Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

[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).

[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

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

[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

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

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

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

Now that I think about it, I have seen some boards with both DDR1 and DDR2 slots on it.....had to really think back on that....but yea. There weren't a lot of them.

That german one is no longer for sale.... That is the same model I mentioned in another thread last week, only us based one, the bozo wanted $599 for it. I emailed him, and he never responded.

[shovenose]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I've seen boards that have DDR and DDR2, and also AGP and PCI-Express. They've all been broken/dead though.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I've never seen it....and I've seena lot of boards over the last 12 years....but I have seen old socket7 boards with SIMM and DIMM slots on the same board, so certainly not impossible.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Interesting for sure.....but quite bizarre....

nope, this is actually pretty common. Later C2D chipsets were like this (such as in my Asus x83v), as they could do both DDR2 and DDR3 (mine did DDR2). Some desktop boards for the budget market (ECS and ASROCK) actually had both on board, as an upgrade path (the latter did the same with AGP and PCIe 16x).

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

The tumwater chipset supports both, and SM made boards with the chipset both ways.

Interesting for sure.....but quite bizarre....

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I havent read the manuals, but different RAM on the same basic board & chipset seems a wee bit erroneous. Memory type is a factor determined by what the chipset supports rather than a simple board revision. Makes zero sense.

that one in Germany....tempting...

The tumwater chipset supports both, and SM made boards with the chipset both ways.

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

I havent read the manuals, but different RAM on the same basic board & chipset seems a wee bit erroneous. Memory type is a factor determined by what the chipset supports rather than a simple board revision. Makes zero sense.

that one in Germany....tempting...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

It gets weirder... according to the manual, the G2 models in addition to two LANs also are the only ones with DDR2... the G's do use DDR1. Damn Supermicro made this confusing... like mid 90's Mac models...

edit- looks like 2 LANs in the grainy picture, look by the parallel port. 1 would be shorter.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Took a closer look, it's an X6DAE-G2 (as it had 2 LANs as per the seller's description). No Paxville support. Bummer!

(oddly they did make an SLI compatible version too... but it used DDR1 and was the crappy PCIe 8x version of SLI, not the full 16x SLI my K8WE has).

edit- here's one that will do paxville, for not too much $$: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-X...item2596c8cf84

(even after shipping from germany, that's not bad at all)

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Nope, it appears Supermicro made X6DA3's and other models for paxville. The boards look the same though, so it's possible that I did get one. I won't know until I have the system in front of me.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...8501/X6QT8.cfm

That will support tulsa processors.....the only one I've seen. I think there's some obscure Tyan that does as well, but I could not locate it.

Figures. Looks like my K8WE is still the better platform (but both systems will be nice).

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...8501/X6QT8.cfm

That will support tulsa processors.....the only one I've seen. I think there's some obscure Tyan that does as well, but I could not locate it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main Rig V4.1

Ok, I won't go there then.