Convert Supermicro Chassis from WIO to ATX?

My main ESXi server is based on the SuperChassis 826BA-R1K28WB

This is a WIO Form factor server. It looks like all of the rear of the chassis is screwed in though

Ideally, I want another SuperChassis 826BE1C-R920LPB chassis. It is standard ATX so much easier to upgrade

Has anyone ever swapped the parts over? I can’t seem to find where to source the parts

Of course as I post, I think I may have found the right part

MCP-240-82608-0N

The joys of proprietary stuff, always hunting for the fitting parts :slight_smile:

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Initially the WIO was fantastic, as I was able to fit a full sized GPU in there. Initially this chassis had 2 x E5-2680 V2’s which used even more power

Then, I got some free E5-2680 V4’s and 256GB of DDR4, so I went and bought a new board. I found one without the right hand riser slot, only the left. I figured it would be fine, as I’d never need more than 4 full size PCIE slots

At first I put just one CPU in there, threw in my 10G NIC and my PCIE SSD and I was great. Then I tried to add an HBA so I could use my tape library and I realized I had to have the second CPU in to use the top two PCIE slots. DAMN!

Since then I’ve added an HBA for a virtual TrueNAS setup, and backed myself into a situation where I have to have 2 CPU’s to use those slots!

Hopefully now I can fix that

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Good thing we got EPYC now on the table with (basically unlimited) IO. I’m not familar with that architecture, but if this is mainly for storage and IO, smaller and more efficient SKUs might do the trick (also should be beneficial to fan power/heat). Not sure whats on sale there, but 28 good old power hungry Xeon cores take their toll.

AMD isn’t advocating for performance/watt for no reason. But those E5-2680 are good stuff otherwise. And the system specs isn’t something I’d trash and replace with lots of additional money.

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Just remove the riser bracket and stick in an ATX board. You might need to dremel out the integrated IO shield depending on the board you install.



I use PCIe Cables to install cards.

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