Equipment Crew Tech Thread

[Synthetickiller]

You know, I have an mATX motherboard & an i7 3770k I'd like to get rid of... lol.

[Cleveland33]

If you're ok with a desktop...
Lenovo has an outlet... (I've bought from them, a $1000 & $1200 laptop , it's legit)

i7 based desktops ($500 or less, many for $450 or less): http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/d...,3,4&facet-5=1

They have i5s & i3, but seriously consider an i7, just for the fact that it'll last you maybe one or two generations longer. Most only have 4gb (a few have 8gb)... if you're ok with upgrading ram (that's about the easiest thing to do & you can ebay it to get a little money back), you can have a significantly more powerful computer with a ssd for about the same price. Another option is just to buy an SSD after & migrate the OS over to the drive (I've heard this isn't hard, but I've never done it. Youtube is your friend, lol).


Edit:

My laptops were scratch & dent. They had no damage to them. At the worst, you might have a ding. What matters is that the computer works, right? lol.

You have a lot of options, but it depends on how in depth you want to get. Do you want something to work out of the box or would you do a few things to improve upon a good computer?

A lot of good looking units over there, but i would prefer to get Win10 though - especially since the free upgrade just expired

[Synthetickiller]

A lot of good looking units over there, but i would prefer to get Win10 though - especially since the free upgrade just expired

Some of them had windows 10. Just do a word search & you'll see a few win 10 machines.

Normal Desktop: Win 10 home, i7 6700 (3.4ghz/4ghz turbo), 4gb ram, 500gb : $441

http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...45&GroupID=445

Here's an tiny machine w/ windows 10 pro, 128gb SSD, 8gb ram, i7 6700T (3.6ghz vs the 6700 model @ 4ghz; still incredibly fast & lower power): $483

http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...10FMX017US/445

Better desktop: Win 10 Pro, i7 6700, 16gb Ram, 180gb SSD: $536
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...10FCX01800/445


Complete system (no monitor): Win 10 Home, i7 6700, 16gb Ram, 256gb SSD, 1TB HDD, dvd drive: $645
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/d...,3,4&facet-5=1

Two i5 systems that stand out to me (these are very tiny, too)

$400 system: Win 10 Pro, i5 6500T (2.5ghz, 3.1ghz Turbo) 8gb ram, 256gb ssd
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...10HYX010US/445

$520 system: Win 10 Pro, i5 6600T (2.7ghz, 3.5ghz turbo), 16gb ram, 192gb SSD
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...10FMCTR1WW/445


All of these systems have win 10 & totally out perform your current computer and the AIO you were looking at.

[KBKB]

That PSU is overkill. Please don't waste the money.
I have a 850w PSU in my gaming rig that, at one time, ran dual GTX 570s... both had dual 8 pin power connectors & they pulled 480w (240w each) alone... so the system was pulling 650w on load at max. You're talking about 8 drives pulling 12w max, each... so 96w, lol. I have 8 drives & my 550w is overkill. I really need a kill-a-watt to measure what it pulls from the wall. I'd say that you need nothing over 650w. I have no doubt that I can drop in an extra 3 HDDs and have no issue.

This is the PSU I'd get if I were to run 15 drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-054-_-Product

I promise you, even 650w is overkill. I probably could get away 450w.

Throw the $65 you save towards fans to keep the rig cool. That's money well spent in comparison.

I came up with the 1000W PSU size after reading through this PSU sizing guide:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php...uidance.38811/

The problem, as described there, is that drives require more power when spinning up. They suggest allowing for 35W per drive for spin-up. Then you have to add in power for fans, motherboard, host bus adapters, CPU, etc.

I just did the calculations again and end up with 879W. But they recommend multiplying that number by 1.2, which ends up being 1098.75. That being the case, 1000W seems about right.

I could go for a smaller supply by staggering spin-up.

I read a review about the seagate constellation S.2 drives I bought & they require less than 24w to spin up, but are also 7200 rpm.
I don't remember the drives that you're getting, but I did find that the WD Reds (8tb version) draws only about 8w on read/write. Apparently, the new helium 8TB models use less power than most drives, in general. It's good to have overkill, but it's something to consider... the majority of the time, you won't pull more than 6w per drive.

I'll check the specs on both Seagate and WD Red 8TB drives and redo the calculations.

I finally got around to checking on some specs.

The Seagate NAS HDD ST8000VN0002 requires 2.0A @ 12V for spin up. This is 24W.

The WD Red 8TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD80EFZX requires 1.79A @ 12V for spin up. This is 21.5W (rounding to three significant digits).

