The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

[Topcat]

Two towers bathed and ready for some goodness that involves a couple cheap score Supermicro workstation boards. One is a X7DWA-N, the other is an X8DTI-F.

This thread is a double build log for the two...



More later.

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Gee, isn't everybody building workstations around here it seems*!

Looking forward to the build pics...

*I'm guilty as charged too, I'll be up to two supermicro builds and a tyan by the middle of next week

[goontron]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Gee, isn't everybody building workstations around here it seems*!

Looking forward to the build pics...

*I'm guilty as charged too, I'll be up to two supermicro builds and a tyan by the middle of next week

yep, even im at it! its just that time in the world where all us geeks instinctively upgrade.

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Ok, may have to add a third tower to this.....but for now, I'll just give the cliffs notes, as I'm still in the parts collecting stage and preparation.

The reason for the possible 3rd case....pair of paxville's and 12gb RAM...


I'll just give the cliff's notes on the case modding...this is mod 1, as this case was bought from a member here about 10 years ago, its a 90's chenming case back when everyone thought that if you didn't have 8 HDD's in your system that your system sucked....well that isn't needed today.... The cages didn't interfere with the motherboard, but they did get in the way...

The trays in question that the cages latch into...


Pop rivets drilled out:


Trays removed... If I ever needed to replace the trays, I could simply pop rivet them back in. Nothing was permanently altered with this mod.


...and trays gone, and case washed.


For a HDD, I'm probably doing a single SSD, as this system will be a workstation. All critical data will be stored on a server elsewhere on the network, so it will be mounted in a 5.25" bay holder with a fan.


Ok, now for mod 2. I've had e-ATX boards in this case before, but this one didn't want to line up right, as the 8-pin ATX connecter was hitting the case, making the standoff's unalign to the board by about 1/16"

This was a bit much for a dremel, this case is very thick gauge steel, it'd have eaten wheels like crazy, so I used my pneumatic angle grinder with a man size cutoff wheel in it.

Section cut out.


Test Fit:


Connecting the PSU (A special thanks to Ratdude for this PSU)


Motherboard fitment perfection!




More to come later....

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

You're welcome... I had NO use for the PSU so I'm glad you have a use for it.

I've cut that thick steel with a dremel, that much properly done would take one thick wheel at most. But an angle grinder works too.

I have a near clone of one of those cases, but she's beat to hell and IMHO since mine has a fan vent behind the HDD caddy this mod wouldn't have worked nearly as well.

[JuniperSprouts]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

That big black full tower looks great!

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Today's setback...scored a pair of X5660 6-core Xeons....one was bad... Second bad Xeon I've ever seen in 20+ years in the field. Bummer. Ohh well, only about a week or so setback, I'm sure they'll warranty it.

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

the bad CPU was replaced for the X8 and I scored 32gb of FB memory for the X7 for 75 bucks shipped!! I put the 32gb in my office machine (same motherboard), and took its 16gb for use in this one. Still need to grab some DDR3....

[Uranium-235]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

give the 771 to larry so he can finally have a properly working problem free workstation :P

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

give the 771 to larry so he can finally have a properly working problem free workstation :P

And what bug crawled up your ass this time?

[Uranium-235]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

i'm just kidding

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

A strange box showed up from Germany today, containing a Supermicro X6DAI-G2 in new condition. After the currency conversion, the board cost me about $65 shipped....which was a MEGA steal!! They're near impossible to find, and to score one that cheap in new condition, yea!! Thanks Larry!! I tested it, it does work. I also scored 16gb of 2-rank 4gb sticks for it for $44 shipped (I LOVE how cheap FB/ECC/REG memory is these days). The 4gb DIMM size is 'unofficially' supported for this chipset, but I've seen lots of guys do it in their precision 470/670's (same intel 7525 chipset) with no issue. This chipset can only run 8 ranks of memory no matter what, how you populate it is up to you....but anything more than 8 ranks will not be seen.

I ordered some Dynatron copper heatsink/fans for these, as the Dell ones are typical proprietary sillyness. I gave RD my aluminum ones, as I don't think they'd be adequate with dual core processors.

Anyway, this project continues...



Shows 8 CPU's, thats 4 cores + HT.




More later.

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

^ You're welcome.

Also, what coolers? I don't recall receiving any... Unless you mean the X5DAL ones, which are completely different (old board-mount style, not the newer chassis-mount through-board style).

Glad its working for you, better than my fails lately (bad USB ports, IRQ conflict bull puckey, etc.).

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

^ You're welcome.

Also, what coolers? I don't recall receiving any... Unless you mean the X5DAL ones, which are completely different (old board-mount style, not the newer chassis-mount through-board style).

Glad its working for you, better than my fails lately (bad USB ports, IRQ conflict bull puckey, etc.).

yup, those would be the ones. The chassis mount ones require a case new enough to support them/designed for that specific board....don't think any of this relic hardware qualifies....

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

yup, those would be the ones. The chassis mount ones require a case new enough to support them/designed for that specific board....don't think any of this relic hardware qualifies....

Nope, the X6DAE/DA8 uses the chassis mount kind... IIRC your board in question does too?

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Nope, the X6DAE/DA8 uses the chassis mount kind... IIRC your board in question does too?

It can be used with either. The SM board mount backplates I have leftover from other builds fit it.

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Well, they're brethin's now... FYI, they did have some copper in them too. One fad had a bad bearing but otherwise IMHO for that they were used with (gallatins), they're fine coolers.

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

Well, they're brethin's now... FYI, they did have some copper in them too. One fad had a bad bearing but otherwise IMHO for that they were used with (gallatins), they're fine coolers.

I never took them off the processors....the bases could have been copper. They were quite noisy....both could have used new fans, or for the adventurous, the fans disassembled and packed with grease.

[ratdude747]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

^ the ball bearing was rattling...

The center fins/base were copper... the outside ones were aluminum.

[Topcat]

Re: The Tale of Two Towers - TC's Supermicro Shenanigans

The memory came today, sure enough, sees all 16gb....like I said, unofficial support for 4gb sticks.

The 2gb sticks I have are just garbage modules....they gave me trouble in this board like they gave me fits in the precision 470. They're bound for the trash. No-name chips on those modules, I should have known better. The old precision 470 is probably fine....but I'm done fooling with it, and will pursue the SM build, far better platform.