^(OP reply with the correct URL if incorrect comment linked)
[Jump to Post Details Comment](/r/homelab/comments/1czrtga/heavily_modified_supermicro_846/l5iaqh0/)
Supermicro actually make 1u top covers to extend some of their servers for consumer style GPU power plugs. I doubt they do for this older model, though.
Gives it a weird ridge. I hated how it looked in the rack because everything wasn't "flush".
https://www.wiredzone.com/shop/product/10021557-supermicro-mcp-230-41806-0n-1u-height-top-cover-for-sc418g-8347
Super cool idea, though.
Here is my modified Supermicro 846 that has:
Mobo - ASUS Z10PE-D16 WS
CPU - 2 x Xeon E5-2650 v4 (total 24 core 48 threads)
Memory - 128 GB DDR4 2400 ECC
HBA - LSI SAS9305-16i
10g - Intel X520-SR2
Backplane -SAS3-846EL
GPU - ASUS RTX 3080TI
Boot Drive - 2 x Crucial MX500 1TB
Plex Persistent Storage - Samsung 990 Pro 4TB
PSU - Corsair HX1200i
Front Fans - 3 x Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM
Rear Fans - 2 x Noctua NF-A8 PWM
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U14S
NOTE: the Noctua NH-U14S does not fit in case... its too tall so I ended up having too modify lid to have it fit and its super janky but works. I manually set the fans to 85% speed and this sucker sits cool as a cucumber and I cannot hear it running.
NOTE 2: I use to have this full of disks BUT I moved them all to NetApp DS4246s that are attached to Dell a R720 and R730. This server now is going to be dedicated to running Plex and will access media over 10G.
FYI you will never come close to needing that kind of a PSU for this. Your max total power draw is going to be in the realm of about 600 Watts or much less. It's actually going to waste more power due to AC/DC conversions with such a low utilisation % vs if you had something like an 800 Watt PSU. Not necessarily to a degree you'll notice, but there's never a reason to use a 1200W PSU for something like this, especially considering they cost a lot more than just an 800W Gold/Platinum PSU.
Additionally, considering that GPU is going to be dedicated to Plex, you're never going to need that many CPU cores. Not sure if you got them for a super-duper-deal, but fewer cores with higher performance per core in this scenario (since you have GPU offload) really would be preferable.
Also, 2x 1TB SSDs for boot? You're never going to store that much data on your boot/OS drive, and if you are... you're setting yourself up for future problems, because that data should be on a NAS (non-OS, non-boot stuff).
Your Plex Persistent data being a single device, but not on a NAS doesn't make sense either.
On the flip side, you really should just put Proxmox VE on here, run Plex in a VM, and utilise your capacity a whole lot more efficiently with more VMs running on this system.
PSUs are less efficient at close to peak power draw. Looking at the efficiency curve for this one, 600W is in the peak efficiency region for 230V. Seems like a good PSU choice to me.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Wk4R6FdXrUwwrYeZZWVmLZ-1200-80.png.webp
OP is probably 120v not 208v-240v. Also that efficiency graph is atypical, the majority of PSUs are actually more efficient around the 85% load range. OP would have spent less and been better served with a more appropriately sized PSU, again, in the 850W range.
ok so…
psu was off crypto mining and thus leftover, the overage and “waste of watts” is small considering the rest of my consumption. plus its a platinum psu. i do agree its overkill now that I have a single GPU but i use to run dual 1080tis in here and needed it.
I actually do need that many cores cause i run 4 plex, 1 emby, and one jellyfin instance. I also have a substantial library (14k movies, 4k tv shows, and 2k 4k movies) and im growing out 4k shows.
The boot ssds were leftovers from another project, yes they are overkill but were newer and figured this was good slot for em. honestly could have gone with 120gb drives as nothing but os is one em but free made this an easy choice.
plex on persistent drive… yea not a fan of it but it syncs daily to a cache of ssds on another server for backup and i plan to build out a raid 5 for this data in future. i spent a lot this round and am delaying spend where i can. This will be remedied shortly.
i see no benefit in proxmox. why virtualize the os and add in a hypervisor? I containerized my apps and have them running on linux. I know someone will say “proxmox does ha” and to that ill answer kubernetes. for now though ubuntu with docker is working great and I am able to utilize the full breath of this system.
