Computers & Electronics

The cheapest 12/2U or 24/4U Bay Server is back

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Jan 4, 2005
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Laval

The cheapest 12/2U or 24/4U Bay Server is back

UPDATE 20 July 2012

Just to let everyone know this eBay deal is DEAD on Ebay but they still have this in stock with a 120 GB HD and just recieved a large shipment of 12 & 24 bay AMD Supermicro servers picture below.

I caved in and brought one this week by calling them directly and am having it ship to a USA address

I made arrangements by call Andy at Tamsolutions directly (801-796-1696), info@tamsolutions.com

Also note you can have it ship to Canada by freight , but you would need to have your own broker set up and you would be required to pay all fees associated with it.
or use UPS (UPS is $$$).


[IMG]http://cdn.avsforum.com/7/70/7064da23_image.jpeg[/IMG]


[QUOTE]Check this link out: Coming Soon in a few days!

It is a COMPLETE COMMERCIAL GRADE DATA CENTER SERVER ~ $199!!!!

Here it is... The news you have been waiting for:


The new machines are in and being readied for shipment.

The Supermicro Server Specs;>


SuperMicro Server Chassis: SC846 Link to manual
SuperMicro H8DME-2

Dual Core AMD Opteron, 2212 HE w/ passive cooling

(3) AOC-SAT2-MV8 Controller Cards
Supermicro AOC-SIM1U(+) & and AOC USB2RJ45

(2) Supermicro 900w pws-902-1r redundant PSUs.
(8GB) Super Talent 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2-667MHz ECC Registered CL5 240-Pin DIMM


This server is really awesome... and the best thing is... it should require little to no modifications to function in the home environment.

The server comes with a fan wall already installed as well as a plastic shroud that directs the airflow for maximum cooling.

All five cooling fans are 80mm! This makes quieting down this server.... very easy and affordable!


The seller will be posting these machines on ebay as soon as he has cleared and removed the HDDs... He anticipates this to be in the next week or two



They got an unexpected shipment of servers from another customer... this time they are 2U

[IMG]http://www.avsforum.com/content/type/61 ... height/700[/IMG]

So if you really don't need a 24 drive server and would prefer the smaller form factor of a 12 drive setup... one of these these machines maybe perfect for you...

The Specs I know:
Supermicro Server Case SC826
Supermicro X7SBE
(1) AOC-SAT2-MV8
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU

AVS Forums will update as soon as they know more...[/Quote]


Source[QUOTE]

So if you would like to be one of the first to get your hands on their new stock... Give them a call at 801-796-1696 or email them at jdye@tamsolutions.com they will gladly put your name on the list for the next available units.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412640/are-y ... lternative
[/QUOTE]
43 replies
Newbie
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Jan 13, 2012
30 posts
5 upvotes
TORONTO
We actually use a very similar config on our array of backup servers. This is a really good buy but the shipping and customs will kill it.
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Jan 4, 2005
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Laval
canuckinternet wrote: We actually use a very similar config on our array of backup servers. This is a really good buy but the shipping and customs will kill it.
Shipping is $90 to a drop off location in Upstate NY and then there's the taxes on $200 but no duties when you drive this monster back into Canada.

:)
Newbie
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Jan 13, 2012
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riskit wrote: Shipping is $90 to a drop off location in Upstate NY and then there's the taxes on $200 but no duties when you drive this monster back into Canada.

:)
You're right, I forgot that raised it to $200. If anyone is interested, that's a 5u rackmount.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 24, 2007
7084 posts
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Toronto
With 48hr DOA warranty and the time required to move it into Canada I wouldn't riskit.
Sr. Member
Apr 11, 2003
701 posts
181 upvotes
Edmonton
I recently sold 3 SuperMicro 12 bay chassis and boards similar to this from my home lab. I figured I'd share some experience with this, as I was using it for a vSphere 5 Beta lab, and it served me decently.

* The system will work fine in vSphere v4.x or v5.x. The system board, you will find from SuperMicro, has no Windows 2008 R2 drivers. I tried to get Windows 2008 R2 performing decently on it with trial copies while I was selling mine so I could demonstrate it operational, and many devices never found drivers or even if they did, the system was 'sluggish'. If you are hoping to use vSphere or Linux, you will likely be fine.
* Mine were 2U boxes, which required low profile add in cards. This unit will not have that problem. This is more of an issue than you might think :)
* The system is all PCI-X no PCI-E. This means modern cards will NOT work in it. However, HP NC7170 are dual port Intel 1000MT/PT compatible cards that work just fine. You can pick these up for about $30 on eBay
* There are only 2 USB ports on the back. If your KVM or console is USB only, you have no way to add USB storage (ie: boot from USB, run from USB, etc) without either a hub (ick) or an internal USB card or headers.
* The SAT2-MV8 "RAID" cards are entirely fake-RAID. vSphere will not see a RAID built on them. Windows 2008R2 as mentioned has no decent support.
* The RAM and CPU are compatible/generationally the same as a Dell PowerEdge 1950/2950 (which is what I have in my lab now). There are TONS of parts available for those, and by extension CPU/RAM upgrades are dirt cheap for either.
* The fact that there is an *IDE* boot drive, should scare the hell out of you due to age. However, this is likely so it can use one of the CDROM intended ports on the board, and leave all 24 SATA free for software RAID.
* The FANS blow at some 5000rpm or something crazy. If you want to put this in your basement, it better be soundproof :)
* If you're going to get one, find out if anyone near you wants one and ship them together. They're possibly going to go freight. Might as well split the cost.

