Topcat's XPS 625 Revival - X8SAX then K8N-DL and finally P6X58-E WS; First 2021 Build

[Topcat]

So far, this year is starting off horrible....things are ok personally, but if you've read a newspaper the last couple weeks, you know the rest... So here's something cheery & geeky to take the load off; what better than another one of my goofy useless builds!

This was given to me today by a friend of mine.....he found it in some guy's goat barn, and rescued it with me in mind. You just can't buy friends like that!! Yes, it very much has the odor of a goat barn.....and a lot of dust! It will require the 'full treatment' as far as disassembly & cleaning. The HDD was missing, the card reader is missing, and the onboard NIC is dead. I did boot it off Hiren's and it did seem stable....but it's just a lame system. It will also need some new innards, it's an AM2; meh....but this is one I won't spend much on, so it'll be build with what I have on hand, which after evaluating my stash of more modern hardware happens to be a Supermicro X8SAX (from the "tree" a year or so ago). It's rocking a Hexcore Xeon @ 3.46 w/24gb DDR3; maxed out with CPU and RAM, x58 chipset....that sure kicks the creamcheese out of a dual core Athlon2 5600+!!

GPU at this point is undecided, not sure what I've got lingering around, but with a good GPU this would make a stellar workstation and even a pretty good gaming rig. I won't spend much on this, the only thing I plan to buy is a SSD...I wouldn't ruin this one with a spinner...

What intrigued me about this case was it's lighting, which was not overdone and was placed in practical places. Above drive openings and at the IO area. ...and here we go!!


Filthy!!




I've never seen one of these cases before....but very interesting.







Now we get into it.... Time to take this thing apart.....

Even more filth:





Cob webs...


No idea what GPU this is.....don't really care either.



Pile starts....

















The lighting & front panel controller. Thankfully this isn't dependent on the motherboard for anything. Just give it power and it works, so any modifications will be minor or nill.



Now the motherboard removed....

Clever design with that wire channel under the motherboard, but it'd sure be a PITA if you ever had to replace just the PSU!



Motherboard Removed.



CPU stuck to the sink and the backplate...





Test fitting X8SAX. The board is ~3/8" longer than the original, which clears everything just fine except the HDD cages. It will have to be modified, but the mod will be very minor.







This board works, but the NIC is dead. It had a PCI adapter in it....probably see if I can offload it somewhere for cheap.....but otherwise it's probably scrap.



Cover off the wiring channel.





IO shield area lights; otherwise a standard IO. A couple standoffs will have to be modified, but overall the mods to the case will be very minor.



...and this is where I'm leaving it today.....chowtime!!



More later.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

Filthy!!

Even more filth:

Cob webs...

yea the dust bunnies in the case and on the board as well as the layer of dust on the video card were an eyesore and getting to me quite a bit because of my ocd lol!

makes me wanna bust out the datavac duster and blow it all away! lol!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

makes me wanna bust out the datavac duster and blow it all away! lol!

This one is well beyond that..... The only way to properly clean this one is a complete disassembly & washing with cleaners & hot water. I've been working on this since 9 this morning, and it's 12:30 now....and I'm not even half way through it.

I did find a suitable GPU though....not the best but certainly acceptable for the time being. GTX560TI 1gb.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

I finally got this thing all disassembled.... It was a bit tricky, but it had to be done....that goat barn smell was stinking up my office, every piece had to be cleaned!! I didn't even break anything in the process.

Anyway....Apart!!



The bottom of the case.....grungy.



Front & rear bezels.



Case frame.



GPU that's still unidentified, the PCI 1gb NIC, and the lighting & fan controller.



Fan housings, front panel connectors/USB/audio, etc...



The beginning of washing. This took the better part of an entire work day to get through all these parts. I did the worst first; the case itself.



Front bezel with all the stickers removed (the AMD & Vista stickers)



Rear bezel with the Vista COA removed.





Fans very carefully removed from the housings; so not to tear/break their rubber standoffs...and of course thoroughly cleaned!



Now for the power supply....and this answered a few questions... I'm not sure who actually builds this PSU for Dell, but it is very well built and packed tight!! Examining this PSU, its obvious why this system was taken out of service....you guessed it, some bad caps! It would power up and POST, but odds are it wasn't stable. I did no testing of the original hardware beyond POST.

PSU disassembled.



