my mods, so you can get an idea of the volume:
Original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0uHos09Cc

After Modding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALnmSf_OLEs

I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 64 and everything is working flawlessly. still have to muck around with the network drivers and find some that work with teaming though. (if i cant get that to work i will throw in a dual port intel card).

Detects 4tb drives no problems, shows up as 2tb in boot, but windows sees 4tb just fine.

The server is decently fast, will definitely upgrade the ram and two faster processors in the near future as they are dirt cheap on ebay. But for a backup server (my purpose for it) it is fine.

Dont expect anything out the stock video card, it sucks, cant even run aero. does anyone have another video card working with this board?

Overall very happy with the server and its price.
Click to expand...

I think if you read the avsforums thread, someone got a pci-e 1x video card to work. IIRC, they couldn't get a pci-e 8x card to work and claimed pci-e 1.0 as the culprit.
 
Nice set up man. Very nice idea similar to mines I did months back but i used BitFenix Recon fan controller for 3 x 120mm and 2 80mm. I chose this fan controller as the server is in my bedroom and I have a VM with pass-through since the controller can be controlled by USB since its digital and not analog.



Don't mind the desktop ram was just testing I am now on ECC. But yeah I have the Fan controller occupying a USB header.


darren700 said:
So I just finished setting this server up.
I replaced the PSU with a corsair TX950 and added a Zalman Fan Controller to tame the stock fans.

I made two youtube videos, one with the server stock, and one with the server after my mods, so you can get an idea of the volume:
Original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0uHos09Cc

After Modding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALnmSf_OLEs

I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 64 and everything is working flawlessly. still have to muck around with the network drivers and find some that work with teaming though. (if i cant get that to work i will throw in a dual port intel card).

Detects 4tb drives no problems, shows up as 2tb in boot, but windows sees 4tb just fine.

The server is decently fast, will definitely upgrade the ram and two faster processors in the near future as they are dirt cheap on ebay. But for a backup server (my purpose for it) it is fine.

Dont expect anything out the stock video card, it sucks, cant even run aero. does anyone have another video card working with this board?

Overall very happy with the server and its price.
Click to expand...
 
Couple more questions.

Will a QC chip work in the DC boards?

What raid are people running for a media server? Right now I am running WHS2011 with drivepool on a mix match of drives in the case. I have 3 on a raid card, and the rest are just individual drives pooled with the software.

How are the HDD caddies powered? No way the people with aftermarket PSUs have 24 sata connections on them so I assume all the drives are powered by a central connection. What PSU cable(s) is used to power the drive caddies?

Right now I am running a dual DC setup. Its just a media server though. Is there any reason I would not be okay with the DC version? Would be nice to have the difference to spend on the OS and an OS SSD.

Might be getting too in-depth for a hot deals discussion I suppose. Just trying to make sure I purchase the correct one as it will likely be my last server purchase for at least 5 years.


HOLY CRAP. Just ran the shipping estimate. $80 shipping for ground??? Seems excessive.
 
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Quad should work in the DC boards dont see why not, its the same mb isnt it?

I am not running raid, just JBOD, one to one backup of drives in my other server via network shares and allway sync.

HDD Caddies are powered via 6 x 4pin Molex Connections.

For shipping its worth it imo, huge box, nice form fitting foam ensure no damage.

you can plan on buying some drive screws though as mine came with none.
 
Shipping seems expensive, but this thing is enormous and heavy. It also had probably the best packing job I've ever seen - the server was completely encased in a few inches of molded foam. Short of someone driving a forklift into the package, you're pretty much guaranteed to get it in good shape.
 
Just a question, how often would these type of deals come about? Currently, I don't live anywhere I could put it, but would be interested once my needs exceed my two 4-bay RAID5 enclosures, as RAID5 is not really viable with larger array sizes.

Just don't have the need or space to put this yet...
 
Foaming at the mouth to get one of these man....

Ugh...

Payday tomorrow night at 12....i really want this...dont need it...but i want it!
 
darren700 said:
Quad should work in the DC boards dont see why not, its the same mb isnt it?

I am not running raid, just JBOD, one to one backup of drives in my other server via network shares and allway sync.

HDD Caddies are powered via 6 x 4pin Molex Connections.

For shipping its worth it imo, huge box, nice form fitting foam ensure no damage.

you can plan on buying some drive screws though as mine came with none.
Click to expand...

So this CPU should work in the DC unit?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130804591027?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Dont see why anyone is buying a QC setup then. Just drop in the new QC for $13.50 and have a faster server than the QC version. Or, am I missing a step. I guess there may not be a new enough firmware on the DC board? QC board is a rev2.01A DC board is just a rev2.01.
 
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Incredibly tempted!!!!!!

It seems like the only issue with these is the SATA speed? shoot, I can deal with that, even if I do end up putting new drives in there.
 
Power5 said:
So this CPU should work in the DC unit?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130804591027?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Dont see why anyone is buying a QC setup then. Just drop in the new QC for $13.50 and have a faster server than the QC version. Or, am I missing a step. I guess there may not be a new enough firmware on the DC board? QC board is a rev2.01A DC board is just a rev2.01.
Click to expand...

I picked up the QC unit because they ran out of DC units and I didn't know they still had some DC units in stock.
 
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I don't think I will ever run out of disk space at home... but this is really a screaming deal from the look of things. Must not buy things I don't need :p
 
As far as processors if you have the latest bios you should be able to go all the way up to dual socket Istanbul six-core processors which would be the 24xx, 84xx series cpu's. If I remember correctly the 2xxx can be single or dual socket while the 8xxx series can be single double or quad socket so whatever is cheaper is better versus 8xxx or 2xxx of the same xxx.

If you look on ebay there are a bunch of deals for 2x of the 6core 1.9ghz chips for around $40, which would be awesome if you are running some virtual machines or a sql server that can address all the threads presented.

Man It would be pretty slick if I had some spare cash laying around.
 
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