ijustpostwhenimhi
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Prev: https://imgur.com/gallery/EkGvOsj
We've gotten to the pièce de résistance.
The Gen 3 PCIe switch arrived, along with the slot adapters.
I've also switched to an 80+ gold ATX power supply for better efficiency, and because the slot adapters use ATX type connectors anyway.
The same day the switch arrived I also received a 3d printer I'd ordered, and I definitely plan to print a case or cases for all these components. For now though... cardboard™️ and heavy foil tape will have to do
@StackMySwitchUp
Wide shot
The slot adapters are very light and hold on to the edge connectors very tightly, so for now I have them floating in place. They use SATA power and u.2 connections, identical to Mini-SAS HD
In part 8 I tested a 4-way m.2 card that used a PLX PCIe switch chipset and confirmed it to work. This PCIe expansion card uses the same PLX chip, so I was confident it'd work, and it does. Both the 10GbE NIC and the SAS controller show up and function flawlessly at gen 3 speeds
Important dmesg stuff
Idle power with disks spun down. NIC connected with Internet access
Cat tax
toolzgalore2
I am so excited, right now I a, futzing with my first SAN, nonnative be awesome with the fibre channel switch and all that :-)
friendsofsandwiches
SO what're you doing with all that? I mean what's the project FOR?
ijustpostwhenimhi
Final goal is a NAS & Media server combo. 18TB in live storage with room to grow. Besides the media server (Plex), the storage will also be used for security cams. Basically telling Netflix and Ring to go suck it, I'll host my own services ;) . Speaking of, my friends will also have access to the media server.
friendsofsandwiches
I assume they're all in the same house. Or local network? Funny, I picked up a whole blade server dated from 2010 at the local computer shop that someone just dumped there. NO idea what to do with it.
4t0m1c4
I assume you asked the cat for the box nicely?
ijustpostwhenimhi
Certainly
4t0m1c4
This is what I get
StackMySwitchUp
It's funny to me that the compute part of this box will be the size of a credit card, and the storage, power and connectivity will likely take about 20 times more space.
Big note on the power consumption regarding 10GB sfp cards, they start sucking watts once they have actual connectivity, I'd recommend some DAC cables and a simple ping test
ijustpostwhenimhi
The nic is connected in those shots. It's being used as the primary connection instead of the on board nic. I plan to run iperf and samba tests, so I'll get a power reading for full utilization then, and I use dac for all my short 10G runs ;)
ijustpostwhenimhi
In regard to the size yeah I thought that was funny too. It'd be nice to have everything on a single PCB, or a HAT that carried the PLX chip and maybe two slots. You can buy the PLX chip from distributors and there's data sheets available, but typical breadboarding would be out of the question so I'm not sure if I have the tools to design such a board
StackMySwitchUp
Gb* small 'b' for bit