Some True BCN History - Homecoming of a long lost friend!

[TechGeek]

WD Green drives are Western Digital's worst drive model.

[Topcat]

A little forward progress today. Since I am changing OS platforms and changing a few cofigurations when I migrate this system, I wanted to beta test some hardware....so I decided to assemble one of the two systems in test form.... When I say 'test form', that means using what's on-hand....only 24gb ram and some used HDD's.

I'm glad I did this, as S2K12 had some dislikes with this arrangement. I got all the kinks out, but it was a confusing day figuring it out. I also did a mod on the case, which really tested my confidence in my craftsmanship!

Anyway....away we go. One of the two new motherboards....



The old board stripped from the tray.


New board mounted up...and the fun begins. For as large as this case is, it isn't fanned all that well. There's a hole matrix right above the IO plate that was begging for some 60mm high-speed PWM fans....so....

pinned out to see if the holes line up at all...and they do!!






Ok, this made me nervous... It normally doesn't bother me to hack up a case, but for some reason, drilling holes in this one was very unsettling!!

Drilled out!




Fans mounted. Running off the motherboard's fan controller, this system is remarkably quiet, yet cool now... The old SHG2 boards have no fan controller, so everything ran full speed....this system was always loud and obnoxious! Its quite pleasant to be around it now! The active exhaust I added does great pulling the heat out.




Retired!


Getting closer!


Real heatsinks installedon the CPU's, and a fan installed on the NB chip (that bastard gets hot).


Drawer installed and connected.




Temp OS drive mounted.


Now this is where things get real hinky!!! The system kept doing some really off-the-wall shit. Random hard locks & random reboots during the S2K12 install...If I tried S2K8, smooth sailing. Had no clue what the problem was. After eliminating the CPU's and RAM, I noticed at one point S2K12 had conniptions when attempting to load the 3ware driver. After some digging, I discovered that unless the controller is the latest firmware, they will not work on S2K12 AT ALL!!! So there went about 4hrs of my life troubleshooting that, which I'll never get back... Ohh well. After updating the firmware, no more problems...

Installing.


Installed..


Up & running.


Thanks to Ratdude, I ended up with an IBM rackmount server that had a matching pair of PCIe dual gigabit NIC's in it. I robbed them out and will use one for each of these systems, hand-in-hand with the onboard dual gigabit NIC's. The beta test I wanted to try was teaming all 4 (onboard and the PCIe) into a 4Gbit team. That test was also a success!!

It'll run for a few days to get the BBU batt charged & tested...but I see no problems there. Till next time.

[ratdude747]

Looking Good. Glad you found some use for the IBM server (it's an x3650, for those playing at home).

[goontron]

^ Sorry. Not interested in dick-waving contests

[momaka]

As always, awesome work TC!

I noticed something, though: your motherboard's I/O shield has only 2 USB ports, but if you look at the motherboard in this picture, it looks like the motherboard has 4 USB ports. Might be worth checking.

Also, I know you said you don't like to hack up a case, but the holes on the back of that case look extremely restrictive. With two CPUs inside the case and only two 60 mm fans exhausting (and not even at full speed), that has me a little worried about the ambient temperatures inside the case once the system has been running for a few hours. I know you mentioned before that you like to keep your A/C set pretty low (like 64-67F), so that will probably help quite a bit to keep things cool.

But if this was my system, I would have completely cut out those metal holes first thing and have the fans with wire grills (or none at all).

On that note, don't forget to deburr the metal shavings from the holes you drilled. I can see them, again in the same picture above, and that makes me very uneasy. It's not as bad as people drilling/cutting holes in their case with the motherboard still inside (lol ), but I still get goosebumps, as those metal shavings could easily fall off and short something. Even worse if they get stuck under a BGA chip.

I like the fan you put on the Northbridge, though. A lot of motherboards let their NBs run way too hot, IMO. Without good cooling, that can cause all sorts of failures, even with quality-built server hardware.
(On that note, I think this is what made the RAID controller fail in my NetServer E800 - I used to run it a lot in the summer in my university apartment with the windows wide open and inside room temperatures easily reaching 86F. I kept a fan on the HDDs, so they were fine, and the PC was running with the sides off. But even that probably wasn't enough to keep things cool in that hot of a room).

Anyways, awesome project again! And I really dig the cable management - looks great.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by goontron

^ Sorry. Not interested in dick-waving contests

You would think that...

Originally Posted by momaka

As always, awesome work TC!

I noticed something, though: your motherboard's I/O shield has only 2 USB ports, but if you look at the motherboard in this picture, it looks like the motherboard has 4 USB ports. Might be worth checking.

Nope, its 2 USB and the IPMI port. I did remove the blank from the IO shield before final assembly though.

