Guess what? It's ratdude main rig build time again!
This one is special, for a couple reasons.
First, Main rig V3.5 died (VRM cooked, see post #196 of it's thread) and I more or less have a hollow shell of a kickass workstation sitting.
Second, topcat is, by a lucky coincidence, giving me a new (to me) board + RAM + CPUs to play with, and this is what will form V5.0. However, revealing where it's coming from (how Topcat got it) would reveal some stuff Topcat hasn't gotten to posting, so I'll let that be topcat's story to tell.
Here's what I will post about the board: (just enough to make the rest of this OP make sense, plus what topcat has already posted himself)
So, in addition to a new board+RAM+CPUs, there will be some more changes:
-No SLI means no real point in running twin GPUs. This board also uses more power, so unless I swap PSUs, that's not a good combination. So, for now, I'll be running a single Geforce 250GTS although I will be looking for better GPU. That said, if you have a somewhat newer (geforce 200 or newer, AMD equivalents are also fair game) higher-end GPU you want to sell, shoot me a PM; I have a real job now so I'm not super cash-strapped (although I'm not blowing $$$$ on this obviously).
-That leaves me with a free x16 PCIe slot... what to do there? Well, a cheap and simple upgrade is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252356891045
I don't have drives fast enough to warrant a higher end card, although I have the option to.
FWIW I did look at the supermicro UIO RAID cards but the price of admission is high and nothing had a BBU (they made them but nobody's selling them). Not to mention I like 3ware better than adaptec.
-I need some coolers... and found these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816101288
They use 80mm fans and if my temps stay low enough I might be able to swap in some Arctic Cooling CO fans to quiet it down a bit. I'll have to see.
It's a good thing I'm running a SM case, as otherwise I'd have to get different (read: pricier) coolers. This one has the mount holes already punched and tapped, so I'm in good shape to run them. Speaking of SM case and board combos:
-SM makes their cases so if you use their boards (like in a barebones), you can plug the ribbon cable for the lights and switches right in. Which is no good for RAID cards. Once upon a time I fixed that issue on another rig:
However, that board was the only one of it's batch to turn out as anything decent. Not to mention it was made as a PCB mill test and one can get PCBs made super cheap these days. So, I took a night to redesign that a bit:
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/zszsAHZa
It's a board that allows one to at the flip of a switch redirect the HDD and NIC2 lights to something other than the motherboard.
I have the parts already but the boards have yet to come in, so no actual pictures.
I eventually plan to get better hard drives too, but that will wait. For now, this is as far as I'll go.
Look like a plan for a decent rig?
This one is special, for a couple reasons.
First, Main rig V3.5 died (VRM cooked, see post #196 of it's thread) and I more or less have a hollow shell of a kickass workstation sitting.
Second, topcat is, by a lucky coincidence, giving me a new (to me) board + RAM + CPUs to play with, and this is what will form V5.0. However, revealing where it's coming from (how Topcat got it) would reveal some stuff Topcat hasn't gotten to posting, so I'll let that be topcat's story to tell.
Here's what I will post about the board: (just enough to make the rest of this OP make sense, plus what topcat has already posted himself)
- It's EATX and made by supermicro
- It's socket 771 with twin quad cores, no coolers included
- It has 32GB of RAM
- It has twin PCI X16 slots, but no SLI
So, in addition to a new board+RAM+CPUs, there will be some more changes:
-No SLI means no real point in running twin GPUs. This board also uses more power, so unless I swap PSUs, that's not a good combination. So, for now, I'll be running a single Geforce 250GTS although I will be looking for better GPU. That said, if you have a somewhat newer (geforce 200 or newer, AMD equivalents are also fair game) higher-end GPU you want to sell, shoot me a PM; I have a real job now so I'm not super cash-strapped (although I'm not blowing $$$$ on this obviously).
-That leaves me with a free x16 PCIe slot... what to do there? Well, a cheap and simple upgrade is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252356891045
I don't have drives fast enough to warrant a higher end card, although I have the option to.
FWIW I did look at the supermicro UIO RAID cards but the price of admission is high and nothing had a BBU (they made them but nobody's selling them). Not to mention I like 3ware better than adaptec.
-I need some coolers... and found these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816101288
They use 80mm fans and if my temps stay low enough I might be able to swap in some Arctic Cooling CO fans to quiet it down a bit. I'll have to see.
It's a good thing I'm running a SM case, as otherwise I'd have to get different (read: pricier) coolers. This one has the mount holes already punched and tapped, so I'm in good shape to run them. Speaking of SM case and board combos:
-SM makes their cases so if you use their boards (like in a barebones), you can plug the ribbon cable for the lights and switches right in. Which is no good for RAID cards. Once upon a time I fixed that issue on another rig:
However, that board was the only one of it's batch to turn out as anything decent. Not to mention it was made as a PCB mill test and one can get PCBs made super cheap these days. So, I took a night to redesign that a bit:
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/zszsAHZa
It's a board that allows one to at the flip of a switch redirect the HDD and NIC2 lights to something other than the motherboard.
I have the parts already but the boards have yet to come in, so no actual pictures.
I eventually plan to get better hard drives too, but that will wait. For now, this is as far as I'll go.
Look like a plan for a decent rig?
Attached Files
I think the motherboard would reject that like a human rejects the heart of a baboon.
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