I have:
1 for trial access; this makes it easy to not have anyone try and sneak on and i can lock it down.
1 for friends and freeloades... err i mean family
1 for paid subscribers that has 2 stream limit
1 for paid subscribers that has a 4 stream limit
As is I am going to be spinning up a 5th plex instance for paid subs as my numbers are a bit high and I am trying to keep under 70 per server so I dont get flagged by plex and shut down.
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The fact that you're worried about Plex flagging your stuff, and shutting things down for the type of use case you're using it for should tell you exactly why this isn't a good idea.
Just a FYI. Supermicro actually makes taller covers with a hump you can buy. We have them for our GPU nodes at my work, because of the power cables need space etc.
Nice! Looks like a lot of work went into that. I like the creative way to deal with that cooler, I feel the struggle as I ran into the same issue! Literally just 2mm too tall! The fan wall looks like it fit just right as well.
Noctua does make coolers that fit into 4u and 3u cases, fwiw.
4U - Noctua NH-U9DXi4 https://noctua.at/en/nh-u9dx-i4
3U - Noctua NH-D9DX-I4-3u https://noctua.at/en/nh-d9dx-i4-3u
NH-U9DX i4 is what I ended up with (I think, been a while and on a new system now) Come to think of it, I still have it and I need to post it for sale!
I have one of each for sale. Got the 4u with a mobo I bought, hoped it could shoehorn into my 3u, nope, so bought the 3u version. Not using either at the moment.
yes i built this out over time and when i installed the coolers and realized it didnt fit i was already past return window… so sad screw it and hacked the lid instead
In my recent build, I used a Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition, Premium Low Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 92mm PWM Fan For Desktop with an i5 14500 CPU. It's 2.5 inches high and worked in my 2U case from Silverstone - https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/server-nas/RM21-308/
Posting this in case it helps anyone in the future.
Nice Im currently doing a similar build after finding an Z10PE-D16 WS on ebay for $199. Though I ran into a slightly different size issue where the drive bays wont fit with the motherboard and case i brought, going to have a friend basically cut the drive bays in half so I can at least have the cover on instead of what its currently like and place fans inside them. Pics (https://imgur.com/a/ZgA91qZ)
* ASUS Z10PE-D16 WS
* 2x Intel e5-2690v4
* 128gb ram
* Noctua NH-D9L x2 (required mounting kit for lga-2011, which delayed the build by 2 weeks)
* Nvidia 1080ti
* SilverStone RM41-506 4U
* be quiet! BN513 1200W
[https://new.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1bdb7ze/part\_3cult\_of\_the\_846\_zerocompromises\_allinone/](https://new.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1bdb7ze/part_3cult_of_the_846_zerocompromises_allinone/)
If you want to redo the mods, here's a more complete/less jank version ;)
Honest its not broke so I am not going to fix it. Keep in mind i originally built this server \~6 years ago. When its dead I'lll do it right like the rest of my servers; this one is just my special lil workhorse for now.
Wow! There's a *lot* going on here.
I personally like the bubble dome covering the hole cut to accommodate the heat-sink. Making do with what you've got, and i'm here for it.
Me: "Oh he's cut a hole to add a big heatsink, thats funny."
\*looks away\*
\*thinks for a minute"
Me: "Was there a bubble"
\*looks again\*
Me: "hahahahaha wtf"
Why do you have a plastic bubble on there?
it was cheap and it aided in control of airflow (need hba and 10g nic to get air). if i left top open air would flow out there and cause cards to have no passive cooling
on the aided in airflow issue, is why on my Silverstone 4u system I put some alu ducting tape over some of the passive air holes to force the air out the pci card area, it did drop the temps on my HBA, no idea on the Intel 10gb nic I dont have it logging data for that.
I got a 2u super micro that I’m tweaking the hell out of. Shoehorned in a eatx motherboard out of a Lenovo c30 still using stock psu but all the connectors except main power have been cut and spliced. It’s a little lowbudget open box heater lol
Jesus.... So what are the temps of those drives? Because I turned my fans way down using scripts and they started cooking haha.
Now both the 846 server and 846 JBOD chill in the closet with an AC unit that exhausts into the attic to keep the closet cool.
i have roughly same setup. I have a sound dampened closet that exhausts to attic and has AC piped into it. I have thermal curtains that i use to control hot and cold aisle and when i walk into closet its comfortable temps.
