Night Fury - SR-2 [dual LGA1366]

[Dinnercore]

Hello there.

I´m doing another project-build, after finishing my previous project in december of last year ( https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/realizing-my-childhood-dream-lga775-nvidia-sli.247398/ )

Since last time I focused on that childhood mGPU dream, I´m going for the dual CPU setup this time.
It was a very spontaneous decision, I was scanning local offers for old GPUs when I stumbled across this board and fell in love. Fully functional, already equipped with 48GB DDR3 2400MHz and dual X5690s.

Again it is one of those holy grail pieces that I never could have afforded as a teenager but always dreamed about what it would be like. Well now here it is

I still need to sketch parts of the build, I had some trouble to find a case to fit this HPTX-monster which costs less than the board itself. My only real option was the Nanoxia Deep-Silence 6 tower. Not an ideal choice, because I´m a huge watercooling enthusiast and I plan to use water on atleast the board and CPUs, hopefully the GPU too.
In the end I decided to stick with the DB-6 because I can always use my external Mo-Ra3, so I´m not limited to the 2x 280mm radiators the case supports.

So, I got the board (EVGA SR-2), CPUs (X5690), RAM and a case. I also got a reservoir and a pump. I´m in the process of getting a full waterblock custom made for the board (should arrive in September). I will re-use the PSU from my previous build (EVGA 1600W T2).

What I still need to choose is a fitting GPU option and if it will be integrated into the waterloop or air-cooled. And I need to find some lighting options to hit a specific purple color. This might get a bit tricky, but I still got some time till September to figure something out before I can assemble it.
I wanted this to be a more subtle machine compared to the Nvidia theme I did before. So no fancy window-panel, no colored cables, no branded case. Instead I´m aiming for a big, black tower with an ominous purple glow from the top vents and the side-inlets of the front panel. The specific hue and intensity will be the most difficult part. It would be really cool if I could take it further but I´m not a case modder and every mod I have ever done fits in the ghetto mod section...

What I am most interested in however, is to see how this system will hold up to modern hardware and what kind of overclock I will be able to squeeze out of a dual socket setup.

First thing I can start on is taking apart the boards heatsink and give everything a very gentle but thorough clean. I will also lap the CPUs, maybe even delid them and replace the solder with liquid metal, but I´m not sure if I´ll do that. Seems a little unnecessary even to me


Parts List (so far):
Mainboard: EVGA SR-2
CPU: 2x Xeon X5690
GPU: RTX 2080 Super (Inno3D iChill Frostbite)
RAM: 6x 8GB Vengeance Pro Series C11 2400MHz
Storage: 500GB SSD, 5TB HDD
PSU: EVGA Supernova 1600 T2

Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 Rev. B
Fans: 7x 140mm, 8x 180mm, 5x 120mm, 2x 80mm
RGB-Controller: Cooler Master
Lighting: 2x RGB-LED strips

Radiators: 1x 240mm, 1x 280mm, 1x MoRa3
Fan Controller: Lamptron CU423
Pump/Res: XSPC Dual Bay with 2x D5 Vario pump
Tubing: Mayhems Ultra Clear 16/10mm
CPU-Blocks: Phobya UC-1 Extreme
Mainboardcooler: Liquid Extasy SR-2
Fittings: 24x 16/10 compression fittings by Alphacool
Quick-connectors: 2x Alphacool Eiszapfen Quick-Connectors to make the external radiator detachable

TIMs:
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the chipset
Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad on the VRMs
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut on the delidded CPUs going direct die contact with the cooler

Pictures of the result:

 

[Yukikaze]

Once upon a time, I had a Skulltrail (2xQX9775) available to me at work, and I always wanted an SR-2 but I could never justify getting one, even years down the line. Kudos for this project!

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

This era of Xeon reminds me of the old Musclecar era. These CPUs had a different purpose in their day, but can now be tricked out and tuned to be so much more. Today they are the fun retro CPUs we only dreamed about owning when they were new, but now we can attain them. I look forward to unleashing the power and nostalgia.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nice.
I have SR-2 with 5675's and Dom GT's on air.

 

[Dinnercore]

I took a look under the heatsink cover of the SR-2 today and it looks really nasty. Not only is the dust nearly completly clogging the airflow, it smells like a 14 year old trying to hide his smoking habit from his parents. Intense deodorant smell with a strong undertone of cigarette smoke...





