The MS-01 is a great platform for “small server” and “homelab” type use-cases. It is powerful (6 P-cores, 8 e-cores), up to 115w (~70w nominal it seems) but it is compact and can be adapted for a bunch of different use cases. It makes for an excellent learning/training platform for things like software defined storage, hyper convergence and other bleeding-edge technologies.
I’ve got an MS-01 with an A2000 and the cooler on the way. If you want I can answer questions or provide photos once everything is installed.
I can confirm that 48GiB DIMMs 5600 MT/s from Crucial do work for a total of 96GiB. However, they work at 5200 MT/s. SKU CT2K48G56C46S5
As for the M.2’s.
I have 3x Samsung PM9A3 1.92Tb 110mm. Because it has power loss protection, it’s a lot higher on the bottom than a normal M.2. Also, the 80mm standoffs cannot be removed. Or at least, I don’t know how. That prevents the screws from going in all the way in and that prevents the lid from closing with the fan bracket. I’ve found that removing the bracket, along with using one screw for the fan and using the provided heatsink over all three controllers, is enough to keep them cool.
I’d be super interested in hearing if the ConnectX cards work.
Mellanox MCX314A-BCCT 40Gb Ethernet 40GbE CX314A (I’m seeing these for <50 USD on ebay)
Apparently can run at 40/56GbE, but I’m curious if others have actually tested this. I’m very interested in building a 40/56 GbE mesh between 3 proxmox nodes using these.
I’d love to hear about ways to turn the PCIe expansion slot into a way to host 2-4 NVME. If I could get 5xU.2 somehow “in” this system (e.g. with a sidecar chassis) then this would meet a use case of doing erasure or parity based storage on the “edge” for me.
Liqid 4x m.2 Mux Driver
Did this work with 4xNVME connected?
I’m hoping minisforums comes out with a board similar to this, without the chassis.
Mellanox CX5 Dual 100gbe (MCX516A-CDAT)
Heat Load: High
Overheated?: Not w/ fan(s) (wants 400LFM (Passive))
Status: Works Great!
Dual 80mm USB fans blowing into the top holes, of the MS-01 case, was plenty for cooling down to 47C idle, no DAC cables plugged in. One fan is probably fine.
I changed it up a bit with a hole in the top and 140mm USB fan (you might have seen my post (140MM Blow Job) on another tech forum…). Runs at 55C - 57C fully populated with DAC and Ceph slapping it around.
Idles at 70C without DAC cables and no fans (not recommended).
I can confirm this. Without any extra active cooling, the ConnectX5 card shuts down due to thermal limits (115C). I temporarily got it stable by running without the case (103C).
FYI: 105C generates a warning, 115C the firmware shuts down the card and at 130C the hardware shuts down, according to the specs.
If you flip the MS-01 over, there’s a hidden 4-pin fan header next to the one used for the NVME blower fan. I’m going to try to jerryrig something to keep the card cool…
If I remember correctly - there is enough space in front of the heat sink - for a 10x40mm side blowing fan…
The real trick will be getting the connector on the fan header (I think you have to break some plastic (“rivets” on the back) to get the mobo out). Even then - what controls that fan header?
That’s why I went USB - always on when the power is.
I’m using USB for now, out the back through the ConnectX5 card and into a USB header. I’ll eventually convert this to run off the second M.2 fan header just as soon as I figure out what cable it uses. (FYI: That header is BIOS controlled).
Mellanox’s “mget_temp” reports 64C with 2 copper DAC cables plugged in. Totally fine!
