Dell Power Edge Buy or Build recommendations

Shodanime

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Jan 30, 2020
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I was looking to build or buy a dell PowerEdge R910. To build a FreeNAS server as a fileserver that I would be save files when I travel. Need it to run my 4k H.624 and H.625 Footage off this server. I might be installing Plugins like Plex. Looking make it with 16TB of storage or more. Dell PowerEdge R910 is a 2.26GHz intel X7560 Xeon 64GB ram selling for $536. My budget for this project is around $1000. Not sure if I should Build one with a supermicro MB or just buy the Dell. I’m just looking for some recommendations.
 

ronclark

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Dec 5, 2017
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Do you really need a R910 4 CPU Monster? is got only got 16 2.5 drive bays, you could get a R720xd (there about $600+ on ebay depending on config) its got 26 2.5 or 12 3.5 in a 2U for factor, newer CPUs
 
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Or if you are not wedded to Dells, there are good Supermicro's out there, too! Some are already set up for FreeNAS with the HBA already flashed to IT mode!
 

Shodanime

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Or if you are not wedded to Dells, there are good Supermicro's out there, too! Some are already set up for FreeNAS with the HBA already flashed to IT mode!

Can you give me any suggestions on some model. Because my other option I was going to build a server with a supermicro MB
 
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Hirndille

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Feb 12, 2020
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If you need many drive slots, i am talking of up to 144, you can also get a SAS 5/e Card for your machine, and add up to 6 Powervault MD1120 shelves onto it. Each has 24 2,5" slots for SAS-drives. Or there is the option to use up to 6 MD1000's with 15 3,5" slots each for SAS and SATA drives. MD1000 and MD1120 can not be mixed so its either 6/0, 3/3 or 0/6 of MD1000 and MD1120 per SAS 5/e controller card because the card has two connectors of 4 channels SAS 3gb/s each.
Dell says those shelves can only be handled by a PERC5 or 6 but that seems only be true for Dell drivers, Freenas detects and runs my (for now) 8 SAS drives in a MD1120 just fine
 

Hirndille

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Feb 12, 2020
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Hrmm, why is there no edit button ? I forgot to say one should consider those shelves take a lot of energy to run and they are loud. I havent found a way yet to control the fans inside the MD1120. If someone knows how to, pls tell me
 

ronclark

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Dec 5, 2017
Messages
40
If you need many drive slots, i am talking of up to 144, you can also get a SAS 5/e Card for your machine, and add up to 6 Powervault MD1120 shelves onto it. Each has 24 2,5" slots for SAS-drives. Or there is the option to use up to 6 MD1000's with 15 3,5" slots each for SAS and SATA drives. MD1000 and MD1120 can not be mixed so its either 6/0, 3/3 or 0/6 of MD1000 and MD1120 per SAS 5/e controller card because the card has two connectors of 4 channels SAS 3gb/s each.
Dell says those shelves can only be handled by a PERC5 or 6 but that seems only be true for Dell drivers, Freenas detects and runs my (for now) 8 SAS drives in a MD1120 just fine

That SAS 5/e is a dell raid card i believe and that's not recommended.

I am using a LSI SAS9201 flashed to IT mode, at the time I got them for $10 from eBay, there are plent of external connection HBA cards on eBay just do your research.

I have a MD1000, I cant say i can recommended that ether, there loud, if you run SATA drives you need interposes, and there SAS1.
I also have a MD1200 its way nicer to work with. its SAS2 no interposes and quiter than the MD1000. The Lenovo SA120 I hear has lots of good feed back. I got both of my shelves cheap, a place to check is your local recycler that's how i got my hand on the MD1200 complete.
 

hescominsoon

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Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
449
I use a Dell poweredge R310 with cabled drives so i get direct to the motherboard SATA connections. I ahe the ram maxed at 32 gigs. Some folks may need/want more but this is what i use at my home network..:)
 

Hirndille

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Feb 12, 2020
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That SAS 5/e is a dell raid card i believe and that's not recommended.

No, it's not :)
I thought the same, but there is the PERC 5/e (Dell ID 0GP297 or 0XM768) and there is the SAS 5/e (Dell ID 0FD467 or 0M778G).
While they have the same controller IC (LSI1068) the PERC 5/e sports a ram slot and a connector for a BBU, the SAS 5/e does not have that.
PERC stands for PowerEdge RAID Controller, SAS i am not sure what Dell makes that abbreviation stand for.
I can definately see all drives built into my MD1120 in FreeNAS without having to make a RAID0 of each drive, it works as JBOD directly from the start.
Just google those Dell ID's and you may find lots of pictures where you can see the physical difference of those two cards.
And i accidently bought the PERC 5 (for 20 Euros) first and had to order a SAS 5 (15 Euros) to get it running correctly.
So if anyone (in germany preferably) needs a PERC5/e tell me :)
 

ronclark

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Dec 5, 2017
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No, it's not :)
I thought the same, but there is the PERC 5/e (Dell ID 0GP297 or 0XM768) and there is the SAS 5/e (Dell ID 0FD467 or 0M778G).
While they have the same controller IC (LSI1068) the PERC 5/e sports a ram slot and a connector for a BBU, the SAS 5/e does not have that.
PERC stands for PowerEdge RAID Controller, SAS i am not sure what Dell makes that abbreviation stand for.
I can definately see all drives built into my MD1120 in FreeNAS without having to make a RAID0 of each drive, it works as JBOD directly from the start.
Just google those Dell ID's and you may find lots of pictures where you can see the physical difference of those two cards.
And i accidently bought the PERC 5 (for 20 Euros) first and had to order a SAS 5 (15 Euros) to get it running correctly.
So if anyone (in germany preferably) needs a PERC5/e tell me :)

Cool, learn new things every day. My MD 1000 came with a PERC 5/e 0GP297. I throw it in a box and got a LSI SAS9201-16e and two cables to go from the SFF-8470 to SFF-8088 and it been working great with SATA and SAS 4T in size drives
 

hescominsoon

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Jul 27, 2016
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449
you can now get h3xx and perc 7xx flashed to it mode via a dude called art of server. he has an ebay store where he sells these...so now a dell perc card is now a good freenas option..:)
 
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