Repurposing old dl180 server motherboard, ATX PSU?

[101m4n]

I am building a small compute cluster, and i'm on a budget. I have found that since my last ebay adventure several years ago, the market has become flooded with old socket 1366 xeon chips that offer pretty decent performance per dollar (you can pick up an x5660 for <£20 if you look in the right places). Finding motherboards for them is a bit of a pain though. I have come across this board (hp part number 591747-001), it's a dual socket lga 1366 board from old hp dl180 g6 server, which I can get a hold of cheap in useful quantities. It appears to take some standard atx connectors, but there are a few miscellaneous proprietary power delivery related connectors which I do not recognise, as it usually takes power from a psu hot-swap backplane doodah.

the board

board in a server

Service manual

The other power connectors, from research, seem to be pretty standard 8 and 4 pin cpu power connectors, along with a standard atx 24 pin connector.

Of particular worry for me though are the power back-plane control connector and power supply "EFF" connector, whatever that is (page 133, connectors 20 and 22).

Anyone worked with these servers before and know what these do? Can I jury rig something or leave them disconnected, or am I going to need to buy the backplane and a server power supply if I want to power it up.

I imagine the chances of a definitive answer are pretty slim, but if someone could give me a "no way", they could potentially save me a lot of time, and a bit of money

Also if there are any other things I should be aware of (ram compatibility aside), when re-purposing old server hardware like this, I'd like to know about those too!

 

Thanks in advance!

- alex

[GDRRiley]

the odd EFF and backplane power are so that the backplane in the server could get power. they should be fine disconnected.

for ram get ram on the QVL or grab generic memory for kingston and the like

[CptCarbonat]

This mainboard seems pretty similar to a mainboard that I have, a mainboard out of the SE316M1 (Image: Mainboard). To me they look visually the same and I would guess they are pretty similar and I hope my knowledge of the board applies to your board aswell. I actually don't use the mainboard in the original server, so I have a few hints what to consider if you want to use that board outside of the HP case. It is a standard form factor, I think SSI-EEB and I was able to mount it in a different case. The power connectors are all standard for me and it works without the backplane power connector. For RAM I'm not quite sure, I use HP branded stuff (manufactured by Samsung) in it, and there is a lot of it on Ebay so you can use that or else I would use something very generic.

 

Though this is where it starts to get a bit more complicated. The cooler mount for the CPU is not standard as far as I know. I couldn't find anything else than the SE326M1/DL180 G6 or SE316M1 cooler that fit the mount. I guess the SE326M1/DL180 G6 cooler is better, as they are designed for 2U and not 1U. The coolers are not designed to have a fan mounted to them, so that is a problem as well. You can 3D print something or just use zipties to solve that.

 

The other problem are the fans, and that is where I had to do some research to get it right (I can give you a pinout, it is what I figured out after looking at some documents and images and I think it is right). The connector is a 6 pin molex and the standard server uses the Delta "GFB0412EHS" in my case. To use standard PC fans (3 pin or 4 pin) you have to either solder an adapter yourself what I did or buy one (Something like this). The problem here is that the server detects if there is no fan connected (I think it checks the TACH from the fan) and it won't boot if there are no fans connected, thats why you can't just power them externally, or at least you would have to solder the TACH from the fan up to the connector. Also you have to make sure that there is enough airflow in the case you use so that nothing overheats, like the chipset. But if you pay a bit attention to that it should be fine, you can monitor the tempratures easily over iLO2.

 

I hope that helps you out a little, I am not 100% sure if the boards are the same, but I think what I mentioned should apply to the DL180 G6 aswell.

 

EDIT: I just noticed the image that you posted should be a SE316 board, not a DL180 G6 mainboard. There are some differences, but they are rather minor to what I could get out of the DL180 manual.

[101m4n]

I had wondered about the 5 pin fans, but if buying a few molex plugs and messing with pins is really all I need to do, I will find a way to manage.

The cooler mount shouldn't be a problem either, the 2u coolers from the dl180 bolt into a backplate, i'll just grab some appropriate screws and jury rig some sort of bracket for a normal consumer heatsink.