So, using the higher of those two numbers, and redoing my calculations, I come up with 893W for a power supply. There's a bit of margin built into the calculation, so it should be okay to go down to 850W.

That being the case, I see these two supplies, one Titanium and the other Platinum from EVGA:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817438064

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817438056

The Titanium (94% efficient @ 115VAC) version is 7.09 inches long - just slightly too long for me to get a 120mm intake fan into the bottom of the case.

The Platinum (92% efficient @ 115VAC) version is 6.5 inches long. I think this one will allow me to install that bottom intake fan.

[Synthetickiller]

I'm still waiting on the power draw monitoring device. Waiting is a pain lol.

I did get the two Gentle Typhoon 2150 RPM fans in. I've owned the 1850 rpm version & they were incredible, especially for water cooling. Actually, in general, they are great fans. For radiators, heatsinks, etc, they have so much static pressure that your temps will drop. Without obstructions, they move a ton of air in a fairly straight line. The noise increase a little, but I doubt it's anything I'll notice. Since the two fans are mounted in the top of the case & due to the design of the case, a blade of air is pushed out of the side of the top. It feels like a dyson fan. It's just incredible. I plan on moving these fans, eventually to the front of the case to cool the HDDs (which is way more important). I just don't want to do a total tear down right now, lol.


Also, for anyone who bought a Galaxy Note 7, are you experiencing any issues with connecting to your network (specifically T-Mobile & AT&T)?
My neighbor also bought one, beside my mother & I. All 3 of us are having issues where we totally lose all day (no LTE, no 4g, no edge) & the phone will not even make calls. A hard reset is required to fix the problem, which means you can be walking around & not receiving calls. At least with T-mobile, you have 20 days to return the phone. There's supposed to be a fix, but I don't know when... It's really irritating.

[KBKB]

I ordered a bunch of stuff for my server build last night and this morning. In total, I purchased eight 8TB drives, four Seagate and four Western Digital, getting two each (from those two manufacturers) from Newegg and Amazon. I figure that ordering from two different vendors increases the likelihood of getting different lots from the manufacturer.

I ended up ordering the full size motherboard mentioned earlier in this thread. As I recall, it has connections for 18 drives.

I went with the EVGA 850W Platinum power supply, mainly because it's just short enough for me to install an intake fan at the middle-bottom of the case.

I ordered one of these too:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWIAQBC/

It's a 32GB DOM (disk-on-module). I'll use it for the NAS4Free (or maybe FreeNAS) installation. In either case, it's way bigger than what I need.

[Synthetickiller]

I ordered a bunch of stuff for my server build last night and this morning. In total, I purchased eight 8TB drives, four Seagate and four Western Digital, getting two each (from those two manufacturers) from Newegg and Amazon. I figure that ordering from two different vendors increases the likelihood of getting different lots from the manufacturer.

I ended up ordering the full size motherboard mentioned earlier in this thread. As I recall, it has connections for 18 drives.

I went with the EVGA 850W Platinum power supply, mainly because it's just short enough for me to install an intake fan at the middle-bottom of the case.

I ordered one of these too:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWIAQBC/

It's a 32GB DOM (disk-on-module). I'll use it for the NAS4Free (or maybe FreeNAS) installation. In either case, it's way bigger than what I need.

NICE!
Let me know how that Sata Dom 32gb storage thingy works.
It looks like it would block adjacent sata ports, but I could easily be wrong. If you're not using any onboard ports, then there's nothing to worry about. That's just what came to mind w/ the width of the "drive."


If I'm not having any issues with a 550w and 8 drives, I doubt your 8 drives will pull so much more to even stress the 850w upon bootup.

[KBKB]

NICE!
Let me know how that Sata Dom 32gb storage thingy works.
It looks like it would block adjacent sata ports, but I could easily be wrong. If you're not using any onboard ports, then there's nothing to worry about. That's just what came to mind w/ the width of the "drive."

Yes, that is a concern. I suppose I could plug it into a cable if it ends up blocking other ports that I need.

I'm also wondering how it gets its power.

It's not a lot of money, so I decided to give it a try.

I can boot off of USB if it doesn't work out. Or I could get a conventional SSD.

If I'm not having any issues with a 550w and 8 drives, I doubt your 8 drives will pull so much more to even stress the 850w upon bootup.

I'm not concerned about only eight drives.

I also bought one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GRQT0/

...which I will install in the last remaining 5.25" bay in the case. That'll allow me to (eventually) have 16 (data) drives total. That way I can have two VDEVs, each of which has eight drives.

By the time I need more drives, the capacities will almost certainly be larger.

