Strangelet

A 24x 3.5" bay 4U machine I bought off ebay in 2022 for $1457 from UNIXSurplusCom, who were overall pretty straight. All prices listed include any tax and shipping.

As delivered

A diskless but otherwise complete 8048B-TRFT system:

• Supermicro SC848XTS-R3240BP chassis
• Supermicro X10QBi motherboard with Intel 602J chipset, 4x PCIe 3.0x16, 7x PCIe 3.0x4
• 4x Supermicro PWS-1K62P-1R 80+ Platinum 1620W PSUs in 2+2 configuration
• Supermicro AOM-X10QBi-A I/O card (dual 10Gbps + VGA)
• 4x Intel® Xeon® E7-4850 v2 2.3GHz CPUs
• 3x 80mm FAN-0148L4 rear exhaust fans
  • Nidec 80x80x38mm 62.5 dBA, 116.5 CFM, 1.95A
• 4x 92mm FAN-0146L4 fans
• 24x 3.5" MCP-220-00075-0B trays (one with dead LED)
• BPN-SAS3-846EL1 12Gbs SAS3 backplane
  • upgraded by vendor from BPN-SAS-846A 12Gbps SAS2 backplane
• 8x X10QBi-MEM1 memory boards
• 16x 16GB DDR3 DIMMs
• MCP-290-00057-0N rail set

Changes

Prices include tax and shipping.

Replacements (newly purchased)

• Replaced PSUs with 4x Supermicro PWS-1K28P-SQ "SuperQuiet" 80+ Platinum 1280W PSUs ($197)
• Replaced dead tray with a new one ($15)
• Replaced 3x Nidec Ultra Flow rear fans with Noctua NF-A8 chromax.Black ($63)
• Replaced 4x with Noctua NF-A9 chromax.Black ($86)

Additions (newly purchased)

• 8x 32GB Samsung PC3L-10600L DDR3 ($218)
• 4x 32GB Samsung PC3L-14900L DDR3 ($108)
• 4x 32GB Samsung PC3L-10600R DDR3 ($125)
• 2x Bejavr M.2 PCIe cards ($23)
• GLOTRENDS U.2 PCIe card ($23)
• 2x Samsung 980 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs ($175)
• USB 3.2 PCIe card
• USB 3.0 powered hub

Additions (from stores on hand)

• Intel 750 400GB U.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD
• 16x Seagate Exos 18TB 3.5" SATA3

TCO

I bought an APC NetShelter VX secondhand to house this monster, though that is not included in the TCO. Similarly, there are several hundred dollars of watercooling expenses (4x waterblocks, a MoRa-3, an EKWB Dual XTOP D5...) that I've not bothered to include. Altogether, they would add about another thousand to the bill.

• Original: $1457
• Replacements: $197 + $15 + $63 + $86 = $361
• Additions: $218 + $108 + $125 + $23 + $23 + $175 = $672

Total: $2490