Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

She's in... but due to work today I didn't have time for pics.

But here's what I know:

-the RAM I ordered is USELESS. It's the G model, the "2 LANs" they referred to are pissant D-link cards. Good thing I still have 8GB DDR sitting.

-the front door was included but the bottom hinge on the case was broken... oh well...

-There are two newer looking SATA hdds installed.

-Lots of weird PSU adapters by the drives. IDK WTF they were thinking...

-The floppy is for show, no cable

-The coolers sorta suck, No PWM. Looks like it was made for the HP coolers I modded for V2, so I may see about getting two more of those for cheap:
http://www.hypermicro.com/ProductDes...697-003&key=it

I'll check to make sure they fit first... but the mounts used in this sytem are "through the board" like those, not "on the board" like the X5DA_ systems

-Some jackass stole the rear fans and swapped them for non-PWM yate loons. I'm going to see about getting replacements from SM (along with the one broken PCI latch)

-I can't find intenal USB header #2... I thought i read that these had 4 internal ports. Oh well, I may throw in my mitsumi floppy card reader combo and use an NEC USB card.

-it has a Small business server 2003 COA, if anybody wants it.

-I have no idea on getting the PCIe to unlatch.. same for removing the drives/caddies.


More (and pics) late tonight, after work. In the mean time, anybody have a use for 16GB of ECC DDR2?

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

SHIPPED: Supermicro X6DAI-G2 Server Mainboard

The first thing you'll hate about that case is the racket it makes.... I've build a couple of those cases as servers....even with the fan controller idling everything, it still made a lot of noise.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

SHIPPED: Supermicro X6DAI-G2 Server Mainboard

The first thing you'll hate about that case is the racket it makes.... I've build a couple of those cases as servers....even with the fan controller idling everything, it still made a lot of noise.

I know, I've been in your office before. All those 80 mm fans...

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I know, I've been in your office before. All those 80 mm fans...

With a good fan controller, they're pretty quiet, really not much louder than any off the shelf workstation. The server cases are even worse, they have higher RPM fans, our workstation cases aren't near as bad.....but disable the fan controlller.......wind tunnel and sounds like a jet engine!!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

They're all ppm as is the mobo... it was designed to be quiet as per the manual.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

No pics, been too busy.

However, these I know:

-the rear fans were never included, as part of the "superquiet workstation" configuration.
-The system runs
-The PSU fan is always on (everell's dream?)
-The two HDD's are dell-badged WD RE 160GB... 7200RPM
-I found the 2nd USB header, it's hidden below the uppermost PCI slot
-The GPU is an MSI nvidia of some sort; ATM majaro is downloading so I can lspci and find out
- The CPUs are 2.8 GHz... I'll want to upgrade that...

TC, I know what you mean about the fans... ouch! It's better with the 4 pin workstation option.

The coolers work and all... but they are LOUD and being intel there is no switching them... I pulled them, it looks like the HP ones I linked are a direct swap (faster fans, but they're PWM).

Suggestions?

edit- yay, post #13,000!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

The GPU is an Nvidia 7300LE.

Found out the onboard RAID isn't 7 friendly... but I may try again. In the mean time I'll nlite an XP impage with a known good driver so I can at least get XP on for my 7 to activate (I'm using an upgrade copy, since the last time I SLIC'd an SM it was a complete failure and killed the board).

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

No pics, been too busy.

However, these I know:

-the rear fans were never included, as part of the "superquiet workstation" configuration.
-The system runs
-The PSU fan is always on (everell's dream?)
-The two HDD's are dell-badged WD RE 160GB... 7200RPM
-I found the 2nd USB header, it's hidden below the uppermost PCI slot
-The GPU is an MSI nvidia of some sort; ATM majaro is downloading so I can lspci and find out
- The CPUs are 2.8 GHz... I'll want to upgrade that...

TC, I know what you mean about the fans... ouch! It's better with the 4 pin workstation option.

The coolers work and all... but they are LOUD and being intel there is no switching them... I pulled them, it looks like the HP ones I linked are a direct swap (faster fans, but they're PWM).

Suggestions?

edit- yay, post #13,000!

Yea, I had a hunch you'd want to change those fans.... What PSU is in that? Is it a single or a redundant? The 865W singles I have, even when the system is powered off, the PSU fans run at low speed.

As for CPU, are you feeling lucky with a paxville gamble? Otherwise, its a single core @ what, 3.4GHz? I think the nocoma/irwindale went up to 3.8GHz, but I've never seen one. I'll have to look through my xeon collection, I think I have some 3.2's around here somewhere.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

645W single.

I'll see what I can grab on ebay... but if you do have something better, I'm up for trades (as I'm gonna put that 16GB of RAM on FS in a bit)

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

got 7 on it, won't activate (probably due to me not setting the CMOS clock until midway).

