YouTube Video Review � Chenbro RM31616E2

We've just uploaded our latest YouTube video - a review of a Chenbro RM31616E2 server chassis based server solution for a customer of ours.

The chassis used was a Chenbro RM31616E2, which is a fantastic enterprise grade 3U chassis. It has 16x 3.5" hot-swap bays compatible with SATA and SAS hard drives. The backplane in this model (the E2 model) has a built-in Expander. This means you only need a single 4 port RAID controller rather than a costly 16 port model. The non-expander model is available on our site too though – the RM31616M2.

The motherboard used in the example was a Supermicro X9SCL-F running with a cost effective Intel Xeon E3-1220V2 CPU and 16GB RAM. This particular motherboard also support an i3 CPU. Although not pictured, all drive bays were populated with 16x 2TB Western Digital RED Drives, giving the customer 32TB of storage pre-RAID overhead. The RAID card used was an LSI 9260-4i SATA/SAS Controller. The customer opted for RAID 6 setup over all drives for maximum storage, performance and reliability.

Also fitted were 2x 320GB Western Digital 2.5" Scorpio Black drives, fitted on a special optional bracket that allows fitting of the drives above the CPU area. These drives were connected to the onboard RAID and are RAID 1 mirrored for the OS. Fitted in the chassis is our Chenbro R3G-6550W PSU, a 650W triple redundant PSU, allowing a PSU to fail and be easily hot-swapped with a replacement without any system disruption.

Also featured in the system is a Supermicro/AOC dual port 10G SFP+ network controller. The client is used an SFP+ to SFP+ cable for connecting this system to their existing core switch. Also installed is an Adaptec U320 SCSI controller, for use with their external tape library system.

All of the products seen in the video review are available on our site to purchase individually, however if you would like to talk with us about a custom server configuration please call us on 0800 652 1649 or email us on [email protected]

Check out the video here!