Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

did the processors not make it today!?

[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).

[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

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

[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

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

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

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.

[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.

[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.

[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....

[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

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

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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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

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)

[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.