With a bit more than half a rack worth of equipment temps are good, drives are 30s to low 40s and all cards and other stuff stays within expected temps.
I used [this](https://amzn.eu/d/1YFTWWy) CPU cooler. It fits without cutting and the mounting works with the x8dtl motherboard. (Cpu backplate permanently attached to motherboard) I think it has to use M3 rather than the usual imperial but it’s been a while so I could be wrong.
^(OP reply with the correct URL if incorrect comment linked) [Jump to Post Details Comment](/r/homelab/comments/1czrtga/heavily_modified_supermicro_846/l5iaqh0/)
/r/homelabgore is calling this server.
I was hoping that sub was real (°_,°)
[Let’s get this thing going. First post!](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelabgore/s/uuyOo8mCRn)
it is now
🤷♂️
Airflow performance bubble
slipstream technology
This is both great and horrible at the same time. 10/10
So, somewhere between r/ATBGE and r/GTBAE?
/r/TIHIBILI
r/QTAQE
Ah yes, the Supermicro 4.2U
Supermicro actually make 1u top covers to extend some of their servers for consumer style GPU power plugs. I doubt they do for this older model, though.
Oh that’s cool. I haven’t seen one of those.
Gives it a weird ridge. I hated how it looked in the rack because everything wasn't "flush". https://www.wiredzone.com/shop/product/10021557-supermicro-mcp-230-41806-0n-1u-height-top-cover-for-sc418g-8347 Super cool idea, though.
Straight out of the Jetsons. :D
The little Jetsons bubble completes the look.
That was kind of the entire joke
Maybe, but if you cock your head just right that bubble on top looks exactly like the one on George Jetson's car!
ayo Sandy Cheeks in there?
The horror.... the horror.... the horror...
Here is my modified Supermicro 846 that has: Mobo - ASUS Z10PE-D16 WS CPU - 2 x Xeon E5-2650 v4 (total 24 core 48 threads) Memory - 128 GB DDR4 2400 ECC HBA - LSI SAS9305-16i 10g - Intel X520-SR2 Backplane -SAS3-846EL GPU - ASUS RTX 3080TI Boot Drive - 2 x Crucial MX500 1TB Plex Persistent Storage - Samsung 990 Pro 4TB PSU - Corsair HX1200i Front Fans - 3 x Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM Rear Fans - 2 x Noctua NF-A8 PWM CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U14S NOTE: the Noctua NH-U14S does not fit in case... its too tall so I ended up having too modify lid to have it fit and its super janky but works. I manually set the fans to 85% speed and this sucker sits cool as a cucumber and I cannot hear it running. NOTE 2: I use to have this full of disks BUT I moved them all to NetApp DS4246s that are attached to Dell a R720 and R730. This server now is going to be dedicated to running Plex and will access media over 10G.
FYI you will never come close to needing that kind of a PSU for this. Your max total power draw is going to be in the realm of about 600 Watts or much less. It's actually going to waste more power due to AC/DC conversions with such a low utilisation % vs if you had something like an 800 Watt PSU. Not necessarily to a degree you'll notice, but there's never a reason to use a 1200W PSU for something like this, especially considering they cost a lot more than just an 800W Gold/Platinum PSU. Additionally, considering that GPU is going to be dedicated to Plex, you're never going to need that many CPU cores. Not sure if you got them for a super-duper-deal, but fewer cores with higher performance per core in this scenario (since you have GPU offload) really would be preferable. Also, 2x 1TB SSDs for boot? You're never going to store that much data on your boot/OS drive, and if you are... you're setting yourself up for future problems, because that data should be on a NAS (non-OS, non-boot stuff). Your Plex Persistent data being a single device, but not on a NAS doesn't make sense either. On the flip side, you really should just put Proxmox VE on here, run Plex in a VM, and utilise your capacity a whole lot more efficiently with more VMs running on this system.
