Nibby Bait - 2 Sockets, 12 Cores, 16GB RAM, GTX 750, 90s Dell Case

Kinja'd!!! "Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
02/27/2018 at 22:54 • Filed to: Computers, computerlopnik

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I scored a free server board recently. Inspired by Project Beigelake, I decided to launch my next project. The board came with a pair of Xeon E5645 CPUs (6 cores each, clocked to 2.4GHz each) and a pair of Xeon E5630 CPUs (4 cores each, clocked to 2.53GHz each).

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Some fun facts about the board:

- LGA 1366.

- 8 PWM fan headers.

- Support for over 100 GB of an extremely wide variety of RAM.

This board will join a GTX 750, 16 GB of RAM (8GB per socket), and a Dell Dimension 4100 case.

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Funding for this project is secured by selling a MacBook, a 12 Core Opteron CPU, and an iMac G3. Total cost will be under $200

Nibby, how did you handle cooling in this case?

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DISCUSSION (17)


Kinja'd!!! NKato > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 22:59

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I’m guessing a liquid cooled system since that case is utter ass for air circulation.


Kinja'd!!! jminer > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 22:59

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Xeon chips produce a lot of heat, you’ll need to move a ton of air. I dig the project though.

I’ll admit to drilling holes in the front of old cases to get enough airflow to cool a processor and video card. You might be able to get away with making a vent on the side panel with an exhaust fan.


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > jminer
02/27/2018 at 23:03

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I’m considering making two holes large enough for 120mm fans near where the CPUs would be. Otherwise I will almost certainly need water cooling.


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > NKato
02/27/2018 at 23:04

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Good consideration! I could put the radiators on the rear and still preserve the sleeper look.


Kinja'd!!! Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:06

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What kind of MacBook are you selling?


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
02/27/2018 at 23:08

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Late 2007 “Santa Rosa” - white polycarbonate!


Kinja'd!!! LOREM IPSUM > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:08

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That is gonna be sweéet, and stable. I’ve been running a dual core 3.0Ghz Xeon (E3110, I believe) for many years. Went Xeon specifically for stability, and it hasn’t let me down.

Even on Windows 10, with only 4 gigs of RAM and onboard video (asus p5e-vm-hdmi) it was still quite snappy to use and I had no desire to upgrade... At least until the Spectre patch. Now it’s a bit of a dog, but it still runs Serato well so no real complaints.

Your setup is going to be straight up badass in comparison. Lucky duck!


Kinja'd!!! NKato > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:09

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The radiators would need to be externally mounted somehow, and since as jminer said, Xeons crank heat like nobody’s business, you’ll want to bodge on a heat shield so you don’t have combustibles (like a curtain) getting onto the radiator.


Kinja'd!!! winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:11

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The only solution is a titanic air cooler that sounds like a 747 in the process of taking off.

I jest, maybe just some Thermalright radiators on a diet might work. I don’t know the spacing between the sockets though...


Kinja'd!!! Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:18

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Cool, had to ask. We had two of those, one white white, one black.


Kinja'd!!! jminer > Mercedes Streeter
02/27/2018 at 23:45

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Water cooling will of course work - I’m a cheap idiot that didn’t think of it.

That’s a big sound advantage over fans too. I’m building a new 8 GPU mining rig at the moment from server render cards, they’re only passively cooled so I’m strapping 30 cfm fans to them. Loud as hell, but keeps everything under 60 C.


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > NKato
02/28/2018 at 17:12

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Alright, so I figured it out. An AIO could work for the CPU nearest the I/O, however the other CPU is a couple inches too far for an AIO that doesn’t cost three times the cost of an AIO for the other CPU.

So screw it, I decided to make my own “AIO”. One 240mm radiator mounted externally on the rear should do the job and there’ll be enough tube to not have to worry about stretching.


Kinja'd!!! NKato > Mercedes Streeter
02/28/2018 at 19:00

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Good plan.


Kinja'd!!! e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Mercedes Streeter
03/01/2018 at 16:19

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What is the primary usage for this? Gaming, workstation, some mix of the two?


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > e36Jeff now drives a ZHP
03/01/2018 at 16:31

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In all honesty? I have no real plans for it outside of playing out my favourite experiment of “HOW WILL IT PLAY FSX?!?!?” I used to have a hobby for collecting, rebuilding, and reselling smartphones (I even built a waterproof iPhone 5). I now do that to computers. I had no intentions to build a fourth computer, but it’s hard to say no to a beautiful server board with 4 free CPUs!

Of my now four computers, my ITX build probably has the least use. It kinda exists almost entirely because I adore the case it has and I got to do some cool cooling and LED customizations.


Kinja'd!!! e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Mercedes Streeter
03/01/2018 at 16:41

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you might want to take a peek at ebay for a set of x5677's. looks you can nab a pair for $50 or less and they run nearly 1Ghz faster than the ones you have. It’ll do single core stuff way faster and still have a total of 8c16t. I’d imagine you could partly fund it by selling off the CPUs you have for it now.


Kinja'd!!! Mercedes Streeter > e36Jeff now drives a ZHP
03/01/2018 at 17:08

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Oh! I could do that!