As for the chassis, I was just going to construct something from wood and mount three 120mm fans in the back of each compartment to push air over the board and through the heatsinks. Maybe add a couple more internal fans if anything on the board gets uncomfortably hot. I know fb-dimms can get a tad toasty.

In any case, your reply has put my mind at ease. I'll buy just one for starters and see what I can make of it.

Thanks for the help!

[CptCarbonat]

Seems fine to me, this is the connector that HP uses. Just get the right crimps and you should be fine. If you need the pinout just let me know, I would have to dig it up somewhere. 

 

One more thing I just thought of, which I don't known if it is a problem or not, is the front panel. The SE316M1 has a custom front panel with indicator LEDs and the powerbutton, but it uses a non standard connector. I'm not sure whether the panel is required (I had it once in a Dell PC where it was because of a temperature sensor), if its not you should be fine just figuring out what pins the power button is and hooking these up. And the internal USB connector was a bit weird too, as far as I remember.

 

Getting one board to try things out is probably a good idea. I would love to see some pictures of your system if you go through with it

[101m4n]

Yup, that's the one I found, and I already have the necessary tools. If its not too much effort to dig up the pinout, that would be very helpful.

As for the front panel, I noticed that in the service manual. There is mention of a "Invalid or Unknown SKU/Chassis ID" POST error on page 150, not sure. I shall have to play with it and see.

The processors I'm getting (x5660's) are shipping from overseas, so it will be a while before I can tinker with the thing.

Will be sure to post back once I have the hardware in hand.

[CptCarbonat]

Ok, very nice. I'll get it, shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

With the front panel I don't know, I guess if it boots without the panel you can power it up via the iLO2 webinterface, so you wouldn't even need to figure out the pins for power.

 

The X5660s are just so cheap from overseas, and the performance they offer is great.

 

Edit:

So this is the connector from the fan (Delta GFB0412EHS) in my SE316M1:

 

 

and the pinout is as follows as far as I know:

+---+------------+--------+
|Pin|Color       |Function|
+---+------------+--------+
|  1|Orange      |     12V|
|  2|Grey/Black  |     GND|
|  3|Red         |     12V|
|  4|Blue        |    TACH|
|  5|White/Yellow|     PWM|
|  6|Green       |    TACH|
+---+------------+--------+

As you can see PWM and GND are shared by the two rotors in the fan module. If you want you can connect up to two fans to the connector. If you connect just one, make sure to bridge the TACH so that the fan is properly detected by the BIOS. Just refer to the standard 4 Pin PWM pinout to hook up the fans:

 

[CptCarbonat]

Didn't expect to find anything on the pinout of the frontpanel, but found this on Google:

 

 

 Might be helpful if you plan to hook up the power button or some of the LEDs.

 

Edit: You might want to read through that thread, it is pretty much what we were talking about. They have the same pinout for the fans on the thread there that I just posted (just the other way around regarding the pins) and it is a bit more detailed. I searched for that pinout for a while and couldn't find anything useful on Google. Would have helped me a lot if I found that thread earlier  

Quote

Pin #1 is Outlet sense (blue)
Pin #2 is pwm control (yellow, both fans tied together)
Pin #3 is Inlet sense (blue)
Pin #4 is Inlet power (red, 12v)
Pin #5 is gnd (both fans tied together)
Pin #6 is Outlet power (red, 12v)

 

[101m4n]

Wow! These are a godsend. Hand't actually gone looking for the frontpanel connector pinout yet, busy with a friends water cooling project, but now it seems you've done the legwork for me! Can't thank you enough 

[CptCarbonat]

No problem, was fun researching it and the information is useful for me too. Can't believe I didn't find that thread earlier, but I guess I only looked for the SE316 pinouts and didn't Google for the DL180 even though I knew there was a server with a similar mainboard  

 

I saw that thread earlier today, looks like a really interesting project!

[Kered124]

Love these kinds of threads. Inspired me to start looking for parts to do another build with old server hardware. Please post updates with pictures of progress when you get things started!

[101m4n]

Some developments on this little project of mine.