Originally Posted by momaka

Also, I know you said you don't like to hack up a case, but the holes on the back of that case look extremely restrictive. With two CPUs inside the case and only two 60 mm fans exhausting (and not even at full speed), that has me a little worried about the ambient temperatures inside the case once the system has been running for a few hours. I know you mentioned before that you like to keep your A/C set pretty low (like 64-67F), so that will probably help quite a bit to keep things cool.

It breathes a little better than what I made it sound like. 4x 80mm in front, and 2x 80mm in back + the 4x 90mm fans in the PSU (which really move some air) + the 2x 60mm I added. Also don't forget that those Icydock SAS cages each have an 80mm fan as well. I thought the same thing about the holes (being restrictive)....but they breathe well.

Originally Posted by momaka

But if this was my system, I would have completely cut out those metal holes first thing and have the fans with wire grills (or none at all).

I'm not going to drill all those out, I've done that on other cases, and it always looks like poo. If I were to mod this beyond what I've done, I'd cut the whole matrix out all together and put grills in front of the fans. That would look a lot cleaner than a bunch of drilled out holes...but after letting it run all night with the AC off, temps are still well within the safe range.

Originally Posted by momaka

On that note, don't forget to deburr the metal shavings from the holes you drilled. I can see them, again in the same picture above, and that makes me very uneasy. It's not as bad as people drilling/cutting holes in their case with the motherboard still inside (lol ), but I still get goosebumps, as those metal shavings could easily fall off and short something. Even worse if they get stuck under a BGA chip.

Ohh come on man, give me some credit! Like I'd assemble this without deburring it!

Originally Posted by momaka

Anyways, awesome project again! And I really dig the cable management - looks great.

I'm not quite done on that front. I'll do the final round of cable management when the second system is complete.

[PeteS in CA]

After some digging, I discovered that unless the controller is the latest firmware, they will not work on S2K12 AT ALL!!! So there went about 4hrs of my life troubleshooting that, which I'll never get back... Ohh well. After updating the firmware, no more problems...

A significant % of the problems called into the system-level tech support people where I work is solved by updating to current BIOS and firmware. Other than figuring it out yourself - kudos! - you are very far from alone.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Nope, its 2 USB and the IPMI port. I did remove the blank from the IO shield before final assembly though.

Cool. I just thought it's worth checking as I have an old HP desktop PC that had 3 ports, but one blocked with an IO shield blank.

Originally Posted by Topcat

It breathes a little better than what I made it sound like. 4x 80mm in front, and 2x 80mm in back + the 4x 90mm fans in the PSU (which really move some air) + the 2x 60mm I added.

Ah, so the motherboard is not completely enclosed in a box just cooled by the 60 mm fans. That's pretty good then. I just couldn't tell.

Originally Posted by Topcat

I'm not going to drill all those out, I've done that on other cases, and it always looks like poo. If I were to mod this beyond what I've done, I'd cut the whole matrix out all together and put grills in front of the fans. That would look a lot cleaner than a bunch of drilled out holes...

Yeah, drilled out holes tends to look ghetto unless you really take your time with it... and with that many holes... ain't nobody got time for that

Originally Posted by Topcat

Ohh come on man, give me some credit! Like I'd assemble this without deburring it!

I know you work on cars, so I didn't assume you'd miss something like that. But I just had to mention it in case some poor soul read through your thread and assumed it is okay to leave it all like that. Granted this is badcaps.net, and most folks here know what they are doing... but I have also seen some real scary "techs" out there.

[Topcat]

No new pics yet....but the permanent RAM came in today, 48gb. I also changed from wanting SSD boot drives to using some 74gb raptors I had on hand. each system gets a pair of them in a raid1 on the 3ware controller, in the SAS cages.... The first of the two systems is officially online and activated. It hasn't taken the place of the old NAS for DVD streaming, that will take a little effort & planning to make a seamless transition.....but the days are numbered for the old NAS.

The old NAS has provided 1.5yrs of solid service, and there's nothing at all wrong with it now. The only issue it ever presented was after a power outage, one of the SAS boot drives pooped the bed for some reason, I unlocked the shop one morning to hear the RAID controller screeching at me. Tossed a spare in, rebuilt the array, and done. Regardless, I have some other plans for this system once it becomes available.

[Topcat]

The old NAS has officially been decomissioned. The final steps to transfer of duties were done this afternoon, and "Big Mama" was shut off.





I'll be harvesting some organs from her for the build of System 2 for the new NAS, and then I've got some other plans for this case....to be revealed later.

[Topcat]

After 9 months of toiling around with this build, it is finally complete!! Badcaps.net's first real server is home again, alive and well.

I did reuse all my drives. I did a detailed scan of each one, they all passed with flying colors. I will eventually cycle them out, but with all the backups I keep, its not a top priority.

The old NAS robbed of its motherboard:


...and there went the data drives...


The motherboard...


The retirees!


Beginning the installation... I did this hot! System 1 was up & running, feeding a HTPC that was playing in the office while I did this....Since the systems aren't inter-connected in any way, no harm.