They're 'Ltec' caps that failed. Note the Rubycon caps over in the secondary at the outputs....they're MBZ series 2200uF 10v. This is the first PSU I've ever seen a MBZ series in.... I always thought MBZ would be a bit too low ESR for PSU use. The UCC's shown are KZE and KHZ. I had to place an order for some caps, there were some values I didn't have....minor delay reassembling.



More filth...



The PSU shell & fans got washed. I did not wash the PCB's, I just carefully brushed them and blasted them with the air compressor. They cleaned up well.



Completion of cleaning.



The aluminum overall is in good condition. There are some scrapes & abrasions....one of the things I hate about aluminum cases....soft metal that shows every single blemish!



Beginning of reassembly. I wanted to get all the small intricate pieces all back together rather than wait for the completion of the PSU....this way I don't forget how crap goes...







Test fitting the motherboard. Only one standoff had to be modified.







Front panel fans, fan control & lighting control back in place. I removed the dongle for the firewire port, as this much newer motherboard doesn't have a header for it. I have never seen a firewire device anyway.



Rear bezel reinstalled.



Front bezel reinstalled.



Inside



Side back on.





The X8SAX has a floppy controller....what better to fill the 3.5" bay than a combo floppy & card reader!!





...and that's all she wrote today. I did order a SSD for this.....I'll resume when it and the caps needed for the PSU arrive....

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

Ok, I had another bag of caps that I needed for the PSU and didn't realize it...so yay, got ahead! I'm still waiting on the SSD to get here, but I can go ahead and reassemble the rest of it.

If nothing else good can be said about this case, I do like the cable management for the big harnesses (24-pin and the 8-pin), which fasten in a galley under the motherboard. Pretty clever, I must say.







Now installing the motherboard.







Installed the GPU (GTX560ti 1GB)





POST testing....no problemo with the system core....but I did notice a noisy front fan....I think it's the first time I've ever seen one of those big bad boy 120mm double ball bearing fans fail. Thankfully I've got a gazillion of them.



Depinned the front panel connectors from its single-plug block and made individual plugs of them.



Ok, the corny lighting....









Booted Hiren's PE....







That's all until the SSD arrived. I've also come up with a better plan for now for the HDD mounting, this way I don't have to carve up the cages.....this way if anything changes later and this system core is removed, it won't be doomed to a couple hacked up HDD cages....I'll only be running a single drive in it, so this is a far cleaner option.....details will come in due time...

In the mean time....every civic owner's dream except it's a PC!

[lti]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

every civic owner's dream except it's a PC!

It's too fast for that.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

TopCat

I would like to know what do you do with all the computer finds and friends that give you broken or no longer wanted them

I like reading your finds and what and what you do to them

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

TopCat

I would like to know what do you do with all the computer finds and friends that give you broken or no longer wanted them

I like reading your finds and what and what you do to them

I do sell them periodically, I have no trouble rehoming retro builds, especially anything 3DFX..... I remember once upon a time Ratdude LOL'ing at a crazy price I had on one....and it sold for more than that when I tossed it on ebay (just for grins, never expected it to sell)...it was on for ~3 weeks and had over 80 watchers!!

I lent out one of the X7DCA builds to a client that needed a good work from home workstation when all the covid craziness started, it was used for a couple months while she generated the funds for me to build a more modern system....so once in a while, they do actually 'work'.....but they're for the most part just things to tinker with.

[ratdude747]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

I do sell them periodically, I have no trouble rehoming retro builds, especially anything 3DFX..... I remember once upon a time Ratdude LOL'ing at a crazy price I had on one....and it sold for more than that when I tossed it on ebay (just for grins, never expected it to sell)...it was on for ~3 weeks and had over 80 watchers!!

I lent out one of the X7DCA builds to a client that needed a good work from home workstation when all the covid craziness started, it was used for a couple months while she generated the funds for me to build a more modern system....so once in a while, they do actually 'work'.....but they're for the most part just things to tinker with.

I sure did... but money talks, and some wallets use bullhorns.

At least you know when to let go... I have four workstations sitting likely to never see use again (two Xeon Gallatin (X5DAL), one Xeon Irwindale (X6DAE-G2), one Opteron 200 series (H8DC8)). Shame, but it is what it is.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

I sure did... but money talks, and some wallets use bullhorns.

At least you know when to let go... I have four workstations sitting likely to never see use again (two Xeon Gallatin (X5DAL), one Xeon Irwindale (X6DAE-G2), one Opteron 200 series (H8DC8)). Shame, but it is what it is.

I believe Brethin said it best; "I love them like my children..."

