Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

[ratdude747]

Over the next few months I'm going to be building another rig. In this case, it's ulitmatly to replace the last of my workstations that isn't 10 compatible (Main Rig V4.1). Likely, it will become my wife's computer, and her current system will replace V4.1 (which while venerable, is stuck on win7 and has been BSOD'ing a lot lately, and I'm sick of dealing with it).

The mainboard is a NOS Supermicro H8DAE-2 https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...ng for a while. I've ordered a pair of Opteron 2435 hex core demons to run in it (for less than $20 shipped, damn they're cheap!)

The main hangup is going to be the case... TC has a spare supermicro chassis (another EATX tower/4U Rackmount convertable like we've used a lot of) with an 865W PSU that I'll be getting via a trade... once the corona travel bans die down and I can safely make a trip out that way.

I haven't ordered RAM yet... but IIRC ECC DDR2 is dirt cheap, I just need to figure out how much I want to toss at it.

Cooler wise, I'm thinking some large side blowers will work (like CM TX3's, which I used in my last dual AMD rig with great results). Luckily, it the same standard mount used by desktop AMD CPU's (940 and beyond), which makes for lots of cheap & effective options.

HDD wise, I'll probably save up and get some more 15K spinners. I have another LSI RAID card sitting on the shelf that would fit the bill.

GPUs will be fun. I have an EVGA GeForce GTX970 SSC sitting (leftover from a failed SLI expirement)... and a clone in another system. This board supports SLI (officially this time), so if I found another GPU for said said other system, then I could crank things up a few notches. My wife does game, and while, yes, a lot of games are not optimized for SLI these days, do I ever follow common sense? If I did, I wouldn't be building this, now would I .

I also need to sort out optical drives and whether or not I'll be adding USB3.0 and a matching card reader. Choices, choices, choices...

[Topcat]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

TC has a spare supermicro chassis (another EATX tower/4U Rackmount convertable like we've used a lot of) with an 865W PSU that I'll be getting via a trade... once the corona travel bans die down and I can safely make a trip out that way.

The build on my end that this horse trade will complete will be one of the 'keeper pile' crown jewels of the BCN retro gamer rigs....and I have several very unusual ones. I've actually parted with some of the more common ones....but I digress.

I'll get this case emptied out in the weeks to come. It has a X7DCA-3 in it that came from the 'tree'. The system kinda/sorta works....but the onboard SAS doesn't work, and the system has some strange ACPI problems. It's been narrowed to the motherboard....and really not worth diddling with. I really don't remember where the case came from, I've had it for many years...and I have several of them....but I picked it up used somewhere for cheap, and never really used it. Good to know it'll be put to work.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Cooler wise, I'm thinking some large side blowers will work (like CM TX3's, which I used in my last dual AMD rig with great results). Luckily, it the same standard mount used by desktop AMD CPU's (940 and beyond), which makes for lots of cheap & effective options.

Seems like coolers have gotten expen$ive. Or my luck on ebay is not working.

Also seems like a lot of coolers have gone away from the AMD fan clips and instead bolt on like Intel 775+. No good for me, since socket F uses the same bolt pattern as 939/940, which nobody makes.

I did see the Rosewill ROCC 16003... but the clips are for thier bracket, not AMD's apparently (or so it seems). Also, said clips are fixed position, which puts the fans pointing up/down, no good for this particular case (if they did fit a 940/939 bracket, I could technically swap them for the TX3's in my other AMD rig, where up/down is correct).

The ZALMAN CNPS8X looks nice, but no deals worth nabbing on ebay. But I'm a cheapass, so maybe that's my problem.

I have a while to think on this... choices, choices, choices...

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Scored another GTX970 for $91 after shipping and taxes. Another EVGA 4GB SSC, so I shouldn't have to pull graphics cards to make an SLI pair with the SSC I have.

Still need to work out coolers, HDDs, and a few other things.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Cooler wise, made another discovery.

