15min with a sharpie, a drill and tap says any 2U case fits as many ITX systems as you can physically fit in the space. Then probably 2-3 hours working out the wiring so the redundant psu's power them all.
Why bother with multiple motherboards when you can just have 1 and many VM's?
Those thingiverse models are for the clip that holds the plug into the socket, not the plug itself.
If you just need the clip then those should work fine, if the plug is actually broken then you'll need a new plug and crimp tool.
WiFi extenders have to be placed where the WiFi is still good, unless you're running a cable from the extender to the router. People putting it where the WiFi is bad and expecting it to connect, over WiFi, and provide good results just confuse me.
Powerline could help, but anytime the fridge turns on or the microwave or TV or any number of things they'll knock it out.
Yeah, specs say 4 SAS ports only through the external connector and 4 internal SATA ports. The external SAS port can be used for SAS or SATA, the internal SATA ports are SATA only.
The external connector assumes you're using external enclosures. If you want to you can loop it back inside the case but it'll require the case to have up to 8 SATA power connectors which is slightly unusual (assuming you're using the internal SATA connectors as well).
I'd have to read the documentation more for that board.
SAS drives can only connect to SAS controllers, SATA drives can connect to SATA or to SAS controllers but SAS drives cannot connect to SATA controllers.
If the 4 SATA ports goto a SAS controller then you could have 8 SAS drives connected at 6gbps or 4 connected "dual channel" at 12gbps or 8 SATA drives at 6gbps.
SAS is an extension on SATA. You can connect 4 SATA drives to most SAS ports or 2 12gbps SAS drives. You can't connect a SAS drive to a SATA port.
J12 needs a mini-SAS breakout cable and each drive requires a PSU. J5-8 are already SATA ports. 8 total SATA drives or 4 SAS + 4 SATA drives are supported by the ports given.
Some Dell servers require HDD/SSDs with Dell firmware locking you to their ecosystem. No idea about workarounds but I assume they exist when the factory warranty doesn't matter anymore.
TechRadar: MDD - which is a white label brand owned by Goharddrive - sources stocks of what looks like new but EOL (end of line) hard disk drives.
Likely safe to use, but expect a lot of "not as advertised" for everything from speed to longevity.
Wireless backhaul works fine if you put the extenders in place before the WiFi turns to trash (roughly neg 60-70db).
Pretty much everything plugged into the outlets bothers Powerline. Refrigerators, microwaves, ovens are probably the worst. Even using outlets on different breakers bothers it.