The above said, it doesn't bother me to part with them...for me, it's the 'thrill of the build'. For some reason I find it therapeutic...the more creative & weird I can make the build, the better it is..... When it's done, it doesn't bother me to sell. Some are worth more than others, and ones that have 'gifted' parts from friends inside I tend to not let go of....which is a very few of the overall pile...

[ratdude747]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

I believe Brethin said it best; "I love them like my children..."

Where'd he say that? As much stuff as he buys & sells, he must love selling children!

The above said, it doesn't bother me to part with them...for me, it's the 'thrill of the build'. For some reason I find it therapeutic...the more creative & weird I can make the build, the better it is..... When it's done, it doesn't bother me to sell. Some are worth more than others, and ones that have 'gifted' parts from friends inside I tend to not let go of....which is a very few of the overall pile...

The latter is the case for many of my builds. A few, not so much... I just suck at selling things.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

Where'd he say that? As much stuff as he buys & sells, he must love selling children!

It was in one of his posts when talking about selling old equipment....or his 'hoard' he was putting out for the trash man....something along the lines of "I love them like my children, but they just sit around collecting dust and I can't seem to give them away".....although the latter part of that is not word for word....but it's close.

The latter is the case for many of my builds. A few, not so much... I just suck at selling things.

That's called a hoarder....don't worry, I have this affliction too....I've just learned to control it and try to keep it organized....

[ratdude747]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

That's called a hoarder....don't worry, I have this affliction too....I've just learned to control it and try to keep it organized....

Sadly you're right...

[Uranium-235]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

when I first read the title I thought it said Supermicro XANAX

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

when I first read the title I thought it said Supermicro XANAX

LOL!

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

i dont think building supermicro server computers would give u panic and anxiety disorders that would make u require a xanax. if u did then u are in the wrong job! time for a career change!!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

when I first read the title I thought it said Supermicro XANAX

X8SAX

XANAX

I suggest new glasses....or quit thinkin' about drugs!

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

but this is one I won't spend much on, so it'll be build with what I have on hand, which after evaluating my stash of more modern hardware happens to be a Supermicro X8SAX (from the "tree" a year or so ago). It's rocking a Hexcore Xeon @ 3.46 w/24gb DDR3; maxed out with CPU and RAM, x58 chipset

That's actually quite nice, even for modern times.
I think that CPU at that frequency should be comparable to a 7th gen i5, or maybe slightly better... which is still a perfectly usable CPU for gaming even today.

What intrigued me about this case was it's lighting, which was not overdone and was placed in practical places. Above drive openings and at the IO area.

Nice!
This is how case lightning should always be done.

On that note, I contemplated at some point on whether I should install a green LED on my OptiPlex 170L PC down in the USB port area so I can see it better. However, due to the recessed opening where the USB ports are, I don't actually even need to see them to successfully plug in a USB drive without looking - can all be done through feeling. So I passed.

But I do like the idea of LED lights over frequently used ports - makes the PC easier to use with the lights off (especially for a gaming PC in a dark room.)

Filthy!!
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610482748

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610482748

For sure. Though not too horribly filthy. I've seen a lot worse (and I'm sure you have too.)
And at least no roaches - those are the worst ones to work on. As JP (may his soul find peace) used to say here, you would have had to give it the RAID treatment - the kind that comes in a can!
(Man, I'll never forget some of the funny cool stuff he said. What a great person he was! )

No idea what GPU this is.....don't really care either.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610495630

OK, time for retro-GPU-man here to see.
I am 99.99999% certain it is an ATI Radeon HD4670 with 512 MB DDR3.... DX10.1 card, PCI-E 2.0. ~65 Watts TDP.

Rather outdated by today's standards - at least for gaming. But these still make great GPUs for HTPC use, since they support HD audio pass-through over HDMI. So with a DVI-D to HDMI adapter (or just DVI-D to HDMI cable) you can run a TV and send digital audio directly to it. The HD4670 also has proper H.264 decoding capabilities.

CPU stuck to the sink and the backplate...

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610495630

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610495630

HAHA, noob!
J/k.
We used to tease each other really badly when someone did that back when I used to work as a refurb tech.

AMD CPUs can get quite tricky, especially if a good sticky paste like AS5 was used, and it was in service for many years on a hot-running CPU. No way to remove cooler on an AMD CPU without pulling it out, unless you pre-heated cooler (either run CPU without the fan for a few minutes or just heat-gun it for a few moments) and twisted the cooler off.

