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45Drives just launched their HomeLab e-store. Crazy prices and nonsensical parts (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Man, I saw 800 for the case and thought it was not bad, honestly, with the backplane. This is not from China. It's from Canada and made in country. I'm not sure what people here expected. 400 dollars? 200 dollars? 800 for the Case, and the backplane is reasonable due to where it has been manufactured. Sure, you can get another case for 200 or 300 dollars or DIY your own, then do that. China is cheap. If I hadn't built another NAS already for a truenas server, I would pull the trigger on this.

Downvote away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Completely agree. I'm not sure why people expected the price to be competitive with retired enterprise gear from eBay. It's a premium product, made by a small company in Canada, for an extremely niche audience.

Personally, while I haven't ordered one myself, I'm glad there are more options available that aren't made out of riveted sheet metal and flimsy plastic.