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The need and aims of this project were already described in the Raspberry Pi Rack Server Mark I article.
After assembling and testing the Mark I, I found out that the Raspberry is not as hot as people say, and it is possible to increase the density of devices without any problems. But I also didn’t want to lose the ability to use fast and reliable storage on an SSD (compared to a microSD card).
This was a challenge.
I’m glad to introduce the Mark II, 2U Raspberrry Pi 4 server, 14 Raspberry Pi and 14 SSD disks Samsung T5 or:
- CPUs: 56 ARM64 cores
- RAM: 112 GB
- Storage: 7 TB (up to 28 TB per server)
The assembly is very similar to the Mark I, except that there are much more details. All the same tips are relevant:
- Anything that can be unscrewed should be fixed with a thread lock
- Make sure that the wires have no chance of getting into the fan blades
- Print one or two “blades” together and check how the parts fit together. It may be necessary to change the settings of the slicer. The details fit together with little or no additional processing.
Parts and materials for assembling the case:
- 2 coils Ultimaker Tough PLA Filament, Black – 46,90 € incl. VAT
- 1 coil Ultimaker Tough PLA Filament, White – 46,90 € incl. VAT
- Set of 5 fans Arctic F8 Value Pack, ACFAN0 0061 A – €17.60 incl. VAT
- Power supply for fans 12V2A 7Tipps – EUR 13.99 incl. VAT
- Screws, only M2 and a some M3 are needed, but the set is cheaper M2 M2.5 M3 Hex Socket Socket Screws DIN7991 304 Stainless Steel Hex Countersunk Screws 480pcs – EUR 17.01 incl. VAT
- Adapter with 1 to 6 fans. Cutting off the extra one turns out perfect for my purposes Lüfter Adapterkabel 3Pin auf 6x 3Pin Molex (6x15cm) – €4.40 incl. VAT
~ 248 EUR the price for the platform with fans, excluding the cost of printing and work
Hardware:
- 14 pcs. – Raspberry Pi 4 Modell B (8 GB RAM) – 81,90 € inkl. 19% MwSt.
- 14 pcs. – Raspberry Pi PoE HAT V1.01 – 20,90 € inkl. 19% MwSt.
- 14 pcs. – 500GB Samsung Portable T5 Series MU-PA500B/EU 2.5″ (6.4cm) USB 3.1 schwarz/silber – 89,80 € inkl. 19% MwSt.
- 14 pcs. – Raspberry Pi Kühlkörpersatz – 1,25 € inkl. 19% MwSt.
- 14 pcs. – SanDisk High Endurance Video Monitoring, White 32GB – EUR 10.99 incl. VAT
~ 2650 EUR the price of the platform (with 19% VAT)
The total cost of the entire server at the moment is about 2900 EUR excluding the cost of work and development. Which I think is a very good result when compared to the ARM platforms available on the market.
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You can download models for 3D printing here:
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Love this project! Do you have plans to post the files for printing? And did you go with the T7 ssd because of size constraints?
Thank you! Yes, hope this week. T7 is bad option, I checked. a bit slower, has some security features that raspberry can’t use, and 30% more expensive. I talked about this on my Instagram in stories)
Any lower priced options you would recommend for the ssd?
Compare to T5? From my point of view T5 is a great option price/speed/reliability. Maybe msata-usb adapter and any masata drive is cheaper alternative. I’ll use it in Arcade Machine.
Hola buen trabajo,
me encanta este tipo de proyectos, pensaste en usar discos ssd 2,5 son un poco mas económicos que los T5 de Samsung pero de tamaño son mayores y ya no entraría en 2U, fue esa una de las razones para no usar ese tipo de ssd?
Por cierto, ya tengo impreso casi todo para empezar a montar.
Yes, I thought about that. 2.5 inch ones were a little slower and needed to buy adapters for them. Questionable savings
Hi! It is an excellent project! However, I would like to know can I use the fan fix from MARK I with this? ( I won’t use ssd. )
Hi! sorry, missed your text.
I recommend you go over to MARK III instead )
Great project!
Here’s a little suggestion:
Looks like USB adapters (without housing) for M.2 SATA SSDs are an interesting option:
Around 4.5€ for the adapter and then 45€ for a 480GB M.2 SATA SSD (in total less than 50€).
Instead of paying 90€ per SSD with housing that is really not needed.
Also have you thought about putting more than one Raspberry Pi on each sled?
Hello! Thank you!
I have built MARK III and that is completely new level from my point of view 🙂
Now that you can boot your PI4 from USB (or network):
Will you drop the SD cards and switch to USB boot?
(Around 160€ less is not much considering the 2650€ for this beast. But SSD is far more reliable than SD.)
yes, we have already switched to start from usb and are working on start over the network (PXE server). Automation is important to us, so writing scripts and setting up a DHCP server takes a lot of time