All that said, when you consider what a 4 bay QNAP with dual LAN will cost, and consider that it also is software RAID - this can be a decent unit if you're looking for a massive amount of space. Just consider how much power you're going to pull to keep it running.
Deal Addict
Sep 19, 2004
1116 posts
150 upvotes
netwise wrote: I recently sold 3 SuperMicro 12 bay chassis and boards similar to this from my home lab. I figured I'd share some experience with this, as I was using it for a vSphere 5 Beta lab, and it served me decently.

* The system will work fine in vSphere v4.x or v5.x. The system board, you will find from SuperMicro, has no Windows 2008 R2 drivers. I tried to get Windows 2008 R2 performing decently on it with trial copies while I was selling mine so I could demonstrate it operational, and many devices never found drivers or even if they did, the system was 'sluggish'. If you are hoping to use vSphere or Linux, you will likely be fine.
* Mine were 2U boxes, which required low profile add in cards. This unit will not have that problem. This is more of an issue than you might think :)
* The system is all PCI-X no PCI-E. This means modern cards will NOT work in it. However, HP NC7170 are dual port Intel 1000MT/PT compatible cards that work just fine. You can pick these up for about $30 on eBay
* There are only 2 USB ports on the back. If your KVM or console is USB only, you have no way to add USB storage (ie: boot from USB, run from USB, etc) without either a hub (ick) or an internal USB card or headers.
* The SAT2-MV8 "RAID" cards are entirely fake-RAID. vSphere will not see a RAID built on them. Windows 2008R2 as mentioned has no decent support.
* The RAM and CPU are compatible/generationally the same as a Dell PowerEdge 1950/2950 (which is what I have in my lab now). There are TONS of parts available for those, and by extension CPU/RAM upgrades are dirt cheap for either.
* The fact that there is an *IDE* boot drive, should scare the hell out of you due to age. However, this is likely so it can use one of the CDROM intended ports on the board, and leave all 24 SATA free for software RAID.
* The FANS blow at some 5000rpm or something crazy. If you want to put this in your basement, it better be soundproof :)
* If you're going to get one, find out if anyone near you wants one and ship them together. They're possibly going to go freight. Might as well split the cost.

All that said, when you consider what a 4 bay QNAP with dual LAN will cost, and consider that it also is software RAID - this can be a decent unit if you're looking for a massive amount of space. Just consider how much power you're going to pull to keep it running.
Thank you for the info on these... i was so very tempted to get one. You have provided enough information to prevent me of doing such. There are a few key issues that won't work for me. None the less, this is still a super hot deal. Thanks goes to the OP as well... super hot find.
Deal Guru
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Feb 10, 2007
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WOW, buying this

Perfect for my unraid server.

Edit1: Dam it, wont let me buy and ship to niagara

Edit2: Just signed up a new ebay account with cbi address totalling @ 288.76
The sweetest gyal
Sr. Member
Apr 11, 2003
701 posts
181 upvotes
Edmonton
riskit wrote: here is more info on the seller and mods to the server

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412640/are-y ... rnative/30
Them are some creative guys :) Seems though by the time they've done all that work, they might just be better off picking up a 3U/4U server rack case. Still, even at $500 all in ($200 in mods it would seem and at LEAST $100 shipping), it's not all bad if you have ZFS or WHS2011 or something that can do quasi-RAID without needing it to be hardware based.

Thanks for the link, a lot of creativity in that thread.
Newbie
Apr 17, 2010
88 posts
17 upvotes
netwise wrote: Them are some creative guys :) Seems though by the time they've done all that work, they might just be better off picking up a 3U/4U server rack case. Still, even at $500 all in ($200 in mods it would seem and at LEAST $100 shipping), it's not all bad if you have ZFS or WHS2011 or something that can do quasi-RAID without needing it to be hardware based.

Thanks for the link, a lot of creativity in that thread.
Gotta say I do agree with the creativity. I've even seen mods of Norco cases where they essentially welded 2 together to enable 40+ bays of HDDs.