[KBKB]

After my last post, I wondered if the standard 7-pin SATA connector had power, kind of like how USB does. It turns out that it doesn't, though there are three ground pins.

I also looked at the pin-out for the 15-pin SATA power connector. I found it interesting that pin 11 can be used for staggered start up. The wikipedia page that I looked at also says that pin-11 can also be used as an activity indicator. (I'm not sure how they make it function as both.) Anyway, when pulled down, this pin will cause the drive to spin up. According to that page, most cables will pull this pin down for you. It seems to me that it'd be possible to do staggered spin-up via a simple microcontroller project. (There may also be existing cables / controllers for doing this; I haven't looked yet.)

[Synthetickiller]

Keep me updated. I'm really curious about all of this. Until M.2 drives are much cheaper, this is a great option.
Now, I looked up "sata dom" & a few things come up. my google-fu is working well, lately, lol. Just google the term & check out the pics. Supermicro has some options here, up to 128gb!
https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm




I realized that there's a huge problem I'm running into the house with my computer builds. DVI can only work over a 15' length!
Running video cables through walls eats up tons of distance, so DVI is out. There are options, I know, but to run multiple (at least 3) will set me back $100+ per monitor. DVI over Cat5 is super expensive. $165+ per monitor. Ugh.
What I don't know is if I can attach an HDMI/DP cable expension, along with an active HDMI/DP to DVI adapter. I'm looking at $25 per 25' cable + about #20 for the active adapter, so $45 per monitor or $135...

I'm in a situation right now where I need a new video card. 2gb of ram doesn't cut it. I'm trying to justify a GTX 1080 vs a GTX 1070. Air cooled, 1070 is half the price, $310. Moving to water cooling (I prefer this, always), there's a $100 difference, $510 vs $620.
The new card lets me move to DP & HDMI. My GTX 690 has 3 DVI & 1 mini DP port. After looking into DVI, the tech is dead to me, finally.

[KBKB]

Keep me updated. I'm really curious about all of this. Until M.2 drives are much cheaper, this is a great option.
Now, I looked up "sata dom" & a few things come up. my google-fu is working well, lately, lol. Just google the term & check out the pics. Supermicro has some options here, up to 128gb!
https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm

So, actually, I knew about the Supermicro ones already. I was checking out Motherboard specs a few weeks ago, when I came across "DOM" and wondered what that was. Googling got me to the link and photo that you've provided here. The ADATA version was less expensive and looked more compact too, so that's what I went with.

Doing these builds are fun because I get to learn about new computer tech. It changes a little bit every few years.

I realized that there's a huge problem I'm running into the house with my computer builds. DVI can only work over a 15' length!
Running video cables through walls eats up tons of distance, so DVI is out. There are options, I know, but to run multiple (at least 3) will set me back $100+ per monitor. DVI over Cat5 is super expensive. $165+ per monitor. Ugh.
What I don't know is if I can attach an HDMI/DP cable expension, along with an active HDMI/DP to DVI adapter. I'm looking at $25 per 25' cable + about #20 for the active adapter, so $45 per monitor or $135...

What's the situation? (I.e. are you trying to have home theater to monitors in different rooms? Or something else?)

Anyway, if you don't have to have the content synchronized exactly, it seems to me that you could simply stream the content to each monitor separately and decode it via a small device (i.e. something like a Raspberry Pi) at each monitor site.

I have a colleague who keeps several servers in his basement. I'm pretty sure he administers them via ssh.

I'm in a situation right now where I need a new video card. 2gb of ram doesn't cut it. I'm trying to justify a GTX 1080 vs a GTX 1070. Air cooled, 1070 is half the price, $310. Moving to water cooling (I prefer this, always), there's a $100 difference, $510 vs $620.
The new card lets me move to DP & HDMI. My GTX 690 has 3 DVI & 1 mini DP port. After looking into DVI, the tech is dead to me, finally.

For gaming?

(For my non-gaming purposes, I get by with really low-end graphics cards...)

[Synthetickiller]

What's the situation? (I.e. are you trying to have home theater to monitors in different rooms? Or something else?)

Anyway, if you don't have to have the content synchronized exactly, it seems to me that you could simply stream the content to each monitor separately and decode it via a small device (i.e. something like a Raspberry Pi) at each monitor site.

I have a colleague who keeps several servers in his basement. I'm pretty sure he administers them via ssh.




For gaming?

(For my non-gaming purposes, I get by with really low-end graphics cards...)

