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October 17th, 2019 03:00
PowerEdge T640 for NAS (unraid)
Hello
I'm planning to get the PowerEdge T640 soon and I have a few questions regarding it.
I will be getting the 18x3.5 inch drives rackmount version with a single 750W psu and a single CPU.
1- is there a drive size limit, and will there be a problem when using it with non dell drives ?
I'm planning to use it with seagate 14-18TB drives...ironwolf pro maybe.
2- how are the drives connected to the motherboard with this configuration ?
I don't need a raid card like the PERC H330, rather an internal HBA card, so does it come with an internal HBA card with the 18 drives configuration ?
3- in the chassis configuration, some configurations says "GPU capable", but the 18x3.5 inch drives configuration doesn't say that, what exactly does that mean ?
I need one or two graphics cards on this system and maybe a few pcie cards, so does that configuration prevent me from doing so ?
4- how is the noise with such configuration, will it be quiet since it's a single cpu/psu configuration ?
Dell-DylanJ
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October 17th, 2019 07:00
Hello,
The highest capacity validated drives were 14TB, but I wouldn't expect a higher capacity than that to cause issues. However, using non-validated drives may or may not work out. I would make sure to get them from a source with a good return policy, if you still want to try.
You'll need an add-in HBA, the HBA330 should suit your needs, though you may want to read up on it some. I'll link to the manual, so you can get any specific details you may want.
https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-sas-hba-12gbps_users-guide_en-us.pdf
The server would need a GPU enablement kit, in order to provide support for a GPU card. The card is mostly there for power distribution purposes.
As for noise, my expectation is that it would be loud. Its a server and you're wanting to have 18 drives installed, which are going to generate a fair amount of heat.
Do you mind if I ask what you need the server to do?
sadeq97
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October 17th, 2019 12:00
thanks for the help, this answers my questions.
not all of the drives will spin simultaneously so the drives should not be that noisy.
+ I can replace the fans with quieter ones with little modding.
as for the usage, it's intended to replace my home server which I'm using it for home surveillance, media server (plex), hosting some docker services like mysql DB, gitlab, and running a few virtual machines, so my main point for choosing this server is for the storage capability and the relatively low noise compared to 1u/2u servers.
my home server is a tower case that fits 15x3.5 inch drives and is built with consumer grade hardware, it failed me more than once, I had my ram slot die twice and now, I only have two ram slots left, and the sata cards/NICS are not reliable too.
the only advantage it has is that it's dead silent since I'm using large 120/140mm pwm fans + quiet 5400rpm HDDs.
replacing that server motherboard and upgrading it with a decent HBA card + 10G NIC would require a lot of money which is not worth it since I can get a T640 for a decent price here + I'm getting enterprise grade hardware.