Supermicro X7SPA-H

valnar

@Ibor:

Corsair HX520W (I know overkill, but is being reused from my current config)

FYI. The HX520W was a great PSU, but not very efficient at low usage. The Atom is going to come in MUCH lower than the curve and you'll be wasting quite a bit of power. Whether buying a whole new PSU outweighs the cost depends on your situation, but the HX520W is still in demand and might be able to sell it.

Ibor Daru

@valnar:

@Ibor:

Corsair HX520W (I know overkill, but is being reused from my current config)

FYI. The HX520W was a great PSU, but not very efficient at low usage. The Atom is going to come in MUCH lower than the curve and you'll be wasting quite a bit of power. Whether buying a whole new PSU outweighs the cost depends on your situation, but the HX520W is still in demand and might be able to sell it.

You're completely right. I've done some research and I'm still scratching my head around this subject. The Corsair HX520W would have a 5% load with an Atom system…..
The only other viable candidate in my opinion would be a PicoPSU. Supermicro recommends a PSUs with a 24 pin connector in combination with the X7SPA motherboard (see FAQ http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=9876).

The closest PicoPSU with a 24 pin connector is the picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit or even the picoPSU-150-XT + 80W Adapter Power Kit would be fine. According to silentpcreview (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page3.html) the 120 with 80 versus 120 Watt adapter has an impressive 77 - 79 % efficiency at 22 W load. The 150 would likely drop a few percentages. 75% efficient perhaps for my X7SPA-HF configuration?

Has anybody experience with PicoPSU?

valnar

I've used Pico PSU's in the past but not with an Atom. It should be fine.

Post your question on the Silentpcreview forums and I'm sure somebody will steer you in the right direction.

As I'm sure you've noticed in your research, it's impossible to get a standard ATX 80 Plus Gold PSU at low wattage. I could use one too.

Edit: I bought one of these for a 1U rackmount server (firewall) I built with a mini-ITX board. It wasn't an Atom, but a mobile processor on a Mini-ITX board. My setup consumes around 22-35W - about the same your Atom will.
http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=67&idproduct=831

rkelleyrtp

Will one of these work:

http://www.mini-box.com/Power-Supplies-Kits

valnar

Yes it should. Ask the people at mini-box. They will tell you.

Cino

I use the picoPSU-150-XT + 80W Adapter Power Kit with the board with no issues. about 23-25 watts of power

Ibor Daru

@valnar:

Edit: I bought one of these for a 1U rackmount server (firewall) I built with a mini-ITX board. It wasn't an Atom, but a mobile processor on a Mini-ITX board. My setup consumes around 22-35W - about the same your Atom will.
http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=67&idproduct=831

This is very much appreciated, thanks! That's exactly the PSU that we (I) need with Atom boards. Price is very acceptable. Note: size is Flex ATX, not ATX, so backplate modding is required.

@Cino:

I use the picoPSU-150-XT + 80W Adapter Power Kit with the board with no issues. about 23-25 watts of power

Thanks for your feedback, very good to know. Tempting…

Altercation

@Ibor:

The closest PicoPSU with a 24 pin connector is the picoPSU-150-XT + 102W Adapter Power Kit or even the picoPSU-150-XT + 80W Adapter Power Kit would be fine. According to silentpcreview (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page3.html) the 120 with 80 versus 120 Watt adapter has an impressive 77 - 79 % efficiency at 22 W load. The 150 would likely drop a few percentages. 75% efficient perhaps for my X7SPA-HF configuration?

Has anybody experience with PicoPSU?

FWIW I just completed build on a pfsense box around an X7SPA-HF with a PicoPSU (150). Works like a champ. Watch that RAM, though.

mugz

Hello there i'm new around these parts, i'm getting this board next week and i have a question which i would appreciate some help with :)
When using this board for a home router is it best to use the Lan port with the IPMI for the internal network and the other one for the WAN interface?
I don't care about remote management(only local network) so this seemed like the best option for me and i assume i should set the IPMI ip to static since the pfsense box will also be my dhcp server. Having done various searches i couldn't get a clear answer so do you guys see any problems here or should this work fine?

Thank you!

Altercation

@mugz:

When using this board for a home router is it best to use the Lan port with the IPMI for the internal network and the other one for the WAN interface?

That's how I'm using it. I'd prefer to keep the IPMI LAN port off WAN for security reasons as well. Of course it's password protected and it's probably possible to change the IPMI HTTP port - I don't remember off hand - but still better keeping it on the LAN side. I figured I could always set up a port forward if I wanted to access the IPMI web interface remotely.

@mugz:

i assume i should set the IPMI ip to static since the pfsense box will also be my dhcp server.

Setting it to a static IP is best but it should also pick up a DHCP from your pfsense box as well (i.e. "itself", even though the BMC is really like an entirely different box that just shares that LAN port) though of course when the machine is powered down and you want to get to the BMC you'll need that static IP.

mugz

Thanks allot for clearing that up, my mind is at ease now and i can look forward to the install!
Which version of pfsense are you people running on this board? I'm guessing 2.0-Beta because of the issue 1.2.3 has with the remote keyboard emulation?

Altercation

@mugz:

Thanks allot for clearing that up, my mind is at ease now and i can look forward to the install!
Which version of pfsense are you people running on this board? I'm guessing 2.0-Beta because of the issue 1.2.3 has with the remote keyboard emulation?

Yep, 2.0 beta. Ran 1.2.3 for a bit as well. I seem to remember that remote keyboard was ok once at the pfsense console but during install the remote keyboard on 1.2.3 would only work if there was already a physical (in my test USB) keyboard attached to the box.

2.0 has worked fine with just the remote keyboard over IPMI.

mugz

Right then i'll make sure to install 2.0 right from the start, thanks again :)

clarknova

@Ibor:

Supermicro recommends a PSUs with a 24 pin connector in combination with the X7SPA motherboard

Real nice, considering Supermicro's own 1U cases come with only a 20-pin connector on their power supply. I just got the X7SPA-H this week with the CSE-503-200B case. Can you even get a motherboard with a 20-pin power connector these days? And if so, how will you get it into this case with its non-changeable IO shield?

But I digress. Looking forward to revving this thing up on pfsense 2.0.

aneip

Anyone have problem with SATA? I unable to install, the log show something about GPT invalid or corrupted. Tried on new SSD and old 80GB SATA. Both saying same problem. Another log show GEOM invalid something that have todo with cylinder/head/sector parameter..

Will try to get the log later.

Altercation

@aneip:

Anyone have problem with SATA? I unable to install, the log show something about GPT invalid or corrupted. Tried on new SSD and old 80GB SATA. Both saying same problem. Another log show GEOM invalid something that have todo with cylinder/head/sector parameter..

Will try to get the log later.

I had trouble getting a single drive recognized (other drives were fine), but I finally resorted to scrubbing it with dd and all was right after that.

aneip

Here the error

GEOM: ad4: corrupt or invalid GPT detected
GEOM: ad4: GPT rejected - may not be recoverable.

Using 2 different disc.. both the same.

vassilis

Hello all!

I have the HF model with IPMI and some questions. Has anyone of you managed to have the shared IPMI work when accessed from a different network?
As an example, in a network with WAN, LAN and OPT1 the IPMI is shared with the LAN interface. Is it possible to access the IPMI over the OPT1 interface?
Has anyone actually done that?

Thank you!

clarknova

I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to access it as you do any LAN host from the OPT1 interface. In other words, the IPMI interface needs to know it's gateway and the firewall must permit your OPT1 host to access the IPMI address on the LAN.