I started with replacing the CPUs and adding the GAMMAXX 400s. They were a pain to install - between the spring wanting to make the screw move at an angle and the slightly elongated holes in the bracket, it was just difficult to get them to line up. I’m glad I won’t be taking that apart often - one time when I get the v2 to test on this motherboard and possibly one more time after that to put new procs in if the v2s will boot.
After it worked, I managed an outside-the case POST and posted it on Discord. Got several bits of good advice such as ‘don’t test on the anti-static bag; test on cardboard’, and ‘Don’t use the onboard SAS device because it’s worthless’.
Moving from the PE2900, I discovered that the disk names were all different. Good advice from JDM had me snapshot the configuration and map the disks back to the same location that they should have been, then re-run the parity check.
The parity check will have to wait until later; now it’s time to install the board into the case.
Because there aren’t standoffs in the right places and there are some in spots that don’t match up with mounting holes, I had to identify the wrong ones. I marked the holes on the board to a cardboard base in order to duplicate the mounting pattern, and am now removing the extra standoffs and putting in non-metallic standoffs wherever a hole is on the board but no standoff possible.