• I have opted for lower power processors (L5640 xeons) due to power and heat concerns.
• I have discovered that the source of mainboards (se316m mainboards like yours) I have picked out may ship them with older bios revisions which do not support the westmere (56xx series) processors, only 55xx parts.

@CptCarbonat I hate to ask even more of you, but you wouldn't happen to have the latest bios revision for these boards, just in case mine show up and won't post? Or know where I can get it? The hpe website is awful and doesn't seem to provide bios updates, or even a history or bios revisions for that matter...

[CptCarbonat]

For the SE316 it is a bit complicated to find the latest BIOS, as these models are custom built for some customer and HPE doesn't offer offical support for them. Though looking at this Thread it seems like with the SPP iso from 02/2014 it is possible to update the BIOS on the SE mainboards. You can find the iso here, if that works it should be pretty easy to update the BIOS with that tool. Though I guess if it won't post with the L5640 CPUs, you will have to use 5500 series CPUs to update the BIOS.

[101m4n]

5 minutes ago, CptCarbonat said:

For the SE316 it is a bit complicated to find the latest BIOS, as these models are custom built for some customer and HPE doesn't offer offical support for them. Though looking at this Thread it seems like with the SPP iso from 02/2014 it is possible to update the BIOS on the SE mainboards. You can find the iso here, if that works it should be pretty easy to update the BIOS with that tool. Though I guess if it won't post with the L5640 CPUs, you will have to use 5500 series CPUs to update the BIOS.

Right, so I'd have to go for bios updates for the dl160 g6, and cross my fingers that hp just re-used the boards in their special to-order servers. I can grab a 5520 for less than $5 so that's no problem either. I've started ordering parts. Fingers crossed I suppose!

[CptCarbonat]

1 hour ago, 101m4n said:

Right, so I'd have to go for bios updates for the dl160 g6, and cross my fingers that hp just re-used the boards in their special to-order servers. I can grab a 5520 for less than $5 so that's no problem either. I've started ordering parts. Fingers crossed I suppose!

I guess so. I read in multiple threads that it is possible to update the BIOS of the SE316, so I'm pretty sure there is a way. I sadly can't try to update the BIOS on my board, because I can't start the machine at the moment (don't have the heatsinks installed). If I'm able to try it out in the next days I'll report you my findings.

 

One more thing I just though of that some people are not aware: The 8-Pin connector on the motherboard is an 8-Pin CPU power connector and not an 8-Pin PCIE connector, so you might have to use an adatper (didn't use any of these yet and I don't know how reliable they are) or get a PSU that has two CPU connectors. The second option would for sure be the better one, though PSUs with a 4(+4) Pin and an 8-Pin CPU connector are sometimes a bit expensive. You might have to search a bit for a PSU with these features that is not too expensive if you don't have one.

[101m4n]

2 hours ago, CptCarbonat said:

I guess so. I read in multiple threads that it is possible to update the BIOS of the SE316, so I'm pretty sure there is a way. I sadly can't try to update the BIOS on my board, because I can't start the machine at the moment (don't have the heatsinks installed). If I'm able to try it out in the next days I'll report you my findings.

 

One more thing I just though of that some people are not aware: The 8-Pin connector on the motherboard is an 8-Pin CPU power connector and not an 8-Pin PCIE connector, so you might have to use an adatper (didn't use any of these yet and I don't know how reliable they are) or get a PSU that has two CPU connectors. The second option would for sure be the better one, though PSUs with a 4(+4) Pin and an 8-Pin CPU connector are sometimes a bit expensive. You might have to search a bit for a PSU with these features that is not too expensive if you don't have one.

Alright, that's comforting. I find it hard to believe that hp would go to the trouble of supporting different motherboards and bioses for practically identical servers, but hey, hp being the lumbering behemoth that it is, anything is possible.

 

Also, I am aware of the eps 12v cpu power. I have some corsair vs450 psus which should do the trick nicely, no need for an expensive psu with a weird cable configuration, I'll just wire up either a molex or pcie to 4 pin adaptor myself, I have all the pins and wires necessary to do so as well as a crimping tool I can use.

 

Oh also, what processors do you have in your board, and do you know if they post?

