RS2414RP+ Dead Motherboard - Replace with XPEnology?

[Atreidae]

Hey all, first-time poster here, but after having a DS920+ that I reviewed over here ( https://www.ucmadscientist.com/replacing-my-windows-storage-server-with-a-nas/ )I decided to pickup a second-hand RS2414RP+ from r/homelabsales that had a faulty motherboard.

It screamed of the Atom C2000 bug and after having it shipped to me, I checked the bus with my oscilloscope and sure enough, a mess on Pin 6 on what appears to be the LPC connector.

I threw a 100ohm resistor on it between pin 1-6 and booted it up again and still no clock on pin 6, it's just being held high by the resistor.

After that, I pulled the board out gave it a good clean with IPA but after a stint of doing nothing (I thought I killed it), its back to its old tricks.

I'm tempted to build an XPEnology box to put in that chassis but I've a few questions.

 

I've got a spare 6700K on a h170N board that I'm looking at using.

 

• The Chassis comes with three SFF8083's to the front bays
  • Are the SFF8083's in the RackStation wired in a standard method? 
  • Or are they bespoke to Synology?
• Most HBAs with internal SFF8083's only have 2 ports and I only have 1 PCI slot
  • Any specific HBA's to look at / avoid? (I've seen a video that suggests adaptec ones are a pain)
  • I've seen "reverse breakout" cables. Does anyone have experience with these?
• Will the H170N run the bootloader OK?

Edited January 10, 2021 by Atreidae

[IG-88]

On 1/11/2021 at 12:22 AM, Atreidae said:

The Chassis comes with three SFF8083's to the front bays

that type is used in sfp+ modules (network)

have a close look and compare to this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI#Connectors

 

lets assume SFF-8087 for now

the board is ok, you could use the pcie 16x slot for a lsi sas controller with 2 x sff-8087

the 6 x sata onboard can also be used with a "reverse" cable

https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_83319/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en

 

 

On 1/11/2021 at 12:22 AM, Atreidae said:

Any specific HBA's to look at / avoid? (I've seen a video that suggests adaptec ones are a pain)

lsi sas is used by most, 9211-8i and oem adapters with the same chip, it needs to be flashed to IT mode

adaptec seemd to be a lot of trouble here, you can use the forum search, also and raid controller that does not support hba mode should be avoided and if its not lsi sas the you need to check here if a driver is available (and tested), also avoid lsis sas raid type controllers check if you can reflash it to IT mode or better buy one already in IT mode

 

there are some problems with the lsi sas in 918+ (used when hardware transcoding or m.2 nvme is needed)

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/28321-driver-extension-jun-103b104b-for-dsm623-for-918-3615xs-3617xs/

 

 

a more failsave choice can be ahci but the amount of controllers with 4+ count is limited and and some only use 2 lane pcie 2.0 and for like 8 ports that can be a little "thin"

 

a alternative could be using 3 x revers cable and a 6 port asm1166 based pcie controller

you get your 3 x 4 ports with the 6 onboard ports, the asm1166 supports pcie 3.0 so the 2 lanes it can use are not too bad (you board supports pcie 3.0)

 

if you dont need transcoding you can use  loader 1.03b 3617 and can be happy and safe with a lsi sas controller (having 8 pcie 2.0 lanes is good enough)

 

 

On 1/11/2021 at 12:22 AM, Atreidae said:

I've seen "reverse breakout" cables. Does anyone have experience with these?

 

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/38310-starthilfe-benötigt-asrock-j4105m-2x-4-fach-sata-controller-karten-werden-vom-biossystem-nicht-erkannt/?do=findComment&comment=186063

 

he used two of these cables

 

[Atreidae]

Hardware is in, just getting xpenolgy installed.

I've gotten the loader running, now I just need it to find my disks.

 

[Atreidae]

Formatted disks and everything appears okay. I'll throw up a quick thread for anyone interested