This board works, but the NIC is dead. It had a PCI adapter in it....probably see if I can offload it somewhere for cheap.....but otherwise it's probably scrap.

Let me guess...
nVidia chipset?
If yes, that's probably a good reason for the dead NIC (though it might not be.) Still, it would be a shame to toss this board just over a dead NIC. I see it has two PCI-E 16x slots, so you may still be able to sell it for a little pocket change, especially if it supports SLI.

This one is well beyond that..... The only way to properly clean this one is a complete disassembly & washing with cleaners & hot water.

Agreed.

When you get dusty smelly systems, you just can't clean them properly with only a blow job.

I've been working on this since 9 this morning, and it's 12:30 now....and I'm not even half way through it.

Well. considering how complex of a case/system this is, I'd say you're hella fast, actually. Most regular Dells and HPs take me half a day to fully disassemble and clean out with washing & wiping. If I add the fans, CPU cooler, and all the rest, it's pretty much 1 machine per day MAX. I did that a few years back when I got a loadfull of old PCs from a local repair shop. Had to give them a wash (or if not, at least a good chlorine sheets wipe) because I wasn't sure what was lurking in those cases. A lot of work for mostly obsolete machines, but it's always nice when you need a case and know you have something clean and ready to go.

Now for the power supply....and this answered a few questions... I'm not sure who actually builds this PSU for Dell, but it is very well built and packed tight!! Examining this PSU, its obvious why this system was taken out of service....you guessed it, some bad caps! It would power up and POST, but odds are it wasn't stable. I did no testing of the original hardware beyond POST.

PSU disassembled.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610579036

They're 'Ltec' caps that failed. Note the Rubycon caps over in the secondary at the outputs....they're MBZ series 2200uF 10v. This is the first PSU I've ever seen a MBZ series in.... I always thought MBZ would be a bit too low ESR for PSU use. The UCC's shown are KZE and KHZ. I had to place an order for some caps, there were some values I didn't have....minor delay reassembling.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1610579036

No surprise!
To anyone who tells me that Ltec caps are OK - take note here!
It seems that they used to be more "OK" back in the early P4 era... but became quite crap pretty quickly afterwards. So if anyone sees a PSU with Ltecs, just recap it. They are guaranteed trouble.

Where'd he say that? As much stuff as he buys & sells, he must love selling children!

LOL!
This is the funniest savage comment I have seen in a long while!

I just suck at selling things.

Same.
I either end up giving things out because I'm too lazy/unmotivated to sell them or I just hoard them. I do try to give out the stuff that other people can use. But the junky PCs with issues that no one wants or no one should ever try to use, I just keep for myself to play with... and that's more than a few here.

X8SAX

XANAX

I suggest new glasses....or quit thinkin' about drugs!

It's probably that new LG laptop that's the issue.
2560x1920 on a 17" screen, remember?

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

That's actually quite nice, even for modern times.
I think that CPU at that frequency should be comparable to a 7th gen i5, or maybe slightly better... which is still a perfectly usable CPU for gaming even today.

It would need a better GPU....I'd love to toss a 1070 or 1080 in it, but I don't usually buy stuff that expensive unless its requested by a customer....you run the risk of it aging out and losing money on it otherwise....

Nice!
This is how case lightning should always be done.

But I do like the idea of LED lights over frequently used ports - makes the PC easier to use with the lights off (especially for a gaming PC in a dark room.)

That's the only reason this one got built. Very practical & well designed case....that's not typical these days, especially from Dell....I'm sure you remember the Dell/Alienware Aurora R7 case build recently....

Though not too horribly filthy. I've seen a lot worse (and I'm sure you have too.)
And at least no roaches - those are the worst ones to work on. As JP (may his soul find peace) used to say here, you would have had to give it the RAID treatment - the kind that comes in a can!
(Man, I'll never forget some of the funny cool stuff he said. What a great person he was! )

Yes, I have seen worse when it comes to filth....the goat barn smell with this one was certainly one for the books though, it was a first!!

OK, time for retro-GPU-man here to see.
I am 99.99999% certain it is an ATI Radeon HD4670 with 512 MB DDR3.... DX10.1 card, PCI-E 2.0. ~65 Watts TDP.

Rather outdated by today's standards - at least for gaming. But these still make great GPUs for HTPC use, since they support HD audio pass-through over HDMI. So with a DVI-D to HDMI adapter (or just DVI-D to HDMI cable) you can run a TV and send digital audio directly to it. The HD4670 also has proper H.264 decoding capabilities.