The good news is everything else looks good. Only minor 'damage' I could spot was this PCIe-pin sticking out a bit:

Gonna remove the heatsink, clean everything and move over to lapping the CPUs.

As for the GPU to choose I´m really torn on two things. First, I want to use a modern GPU that suits the CPU to create a balanced build, but on the same time I again feel like it would be very cool to get something completly silly like dual 980ti.
The second thing about it is, do I stick with an EVGA theme and have board, PSU and GPU all from EVGA or do I just get whatever since it won´t be looked at 95% of the time anyway?


@Mr.Scott that seems like a solid result. Did you run some 3D stuff on it too? If so, what GPU did you pair it with?

 

[Mr.Scott]

I have done no 3D benching to speak of on it.
I usually bench 3D on LGA 1151, unless it's AGP, then AM2NF3-VSTA.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I took a look under the heatsink cover of the SR-2 today and it looks really nasty. Not only is the dust nearly completly clogging the airflow, it smells like a 14 year old trying to hide his smoking habit from his parents. Intense deodorant smell with a strong undertone of cigarette smoke...





The good news is everything else looks good. Only minor 'damage' I could spot was this PCIe-pin sticking out a bit:

Gonna remove the heatsink, clean everything and move over to lapping the CPUs.

As for the GPU to choose I´m really torn on two things. First, I want to use a modern GPU that suits the CPU to create a balanced build, but on the same time I again feel like it would be very cool to get something completly silly like dual 980ti.
The second thing about it is, do I stick with an EVGA theme and have board, PSU and GPU all from EVGA or do I just get whatever since it won´t be looked at 95% of the time anyway?


@Mr.Scott that seems like a solid result. Did you run some 3D stuff on it too? If so, what GPU did you pair it with?

That’s one nasty HSF. Poor baby couldn’t breathe!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Definitely. It runs hot even whistle clean.

 

[jaggerwild]

Them boards did command $450 not to long ago, I think it still about the same even not working condition.

 

[Dinnercore]

Them boards did command $450 not to long ago, I think it still about the same even not working condition.

Yeah they seem to hold a price around that 400$ mark. I´m surprised to see how frequent these still are for sale tho, so far every time I´ve been looking there were atleast 1 or 2 available. Currently there is a guy on ebay selling one as broken with a weird 50/50 boot chance and the offers are already above 250€.
I got it for 680€, including the CPUs which each don´t go for less than 80€ plus the 48GB of fast RAM and including two coolers:



All in all it wasn´t a steal, but I don´t feel like I overpaid either.

I have done no 3D benching to speak of on it.
I usually bench 3D on LGA 1151, unless it's AGP, then AM2NF3-VSTA.

I don´t plan to use this for 3D benching, but I´d like to pair it with a GPU that balances the CPU-power and I have no clue how well these Xeons in dual config hold up. I might stick an RX 5700 in there if I go with recent stuff.
For 3D-benching I´d always use the latest CPU platform possible.

Definitely. It runs hot even whistle clean.

Which is why I decided I have to use water on the board. I read a lot about these boards/chipsets failing over time, probably due to heat-cycle stress. I don´t want to run it hot, this board deserves a comfortable retirement. Finding a used waterblock without a board is very difficult these days, which is why I was very happy to find someone still making the blocks for the SR-2 if you ask for it.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

The dual Xeon trays for the classic Mac Pro are also still really expensive. Granted, they usually come pre-equipped with X56xx CPUs, but they usually go for $400-600.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Yeah they seem to hold a price around that 400$ mark. I´m surprised to see how frequent these still are for sale tho, so far every time I´ve been looking there were atleast 1 or 2 available. Currently there is a guy on ebay selling one as broken with a weird 50/50 boot chance and the offers are already above 250€.

miners? I mean once the system is up and running you never need to take it down

 

[Devastator0]

May I make a suggestion & take a look at what TechYesCity on YouTube did with one of these if you haven’t already. He did an SR2 build not long ago and came out awesome. Perhaps join his Discord and drop a message about it?

 

[Mr.Scott]

All in all it wasn´t a steal, but I don´t feel like I overpaid either.

I stole mine.
$75 complete at an estate sale.
Just sitting all by itself in a box in somebody's junk room.
A 'right place at right time' score. I was lucky.

