Interesting machine: TinkerTry’s Xeon D-1540 fueled ESXi 6.0 home lab build begins LIVE! | TinkerTry IT @ Home.
It does ECC and IPMI, fits mSATA, 2.5 drives, and 3.5 hot-swap bays. For more specs see Supermicro SuperServer mini-tower ordered with 64GB of memory for $1900 starts the ultimate 24×7 home virtualization lab | TinkerTry IT @ Home.
The drive trays used are these:
Besides the official ways of converting the 3.5″ tray for 2.5″ drives that only allows for 4 drives to be converted, I think there is an unofficial way that allows for more hot-swappable 2.5″ drives.
Converting the unofficial way
The case is an CSE-721TQ-250B. Looking at a picture of the dimensions of the space where the drive trays fit in (thanks Anandtech), removing the CSE-SAS-733TQ backplane and fitting these into the MCP-220-00075-0B should allow for 8 2.5″ drives to be connected:
(all found via Sata Rack Enclosure – on Aliexpress.com)
Converting the official way
Modify an existing 3.5″ tray to fit a 2.5″ drive: please note the drive is mounted up side down!
Note there is another (dual!) 2.5″ tray for a different kind servers: many 2U and some 4U rack mounted SuperMicro servers and chassises optionally have this in the back for boot drives:
These are for instance used in the below chassises and SAS extenders based on them (the extenders all use SFF-8644 HD mini-SAS3 cable connectors):
Note to self: if ever getting these, ensure to get them with PWS-920P-SQ or better power supplies as these are super quiet although the chassis fans can be loud which can be resolved with a PWM controller or carefully selecting the SuperMicro parts from Supermicro | Support | System Fan Matrix as described in Supermicro noise levels | ServeTheHome and ServeThe.Biz Forums.
–jeroen
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