General Ghetto Modification Questions

Question

Yo. Picking up a Poweredge 2950 II soon to use as a full-time media server and a part-time minecraft server. Just a couple of questions, and i've never owned or used anything like this before, so please bear with me.

1. If i were to remove the Perc5 RAID card, would i be able to use drives bigger then 3tb as storage drives? Would the system even boot? I would use a 1tb Sammy Spinpoint (SATA, no ASA Drives for me, poor college student) as a boot drive.

2. Noise is a major issue for me, and from what i've seen this thing is LOUD. Especially by 2U standards. Would the system throw a fit were i to remove the top, disconnect all of the fans, and just shove a giant box fan on top of the open case and let it run while i'm using this thing?

3. Not sure if this unit is too old, but if i could remove the mobo and whatnot, could i fit it into an ATX-Class case and just stick some better coolers on this thing? That would be ideal.

4. This thing comes with 6g of ram, 6x1g. It's PC5300. Is it worth getting faster ram or just filling out the 8g. The heaviest duty this thing might see is some conversion work if i'm doing a huge batch file and i want to offload some of the work from my 3930k.

5. How many times can i bridge internet before latency renders it unusable? I plan on connecting via direct ethernet to my PC and piggybacking off of its wireless and then bridging to my PS3 to give it something faster then the default wireless B+G.

Thanks in advance.

theflash1932 · Answer

'So i HAVE to run a raid card on one of these things?' Not necessarily a 'RAID' card ... you can get a SAS HBA to attach to the backplane, but you would need some kind of controller to handle the drives. 'Could i disconnect some of the fans and still have it run?' If the system is designed to power off without fans, it would likely do it after a second fan was removed.  This would be self-defeating, as the system is designed to kick up the remaining fans when one fails (or is removed).  One other thing ... they are designed to kick in to high gear when the top cover is removed (or not completely closed), so make sure the lid is on and securely closed.

Xingster · Answer

Well, poop.

But were i to use the standard card to power my SATA hard drives, i wouldn't necessarily need to raid?

And as for the fans... would this generation be based on heat or preset amounts of hardware installed?

theflash1932 · Answer

1. Only if you replaced the PERC with a controller that does support >2TB drives. Because the drives attach to a backplane, there is no way to attach drives to the two onboard SATA ports (designed specifically for the optical drive/tape drive). It can be a game of trial/error when using third-party controllers in a server. If you use a different controller (other than an "integrated" card designed for the 2950 - or something like the H700), you will have to use the rear PCIe slots and not the dedicated/integrated slot that the PERC 5 is in now.

2. Yes, it would throw a fit. I don't know if it is designed to shutdown when all the fans are removed, but it might. I've heard of people "rigging" quieter fans to run in these servers. The 2950 is average to quiet on the noise scale for a 2U server (you said you had never used anything like this before). These are much quieter than most models, but a 2U server is not designed for quietness :). Make sure to update the BIOS and ESM for the most efficient speeds. The latest generation of Dell servers I understand made some remarkable progress in reducing noise.

3. If you can find one a mb that will fit, sure, but you would likely need a new power supply, backplane, and control panel connection too. If this is your intention, then I'm a bit confused as to why you are even purchasing this model, when you could get a case that is natively much quieter and overall would seem to better match your requirements.

4. I'd just get two more DIMM's ... the system is rated only for 5300 - faster might work (as in it might still POST), but it would not run any faster, and even if it did, you'd only see the difference in benchmark numbers.

5. Dunno.

Xingster · Answer

I should say, i've used these before, just not for personal use. So i HAVE to run a raid card on one of these things? Could i disconnect some of the fans and still have it run?

Xingster · Answer

I just need to know if i could stick this in my room and sleep with it on. Like i said, it's not going to be doing any sort of major heavy lifting. Mostly going to act as a Media Server, and i'm getting it on the MAJOR cheap, otherwise i wouldn't even consider this.

Xingster · Answer

Four of these? I'm lucky just to get the one.

Cheers, man. Glad to see where there are still forums where people can still ask questions without serious ridicule.

I'll report back after i secure the unit.

Xingster · Answer

2x X5260, 6-8g ram, 7200 SATA drives, and mostly as an idle media server. Should it be a problem to my sleep?

theflash1932 · Answer

I had four of these running in my front room for a few weeks before selling them.  I never really noticed them (other than turning the TV up a few notches) until I turned them off, which makes you think the room's gone quiet.  Can you sleep with it on?  Yes, depending on what kind of sleeper you are and how much background noise bothers you :).  Some people have fish tanks that make a similar 'hum' that bothers some and not others - it isn't loud or noticeable to be annoying, but you sure know when its off.

theflash1932 · Answer

I also got some for cheap too (about $60 each, without drives), and sold them for between $1200-1500 each :) Yeah, let us know what happens.

theflash1932 · Answer

No, RAID is optional, but a controller is required. A controller can be RAID, or it can be non-RAID (non-RAID/JBOD/HBA) that simply handles the drives and passes them directly to the OS, with no RAID functionality at all. A supported controller of this type on the 2950 is a SAS 5/i (no RAID, HBA only). The SAS 5/iR and SAS 6/iR are supported RAID controllers that can also function in non-RAID mode.

"would this generation be based on heat or preset amounts of hardware installed?"

Both. The system is designed to increase the cooling based on configuration (PERC over a SAS 6/iR, 16GB RAM, quad-port NIC, etc.), and on heat - ambient, memory, and processor.

PowerEdge Hardware General

General Ghetto Modification Questions

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