I’ve heard about the 'pro4e enhanced and pro8e enhanced models but can’t find anything on the 45drives site that discusses these models. is this just a ‘verbage’ miscommunication and they are the same model and spec’s?
Either way, since i don’t think the HL4 is large enough I’m considering the HL8 model so I can have some room for expansion of drives (8 vs 4). In looking at the specs the “8” model seems to have 8 individual sata ports available. i’m looking to use this as a ‘lt’ (long term offline proxmox backup storage) unit and would want to have 2 slots for the o/s and the other slots available for storage. I’ve been trying to determine if I can have the 2 ssd drives in it and still have the 8 slots available of if I would lose 2 of my sata slots for the o/s and then only have 6 slots, probably available for 5.25 drives drives. Any idea? Also, there is a note that if you get a ‘fully burnt in’ model that I’d need another caddy for expansion if I wanted to have more drives. So I’m a little confused.
Basically I’m trying to have the config - 2 ssd drives for O/S and 8, if possible for my zfs pool. Can i have this config with the HL8 or would end up with only 6 ssd slots for 5.25 drives. Any other caddy config options needed?
With the Full Build HL8, you are going to come up short on the OS drives. The GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX 1.0 motherboard only has four onboard SATA ports. 45HomeLab is then using an adapter on one of the two M.2 slots to get more SATA ports. The second M.2 is located on the back of the motherboard and is used for the operating system. If you did go with the Full Build HL4 you’d have both M.2 slots available to use as the onboard SATA would be sufficient.
There are some ways around this. For instance, you could buy an 8i HBA and use that in the one and only PCIe slot to connect the 8 drives. This would give you two M.2 slots and 4 SATA ports to use for OS or other needs. You could also use NVME carrier cards to get more M.2 slots but just know that B550I AORUS PRO AX 1.0 only supports x8x8 or x8x4x4 bifurcation.
Curious to know where you’re seeing this. I’m not recalling this being announced or communicated. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t… just that I don’t remember.
I also don’t see it on https://45professional.com/ either. I feel pretty confident that it would be listed there if it was an option at this time.
For mounting the drives without taking up slots this would work, but he’s still coming up short on SATA connections to have 8 drive bays plus two more SSD’s for the OS (total of 10). That said, a PCIe SATA card would be another option to get more SATA ports to accommodate the setup he seems to be looking for.
on their https://45professional.com/ site under products they mention either the pro8 or pro4 models. and on the https://store.45homelab.com they mention the HL8 and HL4. Haven’t had time to drill down/compare but ‘physically’ they both look the same from their pictures. The question I have is are they the same units - just marketed under the same configuration or different. Like I said - haven’t drilled down/compared the 2 units. I’m also unable to get pricing for the Pro4 and Pro8 models as email is the only option for a quote and am ‘patiently’ waiting…
Do you have a suggestion on a reasonable 8i HBA? In that scenario then shouldn’t i be able to use the 2 M.2 for the O/S and have the remaining 8 slots for drives, either ssd or 5.25? I think either way I seem to try and ‘slice’ this I’m limited to a max of 8 slots tho. Correct?
If that’s the case, then I’m guessing the HL15 (built) would be the better way to go so I have 2 for O/S and then either fully populate now, or create/expand my zfs pool at a later date.
From what I understand, they are exactly the same chassis and backplane (just different paint scheme) but that the internals are different with the Pro series using enterprise hardware such as the ASRock Rack EC266D2I-2T/AQC that’s listed on the website, whereas the HL4\8 Full Build systems will use consumer grade hardware. This is going to drive up the price a decent amount. I believe they’ll also do custom build solutions for you but also for a fee.
If you go the HBA route, I’d try for an LSI 9400-8i but 9300-8i would also work out just fine. Beware of counterfeits and fakes on ebay or other sites. The ebay seller “The Art of Server” is very reputable and also has a youtube channel talking about fakes. You’ll also need different Mini-HD-SAS cables to go between the card and the backplane.
A PCIe SATA expansion card would be another route to go instead of the HBA. Honestly, it’s a little more straight forward and you wouldn’t need to also replace the cables to the backplane. You may not be able to boot an OS off the card but that should be fine considering the onboard SATA and M.2 slots should be bootable.
Overall, the HL15 will offer more flexibility and expandability than the HL8 but is a bigger, louder, and more expensive unit. Hopefully you also saw the 45HomeLab is working on additional options and a version “2.0” of the HL15. Something to consider as you look at when you decide to buy.
The Asrock Rack board supports 8 SATA drives via 2 oculink ports, but only has one m.2 slot. So, the Pro8 would also require use of the PCIe slot for a 2x NVMe/SSD & 8x SATA HDD setup. Although, with just the addition of an NVMe card and not rejiggering the backplane cables.