Apparently Rocketfish (Best Buy's store brand) used to sell a clone of the Cooler Master TX3's I'm fond of as the Rocketfish RF-UPCUWR. These can be found for reasonably cheap. The heatsink appears to be identical, don't know about the fans though. The biggest deal here is that for AMD uses, I can run the fans any direction I want; most side blowers I'm seeing are fixed orientation, which for this board would put them pointing up/down (which for obvious reasons is no-good, I need them blowing from right to left)

Found somebody with used ones for virtually free ($14 shipped per cooler)... but doesn't have any the retainer clips shown (which is the issue with these, nobody keeps the clips they don't use, which is why the one TX3 I have sitting is useless for AMD right now). Waiting on a reply from the seller. Worst case, for about $20 a hit (two sellers), I can get new in box ones.

I'm not using a windowed case, so I don't care if it's the same thing without the CM logo.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Knock RAM off the list. Scored 32GB of ECC DDR2 (800Mhz) for $40 shipped. I didn't see any rank limitations in the mobo manual, so I should be good to run 8 modules. I've seen benchmark results for my CPU with 12 ranks per CPU, so 8 Ranks per shouldn't be an issue.

[Topcat]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

I stripped the case, it's ready to roll.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

2nd GPU came in... turns out it's a different SSC model, one that requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe to run (and from what I read online, will not SLI with the model I already have two of). Both of my Current SM chassis only have 6 pin PCIe (4 of them) and I tried, it gives me an error message to connect the power cables when used with two 6's. However, I do have a system with compatible power connections, and was able to install this card there, and pull the ASUS strix (yet another GTX 970) from it to the system that has the 2nd of my dual matched GPUs. The strix just takes an 8 pin power... but so far (and posting from it), it's not detected or complained about being fed with such . Dunno if it auto-downclocks if used with such, but ASUS's manuals make no mention of power. I might slap in a cheap 6 to 8 adapter; my hotswap PSU VRM is more than capable.

Edit: The "new" GPU came in an ASUS Strix GTX970 box... which was very ironic, considering how my aformentioned Strix was sent to me. If I ever get rid of the card, I now have "an" original box, even if it isn't "the" actual box... shh...



I did find an old pair of socket 940 coolers (stock with 5K RPM PWM HP workstation fans slapped on) on my shelf... which is good for testing, but not what I'll want to use for the actual build. I'm gambling on the afomentioned rocketfish coolers, of which I bought two:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rocketfish-...QAAOSw0YxdlBHR

They are from all I can tell rebadged Cooler Master TX3's, which due being able to mount 4 directions, not 2 like most clip-mount AMD coolers of this style (important, since the "normal" mounting is no good for my board in the chassis I'll be using). Since they still have the manuals, I'm betting that the clips are there too (open box items marked as "used", not "new, other"); the freaking protective film is still on the mating surface! Also, the seller seems to have a lot of "used" items that are still in new condition (factory twistie ties on cables, etc.), which makes me think that they treat open box items as "used". If the clips are missing, I'm out less than $30. I can get these (both the rocketfish and cooler master versions) for around $20-$30 shipped... slightly more expensive than I feel like spending. Plus, what fun is merely buying stuff? :p

RAM will be in tomorrow, so with the junk coolers, I should be able to start bench testing what I have.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Posting from it now in a bench test configuration... Been a rough ride. To put a long story short, the bottom of one of my CPUs was dirty and was causing windows 10 to not want to boot up.

SLI does indeed work... will be running a benchmark. Will post results in a bit.

In the mean time, yay!

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Just got done with benchmarks... posting from it again.

Novabench result:



The HDD is abysmal... you'll see why below. Otherwise, not bad?

Catzilla crashed 2/3 of the way though... I'm guessing something overheated. Once I have this is a proper case with proper cooling that should hopefully resolve itself.

The setup: These pics are from yesterday, when I was trying to make it run on 8GB of old RAM I had in the drawer... which was not successful due to the CPU2 issue mentioned previously (didn't discover it until today). But the idea is the same.

SLI'd GPUs and a 500GB clay pigeon:




As shown, I'm running off two PSUs right now, since neither my Antec 650 nor my ultra 600 have enough PCIe plugs to run both GPUs. Since I didn't happen to have a dual PSU adapter, I ghetto'd it with some jumper wires.

To start, I backplugged the soft-on from the "primary" PSU (the Antec Earthwatts 650):



… and ran that wire to the soft-on on the secondary PSU (modded ultra Xfinity 600W):



Finally, I jumpered the grounds together:






Ghetto? Yep. Functional? Yep.