There's a 100% chance you are correct, I ran the numbers today, that's exactly what it is! I did clean it up, but it'll just be put in an antistatic bag and stuck in a storage bin....until something comes along that needs a minor upgrade...

HAHA, noob!
J/k.
We used to tease each other really badly when someone did that back when I used to work as a refurb tech.

AMD CPUs can get quite tricky, especially if a good sticky paste like AS5 was used, and it was in service for many years on a hot-running CPU. No way to remove cooler on an AMD CPU without pulling it out, unless you pre-heated cooler (either run CPU without the fan for a few minutes or just heat-gun it for a few moments) and twisted the cooler off.

Yea, I'm well aware of the 'twist off' method....what threw this one was the way the sink mounts into the backplate...its a coarse thread (like wood screw coarse) screw, threaded directly into the plastic; NOT the metal...yea, it was weird. When it let loose on one side sooner than I expected (yes I loosened them all gradually), but it still had enough spring tension on one side and it pulled the CPU out of the socket....so I carefully removed the remaining screws and remved the whole thing. Then a flat screwdriver under one corner of the CPU and it pops right off the sink. No pins damaged.

Let me guess...
nVidia chipset?
If yes, that's probably a good reason for the dead NIC (though it might not be.) Still, it would be a shame to toss this board just over a dead NIC. I see it has two PCI-E 16x slots, so you may still be able to sell it for a little pocket change, especially if it supports SLI.

Yessir, nvidia. It does support SLI, being a nvidia chipset...not sure about crossfire....since it came with that ATI GPU, which I thought was strange, but from what I read is the original.

When you get dusty smelly systems, you just can't clean them properly with only a blow job.

I chuckled.....

Well. considering how complex of a case/system this is, I'd say you're hella fast, actually. Most regular Dells and HPs take me half a day to fully disassemble and clean out with washing & wiping. If I add the fans, CPU cooler, and all the rest, it's pretty much 1 machine per day MAX. I did that a few years back when I got a loadfull of old PCs from a local repair shop. Had to give them a wash (or if not, at least a good chlorine sheets wipe) because I wasn't sure what was lurking in those cases. A lot of work for mostly obsolete machines, but it's always nice when you need a case and know you have something clean and ready to go.

By the time I got done with this, I've got 2 working days in it. As I mentioned, the time of us peons isn't that valuable....if this were some other fella who's time is crazy valuable, this would be a $4,000 system now!

If someone wants it, I'll sell it for sure....but it was built with nobody in mind....

No surprise!
To anyone who tells me that Ltec caps are OK - take note here!
It seems that they used to be more "OK" back in the early P4 era... but became quite crap pretty quickly afterwards. So if anyone sees a PSU with Ltecs, just recap it. They are guaranteed trouble.

For sure....but the MBZ's in the secondary along with the Ltecs sure had me scratching my head. The Ltecs were on the +12v rail, and of course the rail was noisy on the scope. The rail of course quieted down after replacing them.

It's probably that new LG laptop that's the issue.
2560x1920 on a 17" screen, remember?

That would be a weird aspect ratio.... 2560x 1600 is a 16:10 and 2560x1440 is a 16:9....

I did finish this up today, the SSD came yesterday....I installed it this morning and loaded an OS. I stayed with 7 on this one....if someone wants the system and wants 10, I'll reload it for them....but most of my 'fleet' systems stay with 7. There's one more small round of pics coming of my alternate HDD mount, I'll do it tomorrow when I get in the office....I ran out of daylight today as some other stuff came in and I had to quit on this for a while....

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's XPS 625 Supermicro X8SAX Revival; First 2021 Build!

Ok, this build is finished up.

Since I am only running a single drive in this system, I opted not to modify the original HDD cages. I'll just keep them with the system, if they need to be used later, they can be modified then.

Instead, I took advantage of the unused 5.25" bay. I used a spare Supermicro adapter/hdd/bay filler...these are something I have plenty of.





The Supermicro doodiddle:



Now enter in a Western Digital 'icetray' that once housed a Velociraptor 10k HDD:



Badabing!! Installing the OS!



Up & running!



This is a pretty neat case considering it's a Dell....intuitive case designs isn't one of Dell's strong points...but this was a good one! Research had it being made around 2007-ish, its borderline 'vintage'....but it just needed some new innards to have a new lease on life!!

...and it doesn't smell like a goat barn anymore!!