A long time ago, in 2017, I bought a Supermicro U2 case SC825TQ-R720LPB. The idea was to build a NAS for home use, mainly storage, and then I didn’t do anything with it, it’s the only component I bought for the project. Now I’m thinking of resurrecting that project and I’m looking for the best motherboard that I can use with that case. Reading about my case on Supermicro, I’m thinking of the X11SSM: 8 SATA ports, ECC memory. No NVME support, though, if I’m reading the specs correctly.
What do you think?
Thanks for your comments!
First of all, welcome to the forums.
I think you can purchase a decent used X11SSM-F-O with 64 GB ECC RAM and a decent CPU for a fair price. I wish you lived in my neck of the woods, but I don’t think you do, as I just listed one for sale, my old main TrueNAS system which I replaced with an all NVMe system, before the prices started going crazy. The X11SSM-F-O system is great for NAS use with a few VM’s and Apps, and is a solid performer. I use to run ESXi and TrueNAS on top of ESXi and I still ran several other VMs as well, no issues. Then I ran TrueNAS on bare metal and it worked very well. I still would not personally use it as a Type 1 Hypervisor but it is getting a lot better.
I would not purchase this kind of system if you are looking to do high-end kind of stuff. Then I’d say find a new processor and server motherboard, lots of ECC RAM.
Just in-case you were wondering, I prefer to sell to someone in-person so we can both watch the system operate before an exchange of money occurs. This way if the purchaser takes it home and then starts to complain that something isn’t working, well it worked fine before. And I’m willing to perform any reasonable test asked in-person. I’m only trying to protect myself and my reputation.
What I cannot tell you is if the X11SSM will fit properly into the case you listed. I have no experience with it so I will not tell you it will or won’t work.
Thanks for the welcome and the info you provided. My starting point is Supermicro page for the enclosure I purchased. Towards the bottom of that page they have a section for motherboards. I’m not sure why nothing newer than X11 is listed there. Is it because they stopped updating the page or is it because other things changed with newer motherboards and my box is not compatible?
Thanks for pointing out the X11SSM-F version of the X11SSM. The main difference seems to be support for IPMI. I had not noticed that.
