I’m just curious to get other people’s thoughts on this since 45Drives just recently released their 15-bay rackmount case that’s supposed to be aimed toward the homelab community.
Some of the items being sold in the e-store don’t make sense to purchase, specifically the LSI 9600-16i HBA and the x540 10Gbe NIC.
Why would the top of the line LSI 9600-16i be offered (for $1.1k)? Wouldn’t the more reasonably priced 9400 series card make more sense? I guess this would be if you’re running NVME drives (which the 9400 can also do)? It just seems strange to offer the top of the line and not anything else. Especially when the HL15 is aimed at the homelab community.
Also, the intel x540 network adapter. We go from the most recent, top of the line LSI 9600-16i HBA to a network adapter that was released in 2012 (for which they’re still asking $400 for). Wouldn’t it make more sense to offer the x550, or better yet, the x710-T2L?
I also understand that companies need to make money but the profit margin on these add-ons and accessories seems extreme. For example, the Intel XL710-QDA2 40 gig NIC is being sold for $818 while at FS.com it’s being sold for $520. That’s a 57% markup for an already marked-up item.
Is the HL15 and accessories really geared toward homelabbers?
I’ve got this one too. Just wish I had gotten the hotswap version. Keep trying to find a way to convert it to hotswap for cheap, but haven’t found a good way yet.
I got the non-hotswap version of this chassis too. It’s a bit pricey but I grabbed two Athena Power BP-TLA3051SAC for 10 hotswap bays at SATA 6gb/s speeds. Then I grabbed an Athena Power BP-TLA3141SAS12 that gives me 4 hotswap bays at 12gb/s SAS. A bit pricey of a retrofit but very convenient with tool-less hotswap bays to work with. Plus I was able to justify it because I got the case secondhand for $50 haha
Yeah I’ve considered doing that, but I always got hung up on the price. I actually ended getting an r720xd at a public auction. Only holds 12 3.5 disks but it was like $80 so 🤷♂️.