I originally had a closet framed out for a "bedroom" that will be used as an office.
I'm converting it to a media closet. I am dropping an AC duct into the closet & after all inspections are done, cutting out a small intake at the top of the room & adding in a decorative grill to pull all of the hot air out of the PCs. The room will be like those AC'd server rooms where temps are in the 50s. I'll have at least 3 desktops placed on shelves. All cables will be routed through the wall, up & over into the connecting room. This way, all of my PCs stay very cool & I can overclock to my hearts content. Noise won't be an issue at all, so I don't have to worrya bout turning the fans down at all. On top of that, the rest of the upstairs doesn't heat up & my AC bills drop. Beyond that, I won't have to do any weird loops with aquarium chillers or expensive geothermal loops. B/c the room temp is already low, condensation won't be an issue vs a cold loop in a warmer room.

I'll run cables out & mount monitors to the wall, hiding all inputs. That way, everything is clean looking. I'll have more room since I rarely access the physical computer anymore.

I want direct access to these PCs. One will be dedicated to gaming / gpu intensive work (like 3D modeling & what not, but 99% of the time, gaming, lol). The 2nd will be for research specifically, hooked up to 3+ monitors (I need more, but 3 for now is "acceptable) & a business computer separated so I don't have any chance to anything contaminating my work related things (I also like an excuse to build a PC, unless I get a NUC, but I'd rather build).

The servers will be in a storage room where I am dumping even more AC ducts. I've noticed a substantial increase in temperature in the room where I currently sleep. I have to run my window unit (the AC in this house doesn't work right & it hits 80F. Ask me how I'm doing, lol) to stay comfortable at night.







The GTX 1070/1080 is for gaming. Might double for overclocking on HWBot since I'll have ideal temps to work with. I bought the new Doom (if you enjoyed the original Doom, buy this game, it's amazing. I'm playing through it a 2nd time at this point) & my old gtx 690 can't handle it. I'm at 1080P getting 30 to 45 FPS on medium. Even a 1070 can run it at ultra at 1440p with acceptable frames easily. Nightmare requires at least 5gb of vram. I currently have 2 (my card is basically two, gtx 680s & SLI doesn't scale ram). Each card has 8gb. I might also do some folding at home since the room will be insanely cool & the card will be water cooled.
My research rig will eventually get an eyefinity 6 setup so I only deal with one card running 6, 2D screens. At the same time, any card capable of doing that could double for lower end gaming or 3D modeling or whatever.

[Synthetickiller]

I got my belkin Kill-a-watt wanna be device.
Max wattage from the plug was 234w. Since the drives can't start & stop instantly, I think they lag behind the case fans/ssd/motherboard/soc. If I round up & say that all drives take 25w, that's only 200w. The board is around 20w on full load, so that's around right.
Loading the OS made it sit around 115w. Logging in & loading OS components pulled 125w-ish. Sitting idle is 106w-107w.
I have a folder with lots of large files (500mb +) that's about 700GB. I'm transferring that folder at 80 to 100mb/sec. The rig sits at 114w & will peak to 127w-128w.



This is why I'm saying that these calcs are beyond overkill. I'm pulling 50% of my PSU's load upon bootup. Nothing else even remotely comes close.

[KBKB]

I got my belkin Kill-a-watt wanna be device.
Max wattage from the plug was 234w. Since the drives can't start & stop instantly, I think they lag behind the case fans/ssd/motherboard/soc. If I round up & say that all drives take 25w, that's only 200w. The board is around 20w on full load, so that's around right.
Loading the OS made it sit around 115w. Logging in & loading OS components pulled 125w-ish. Sitting idle is 106w-107w.
I have a folder with lots of large files (500mb +) that's about 700GB. I'm transferring that folder at 80 to 100mb/sec. The rig sits at 114w & will peak to 127w-128w.



This is why I'm saying that these calcs are beyond overkill. I'm pulling 50% of my PSU's load upon bootup. Nothing else even remotely comes close.

Thanks for the info.

More of the components for my file server showed up today.

I installed a 140mm fan in place of the 120mm fan at the upper rear of the case.

I moved the 120mm fan to the bottom of the case. I had a heck of a time figuring out how to take off the bottom. There were four screws (which I figured out right away), but then the bottom had to slide forward a bit, which also dislodged the plastic edge pieces on the front of the case. I must have spent at least an hour on it. (Zalman doesn't document how to remove either the top or the bottom of the case.)

I installed the power supply. As I had hoped, there's sufficient clearance between the PSU and the lower fan. PSU cables will block some air flow, but that can't be helped.

I moved a few of the MB standoffs and installed the rest. I noticed that the case is missing a hole for one of the standoffs. However, it's less than two inches from another standoff near the corner, so I doubt that it's critical.