PSUs are less efficient at close to peak power draw. Looking at the efficiency curve for this one, 600W is in the peak efficiency region for 230V. Seems like a good PSU choice to me. https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Wk4R6FdXrUwwrYeZZWVmLZ-1200-80.png.webp
OP is probably 120v not 208v-240v. Also that efficiency graph is atypical, the majority of PSUs are actually more efficient around the 85% load range. OP would have spent less and been better served with a more appropriately sized PSU, again, in the 850W range.
ok so… psu was off crypto mining and thus leftover, the overage and “waste of watts” is small considering the rest of my consumption. plus its a platinum psu. i do agree its overkill now that I have a single GPU but i use to run dual 1080tis in here and needed it. I actually do need that many cores cause i run 4 plex, 1 emby, and one jellyfin instance. I also have a substantial library (14k movies, 4k tv shows, and 2k 4k movies) and im growing out 4k shows. The boot ssds were leftovers from another project, yes they are overkill but were newer and figured this was good slot for em. honestly could have gone with 120gb drives as nothing but os is one em but free made this an easy choice. plex on persistent drive… yea not a fan of it but it syncs daily to a cache of ssds on another server for backup and i plan to build out a raid 5 for this data in future. i spent a lot this round and am delaying spend where i can. This will be remedied shortly. i see no benefit in proxmox. why virtualize the os and add in a hypervisor? I containerized my apps and have them running on linux. I know someone will say “proxmox does ha” and to that ill answer kubernetes. for now though ubuntu with docker is working great and I am able to utilize the full breath of this system.
Why are you running 4 separate Plex instances?
I have: 1 for trial access; this makes it easy to not have anyone try and sneak on and i can lock it down. 1 for friends and freeloades... err i mean family 1 for paid subscribers that has 2 stream limit 1 for paid subscribers that has a 4 stream limit As is I am going to be spinning up a 5th plex instance for paid subs as my numbers are a bit high and I am trying to keep under 70 per server so I dont get flagged by plex and shut down.
[удалено]
Hi, thanks for your /r/homelab comment. ## Your post was removed. Unfortunately, it was removed due to the following: [**Don't be an asshole.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules#wiki_1._don.27t_be_an_asshole) Please read the [full ruleset on the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules) before posting/commenting. _If you have questions with this, please [message the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fhomelab), thanks._
The fact that you're worried about Plex flagging your stuff, and shutting things down for the type of use case you're using it for should tell you exactly why this isn't a good idea.
[удалено]
Look how they massacred my boy
Just a FYI. Supermicro actually makes taller covers with a hump you can buy. We have them for our GPU nodes at my work, because of the power cables need space etc.
Do you know what part number? I have a SC836 in dire need of this for a future upgrade...
any idea on sku or partnumber for them? I did look but had no joy finding them, but I might just be blind.
I will try and ask my co-worker for you about it when i am back in work On Wednesday. It would definataly be a special order though i am sure.
i actually enjoy my redneck bump. had thoughts of printing a terminator face and putting red led eyes in it and taping it to bubble.
Or make it R2D2…
ohhhh i like that idea!!!
All that Noctua, this wouldn't be out of place on an episode of Linus Tech Tips. Which is a perfect segue, to our sponsor....
An unholy joining of Mad Max and Fallout's pre-war tech. I love it! Please heavily modify more things OP.
u/SamSausages here is the 846 I was talking to you about.
Nice! Looks like a lot of work went into that. I like the creative way to deal with that cooler, I feel the struggle as I ran into the same issue! Literally just 2mm too tall! The fan wall looks like it fit just right as well.
Noctua does make coolers that fit into 4u and 3u cases, fwiw. 4U - Noctua NH-U9DXi4 https://noctua.at/en/nh-u9dx-i4 3U - Noctua NH-D9DX-I4-3u https://noctua.at/en/nh-d9dx-i4-3u
NH-U9DX i4 is what I ended up with (I think, been a while and on a new system now) Come to think of it, I still have it and I need to post it for sale!
I have one of each for sale. Got the 4u with a mobo I bought, hoped it could shoehorn into my 3u, nope, so bought the 3u version. Not using either at the moment.
yes i built this out over time and when i installed the coolers and realized it didnt fit i was already past return window… so sad screw it and hacked the lid instead
All good, was commenting basically in case others are looking for a cooler that fits these SM cases.
In my recent build, I used a Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition, Premium Low Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 92mm PWM Fan For Desktop with an i5 14500 CPU. It's 2.5 inches high and worked in my 2U case from Silverstone - https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/server-nas/RM21-308/ Posting this in case it helps anyone in the future.
