Asrock Rack MB dead, requesting replacement recommendation.

[Dirk]

With some help from people here I have to accept the E3C236D21 board is dead in Nero. I would like to keep this as painleess as possible and keep the Xeon and DDR4 memory. Since there is no available Asrock boards available in mini itx Im looking t Supermicro. In short, I'm looking for equivalent Asrock Rack or Supermicro boards

Thanks to the community.

 

[JohnDigital]

Go with something in the SM X11 series would be my opinion. My X10 series boards have been rock solid for years and years now. See the SM website and find a compatible board with your chip/ram.

 

[Dirk]

Go with something in the SM X11 series would be my opinion. My X10 series boards have been rock solid for years and years now. See the SM website and find a compatible board with your chip/ram.

Thanks John. I loooked at the QVL lists and my processor and memory are below what it calls for. Also. It only supports 4 drives and I have a total of 7.

I'll keep looking at their other offerings.

 

[Etorix]

For C236 you have yo look at X11SS_ boards.

 

[Dirk]

For C236 you have yo look at X11SS_ boards.

Thanks etorix. I've spent about 6 hours looking at boards mostly SM. The board linked to above would fit the case and memory but that's it and would have to upgrade to a E-2100/2200. It also will not support six drives. I was looking at your hardware, and I do have a new 804 and power supply I was holding onto for the next build.

The board above does list SAS controller that would do 8 drives but that adds the cost of the controller and adapter cable on top of a CPU.

 

[Dirk]

Any input on this? I would need to break out the Nod 804.

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/x11ssh-f

 

[Davvo]

If you want to remain itx and go supermicro, you will have to ditch your CPU.
A basic, used HBA will cost you between 30 and 80 USD if you are in the USA, a bit more of you aren't.

 

[Dirk]

If you want to remain itx and go supermicro, you will have to ditch your CPU.

Unless i missed something that board is a Micro and would handle my DDR4 2133 and my Xeon E3 1200?

 

[Davvo]

Unless i missed something that board is a Micro

Yup, micro ATX (9.6″ x 9.6″) not mini ITX (6.7″ x 6.7″).
244mm x 244mm vs 170mm x 170mm for normal people.

Besides that, the board is great.

 

[Dirk]

Yup, micro ATX not mini ITX.
9.6″ x 9.6″ vs 6.7″ x 6.7″

Thanks Davvo. I didn't give enough input on my mussing with that board. I have a new Node 804 on hand and in my research it would be less painful now and later to go Micro than to find a Mini. It took me a minute to figure out what you were suggesting on the Mini and HBA.
Eventually I will have to upgrade board memory and CPU but the Node 804 will give me many more options.
Given that does anyone se a problem with that board? Or a better suggestion? I have about ten hours now into research and have to say Supermicro sure liked to crank out different models ;-)

 

[Constantin]

I'm a huge fan of supermicro boards. I've enjoyed awesome support even though I am a mere single-board customer. The only organization who beat SM is iXsystems, the best computer hardware support I have ever gotten, bar none.

My current SM needs a full-sized case. If you want to look beyond your current CPU and are after a storage-only platform, seriously consider the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F ("Flex ATX" size). Awesome board - loads of PCI lanes for all the toys, including on-board LSI HBA, two SFP+ cages, 20 SATA slots, etc. All for around $500 + potentially some more for memory off the "Tested Memory List" list (as in my limited experience this family of boards is super finicky re: memory).

 

[Davvo]

Thanks Davvo. I didn't give enough input on my mussing with that board. I have a new Node 804 on hand and in my research it would be less painful now and later to go Micro than to find a Mini. It took me a minute to figure out what you were suggesting on the Mini and HBA.

Micro ATX, Mini ITX, Supermicro, Node 304, Node 804, X11, X10, E3C236D21, C236, single S models, double S models... I got confused as well and mistakenly read your 804 as 304 (which fit with the ITX size of your now dead MB). It happens.

Given that does anyone se a problem with that board? Or a better suggestion? I have about ten hours now into research and have to say Supermicro sure liked to crank out different models ;-)

They sure do; you should consider the combo X11SSL-F + a cheap HBA (like perch h310, 40 usd although the seller is from china) to see if they come cheaper (you lose out the M.2 slot and 2 SATA ports on the MB). See the following resources.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

Fake server cards

This resource was originally created by user: jgreco on the TrueNAS Community Forums Archive. Please DM this account or comment in this thread to claim it. Some time ago, forum frequenter @artlessknave kindly sent me a pair of LSI HBA cards that had failed to work out in a FreeNAS build. Having...

www.truenas.com

Flex ATX

That will surely not fit in the node 803.

 

[Dirk]

Many thanks for the input Davvo and others. I'm going with the X11SSH-F It will load everything from the Asrock including the 6 data drives and the boot SSD. Price compared to the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F is only a few bucks more and don't. have to do the HBA. Unless I'm missing something big.

 

[Constantin]

[Flex ATX] That will surely not fit in the node 803.

I must be confused then.

According to Fractal, the Node 803 804 can mount Micro-ATX boards and according to PC Tech Guide, Flex-ATX is smaller than Micro-ATX. What would prevent the mounting of a flex-ATX board inside a 803 804 other than potentially missing board mounts?

[edited re: Fractal 804 vs. 803, see below]

 

[Davvo]

according to PC Tech Guide, Flex-ATX is smaller than Micro-ATX. What would prevent the mounting of a flex-ATX board inside a 803 other than potentially missing board mounts?

In my mind Flex ATX was bigger (longer) than Micro ATX. Glad to stand corrected!

 

[Dirk]

Not sure if it is a typo or Fractal does make an 803 but we are talking an 804 here. Just to prevent any confusion from onlookers.

On a side note. They say everything comes in threes. One of the drives in the other server died.
Sigh.

 

[Constantin]

Not sure if it is a typo or Fractal does make an 803 but we are talking an 804 here. Just to prevent any confusion from onlookers.

Dirk, sorry to hear about your drive! You are correct, I looked up the 804 on the Fractal site and it appears to be Flex-ATX compatible though you may need to drill some holes for standoffs in case fractal didn't supply them in the right places for Flex-ATX boards.

 

[Etorix]

In my mind Flex ATX was bigger (longer) than Micro ATX. Glad to stand corrected!

Flex-ATX is the width of micro-ATX with the shorter depth of mini-ITX: Fits in any micro-ATX case, and mounting holes are no issue.

 

[Constantin]

Flex-ATX is the width of micro-ATX with the shorter depth of mini-ITX: Fits in any micro-ATX case, and mounting holes are no issue.

I <almost!> made a Flex-ATX board fit inside the Q26A from Lian Li. Would have required a SFX PSU instead of ATX and some serious nibbling on the internal support structures. Hence I passed on that and moved on to the much bigger case I use now.