Other than the catzilla crash, I'm calling this a successful test. Other than sourcing actual HDDs (8x 15K SAS drives) and finalizing coolers, until I meetup with Topcat, this rig is as far as I can push it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Point of comparison: Ran Novabench on my current fastest rig (with the "new" rig's benchmark to the right):



(the new rig was on my 24" FD Trinitron, which is why the resolution of the screenshot is bigger)

That's with the ASUS Strix GPU installed. Sure, this one crushed it in terms of CPU performance (it's got twin hyperthreaded hex-core westmeres, double the threads) and RAM speed (triple channel DDR3 vs dual channel DDR2)... but that was expected. GPU wise, SLI is indeed working (novabench even prompted me to customize the app-specific SLI config in the Nvidia settings). For gaming (what my wife will be doing with it), this should be a good setup as far as my workstation builds go (not to call it a "gaming" rig... it's not!).

[diif]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Your GPU score seems low, have you enabled SLI ?
It seems so but Novabench has a pair of GTX 970 at and average of 832.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Your GPU score seems low, have you enabled SLI ?
It seems so but Novabench has a pair of GTX 970 at and average of 832.

The Westemere system is single GPU, score of 211
The Opteron system is dual GPU SLI'd, score of 523.

All GPUs here are 4GB GTX 970's. Probably different clockrates, I'd have to look it up.

Over double the score leads me to believe SLI is working... not to mention nvidia (and novabench) both say it is.

[Topcat]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Not bad!

[diif]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

I have a GTX 460 and get a GPU score of 331 in Novabench.
I'm not disputing that it's not working, it's just the score seemed low.

P.S. Loving the ghetto, I used to have two supplies in one PC to power all my bits back in the day.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

I have a GTX 460 and get a GPU score of 331 in Novabench.
I'm not disputing that it's not working, it's just the score seemed low.

P.S. Loving the ghetto, I used to have two supplies in one PC to power all my bits back in the day.

How long ago? Seems that they changed thier tests and scoring. For a while it wasn't even downloadable.

---

For reference, I'll run the latest novabench on my other rigs, and see what we get.

Booted up my old dual irwindale (netburst!) rig, and now with reseated memory, actually ran for more than 5 minutes without a BSOD.



Not bad for an old 9800...

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

Something else may be going on here...

Just ran it on the second fastest system currently built (what the new build will replace for my wife's main rig)... and got this result:



Sure, it has a factory OC'd Zotac triple fan monster... but it's yet another 4GB GTX 970 (I currently own 5 of the damn things)... No way it scored so high.

My last build with a GTX 970 (where the $85 EVGA card I recently bought ended up) is being gamed on right now... when it frees up I'll run it there for another datapoint.

PS-I tried running it on my other dual opteron (twin Opteron 285's with dual SLI'd GTS250's )... the 3d test program crashed no matter how I set it in the Nvidia 3d settings. It and novabench don't get along.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

The final GTX970... in the sleeper build pocket rocket:



Another killer GPU score... Which makes me think SLI isn't doing jack shit on the new build, and for whatever reason my "fastest" system is getting bottlenecked. It's not the GPU; I ran novabench a year ago on the pocket rocked back when said GPU was installed in it:



Alternatively, novabench is an unreliable pile of dog crap, and should be renamed novabust. Other than catzilla, any other suggested free benchmark software I should try?

[diif]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

How long ago? Seems that they changed thier tests and scoring. For a while it wasn't even downloadable.

I ran it last night, I wanted to see how different my score was from the number on the Novabench site as your GPU numbers seemed low.

The tests you have done since seem to confirm this.

[ratdude747]

Re: Yet another RD workstation build... Socket F Fun!

I ran it last night, I wanted to see how different my score was from the number on the Novabench site as your GPU numbers seemed low.

The tests you have done since seem to confirm this.

Yeah, IDK. Maybe a windows update related issue? I used a fresh windows 10 image... weird.

Edit- tried to re-run, crashed during the 3d test. System completely froze. Hope I didn't fry something

Also forgot to mention: windows 10 wasn't activated... and geforce experience wouldn't install either.