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[RayTheRat]

Hi. I'm a new guy, but I'm an old guy. I've been working with computers since 1966 when I started with vacuum-tube analog stuff. I worked as a hardware tech for the first half of my career and a programmer/analyst for the latter half. I had to retire a few years ago because of some pretty serious heart trouble, but I still get myself into other kinds of trouble.

I just completed a build of the "Dreadnought"...well, it's not completely done, but I'm writing this on it so it's functional enough for the moment.

There are details in my profile, as well as here: http://raytherat.com/dreadnought/Welcome.html

Basically it's a 2x4 core AMD Opteron server system with 16gb registered ram, an OCZ 60gb SSD and a buncha other stuff.

It took me about 2 weeks to get everything together and running...mainly waiting for mail order parts.

I just ran the first benchmark: wPrime 32M at 16.52 sec. Considering that my current workstation took 82 seconds, that's not too bad. I haven't begun tweaking or overclocking yet. I need to do a whole lotta other stuff first including planning a liquid cooling system for the CPUs and the disk drives that will live in it.

That's it for now.

Ray the Rat
in the high desert.

[afw]

Nice build ... ... keep up the good work .....

[MRCL]

Nice build. Just one thing bugs me, and thats the stock coolers. But I guess thats my personal views and the fact that being registered on TPU for some time makes you want to leave absolutely nothing on stock

[RayTheRat]

Well, I'm a charter member of the "can't leave nuttin stock" club. But I only fired this sucker up yesterday. I need to establish baselines so I can see what improvements are needed and how effective they are. If yer specifically talking about the CPU fans, yeah, I agree. They gotta go, but I haven't found a solution that will do what I want. I may go with 2 Corsair H50s, but I'd still like to cool the HDDs..that would kinda defeat the purpose of having sealed systems like that.

If I had my druthers, I'd use the Zalman finned cooling towers...probably 2 of 'em, with my own system of pump(s), flow indicators and cooling blocks. I sent Zalman an email asking if I can get the towers without the pumps, but haven't heard anything yet. I really don't wanna bend up a buncha copper tubing to make a heat exchanger in a lucite tube, but I spose I could if I had to.

I'll get there, it's just gonna take awhile.

RtR
in the high Desert

[MRCL]

I don't think additional hard drive cooling is really necessary, the big front fan should be enough. HDDs suffer from heat, but they don't like to be cold either.

I'm interested to see how this project turns out. Watercooling two CPUs is always nice, maybe I can learn something from you as I have a dual FX70 board.

[CDdude55]

Very Nice.

Originally Posted by RayTheRat

I've been working with computers since 1966 .

Holy crap.

[DrPepper]

Nice build. I wouldn't bother cooling the SSD though, it doesn't even emit heat and if it does very very little

[Zebeon]

nice build!
Will have to post some pics....
Interested in the dual CPU water cooling!

And welcome to TPU

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by CDdude55

Very Nice.


Holy crap.

Yeah...I'm an old fart. But that industry put bread on the table for a lotta years. Now that I'm supposedly retired, I'm workin harder than I ever did...but I have a slave driver for a boss. I'm self-employed.

RtR in the high desert

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by DrPepper

Nice build. I wouldn't bother cooling the SSD though, it doesn't even emit heat and if it does very very little

Yeah. I understand that. I had a "discussion" with a friend about that yesterday. He was of the opinion that the SSD would run hotter'n hell. I have no idea how he'd come to that conclusion, since he's still running Win 98 on a steam-powered laptop, but I finally had to pull the SSD out of the bay and put it in his hand so he'd realize it was the coolest part of the whole machine.

It's the WD 1 and 1.5 TB drives that I have on my current workstation that run hotter'n a $2 pistol on the 4th of July. Check my build diary and you'll see that I have to keep a 24" boxer fan runnin 7x24 to keep those under 40C.

Those are the only ones I'm concerned about in addition to the CPUs. But maybe they'd be fine with the fans in the 932 case. I dunno yet.

RtR in the high desert

[DRDNA]

Originally Posted by RayTheRat

Yeah...I'm an old fart. But that industry put bread on the table for a lotta years. Now that I'm supposedly retired, I'm workin harder than I ever did...but I have a slave driver for a boss. I'm self-employed.

RtR in the high desert

SO RTR where is the High Desert actually located? I am guessing Arizona or Oklahoma


Nice rig ..I concur with no need to water cool the harddrives and that a fan will do.
WELCOME TO TPU!

[DrPepper]

Originally Posted by RayTheRat

Yeah. I understand that. I had a "discussion" with a friend about that yesterday. He was of the opinion that the SSD would run hotter'n hell. I have no idea how he'd come to that conclusion, since he's still running Win 98 on a steam-powered laptop, but I finally had to pull the SSD out of the bay and put it in his hand so he'd realize it was the coolest part of the whole machine.

