Dell PowerVault MD1120

[DrEVILish]

Just seen a few MD1120's going cheap on eBay:

 

Just wondering if you can put the SAS Expander controller from the MD1220 into the MD1120 Chassis, and get a 6Gbps SAS storage controller for less than a 10G switch

 

Anyone that can help or tell me if it'll fit / work... would be great, as I'm looking at this stuff thinking the two Controller Heads look exactly the same but I don't have one to touch so not sure.

 

 

Also I'm planning on putting SSD's into the box as this is going to be paired with a R510 12* 3.5" drive bay server. then using this as an external storage tank that I can expand using a MD1000 (with MD1220 controller) at a later date when the R510 is full.

 

[Doramius]

I get a lot of mine from servermonkey.com as they are pretty cheap and they provide warranty on units they sell.  They are super cheap.  If I don't get a refurb from them, then it would be from someone on Amazon that had a better deal.

[DrEVILish]

I'm in the UK, mainly just curious if this configuration would work for a start.

 

I've seen one on my side of the pond for £150 inc (old controllers + PSUs) just curious if it's doable to put a new controller in and benefit from the 6Gbps throughput?

[Doramius]

It's definitely good for a start.  What are some of the specs you're looking at on the machines you've seen for sale?  Or are you just wanting the chassis and a few main components?

[DrEVILish]

I've already ordered Dell PwrEdg R510 Dual Hex Xeon X5650 with 64GB RAM (caddies included) for £685 

*Need to get a decent HBA to go inside it. as the H700 that comes with is a RAID card that Synology doesn't like

 

Planning to install Xpenology and use as a PLEX server / host

 

but while I've been looking just saw those PwrVlt boxes jw if I can upgrade them with the controllers to 6Gbps with the other controllers...

 

The back of them look fairly identical, just need to know if the backplane has any fancy chips that are specify to 3Gbps...

[Doramius]

I think you can, but I don't have one handy to tell you, but I did find the following link to a spec sheet that should have part numbers you can search for:  http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/business~smb~sb360~en/documents~wp-6gbps-vs-3gbps-raid.pdf

This should make your search easier.

[DrEVILish]

I think when my next paycheck comes in I'm gonna by an MD1120 (24bay 2.5") take it apart see what the backplane is like if it's SAS2.0 compatible then buy an MD12x0(controller) and see if they work together.

[DrEVILish]

Gonna need to get an LSI 8e non-RAID HBA as Synology doesn't like the RAID cards, like the H700 which I'm gonna stick on eBay.

Dell site says:

Quote

Non-Dell drive lock-out – In order to ensure the highest quality products and best customer experience, the PERC H800 will not allow for non-Dell™ SAS HDDs or SSDs to be initialized or configured in a Dell™ PowerVault™ MD1200 or MD1220.

 

means that if I want Seagate or WD drives I gotta get a HBA and not one of Dells own drives. I'm also wanting to use SATA disks in here and not SAS due to costs but again don't know if they will work, here comes the fun. 

 

 

[Doramius]

The "Dell" drives are usually just Seagate Savvio drives.  I've used alternate SATA drives and even non-Dell SSDs in many of these machines in the past.  They do work, but Dell would not provide any warranty support.  You should be good, but you DO want to verify access times match up.  Slow times can provide faults and issues.