As to your comment on better off I'd have to say its quite unlikely. I've been looking at building something basically identical out of new parts and this is how it breaks down:

* Norco 4220 or similar case: not less than $350 ($430 if you want the 24 bay)
* Power supply: $100
* Motherboard: $100
* CPU: $100
* Memory: $100
* 3 x 8 Channel SATA cards or if you are lucky on Mobo only 2 cards: 3 x $125
* Bunches of SATA cables (often longer than typical as a short run is 18 inchs): 20 x $1 (assuming crap from China)

All in without shipping costs (and you better believe in shipping costs on that server chassis) is $1145. Plus you've kind of gotten whatever crap is available rather than carefully selecting top quality parts (also no server grade parts which can sometimes mean instability, lack of drivers and even things just not fitting). Especially the SATA cards, good ones can be rather difficult to find (due to driver difficulties).

The problem that many people miss out on is that this hypothetical system still has many of the same issues of the $200 one on eBay. Notably you still need to replace the fans as it'll be screeming loud (even Norco cases tend to come with the loud fans).

And quite honestly if you have a garage or room that can have the door closed on it then you don't have to care about noise and suddenly all the mods are just pointless exercises in geekdom. Fun though :cheesygri

All that said I've bought 2 and am busy looking up some of the modding options as I'm quite interested in making the whole system consume less power and still be super awesome. I'm also looking at picking up some quad core LGA 771 processors as well thus turning the machine from a mild manered dual core system to a beast of a 8 core (2 x 4) monster.

My plan is to install Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V (there is even a freebie version of that from MS for people who like a challenge and command prompts). Then I'll be running a few media related VMs for my home theater system. Ideally one will actually by Server 2012 (or Windows 8 I guess) using the new Storage Spaces feature to enable nice unRaid/WHS like drive pooling yet with the new MS reFS file system I'll gain protection against bit rot as well (sadly an all too common problem with large media files).

From what I can tell with drivers for the hardware it'll likely be rather challenging to get Server 2012 running on the bare metal but it appears that WHS 2011 (and thus Server 2008 R2) runs quite nicely. So by running some of the harder to find drivers OSs inside Hyper-V I'll save myself that effort.
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Laval
thanks for the info "taz_miz_zaz & netwise "



"taz_miz_zaz " please update us when you receive the units and the builds

:)
Newbie
Apr 17, 2010
88 posts
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riskit wrote: thanks for the info "taz_miz_zaz & netwise "



"taz_miz_zaz " please update us when you receive the units and the builds

:)
Will do. I'm hoping that they will arrive at my shipping destination around the end of the week or so and then they'll be tested for any issues. After that unfortunately they will have to wait for a bit till I get to visit my shipping destination (6 weeks :cry: ).

FYI, if netwise's comment about IDE hard drives sounds scary its mostly due to not spending time checking out the specs on the system. The motherboard has 6 unused SATA ports onboard and 1 IDE port. Due to IDE drives being essentially free to a scrounging company like the seller they were able to sell a "complete" system for $200, if they had to include a SATA drive it would have been more expensive. Also I don't know about anyone else but I feel kind of creep’d out about using used hard drives (other than ones I've made into used myself). With hard drive failure rates as random and data loss from one at 100% I generally prefer to know that it hasn't been mistreated through its life.

And anyways if you are looking at buying a system like this and don't have a giant stack of older but not currently used SATA drives sitting around it seems kind of like you may not quite qualify for a geek card (and installing a server from scratch definately needs geek card credentials).


To any who are thinking of getting this package and have low to medium computer experience (aka haven't built a few systems yourself from scratch) I would suggest against this deal. Due to the combination of server parts and hardware age it will take extra time and effort to gather together working drivers and build a stable system. The only possibly "easy" setup would be something with Server 2003 as all the official Supermicro drivers cap out at Server 2003.

Also to those who don't like taking a risk on a 100% loss and don't have a techy person in the US to ship to I would also suggest serious second thoughts.

Reports from AVSForum suggest all the units that commenters have used (and due to techy people I assume they would find issues quite quick) arrived in working order, but risking $300~ is a bit high for many people on RFD so be warned. (or be lucky like me to have techy friends in the US)
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Feb 19, 2010
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YYC
I thought eBay deals are not aloud to be posted?
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Feb 19, 2010
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YYC
How come my eBay deal was removed but this one is not? How is this fair?
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Laval
pictures of newstock added to O.P.
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Aug 22, 2006
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I have the biggest [expletive deleted] right now....
I'm so buying at least 5 if not more if the model number is correct.

*crosses fingers*


EDIT: [expletive deleted]!
I had a look at the thread on AVS and the units include AOC-SAT2-MV8 which means they're TQ
I would have filled an entire rack with these if they were E series.

Oh well. I'm still good for at least 2. Maybe 3.
Deal Guru
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Feb 10, 2007
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Picked up the server at Buffalo this weekend and its definitely a good buy.

All I did is plug in my hdds and the unraid key and it worked out of the box.

The fans are industrial level loud tho...
The sweetest gyal
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Nov 19, 2002
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Just called, and they may have some of these units left, are also getting in an AMD based, Supermicro-cased version....I've emailed for details, not sure what else it includes yet.

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