 

[Dinnercore]

I took the heatsink off and found some more nasty stuff. Mostly just brown dust, but this little transistor caught my attention:



It must have gotten hot and been hot for a longer period of time. It looks like it let the magic smoke out.



I have been trying to get the part but this number (ALHV / 1Z) turns up nothing for me.
Lets just hope it is nothing important, if I´m not mistaken this is part of the power delivery for the fan that was with the heatsink. If I use my waterblock this hopefully will be worked around neatly.

Still I would rather like to find this to replace it, better safe than sorry.

Some more of the nasty stuff:



Looks like a worm ate through it.





This is the fan cable connecting to the header close to the transistor in question. It shows some heat discoloration too, I think the poor chipset was cooking during the last days of use from the previous owner and the fan tried as hard as it could to compensate the lack of airflow.
I hope I got this poor thing in time to save it.



This yellow tape is right above Q172, showing how hot it got.







Time for a proper bath. For me and the board after working on this.

As for the GPU question, I got a neat idea. This platform seems powerful enough for even a 1080 or higher as TechYesCity showed that is maxes out a 980ti most of the time. I´m on the same 1440p resolution and instead of investing in another card that is basically on par with my main systems Vega I´ll rather buy my upgrade now and use it in this for a while. This will eliminate any potential GPU bottleneck too, and we will see exactly what this dual Xeon platform is capable of. Been thinking towards the 5700 XT.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@Dinnercore ,don't resolder unless wb / pot on die. Personal 2 penny's

 

[Frick]

Some dude on here built tons of those systems for some customer. T_ski? Or something. Beastly things, I really wish there was a market for an equivalent these days.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Just my own experience, but I had an old GeForce where I accidentally knocked a cap off the back. Card still worked just fine.

 

[Dinnercore]

Just my own experience, but I had an old GeForce where I accidentally knocked a cap off the back. Card still worked just fine.

For a cap sure, I´ve had the same experience. They usually just filter noise from a signal or supply line and one more or less is within spec and does not change much for functionality.

This Q172 / ALHV 1Z is not a cap tho, but a transistor of some kind. Maybe a mosfet. It is not as simple as a missing cap. If that thing is broken some functionality will be lost. In this case, since the fan was still spinning, I would guess it has to do with the fan speed control, more precise it is the power regulating part of the circuit and now the fan might be at a fixed speed.
I did not test it, just let board post and boot once, was happy that it worked and did pay no attention to the fan since it was spinning.

If all my assumptions about this SMD are correct, it may be ok to leave it be. Broken or not, I will not plug a fan in there again anyway.

 

[Grog6]

The a63a chip seems to be this:

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm321.pdf

A sot5 opamp. Compare the pinout to your board layout and verify.

That transistor isn't showing up; but if it's a fan driver, it's going to be a 1/2 A or so transistor, probably.

See which pin is connected to power, and post back.

This post made me find this:

https://www.sphere.bc.ca/download/smd-codebook.pdf

Which is very cool.


EDIT: looking at my board, if you run the fans slow, there's a bunch of power dropped across that transistor.
It may be normal.
I'd try it, and if it works, it's probably ok.
Worst case, it won't work at all, or will run full speed.

 

[Dinnercore]

The a63a chip seems to be this:

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm321.pdf

A sot5 opamp. Compare the pinout to your board layout and verify.

That transistor isn't showing up; but if it's a fan driver, it's going to be a 1/2 A or so transistor, probably.

See which pin is connected to power, and post back.

This post made me find this:

https://www.sphere.bc.ca/download/smd-codebook.pdf

Which is very cool.


EDIT: looking at my board, if you run the fans slow, there's a bunch of power dropped across that transistor.
It may be normal.
I'd try it, and if it works, it's probably ok.
Worst case, it won't work at all, or will run full speed.

Thank you so much, this is very useful stuff for me.

I will poke the thing with my DMM when I run the board again, but this will have to wait until the waterblock arrives (eta during september).
Looks like I got nothing to worry about tho, the part is not vital for the overall function. My guess for what this transistor does was quite accurate, funny how easy it is to figure these things out if you just look at it and think about it, even without having much background knowledge.

 

[phill]

What a beautiful system I remember picking mine up a while ago now, I think I'd paid something like £1400 or something and then had a 400 mile trip to go pick it up lol

Just for memories, here's a before and after...

