Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

went looking around for a decent card reader, selection isn't what it used to be. It seems that nobody makes a decent reader anymore that isn't USB 3.0 (and has a front USB port)... I can get NOS Atech readers but they haven't gotten any cheaper... and all the other readers I saw were rebadged chinese garbage...

Cheapest I saw was $21 shipped for a used Atech XM-5U like I have in V3.5... I did see Pro-28u's (what V2.5 has) for $30 NOS but they were missing the correct cables I need (I don't feel like crimping up a bunch of new header cables). Sony also made a good internal reader but they're expensive for what they are (discontinued model).

Suggestions?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-MRW620-...item259824ec2c

Card reader issue fixed. I'll either toss that in or trade it for V.5's AFT XM-5U.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Coolers came in, the stud length is weird. No good.

Plan B (to be worked on tonight) is to cut off the ild fans from the intel fan assemblies (already done) and hot glue/bolt the fans from the other coolers onto the brackets, which can be re-clipped to the heatsinks. The stock heatsinks are good (soldered copper) and my beef was the fans. A hack, but hopefully a good successful hack.

My alternative would be to swap the studs, which I tried but would require countersinking the new heatsinks to a precise depth... I'm a good machinist but honestly that'sa bit more than I'd like to do here. likewise, I would also swap the screws and lathe down the new studs, but again, I'd rather not go there (the only lathe I have access to is a bit big for that, I need a mini-lathe to do what needs done).

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Mod complete, see pictures. I'll install them tonight after work.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Never uploaded the pics; they didn't turn out the best but I'll reshoot when my CPUs come in.

The card reader came it, it's a dodo. dead. try, try again!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Bought some more hardware:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121472145837...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141289522992...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

for now at least I'll run it with the two 160GB drives in RAID stripe... But if I ever come across some retired 10K SATA drives, oh the fun will begin (even if I have to grab an 8 port 9500 to make it work )... yes, I know, quit dreaming.

For the card reader, try 2, I'd like some thoughts/suggestions. The only Atech ones like I'm looking for are $80 for a lot of 5 shipped (I'd do $20 for one in a flash but I don't have $80 to drop on a ton of readers)... The sony was a fail due to cable length (and even when swapped for an atech with a long enough cable, in the donor rig the sony was DOA).

I've seen stuff like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-3-5-...item35c294b152

which is nice but due to the low price and the general look appears to be a POS. not to mention I bet the cable is too short... Not like Atech who is generous with thier cable lengths (they IMHO make the best internal card readers hands down).

If this had both header cables I'd rock it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=251548396323

V2.5 has a silver one which kicks ass. Asked the seller to confirm that only one of them is present

Suggestions?

edit- if the latter doesn't have the cables, I could always toss a shell and crimps in my next personal digikey order and make my own from some cheapo cables. I could use such to maybe talk the price down (best offer).

edit2- while I am at it I could make my own 8 connection SATA adapter for the HDDs... I could really have some fun with this rig (more industrial than V3.5 but maybe not as fast per se).

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

did the processors not make it today!?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

did the processors not make it today!?

Yes but I haven't been home since saturday night.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Correction:

make that a PNY Geforce 9800 PE 1GB... a BCN buddy who shall be nameless (unless he reveals himself) found one in his junk pile... looking at the passmark benchmarks, it's night and day (726 vs 290, but the 726 may be the slightly faster non-PE version).

Looks like to keep things competitive V3.5 will get a pair of 9600's at xmas (or something similar that SLI's well and draws a similar amount of power from the PCIe power jacks).

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Another note... If I can get away with it, I'm going to put the 9550 in V3.5 and pull it's 9500 and use it here... if either rig needs the RAID performance, it's V3.5 (although it's drives are still only 1.5G, not the 3.0G the 9550 supports).

[goontron]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

huh, i just sold that same model out of my bits stack today too

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Ended up getting the Pro-28 for $20... but I will need to make new cables.

What I'll do is buy a shell and pins from digikey and mod some external cables (as that's what it uses). That way I have a nice LONG set of cables.

---

Tried out the CPUs, they work alright...

Also tried running V3.5's 3ware card... that works and all but to use it long term I'll have to make an adapter to move out the HDD LED. I may use it as a oppertunity to try out my college's PCB router...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

whipped up some PCB design files, it's a 1" by 1" board. see attached files.

