I’m having a problem trying to setup DAS with this. I’m using the following cards
HP 487738-001 inside the DAS using the Riser Card powered by MOLEX
Internal SAS connections are made to this card.
External from this card to LS2-SAS9200-8E in my windows 10 pro PC.
All lights green showing power however it flashes a solid on/off pattern on one of the LEDS.
I put HP 487738-001 into my Windows 10 Pro build and device manager does not see it. (that was a test to see if the card is good)
When I place LS2-SAS9200-8E in my Windows 10 Pro build Windows sees it immediately.
Could I possibly have a bad expander card, or does it need to be flashed before it can be used. If so, how do I do that?
For reference here are the links the exander, the LS2, and the riser card I am using.
The HP 487738-001 pulls power from the slot only. It is not a card that will be detected by Windows.
The fact that LED’s light up when powered by the mining slot adapter is good in that power is probably working. If you have another SFF-8088 you might try that. If you have an SFF-8088 to SATA cable I’d definitely try that on your windows PC with an internal drive to make sure you don’t have an issue with your HBA.
It was not clear from your post whether you checked in the HBA’s BIOS setup for drives or just relied on Windows. Does the HBA appear in the windows device manager and report the driver version?
Keep in mind the DS380B has a cooling defect - You need to 3D print one of these or something similar, otherwise the drives get really hot. It was the thing that turned me away from purchasing one when I was looking into NAS cases a few years back
Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
That sounds to me like the board is compatible ECC RAM, but it doesn’t actually take advantage of its error correction capabilities. Does that sound right?
If that’s the case, any recommendation for a motherboard that supports and uses ECC?
Mostly finished Blue U-NAS. Im pretty happy overall besides a couple small problems - Mainly the soft touch coating is starting to come off and becomes sticky underneath. I didnt get a 400W PSU. Its a tight squeeze building in the case. but I was able to make it work. Image below captures the fading of the soft touch.
I went with a different motherboard and cpu/cooler, but the parts list was similar to JDM otherwise. I did pretty well between black Friday/cyber Monday for the CPU/Mobo. I was able to get a partial refund for the U-NAS case considering the soft touch was coming off. I was also able save a few dollars by grabbing a few SAS SSD’s from some old servers at work, A lot of hours on them but 0 data have ever been written on them, I grabbed a few extra (6) for spares in case they end up dying. I did end up buying a 10TB Elements and shucking it for parity, but the rest of the drives I had already. I did kapton tape the shucked drive based on reports here of needing to. Not a bad job for a rookie if you were to ask me.
CPU: Intel Core i5 10400
Motherboard: Asrock B460M-ITX/AC
Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666 - 9905702-082.A00G (Had from a previous project, 4 of them wouldn’t run in my Sim Rig, so I split 2 to a HP G290 and 2 to the U-NAS)
CPU Cooler: Noctua L9i ( I overspent but my OCD just wouldn’t let me clip a support of the cooler.)
Storage:
HBA: LSI SAS 9207-8I
1 x WD101EMAZ parity (10TB)
1 x Samsung 970 Evo 250GB NVME - Cache
2 x Pliant/SanDisk LB206S SAS SSD’s for Cache in RAID 1 BTRFS (200GB)
5 x WD30EURS 3TB WD Drives.
Snap of the SAS SSDs I grabbed. These are SLC and built like a tank. They are very heavy compared to a SATA SSD. I upgraded the firmware prior to ejecting them from the servers. Performance isnt any better really, I just liked being able to use them in the drive sleds.
Before Closing it up - If you look closely I received a different PSU than JDM, its P/N FSAK360C. Its a 360W 80 Plus Silver vs the 400W 80 Plus Gold that was included in JDM’s . A user from the discord posted the installation guide earlier and I noticed that the PSU in the install guide matched the one I received vs the one that JDM received. Kind of a let down, but it really shouldnt be a problem even with the bays full. You can also see how tight the 4 pin CPU power cable is stretched. I was barely able to get it connected.
EDIT: Just recently installed this with a couple of PM871’s into the 2.5" internal slot. I had to slightly modify the screw hole so that it would fit with the existing mounts. Also cut a sheet protector as a way to prevent the card from shorting against the HDD cage below. Nice way to add a mirror of SSD’s for whatever you want.
JDM, thanks for the build here and everyone else for their build lists and photos. All has been extremely helpful as I build out my own NAS using this case.
That magnetic tray was a lifesaver so far. I fully endorse JDMs recommendation to have that handy. And a mini flashlight as well.
Here is my build in case anyone used similar and had questions:
CPU: i5-9400T
Motherboard: AsRock Rack C246-WSI
Ram: 1X Crucial RAM 32GB DDR4 2666 MHz CL19 Desktop Memory CT32G4DFD8266
Case Fans: Noctua NF-S12A PWM
CPU Cooler: Noctua-NH-L9i
Boot: Sabrent 512GB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2242 DRAM-Less Low Power Internal High Performance SSD (SB-1342-512)
10G NIC: Mellanox MCX311A-XCAT CX311A ConnectX-3 EN 10G Ethernet 10GbE SFP+ PCI-E NIC (Installing this once I get the riser cable)
Using 4x 14TB WD HDDs for now. I’m ordering a oculink to 4x sata breakout from AsRock Rack sales in order to potentially add more.
I did have to tape the 3.3v pin to get the drives to be recognized in bios.
So, when I was building this thing I knew that the motherboard would be small… But it really didn’t hit me until it arrived in the mail and my hand could fit right over it. I didn’t really stray from the parts listed in the guide. I looked around but the only real thing I chose to get because it had a deal already was the Aorus NVMe for $100 it came with a heatsink already and was a little faster. I wasn’t worried that it was 512.
I realized later the plastic sheet in the case was there loose to protect the motherboard from inadvertently coming in contact with the metal case. So… after throwing that away, later I cut an old plastic report cover to fit. Made sure to leave room on the right for ventilation.
CPU power cord always falling in the fan
It’s pretty obvious what I had to do here, or the cord would constantly fall in and I’d have to keep opening the case and all 5,000 screws.
I swear, I changed out every part before this thing. It was really tricky to figure out because it would only sometimes fail. I would get Unraid all set up and this crap would occur. I swapped out all of the disks, re-ran the replaced cords with new ones, and then I finally tried replacing it with a 1slot HBA I got free from one of the BitDeals array starter kits. Boom that was it, just had to wait literally a month for a replacement .
As people have mentioned, the price is higher than the last one, but this is still cheaper than they were originally around 200+ and the PSU is also 100+ so if you were really wanting this form factor its not a bad deal. they have Make offer open so id be interested if they would accept offers close to the original listing price (its the same seller). If anyone makes an offer please post here any results.
I offered $150 ($21 over original selling price, plus original shipping was $25 instead of $35), Seller countered with $240 ($40 off list). I countered with $200; seller declined.
Just so everyone knows, they want double the original list price after shipping ($154.57 shipped in October, versus $274.99 shipped at their best offer, or $313.99 shipped at list).
yeah definitely not as good of a deal, but these are marked as new in original packaging, so im wondering if they are the best versions of the stock they did have. still a good deal if its the form factor someone needs.
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