I found the OEM verision on AliExpress. I ordered on the 18th, should be here right at the end of the month or so.
My Supermicro X11SCA-F is coming in tomorrow. 13 days from China via eBay.
Is it recommended to go ahead and update the BIOS or only if something is not working?
I typically update the BMC firmware and the BIOS to the latest version when I get a new board.
If the IPMI password is not set to the default then you will also need to boot into an OS so you can use Supermicroās IPMI management software (IPMICFG) in order to reset the IPMI password.
Here is a quick guide using Freedos, but the same tool can be used in Linux: Reset Supermicro IPMI Password to Default - Physical Access - STH
Good luck with the build!
1 Like
This motherboard has a substantial looking metal glued on CPU cooler backplate. The Thermalright is plastic.
Should I remove the metal preinstalled one and use the plastic Thermalright backplate?
Do not even attempt to remove the metal backplate
1 Like
No leave the metal back plate for the CPU socket. I donāt think it is removable.
The back side bracket for the CPU cooler should fit over the CPU socket backplate.
Going to provide my input on this threadā¦ as I purchased and bought all the components for this build NASKILLER 6.0,
Iām using the Supermicro x11sca-f, an Intel i5 8500T, assasin 110 r se heat sink, n400 cooler master case, 5 arctic fans, the adaptec HBA, amd the EVG PSU unit. This thread got really messy, I kind of wish I would have gotten a nicer board / CPU combo but I think this is still an okay buy for something that should just be file storage, the arrs, plex, etc & maybe, maybe modded Skyrim.
No fit problems, in fact I was very happy with how everything fit. Some unique things I noticed,
Fans, I have 2 intake at the front, 1 exhaust at the rear, and 1 exhaust at the top-rear. I did not place a fan at the top-front position.
Two of the motherboard fan sockets are directly behind the twin CPU 4 pin connectors (and directly underneath a case fan). I was able to still get my fingers in below the case fan and hook up the exhaust fan but it was a bit of a pain (practice on the other fan sockets first until you get a feel for it). I daisy chained the two exhaust fans, and then on another chain did the front two fans & the single left side fan. That was all 5 of my arctic fans but you can still use the stock cooler master fans on the right side panel (these will connect to the PSU Molex cable directly using the included dual 4 pin connectors from cooler master). The manual says to put the fans inside where the 2.5 drive tray was, but you can disregard that and place them on the outside of the tray housing (and still on inside of the case panel) by buying similar sized long fan screws and nuts, and then screwing them in from the exterior and nutting them from the inside. Everything will still fit inside the case panel. All the stock dust filters too, are going to be ziptied on the exterior of the case panels, not between the fans and the case so that way they are easier to remove and clean.
The supermicro I used does have a fixed metal backplate on the CPU - I ended up leaving this on & didnāt attach the assasin backplate at all. No other issues with the assasin install except to put the heat sink on, turn literally one screw once, turn the other screw again literally once, and then thumbscrew them both down. The heat sink spring screws had zero play when lining them up so just do a single turn on each screw to start them.
The RAM..the 3200mhz RAM in this guide was not compatible. I ended up doing a return and am waiting on Kingston memory at 2666 mHz so hoping that fixes it. 3200 is incompatible and wonāt read at all. I prefer crucial for memory but Kingston has the 2666 in 32gb single sticks and noone else seems too. Keep in mind for most people who donāt know, ram is literally made by like 3 companies in the entire world and the rest is just branding between sellers anyway.
Pcie slots. This is kind of a question for Ian too..since you have the same board.
I have 1 x16, and 1x8 (split with x16 - whatever that actually means for total performance), 1 x4 open-ended, and 1 x1. Can I put the graphics card on the x16, the NVME on the x8, & the Adaptec on the x4 or will that not work for the adaptec? Thats what I plan on doing if I pick up a graphics card. It would be helpful if someone here can provide information as a resource on the Adaptec install and configuration etc because honestly I couldnāt even really google to get a strong understanding of what Iām working with there.
Assuming I canāt just use the x4 slot then I guess the other idea is to strip down the NVME AIO from its heatsink and use the adapter card from jacobsparts to use it an m2 slot (but I also read the m2 slots share the pcie x8 connection so only one could be used or they would split the traffic, any ideas Ian??)
One last note,
all brackets on the nvme & adaptec had to be removed for fit - easy screwdriver job). The linked shorts in this thread might work but Iām not ordering them until the new year.
All in all, I hope this information proves helpful to any questions that others may have during this process.
if youāre talking about m.2 nvme ssds, they only utilize four lanes, and should probably just go in the onboard slots anyway. no reason to put one on a x8 slot, especially if it means then fitting the HBA into a x4 slot.
as for Adaptec configuration, start the system with no drives attached and make sure itās in HBA mode. then you can connect drives.