I also added a jumpered breakout for the NIC2 LED, which on this board is unused. I had the space, so why not?

AFAIK the only thing SM makes that does this is a breakout header (like my other SM case came with) which is good for non-SM boards (lets you use any pinout) but for this is kinda dorky and lame. sure I could have made one of those with all the mobo ones on a header with hanging leads (like I did with V2.5) but IMHO that would have been a major pain to make up...

this, on the other hand I can make since I happen to have PCB router access right now... and single sided material is both cheap and readily avaible (I bet I could make it from some scrap)... and if I have to buy my own, If anybody wants one (obviously no silkscreen or solder mask), I'd be willing to make a few/bunch from the sheet.

BOM: (all are 0.1" pitch)

1x 90 degree male 8x2 header
1x 90 degree female 8x2 header
2x 2x3 male header
2x 1x2 male header
4x jumper


8x2 placement:

The female header side goes on bottom, the male to the top. The current orientation (for most/all SM boards) places the connections towards the front of the case for cleaner wire routing (in my case through the midplane and back)...

I kinda wanted to do it the other way around (back facing) but once I realized my error to me it wasn't worth the effort to redo it (if it bugs me, I could always mirror the copper/drill layers since I'm not doing silkscreen). But as I stated, it isn't a complete fail and from an "out of the way" cable point of view it's a a win... at the very least it's less likely to get in the way of RAM and the like.

Thoughts? Comments? Am I as crazy as I feel ?

PS- the .zip has SVG files... which I wish were allowed attachments... could that be added, Topcat? (as SVG vector image files are pretty common).

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Talked with a professor, they say the board is perfect for doing a tesslation test on the PCB router (which has been restored and is being tested). That means I get as many of these as they can fit on a US letter sized piece of single sided PCB as a "payment" for going through the trouble.

I did make a minor tweak to the design, cutting the corners (to make it a little more "interesting" than a square, and ensure decent clearance.

What to do with all of these? I've already asked one person who I know may want one... but if you have an SM board in an SM case with a RAID card, let me know and I'll mail you a board (if the deal works out, which they want sooner rather than later).

Edit- They're going to try it tomorrow. Here goes nothing... I better order parts.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

PS- the .zip has SVG files... which I wish were allowed attachments... could that be added, Topcat? (as SVG vector image files are pretty common).

Try now.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Updated files attached (if anybody want's the KICAD/gerber files, let me know and I'll post 'em)

Here's a simation of what it will look like:



Only w/o silkscreen and the copper on the back of the board (mirror image).

Ordered the connectors, I was going to build up three of these but due to finances at this time (between paychecks, grr) I only ordered parts for one.

I will also note that in this configuration, shrouded keyed connectors DO work for the ribbon cable connection... had I gone with the original layout, the key would have been on the board side with AFAIK nobody makes a 90 degree connector for (although a straight could have been used in such case; the cable will flex obviously).

Cool hack or lame gimmick?

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

made 4 of the boards tonight; 3 turned out and one of the three is on loan as a sample.

Until the machine is more figured out, I'm not making any more... but to the one who was promised a few, you will get one of the three.

(PSST: T-tech PCB routing machines SUCK. thier software is a $1000+ POS as we've found. Finicky as hell).

Once parts come in and I have soldering access I'll build one up (monday or tuesday most likely)

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

lost one of the boards this weekend. IDK how... but I still have two good ones, so I'm alive.

I made up the 8 port SATA to molex adapter:






Something interesting:

V3.5's novabench from awhile back:



Here's what this rig is getting:



Clearly two SLI'd 8600's isn't cutting it in the other rig... I'll have to see what I can get over xmas to beef it back up, but that' for that rig's thread.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

cpu went down, but thats expected from an older xeon

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

while swapping RAID cards (since V3.5 has no floppy and I needed to flash firmware) the arrya took a shit and won't reconize itself... no biggie as I barely had anything setup.

Reinstalled 7 (barely), and while I was at it I cloned and tweaked over the arch linux x64 install from my Asus X83V... both use nvidia 9 series chips, so it was the best system to clone from (as my D630's install is kinda wonky and all my other x64 installs are intel gpu'd).

(posting from said arch install)