[CptCarbonat]

Yeah that is true, we will have to see. Even though the mainboards are a bit different I guess they still are pretty much the same as the SE316M1 is based on the DL160 G6.

 

That option is pretty good with the low power L5640. I was pretty lucky that I had a PSU laying around, that had one 4 pin and one 8 pin for CPU power. I have yet to see another PSU that has this configuration, it's always the 4+4 pin and 8 pin.

 

I got two L5520 in there, but I already ran the X5670 on the same mainboard too. The system worked fine with both of these. I also know that the E5645, the E5620, the L5640, the L5630, the X5650, the X5560, the X5550, and the X5672 all work on the mainboard (with the right BIOS version I guess, they are all sold in either the SE316M1 or the SE326M1 where I got my system).

[101m4n]

I'm now in the process of looking for heatsinks to install on the boards. I've found a couple that may work, but haven't been able to find any information on hp's mounting solution. Any chance you could measure the distance between the two mounting screws either side of the socket? My best estimates from images put them at about 85mm apart.

[CptCarbonat]

19 hours ago, 101m4n said:

My best estimates from images put them at about 85mm apart.

Yeah thats exactly what I just measured too. You are not going with the HP heatsinks, are you?

[101m4n]

1 hour ago, CptCarbonat said:

Yeah thats exactly what I just measured too. You are not going with the HP heatsinks, are you?

Nope, I'll be using antec a30's as I managed to get them pretty cheap (8.99 ea). Wanted larger heatsinks than the 2u HP parts as I actually have to live in the same room as this thing when it is running, and would prefer it to be quiet. They are ideal as they mount to normal sockets using a bracket which attaches via threaded screws to the cooler base. I plan to either fabricate a custom bracket or grab some hardware from the local b&q and bodge something, i'll need to head there to get wood to construct the housing from anyway. Either way, this should be interesting

[greenie214]

Hi,

I'm following a very similar procedure to you 101m4n and just wanted to register myself onto this thread for status updates. So far I've ordered the DL160 which is similar to your 180 along with 2 X5650's. I won't be able to test for a few weeks but I would appreciate any info you pick up whilst testing yours.

 

 

[101m4n]

3 hours ago, greenie214 said:

Hi,

I'm following a very similar procedure to you 101m4n and just wanted to register myself onto this thread for status updates. So far I've ordered the DL160 which is similar to your 180 along with 2 X5650's. I won't be able to test for a few weeks but I would appreciate any info you pick up whilst testing yours.

Will do, and good luck

[greenie214]

So a surprise update on my end. The motherboard arrived early today with a e5506 supplied so this is my current setup. Nothing plugged into the fan headers and only requires you to press f1 to initialise after it complains. F10 to go into bios, and it’s currently in the process of installing win 10 pro. Feel free to ask some questions in this early stage if you want.

[CptCarbonat]

2 hours ago, greenie214 said:

So a surprise update on my end. The motherboard arrived early today with a e5506 supplied so this is my current setup.

Very nice to see somebody join this thread

 

The layout of the mainboard is quite a bit different than what I expected. I guess I never really looked at the DL160 G6 mainboard. Nice to see it has a SFF-8087 port on the mainboard. Is it 6 GBit SAS and 3GBit Sata? One extra PCIE slot too, and it has the holes for a standard cooler. The only thing that isn't onboard is iLO2, but the board for that is pretty cheap too.

[greenie214]

1 hour ago, CptCarbonat said:

Is it 6 GBit SAS and 3GBit Sata?

It's 3Gb Sata although less certain about the SAS but signs point towards it being 6Gb.

 

1 hour ago, CptCarbonat said:

it has the holes for a standard cooler.

I've been a bit janky with the current cooling, pinching a narrow ILM from a 2011 server board and just letting it rest XD. I'm planning on fixing 2 Hyper 212 EVO's to manage the X2650's and hoping they'll mount properly.

 

1 hour ago, CptCarbonat said:

The only thing that isn't onboard is iLO2, but the board for that is pretty cheap too.

No current plans to add iLO2 but I'll look into it.

 

 

One issue I need to figure out is BIOS update as I know how stiff HP can be with distributing these. It's still running the original BIOS so I definitely need that up to date when I plan to add them...