It's the WD 1 and 1.5 TB drives that I have on my current workstation that run hotter'n a $2 pistol on the 4th of July. Check my build diary and you'll see that I have to keep a 24" boxer fan runnin 7x24 to keep those under 40C.

Those are the only ones I'm concerned about in addition to the CPUs. But maybe they'd be fine with the fans in the 932 case. I dunno yet.



RtR in the high desert

I had Samsung F1's like that. In my old coolermaster cosmos. The drive bay was steel and the 4 HDD's would all heat up and they'd start failing after a while. Had to get 2 120mm's on them. They should be fine in the HAF 932 though. As long as they have some air flow they will be good.

Originally Posted by DRDNA

SO RTR where is the High Desert actually located? I am guessing Arizona or Oklahoma

I'm guessing the salt flats in Utah.

[Wrigleyvillain]

Kick ass thread title! Welcome to TPU

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by Zebeon

nice build!
Will have to post some pics....
Interested in the dual CPU water cooling!

And welcome to TPU

Thank you for the welcome. There are tons of photos of the build from the very beginning here:


But here's a shot of the mobo just after installing the memory, before doing any wiring control:



And one of the front panel and screen as I was starting the first Windoze 7 install:



RtR in the high desert

[Kreij]

Welcome to TPU
When you get a moment, please add your system specs in the UserCP to make it easier for people to assist you if needed. Thanks.

[ZenZimZaliben]

Just read through you site and noticed you are trying to use a HDD for swap/pagefile space.

With an SSD drive and 16Gbs of RAM you should actually disable the entire swap/page file. You will gain a nice amount of performance doing this.

[RayTheRat]

[QUOTE=DrPepper;1748083
I'm guessing the salt flats in Utah.[/QUOTE]

Very good. That's it. I'm a couple of hours away from 'em. That's where I do a LOT of photography. I should have a car to run this September. If it's as fast as the Dreadnought, it otta be just about right.

This isn't my car. It's "Fast Freddie" Dannenfelzer. He ran well over 340 in a lakester (open wheels) faster than any other open wheeled car had ever run last October.



Ray the Rat
In the High Desert
Fast cars
Fast Computers
Canon cameras
Ibanez Basses
Hammond Organs

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by Kreij

Welcome to TPU
When you get a moment, please add your system specs in the UserCP to make it easier for people to assist you if needed. Thanks.

Sorry. I had 'em entered, just forgot to check the "show specs" checkbox. Ler's see if this works better.

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by ZenZimZaliben

Just read through you site and noticed you are trying to use a HDD for swap/pagefile space.

With an SSD drive and 16Gbs of RAM you should actually disable the entire swap/page file. You will gain a nice amount of performance doing this.

Now THAT's a good idea. I hadn't even thought about it, but yeah, with 8gig ram for each processor you'd kinda think ya wouldn't need that. Once I get the SSD flashed to the correct firmware and another HDD in there, I'll do just that.

[DrPepper]

Some programs need the pagefile though. Disabling it entirely is a bad idea.

[DRDNA]

Originally Posted by RayTheRat

Now THAT's a good idea. I hadn't even thought about it, but yeah, with 8gig ram for each processor you'd kinda think ya wouldn't need that. Once I get the SSD flashed to the correct firmware and another HDD in there, I'll do just that.

DAMN he beet me to the punch ...DrPepper is fast!
Its a nice idea but I am sure you know some application refuse to work with out a page file.Just an FYI that was probably unneeded .

[brandonwh64]

I was reading this on your website

I had to break down and buy it. This is the first copy of Windoze I've ever purchased. I found that the only thing I could get with a student discount (my daughter-in-law works for the University of Utah) was an upgrade package. How do you upgrade a machine with an empty hard disk? So I bought the full release of Windoze 7. I didn't want to, but I did it anyway cuz I really need a 64-bit OS...and I don't wanna use Vista.

you can install the full install with even just a upgrade disc, as long as its bootable. just click custom install instead of upgrade

[DRDNA]

Originally Posted by brandonwh64

I was reading this on your website



you can install the full install with even just a upgrade disc, as long as its bootable. just click custom install instead of upgrade

It wont activate unless it sees the window.old folder ..actually there something in that folder that lets it work with the upgrade key. But a call to MS fixes that ...I went threw this just a couple of weeks ago. It will indeed install tho.

[brandonwh64]

HMM i ordered mine from MSDA through my school and got the upgrade and installed it and activated it on a fresh formatted drive. i had no problems.

[RayTheRat]

That difference of opinions id why I bought it. Since there was so much new stuff, I figgered I'd keep the variables to a minimum.