SUPERMICRO 4U 846E16-R1200B 2x Xeon L5640, 48GB RAM good starter rack server?

[Murac]

Here's an update:

After much deliberation and research, I still decided to go with the supermicro linked to ebay. If I hadn't seen the auction before the c2100 deal I probably would have jumped on that instead but having the option to upgrade my mobo/cpu in 5-10 years without worrying about a whole new chassis is just smarter for me. As far as quality and stability of comparable builds; what I've seen across my searches tells me that atleast, it's a reasonable decision as far as hardware for what my goals are.

The unfortunate tax by taking this route, however, is the noise problem. I scoured the web for solutions to this and learned the PSW-920P-SQ PSUs are more quiet to the degree of "night and day" apparently. So i purchased a couple on ebay for an additional $130 a piece. Kind of an unfortunate budget buster. Reselling the 12k1Ps should offset that cost a bit. I also bought 5x 0044L4 SM fans which are supposed to be quieter and lower power consumption. I've read how the stock fans create a necessary pressure differential so I will start out switching out the exhaust fans and seeing if the sound is tolerable at that point.
reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/4z7irb/supermicro_24bay_low_power_build_power/

There's also talk of replacing the fan wall with a norco one to support 120mm fans if anyone's interested: http://www.ipcdirect.net/120mm-fan-...rpc-4220-rpc-4216-rpc-4116-rpc-4020-rpc-4164/

You can also replace the 1U PSUs all together and replace it with an ATX PSU: http://imgur.com/GhW8TwG (this guy replaced the fan wall with 120mm noctuas as well)

And since I never actually got a UPS backup for my last build, I decided to protect the investment further and grab one finally.

At some point I will probably want to replace those 4GB sticks but that can wait as far as I'm concerned.

So all in all, I'm excited. I realize now if I had lurked a little longer on ebay I could have made the same machine for a few hundred less but so long as the machine is sturdy, my modifications work as intended, and future upgrades will be surgical, I think I'll end up very happy.

I've got my USB boot disk ready to go to flash the 9210-8i to IT mode. Which is really the only open question I have left. the 9210-8i doesnt necessarily imply IT mode correct? It could be IR mode, or even have an older FW so flashing the 9210-8i to IT mode with latest version of FW from the avago support page is just good practice. But I will look in the BIOS first.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Mirfster]

The unfortunate tax by taking this route, however, is the noise problem.

Sorry to hear about that. I do hope that it works out for you. Maybe if you accomplish your goals and get it down to decent decibels (say like <= 60db); then could you please do a write-up on it that may helps others?

Which is really the only open question I have left. the 9210-8i doesnt necessarily imply IT mode correct? It could be IR mode, or even have an older FW so flashing the 9210-8i to IT mode with latest version of FW from the avago support page is just good practice.

This card can do both IR or IT Mode. Technically FreeNAS would not have any issues with either mode. However, most of us (me included) prefer to use IT Mode.
You do want to use the latest or at the very least P20. Do note that in FreeNAS 9.10.1 you will get an alert about P21; this can be ignored for now and the alert silenced. It is possible that they may have corrected it, but I have not checked or updated in a little while.

 

[Murac]

Sorry to hear about that. I do hope that it works out for you. Maybe if you accomplish your goals and get it down to decent decibels (say like <= 60db); then could you please do a write-up on it that may helps others?

You got it. Doing the write up will be a good opportunity for me to ask more questions anyways.