I plugged the ADATA DOM into the motherboard. It fits fine and doesn't block anything else. Supermicro has placed two of the SATA connectors away from the other ones to provide adequate space. Still, there's a chance that it might not work, because the ADATA DOM that I ordered sits horizontal to the board (via a right angle SATA connector). Had they oriented it the other way, then it would have blocked the other SATA ports. A power connector was provided which plugs into the DOM. The other side is a 4-pin Molex connector. Supermicro provides some smaller power connectors on the board; I supposed I could check to see if I can get a suitable cable, though it's not clear to me if the connector on the DOM side is standard.

I'm going to need to order two cables to connect the on board HBA to the SATA drives. I was hoping that the cables provided with the mobile racks would work, but alas they won't.

I also installed the StarTech bay. It looks like it'll work, though the quality doesn't look as good as the Supermicro mobile racks. I was only able to secure it with two screws since access to the bottom-most screw holes is impeded by the bottom of the case. Seems secure enough though, even with just two screws.

Memory and CPU cooler won't show up until Wednesday, according to the tracking info. But that's okay since I have some cables to order anyway.

[CanadaBuilder2]

Anyone use Eye-Fi for their digital cameras? There are also generic copy cats as well as name brand ones with similar functionality.

I have an entry-level Canon Rebel T6, it comes with built-in wifi however you only have the choice of viewing images on your smart phone or uploading it to a cloud service.

I was looking for a solution where I can park my camera within range of my home wifi and it will just transfer images to my home server or something like that.

It's probably overrated and I'd do better just reading the SD card directly, but maybe others have experience with this.

[KBKB]

Anyone use Eye-Fi for their digital cameras? There are also generic copy cats as well as name brand ones with similar functionality.

I have an entry-level Canon Rebel T6, it comes with built-in wifi however you only have the choice of viewing images on your smart phone or uploading it to a cloud service.

I was looking for a solution where I can park my camera within range of my home wifi and it will just transfer images to my home server or something like that.

It's probably overrated and I'd do better just reading the SD card directly, but maybe others have experience with this.

I think that my recent Sony cameras can do this, but I haven't tried it yet.

I just plug in a USB cable, both for transferring photos and recharging the battery too.

[KBKB]

I worked on more of my server build on Tuesday evening (into early Wednesday morning).

The PSU cables are going to block a lot of airflow from that lower intake fan. I may be able to tidy it a little bit, but the cables are pretty stiff and don't seem long enough to be able to route them to the side of the case and then back in again. Even so, they would have to cross over the fan.

The SATA Power to 4-pin Molex adapters that I purchased are too wide to fit two side-by-side on the Supermicro mobile rack (hot swap bay). I used up using a peripheral (molex-connector) cable for one power connector on each rack and then used two SATA Power cables to get to the adapters on the remaining power connector on each rack. The cables weren't really designed to span the required distance on the mobile rack. I ended up using the first and third connector (on a SATA Power cable with three connectors) to span the space between the top two mobile racks.

Attaching the SATA cables (that I've done so far) to the mobile racks wasn't easy. Hopefully I won't ever have to remove them, because that'll be even harder. There isn't enough clearance for for my large fingers. Hmm... maybe a needle nose pliers would work for removing them? (Most of the SATA connectors have a latch.)

The SFF-8643 (HD Mini SAS) cables are nice. Just one connection to the motherboard for four SATA ports. The sleeve on the cable bundle is surprisingly skinny making it easy to route it. I ended up ordering some 10 inch SATA III cables to complete the connections. They'll be here later this week.

I found it curious that the motherboard lacked pins for a reset switch. There's an entry in the manual for them, but on both the motherboard and in the depictions in the manual, these pins are missing - just an empty gap between the power switch pins and the next ones up.

I wasn't able to connect the front panel audio either. Makes sense though since it's a server board.

I'm still waiting on the CPU cooler (Noctua NH-D9L) and memory. (And shorter SATA cables too.)

[KBKB]

I'm still waiting on the CPU cooler (Noctua NH-D9L)...

As supplied, the Noctua NH-D9L doesn't fit. While it does work with LGA 2011-3 square ILM, it doesn't work with the narrow ILM, which is what the Supermicro MBD-X10SRH-CF-O has.

I've ordered a Noctua NH-U9DXi4, which will hopefully work.

[KBKB]

Assuming I have a choice, which would be the best orientation for the CPU fans? Should it be:

A) Blowing towards the rear of the case? I think this will make it easier to access the DDR4 slots.

B) Towards the top? There's a larger exhaust fan at the top of the case to expel hot air coming from the CPU. (There's also a fan at the rear of the case.) Also, blowing air towards the top might also cause air to be pulled across the HBA heat sinks lower down the board.