CPUs weren't a massively high spec being X5650's but man they can suck the juice from the wall!! (thank god for solar panels!!)

Have an amazing time with it and I hope that it runs for years to come I'll be watching the thread and seeing how things develop

 

[Dinnercore]

What a beautiful system I remember picking mine up a while ago now, I think I'd paid something like £1400 or something and then had a 400 mile trip to go pick it up lol

Just for memories, here's a before and after...

CPUs weren't a massively high spec being X5650's but man they can suck the juice from the wall!! (thank god for solar panels!!)

Have an amazing time with it and I hope that it runs for years to come I'll be watching the thread and seeing how things develop

What a beautiful build! Yours looks much more tidy than mine ever will be

Some parts arrived for my build, but the most important one that keeps me from going much further will probably take two more weeks atleast.

I will be using a dual D5 bay equipped with two D5 Vario pumps. Can be controlled with a PWM signal or with a dial on the back of each pump. In theory that should be enough to get the water through the big loop.


Since the two Xeons will produce a lot of heat on top of the GPU and mainboard I decided to go for an external MoRa radiator from Watercool. I did a quick test fit to see if I can get away without an additional mounting kit for 180mm fans and I can. So this unit will be equipped in full 180mm push/pull config.


The CPU blocks are here too, Phobya UC-1 Extremes. They are cheap and reliable, I use the same one on my OC-bench with great results.

To help the big radiator and further increase thermal transfer area I got a 240mm and a 280mm radiator to mount inside the case.


Now that is a lot of fans, and the big ones do eat up 5W each. That calls for a serious fan controller, as the one built into the case only supports 30W at best.


This massive unit is up to the task. The reason why I picked especially the Lamptron CU423 was simply that I could not find a proper review or much material on it at all. So naturally I had to get one.

An 8-Pin for your fan supply + molex. The CU423 is insane, I love it!


Looking at the naked board I got a strange idea forming in my head, but this will need some further R&D before I decide to try it.


I had some trouble with my tube fittings, had to return them because each 6-pack I received was opened and missing one or two... Well since I´m still waiting on the boards wb there is no time lost.
Only major things I´m missing now is that block and a GPU.
I´m hoping that AMD will release a 5800 XT soon, but lets be real that won´t happen within the next 2-3 weeks :/

 

[phill]

What a beautiful build! Yours looks much more tidy than mine ever will be

Some parts arrived for my build, but the most important one that keeps me from going much further will probably take two more weeks atleast.

I will be using a dual D5 bay equipped with two D5 Vario pumps. Can be controlled with a PWM signal or with a dial on the back of each pump. In theory that should be enough to get the water through the big loop.


Since the two Xeons will produce a lot of heat on top of the GPU and mainboard I decided to go for an external MoRa radiator from Watercool. I did a quick test fit to see if I can get away without an additional mounting kit for 180mm fans and I can. So this unit will be equipped in full 180mm push/pull config.


The CPU blocks are here too, Phobya UC-1 Extremes. They are cheap and reliable, I use the same one on my OC-bench with great results.

To help the big radiator and further increase thermal transfer area I got a 240mm and a 280mm radiator to mount inside the case.


Now that is a lot of fans, and the big ones do eat up 5W each. That calls for a serious fan controller, as the one built into the case only supports 30W at best.


This massive unit is up to the task. The reason why I picked especially the Lamptron CU423 was simply that I could not find a proper review or much material on it at all. So naturally I had to get one.

An 8-Pin for your fan supply + molex. The CU423 is insane, I love it!


Looking at the naked board I got a strange idea forming in my head, but this will need some further R&D before I decide to try it.


I had some trouble with my tube fittings, had to return them because each 6-pack I received was opened and missing one or two... Well since I´m still waiting on the boards wb there is no time lost.
Only major things I´m missing now is that block and a GPU.
I´m hoping that AMD will release a 5800 XT soon, but lets be real that won´t happen within the next 2-3 weeks :/

I know the build will be fantastic

You might want to try out this fan controller at some point... I think you'll find it amusing

Looking forward to the next update!!

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I enjoy living vicariously through your project. These days all my creative energy (and most of my spare cash) goes into fixing up my 60 year old colonial. It has a closed loop refrigerated cooling system, but I dump my heat outside.