Hey Homelabers, I have a video, i would like to share with the community. Kindly share your thoughts.
5 Likes
It would be great if there was an option for an Intel CPU that supports QuickSync and has Motherboard with IPMI support. XEON’s and EPYCS are great but with no QuickSync… transcoding is difficult to get performance out of without a GPU which really isn’t a necessary power draw and expense. Sometimes us home-lab-ers want a solid case that can hold a bunch of drives and don’t need all the virtualization cores. I have NUC’s doing my VM/LXC/DOCKER work, but I would like to have my Plex/Jellyfin VM running as close to the storage as possible so I am not using LAN for media files for no reason.
Anyway, love the updates and HL15 will be next thing I buy for my rack for sure.
1 Like
Do you have one in mind? It seems like these are typically going to be mutually exclusive requirements to motherboard vendors, they’re going to have IPMI on boards with server sockets and not consumer sockets.
Now, there is a separate market segment of people looking for pre-built alternatives to their Synology, Qnap, Asustor, etc. And they may be well served with a QuickSync CPUs, but 45HL has to start with an architecture for the HL15 that will support 15 direct wired drives, either via the motherboard, an HBA, or a combination. That’s going to take at least 8 lanes and on most consumer motherboards make the other physical x16 slot run at x8, permanently capping someone who wants to use that slot for a higher end GPU, eg. Even the higher end Intel CPUs only have 20 or 24 PCIe lanes, which once you take away 8 of them isn’t really enough for much “labbing”.
I think the most flexible approach for a “full build” is a server platform with ample PCIe and then let the people who need QuickSync add in a low end Intel one of their choice. Perhaps 45HL could include one as a configurator option. But the next issue might be support for it in Rocky Linux, since that is their OS of choice, I’m not sure how solid that is.
The best feature of the HL15 for “homelabbers” is the “Chassis and backplane only” option. I just wish it came with PWM fans.
1 Like
Please tell me this will fit EATX motherboards. Please!
Good News! The 5U version is said to support EATX. 
3 Likes
My HL15 1.0 could do with the dust filter upgrade! 
3 Likes
Hey @hakunamatata When the 2.0 version releases we will also be launching a retrofit upgrade for the 1.0 to add the dustfilter optuion. Stay tuned !
2 Likes
I dont know if put the fan filter behind the fan is a good idea. I just use this filter between fan and the front face.
And it looks like this (ignore those cables)
It looks to me like it’s going between the fans and the front face. Your solution leaves a clean look, but requires disassembly to clean the filters..
I’ll be interested in the dust filter upgrade for my original HL15. Just out of curiosity, would that also work with the Q30? I have two Q30s.
Thanks.
Kevin
you can run an Intel dGPU like a380 that has same abilities with no additional power, 100% powered by slot on some models.
Will the updated chassis come with the tri-mode backplane?
1 Like
Hi Bharro,
unfortunately, we will not be using the tri-mode backplane in this update.
We will definitely keep this in mind for future revisions and products.
1 Like
What filter did you use? i got one the the holes were so small that air wasn’t going thru haha
I would love the HL15 5U larger case, and would like to see support for more common server motherboard sizes / standoff to support them.
Especially CEB
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=BERGAMOD8-2L2T#Specifications
and Deep Micro ATX
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=GENOAD8UD-2T/X550#Specifications
I would really like to use the GENOAD8UD-2T/X550 motherboard as I can get the necessary SATA lines with no additional HBA and use the PCIE slots for GPUs and use the MCIO connections for U2 SSDS etc.
Also any options for sound dampening that you can add to the sides of the case?
Is there a rough timeline for when the new unit might be released? Before the end of Q2, sometime this year? I understand it might be hard to predict if it is still a moving target but I am trying to determine if I need a different / temporary solution while waiting for the 2.0 release. Thanks in advance for any guidance you’re able to share!
2 Likes
Hey @Jabroni89, Good news, we plan to start pre-orders this weekend for the HL15 2.0 release!
7 Likes
Will the preorders be on the main 45homelab store website?