I'm leaning toward B, but will want to eyeball it before doing it.

[Synthetickiller]

Assuming I have a choice, which would be the best orientation for the CPU fans? Should it be:

A) Blowing towards the rear of the case? I think this will make it easier to access the DDR4 slots.

B) Towards the top? There's a larger exhaust fan at the top of the case to expel hot air coming from the CPU. (There's also a fan at the rear of the case.) Also, blowing air towards the top might also cause air to be pulled across the HBA heat sinks lower down the board.

I'm leaning toward B, but will want to eyeball it before doing it.

Most HSFs are installed to blow out to the rear. If possible (not that it's necessary with such a low powered SoC xeon), do a push/pull config for the best temps. If you're only using one fan, just use a push configuration.
Rear vs Top? It doesn't make a difference. In the worst instances, maybe 1 or 2 degrees, max & that depends on the airflow of your case. It's literally a case by case situation, pardon the pun. If you're that concerned, buy/modify an AIO (all in one) water cooler. The temp delta will be almost zero, lol.

[KBKB]

Most HSFs are installed to blow out to the rear. If possible (not that it's necessary with such a low powered SoC xeon), do a push/pull config for the best temps. If you're only using one fan, just use a push configuration.
Rear vs Top? It doesn't make a difference. In the worst instances, maybe 1 or 2 degrees, max & that depends on the airflow of your case. It's literally a case by case situation, pardon the pun. If you're that concerned, buy/modify an AIO (all in one) water cooler. The temp delta will be almost zero, lol.

Thanks!

Though, FYI, I went with the non-SoC solution. For CPU, I'm using Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3 Haswell 2.4 GHz and for motherboard, I went with Supermicro MBD-X10SRH-CF-O, which uses an LGA 2011-3 socket. It's actually a narrow (versus square) ILM socket, which made finding a cooling solution a bit trickier than it might be otherwise.

Amazon supposedly sent me a Noctua NH-U9DXi4, but I had to send it back because they sent me the wrong part. I'll get to try again tomorrow when they will, hopefully, send me the correct part.

[Synthetickiller]

That's right! I blame the heat on that slipping my mind. I was thinking about the power draw. It's so low.
Whatever HSF you buy will be overkill. I would not be worried about temps, period.


I've been researching video cards in my spare time. I found out that the 10x0 generation of nvidia cards can have their bios flashed to any bios. Asus, EVGA, Zotac, Gigabyte, Palit, MSI, etc can cross flash. Galax bioses seem to brick cards or not work right. Otherwise, even if you "brick" your card, you can just boot with the onboard video & reflash. Seems interesting for overclocking & it does make a difference.

If I could just get info on if the extra power connectors matter, then I can finally buy something...

[KBKB]

I think I have a dead motherboard.

According to the manual, the "Onboard Power LED (LE2)" is supposed to light up when the power cord is connected to the power supply. It's not.

I've tried two different power supplies. On the first one (from EVGA), LE2 didn't light up at all when I flipped the power switch on the PSU. However, the BMC Heartbeat LED (LEDM1) did light up steady and then started blinking, which, I gather from the manual, is normal.

When I tried the second power supply (which is a Corsair RM450), LE2 lit up momentarily. Some of the fans also turned on, but just for a moment. Aside from that everything else was the same.

I also tried it with the motherboard removed from the case with pretty much everything disconnected. When I was done, only the CPU remained. (Though I did try it with the memory in place as well.) I even reseated the CPU twice, but no dice. (BMC LED did not turn on when power was applied to the board with a missing CPU.)

I'm going to try to return it for a replacement. I've tried twice already, but the RMA portion of Newegg's site is having problems at the moment.

[Synthetickiller]

In my experience, the ASRock board I have takes time for the heartbeat light to "beat." Afterwards, it takes just about 25 to 30 seconds to post.
Having a heartbeat is a good sign that the board isn't dead. If it was, that wouldn't be working. My money is on either the CPU (highly doubt you'd get a DOA xeon) or the PSU.
Originally, I could get a heartbeat, but no post due to install RDimms instead of UDimms, silly me, lol.

Off the top of my head, did you try:

• Resetting the Bios?
• Booting with a single stick of memory?
• Is it the right memory? (this has happened to me far more times than I'd like to admit)
• Is the memory seated correctly?
• Are all power plugs attached correctly?
• Is it possible to test the PSUs with either a tester or a working computer?
• Are all jumper settings on the board correct? (I've had to change jumper settings b/c the factory settings were wrong)

Your symptoms point to the PSU. The Corsair isn't compatible. I'd be curious to know if the EVGA isn't either. Do you happen to have a higher rated PSU sitting around, 600w+?
It might be worth calling supermicro & asking them what's up.