Interesting. Thanks for that. This is the one I went with for the NVME SSD. The guide says x8 is needed for full speeds. The Oracle nvme. Looking back, I definitely would have went with a board with more pcie slots but computer hardware is always like that, hindsight & more of this or that and at a certain point you run with what is in front of you.
Hi, welcome to Serverbuilds and thanks for sharing your experience.
I can speak some to the X11SCA-F board, but I canāt provide a solid answer your question about the Adaptec HBA since the disks I am using are SATA so I am just using the onboard SATA.
The PCIe 3.0 x16 slots donāt share lanes with any other devices, but they share 16 lanes between them so if you only have the top slop populated it will be 16x, but if both are populated they will both run at 8x.
Both of the M.2 Slots share lanes with another device. The Top M.2 slot shares lanes with the U.2 connector so only 1 of those can be used at once. The Bottom M.2 slot shares lanes with the PCIe x4 slot so if you are using the 4x slot you canāt use the second M.2 slot. In my case I have an U.2 adapter in the 4x slot so I donāt have any M.2 but I do have 2x U.2 for connecting nvme drives.
For what it is worth I am using Crucial DDR4 3200 RAM and it is running without issue on the board at 2666 MHz.
In general PCIe 3.0 x4 should be plenty of bandwidth for any HBA. I would just try plugging it in to the 4x slot and see how it goes. There is a good chance it will work without issues. If it doesnāt work you could also try the same with the PCIe NVME drive. The drive might technically be capable of using more than 4x lanes of bandwidth but in real world use that will likely never be a real bottleneck.
Good luck with the rest of your build and Happy New Year!
1 Like
Any suggestions for a rack mount chassis? Would love to be able to hot swap drives.
Just built my very first Ubuntu Server nas/media center. I got intel i5-8500T cpu and ASROCK z370 mobo, 32 gb crucial RAM. Just got setup jellyfin and deluge through docker(how do I let my torrents autoregister on deluge haha?)
Iām new to this setup.
How do I setup a raid? I have 2nvme 1 is where the ubuntu is running from 500Gb, 1TB has some backup stuff on it. Then I got 2x2.5" SSD, one is 500GB another one is 1TB. And Just bought 2 brand new 12TB Seagate ST12000NM drives.
What would be the strategy to setup my raid? How do I partition everything? Do I need parity drive? I got the suggested Adaptex ASR-7805 Raid controller(not even sure I need one???). Thanks all
Have you considered Unraid
Unfortunately, I was burned by the bad Delta PSU / Case combo before the warning. Which, ended up turning out fine because the PSU was dead on arrival. Yay! I just had to steal the PSU from my kidsā computer (they werenāt using it).
Word of warning for anyone building this: Expect parts to be DoA. The PSU, one port on the HBA, and one of the SAS drives I ordered were all busted. Recommended does not equal foolproof. The HBA and the dead drive were ordered through the recommended Rhino group too, which is pretty surprising given that they were explicitly recommended here.
Really want to build NAS killer 6.0 to replace my aging Xpenlogy box running i7-4790K. Which one of these motherboards support bifurcation x4x4x4x4. I have Asus HyperX M.2 AIC card I want to use with 4x - 2TB NVME but motherboard must support bifurcation on PCIe X16 (x4x4x4x4). Also how are you people actually getting these SuperMicro boards for so cheap. Iām seeing them hundreds more than quoted in this thread. Most shipping from China which I want to avoid.
Does X11SCA-F board support bifurcation x4x4x4x4?
The pricing has changed since the guide was posted. They arenāt available at that mentioned price any more.
The board is highly unlikely to support bifurcation. Others in its class do not and it only offers two x8 slots as it is by hardware switches onboard.
No, unfortunately the board does not seem to support bifurcation at all.
So I put a pause on this project for the short term. But you would likely need, either a x399/TR4X( other Threadripper builds), x99/x299 (i havenāt stayed up to date on the Intel HEDT), Xeon E5-V2+, Epyc, new Xeon platform for serious PCI-E Lanes. Not sure if the desktop segment would have a mother board with video out that would have an 16x that you can split and or supports full 4x/4x/4x/4x bifurcation.
To further this, the i7-4790K only has 16 PCI-E Lanes, and Iāve heard Intel locks CPU bifurcation so not really sure. You could look into AMD setups maybe.
Thereās several socket 1700 boards and AM4 boards that can bifurcate the primary x16 slot to x4/x4/x4/x4 but they are expensive relative to the target price bracket of nk6. Also, socket 1700 and AM4 arenāt really within the nk6 scope anyway. AM5 probably can too but itās even more money and I havenāt checked a single board myself. But theyāre all less than a Threadripper or an Epyc.