CPU-Z says I have a pair of 2.8GHz Nocona's (no shit given how old the BIOS was, it was many updates out)... Irwindales here I come (not checking paxville as the making of a new mobo tells me it isn't supported on this).

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Still bitched about activation... had to call it in. Turns out my K8WE was still being shown as tied to the key, as it's since been SLIC'd and the certification/key swapped, which freed up this copy.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

The only activations I ever do are for customers.....otherwise, its never necessary with 7. My S2K8 is a VLK, it always activates online no matter what....I've got it on probably 6 systems right now.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I checked my Xeon pair I had....the 3.2's I now remember I stuck in a precision670 and traded them away years ago. I had another pair that I completely forgot about.....the forgotten score!! Matching pair of 3.6GHz Irwindale engineering samples (unlocked multiplier)!! These are the 2mb L2 cache versions. hmmm...not sure if I want to part with these or not....oddballs for sure. I tested them in my precision 470. Is that 16gb of DDR2 ECC you're selling all matching sticks? Are they 1-rank or 2-rank? What chips are they?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Yup, I'll check when I get home tonight.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I'll keep my fingers crossed that they are 1 rank. The 7525 chipset is bitchy about all slots populated with 2 rank

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

It's 2 Rank.

They're Nanya HP pulls.

edit- does this make my RAM junk?

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

It's 2 Rank.

They're Nanya HP pulls.

edit- does this make my RAM junk?

Not junk, just limits compatibility with some chipsets, unfortunately including the 7525....

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Here's the CPU-ID screenshot of these CPU's... I put some different (less but 1-rank) memory in this old tub of a Dell, and it hasn't been bitching memory codes at me....this board/chipset really hates 2-rank DIMM's.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Here's the CPU-ID screenshot of these CPU's... I put some different (less but 1-rank) memory in this old tub of a Dell, and it hasn't been bitching memory codes at me....this board/chipset really hates 2-rank DIMM's.

Sounds more like a DIMM slot that has poor contact. I have finicky DDR 2 DIMM slots on a 2008 Dell Inspiron 530 S. (LGA 775)

When it bitches a RAM code, I must reseat the RAM and try again. And just moving the PC case can cause the motherboard BIOS to bitch a RAM code!!
(At least if the motherboard flexes)

Sometimes, it won't even bleep, instead, I just get "turbo fan syndrome", which lets me know that I must reseat the RAM again!

For the same PC that I worked on in August, 2011, I believe I found the real problem, I highly doubt it's the northbridge.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Picture time... (bless my mess, I've barely had time to clear a spot for the beast + 2 LCD's)

An overview in my current setup:



The upper bay is empty but I plan to add a card reader there. More on that later. The middle is the DVD Burner out of V2.5, which was swapped for a similar but uglier HP burner I had (I've scored a few lightscribe PATA burners lately). The lower is an all-handy floppy drive... because why not... and for some reason it booted slow/inconsistently with two PATA optical drives.

The COA:



I blurred the codes, but that's what I have codes for. Not that I'll use any of them, but if somebody else cares, let me know.

Inside the case:



I swapped GPUs as it was easier to toss in a crap Quadro FX 1400 than it was to swap cables on one of my LCDs. I do have different (HP pulled foxconn) coolers on the way (I managed to break one of the fans, so that sealed it long term). I also have some Irwindale CPUs on the way, but I won't elaborate on them until I have them.

Yeah, it has some broken card clips... Anybody know if I can order replacements?

And yes, I know the wiring needs cleaned up... once the parts are more finalized I'll get zip tying.

The two 160GB HDDs:



Right now I have 7 on one and nothing on the other since intel/MS didn't make a win7 driver for the ICH5r's raid function... While I'd love to run a massive 10K array with a 3ware card, it's not economically feasible. Suggestions for a better (and somewhat low cost) setup? I do have space for 8 drives.

PSU info:



I looked inside the PSU last week, it's beefy. What's unfortunates is the lack of plugs, as I only have 3 non-motherboard strands. One is the only one long enough for the DVD drive (2 molex), one is for the FDD and HDDs (2 molex and a Berg, with a 2 port SATA adapter), and the last is hanging for a PCI-e adapter. I know one is suppossed to use two strands for said adapter, but what am I supposed to do here?

The back:



---

Card reader wise, I'll probably go with another AFT 3.5" of some sort (tried and trued), since every 5.25" reader I've seen is either USB 3.0, has fan controllers or the like (BS I don't need), or is a cheesy POS. That being said, I'm all ears for suggestions.

Otherwise, suggestions on the PSU situation, the HDD situation, and/or GPU upgrades is appreciated.