[KBKB]

In my experience, the ASRock board I have takes time for the heartbeat light to "beat." Afterwards, it takes just about 25 to 30 seconds to post.
Having a heartbeat is a good sign that the board isn't dead. If it was, that wouldn't be working. My money is on either the CPU (highly doubt you'd get a DOA xeon) or the PSU.
Originally, I could get a heartbeat, but no post due to install RDimms instead of UDimms, silly me, lol.

Off the top of my head, did you try:

• Resetting the Bios?
• Booting with a single stick of memory?
• Is it the right memory? (this has happened to me far more times than I'd like to admit)
• Is the memory seated correctly?
• Are all power plugs attached correctly?
• Is it possible to test the PSUs with either a tester or a working computer?
• Are all jumper settings on the board correct? (I've had to change jumper settings b/c the factory settings were wrong)

Your symptoms point to the PSU. The Corsair isn't compatible. I'd be curious to know if the EVGA isn't either. Do you happen to have a higher rated PSU sitting around, 600w+?
It might be worth calling supermicro & asking them what's up.

I've already sent the board and CPU back. I attempted to send just the board back, but (possibly since they were purchased together as a package) I kept getting errors during the RMA process when I tried this.

You got me curious - worried even - about the PSUs that I tried.

Here's the pinout for the 24pin ATX connector:



I got out my multimeter and checked the voltage levels on each of the pins on the 24-pin connector.

The first thing I checked was pin 9 (+5VSB) with the PSU switch off and on. It only read +5V when the power switch was turned on. (Which is how I thought things ought to work, but the motherboard manual implied otherwise.)

With the PSU switch (on the back of the PSU) turned on, the only pin that gave a reading was pin 9 at +5V.

Next, I connected pin 16 (PS_ON#) with pin 17 (COM or Ground). This turns on the PSU. When I did this with the EVGA power supply, the fans for the mobile racks turned on, something which did not happen during all of my earlier testing with the motherboard attached. When I tested with the Corsair RM450, I heard a clicking noise indicating that the internal relay applied wall power to the PSU. (I heard this noise too when shorting those pins on the EVGA supply.)

So, with pin 16 and 17 shorted together, I observed correct readings on all pins of the EVGA supply.

All pins except for pin 4 and pin 6 were correct on the Corsair RM 450. Pin 4 and pin 6 showed no reading whatsoever - they should show +5V. However, pin 8, the PWR_OK signal was asserted. This means that the PSU thinks that the levels are correct. (I've had bad PSUs which showed ostensibly good readings on all pins, but the PSU did not work when attach to the MB due to pin 8 staying low. I'm guessing that this means that the PSU didn't pass the internal self tests.)

I don't know what to make of the fact that the (new in box, until yesterday) Corsair RM 450 does not show correct readings on pins 4 and 6.

But I have a high degree of confidence in the EVGA PSU which is currently installed in my server case.

[KBKB]

Off the top of my head, did you try:

• Resetting the Bios?
• Booting with a single stick of memory?
• Is it the right memory? (this has happened to me far more times than I'd like to admit)
• Is the memory seated correctly?
• Are all power plugs attached correctly?
• Is it possible to test the PSUs with either a tester or a working computer?
• Are all jumper settings on the board correct? (I've had to change jumper settings b/c the factory settings were wrong)

That's a nice check list.

In order...

I did not reset the BIOS.

Though I had originally installed all four sticks of memory, I took them out one by one, and tested after each stick was removed, until no memory was installed.

For RAM, this is what I ordered: Crucial 128GB (4 x 32GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Server Memory Model CT4K32G4RFD4213. Checking it again just now, it looks like it should work.

Memory was seated correctly.

Power connectors were attached correctly.

Regarding testing, see my earlier post.

I did look at the jumpers that I thought mattered (and most of the others too). One thing I did not check was the JSTBY1. This is a standby power header. However, if pin 1 (+5V Standby) and pin 2 (Ground) were shorted together with a jumper, that would be bad. I don't think this was the case, but I didn't check this.

[KBKB]

Having a heartbeat is a good sign that the board isn't dead. If it was, that wouldn't be working.

So...

There are two LEDs on the motherboard.

One is the Onboard Power LED (LE2). According the the documentation, "when LE2 is on, the AC power cord is connected. Make sure to disconnect the power cable before removing or installing any component." However, as I noted in an earlier post, I don't think that the LED should turn on when the power cord is connected, but the power switch is turned off. (IMO, the power cord needs to be connected and the PSU switch must be turned on.) Regardless, it did not turn on at all when connected to the EVGA supply and would only turn on momentarily (less than 0.5 sec) when connected to the Corsair PSU.

