Hi, I got a Dell T630 for cheep ($300) but I run in to trouble with everything I want to do.
It has 32 2.5" bays, I want to remove the top 16 to put in an icy dock 3.5" drives instead (2.5" are to expensive per TB) and maybe a gpu later.
- SAS cable is run through top module to bottom so cables is to short, can be found on ebay for $50… the top module is the 5.25" bays, not the bottom one.
- Has no SATA Power, GPU module available for $70, but cant find breakout from GPU 8 pin to SATA power. Or grab power from a PCI slot… Dell backplane has a white square contact for power.
- Install a GPU for passthrou, has no GPU power, have to buy GPU power module.
btw GPU power module requires motherboard removal…
Is this just a hassle to work with or is idrac and a ton of PCI slots worth it?
Still unsure if the Perc controler will pass throu disk ok to for ZFS so maybe need a new hba as well. And 10gbe in the future.
I usually work with servers but then I keep in spec and its a hassle going off the specs with these type of servers 
Any good ides?