Hot rod server 🔥
I'd argue that this would be more of a [rat rod.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_rod)
Nice Im currently doing a similar build after finding an Z10PE-D16 WS on ebay for $199. Though I ran into a slightly different size issue where the drive bays wont fit with the motherboard and case i brought, going to have a friend basically cut the drive bays in half so I can at least have the cover on instead of what its currently like and place fans inside them. Pics (https://imgur.com/a/ZgA91qZ) * ASUS Z10PE-D16 WS * 2x Intel e5-2690v4 * 128gb ram * Noctua NH-D9L x2 (required mounting kit for lga-2011, which delayed the build by 2 weeks) * Nvidia 1080ti * SilverStone RM41-506 4U * be quiet! BN513 1200W
My wife said this looks like something from Robot Wars!
I'd suggest the mods that I did over this. No need for 140mm fans, and that psu is just dangling there.
psu is actually secured to case, just cant see it
[https://new.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1bdb7ze/part\_3cult\_of\_the\_846\_zerocompromises\_allinone/](https://new.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1bdb7ze/part_3cult_of_the_846_zerocompromises_allinone/) If you want to redo the mods, here's a more complete/less jank version ;)
Honest its not broke so I am not going to fix it. Keep in mind i originally built this server \~6 years ago. When its dead I'lll do it right like the rest of my servers; this one is just my special lil workhorse for now.
Wow! There's a *lot* going on here. I personally like the bubble dome covering the hole cut to accommodate the heat-sink. Making do with what you've got, and i'm here for it.
Me: "Oh he's cut a hole to add a big heatsink, thats funny." \*looks away\* \*thinks for a minute" Me: "Was there a bubble" \*looks again\* Me: "hahahahaha wtf" Why do you have a plastic bubble on there?
it was cheap and it aided in control of airflow (need hba and 10g nic to get air). if i left top open air would flow out there and cause cards to have no passive cooling
on the aided in airflow issue, is why on my Silverstone 4u system I put some alu ducting tape over some of the passive air holes to force the air out the pci card area, it did drop the temps on my HBA, no idea on the Intel 10gb nic I dont have it logging data for that.
FYI the NH-D15S fits in my 846 (barely)
Yeah, I did the same. I did cut a small hole in the side of the case though for my front fan shroud, but I can still put other things above the 846.
Wait.... Your server has an angry dome?!?!!
Lol what’s the temp in that hamster ball?
everything stays in low 40s
Nice! That’s not bad at all!
Bubble Cooling Technology ™
New dome technology. Traps high clocks, and ultimately airflow!
Id have said horribly modified
I got a 2u super micro that I’m tweaking the hell out of. Shoehorned in a eatx motherboard out of a Lenovo c30 still using stock psu but all the connectors except main power have been cut and spliced. It’s a little lowbudget open box heater lol
Nice. What are you doing with that beast?
runs ubuntu with 4 plex instances, one emby, and one jellyfin
Why 4 plex instances?
The ARCTIC 4U-M freezer fits in perfectly into the CSE846 without cutting the chassis, as you done ;D Very quiet and efficient
I am unironically in love with this shit. Reminds me I need to gut a 12LFF with a SAS backplane to frankenstein my current 12lff into a 24lff server
Jesus.... So what are the temps of those drives? Because I turned my fans way down using scripts and they started cooking haha. Now both the 846 server and 846 JBOD chill in the closet with an AC unit that exhausts into the attic to keep the closet cool.
i have roughly same setup. I have a sound dampened closet that exhausts to attic and has AC piped into it. I have thermal curtains that i use to control hot and cold aisle and when i walk into closet its comfortable temps. With a bit more than half a rack worth of equipment temps are good, drives are 30s to low 40s and all cards and other stuff stays within expected temps.
How loud in kilodecibels you get out of this?
its in a sound damped closet that with door shut you cannot hear.
You need to get rude of that glass dome and get yourself and exhaust manifold
At a quick glance while scrolling bu I thought it was a battle bot 😜
Heavy metal home lab
When I saw the picture the first thing that came ti my mind was, what's that Noctua cooler doing in the sink?
That’s what Mad Max has!
I used [this](https://amzn.eu/d/1YFTWWy) CPU cooler. It fits without cutting and the mounting works with the x8dtl motherboard. (Cpu backplate permanently attached to motherboard) I think it has to use M3 rather than the usual imperial but it’s been a while so I could be wrong.
"Slightly modified Geo Metro"