The second LED is the BMC Heartbeat LEDM1. BMC refers to "the embedded Aspeed 2400 baseboard management controller to provide IPMI 2.0/KVM support on the motherboard". As I indicated earlier, this LED would glow steady at first and then start blinking.

While I do take it as a good sign that (at least) the BMC LED turned on (and then blinked), it's not good at all that the Onboard Power LED did not light up. This LED should have lit up when the PSU switch (on the supply itself) was turned on. The fact that it didn't suggests (to me) a problem with either the PSU or the motherboard. That's why I tried a second PSU prior to initiating an RMA.

[Synthetickiller]

The PSU will hold some charge. That's why the LE2 light stays on. The quickest way to check for that is to unplug the PSU from the wall & hold down the power button to effectively drain the PSU.
From what I gather, it's just a notification light that says "If I'm on, don't install anything."

It's possible that it's a bad cpu, too. I think you made the right call. Just eliminate 2 possible issues. If the new cpu/mobo combo doesn't work, then we can look into PSU, Memory or possibly a short (I highly doubt it'a short, but I'm just going through things I've run into). There's not much else to really do. Just wait & see what happens.



I finally ordered a video card...
MSI GTX 1080 Seahawk EK X.


I was tempted to get a founders edition (reference design) with the heatkiller IV block because of how well built it is & the aesthetics.
I opted out since I really have no where to work & I don't feel like another project. Maybe if I ever go crazy & run SLI again, then possibly.

[KBKB]

I finally ordered a video card...
MSI GTX 1080 Seahawk EK X.


I was tempted to get a founders edition (reference design) with the heatkiller IV block because of how well built it is & the aesthetics.
I opted out since I really have no where to work & I don't feel like another project. Maybe if I ever go crazy & run SLI again, then possibly.

Cool.

I've been wondering if Lightroom and/or Photoshop would perform better by using a graphics card than on-board (actually on-CPU) Intel Graphics.

On my Linux machines, I haven't used anything from NVidia or ATI recently (roughly 10 years). Intel graphics perform well enough and the open source drivers are pretty good. Back when I used nvidia-based cards, fetching the closed source driver was always a hassle when doing an update. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.

[KBKB]

I just received the book FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS by Jude & Lucas.

Looking at the table of contents, I see several chapters that I want to read, but there was one that reminded me of a past topic of conversation: backups.

It turns out that ZFS has a feature called replication which can be used "most obviously in backups, but also in testing, virtualization, and data migration." According to the section, "But I Have Rsync", the book says that ZFS replication "beats rsync so badly that rsync's mom needs urgent medical attention." (There's some technical detail provided too which backs up this rather colorful statement.)

Anyway, if both the fileserver and backup machine are both running ZFS, replication should definitely be considered. (I've only skimmed the first part of the chapter so far.)

I've also been thumbing my way through FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS. After reading about zpool replace, I've just about convinced myself to purchase an additional three disks, bringing the total size of the VDEV to 11 (8+3) drives, from which I would make a single RAID-Z3 VDEV.

When, some number of years from now, I want to add more space, I will purchase eleven new and more capacious drives. Using the mobile racks (hot swap) bays alone, I'll have four empty trays. I can install four of the new drives in those trays and then use the "zpool replace" command to copy data from one of the existing drives to one of the new drives. Obviously, I'd execute this command four times for each of the new drives just installed. The replace command copies data from the old drive to the new drive and, when the copy is complete, brings the old drive offline. Once those four (old) drives are offline, I can then pull them out and, in their place, put in four more of the new drives. I then do "zpool replace" on four more of the old drives, copying the data to the new drives. Finally, I do this a third time with the remaining three drives. When I'm finished, the VDEV (and also the pool) will have all new, more capacious drives. So long as I set the "autoexpand" flag set for the pool, ZFS will automatically expand the pool to use the new space available from the larger drives.

If there are no spare drive trays available, this can (still) be done by failing a drive, putting in a new one, and then letting ZFS resilver the pool. This is somewhat riskier however, because 1) we've removed one of the drives which contributes to redundancy in the pool, and 2) ZFS has to reconstruct data on the failed drive by considering data on the rest of the drives, causing an increased level activity in the pool as a whole. This increased level of activity could cause actual drive failures to occur in some of the other drives.

Using "zpool replace" where both a source and target storage provider are specified does something akin to a simple copy. No redundancy is lost during the operation and the copying operation won't create as much activity in the other drives forming the pool.