Ok, Momaka, pay close attention!!
Holes drilled for 60mm fans.




I took a special picture just for you: DEBURRED!!


Fans mounted after being deburred!


Motherboard mounted in the drawer:





Connected.


Nice ass!


Installing OS


Stuffed in the corner.


The rest can be done remotely....the task of transferring data to system 2. Right now, system 2 is just a backup of system 1, and will be off after the data is transferred. In time, System 2 will become a DVR & controller for a security system.


HMMM what could this be all about?!


For the second time around building this case, it was just as enjoyable as it was the first time. I haven't lost the love for system building!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

After 9 months of toiling around with this build, it is finally complete!! Badcaps.net's first real server is home again, alive and well.

Feels good to have old hardware back up and running, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by Topcat

Ok, Momaka, pay close attention!!
Holes drilled for 60mm fans.
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1503363200

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1503363200

I took a special picture just for you: DEBURRED!!
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1503363200

Fans mounted after being deburred!
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1503363200

Thank you!
See, it wasn't that hard and now I can sleep well at night.

Originally Posted by Topcat

Nice ass!
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...1&d=1503363200

Ah, so that's what NASs stands for!

Originally Posted by Topcat

For the second time around building this case, it was just as enjoyable as it was the first time. I haven't lost the love for system building!

Yeah, I really like doing system (desktop/tower) builds too, especially with older hardware. Not sure why, though, but they always get me very excited. Modern builds are too easy - almost boring sometimes.

[Topcat]

Anyone remember this thing?

It was literally buried in the corner, I couldn't even get to it....but because of a shelving project, I had to move it. First time it's been shut down since this thread...it's been rebooted a time or two for maintenance & updates, but never shut off. Good time to clean it!!















After the shelving.....this was only phase 1....and the systems in these pics are barely the tip of the iceberg....

[TechGeek]

What's sitting on top of the server case?

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

First time it's been shut down since this thread...it's been rebooted a time or two for maintenance & updates, but never shut off. Good time to clean it!!

Looks like 2017 was the last time it was off... so about 3.5-4 years of 24/7, give or take. Yup, sounds about the right time to do a cleaning. I power-cycle my systems quite often (usually don't leave them On if I won't be using them for over 30-60 minutes), yet rarely go more than 2-3 years before I pull them out and de-dust. As such, I don't find much dust on them or their fans, but I don't like to anyways.

Originally Posted by Topcat

After the shelving.....this was only phase 1....and the systems in these pics are barely the tip of the iceberg....

I see quite a few Core 2 era Optiplex 755's, 620's, and 760's - good ol' office workhorse computers.

I also see the beige systems get the "top shelf".
That said, I usually keep mine on the bottom, since they tend to be heavy. Several of them could probably crush a cheapo modern case, lol.
That MicronPC in the upper-left corner of this picture sure does bring back some memories from high school (that's what we used to run - Pentium II and Pentium 3 MicronPC's.) My high school was all old Dell's in the library and some of the teacher's PCs. But the computer rooms had P4 HPs and Compaq's.

Anyways, I really like that organization - looks really neat!

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

What's sitting on top of the server case?

Another part of the NVR setup....I actually need to take this home, it's not needed here anymore.

Originally Posted by momaka

Looks like 2017 was the last time it was off... so about 3.5-4 years of 24/7, give or take. Yup, sounds about the right time to do a cleaning. I power-cycle my systems quite often (usually don't leave them On if I won't be using them for over 30-60 minutes), yet rarely go more than 2-3 years before I pull them out and de-dust. As such, I don't find much dust on them or their fans, but I don't like to anyways.

It's a NAS and a NVR for a security system...I can't just shut it off.... The lower system is just a backup to the top one, it's off all the time. I fire it once or twice a year so the two can sync up.

Originally Posted by momaka

I see quite a few Core 2 era Optiplex 755's, 620's, and 760's - good ol' office workhorse computers.

Those are Optiplex 330's. I've stuck optiplex 380 boards and resold quite a few of them (identical BTX layout, all connectors, PSU, fans/shrouds are the same)....they'll run 5400-series Xeons. They are freight trains!

I also see the beige systems get the "top shelf".
That said, I usually keep mine on the bottom, since they tend to be heavy. Several of them could probably crush a cheapo modern case, lol.

Originally Posted by momaka

That MicronPC in the upper-left corner of this picture sure does bring back some memories from high school (that's what we used to run - Pentium II and Pentium 3 MicronPC's.) My high school was all old Dell's in the library and some of the teacher's PCs. But the computer rooms had P4 HPs and Compaq's.

That's the second time that system has fooled you!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...t=17830&page=2

[Uranium-235]

do those optiplexes even sell?

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Those are Optiplex 330's. I've stuck optiplex 380 boards and resold quite a few of them (identical BTX layout, all connectors, PSU, fans/shrouds are the same)....they'll run 5400-series Xeons. They are freight trains!

Oh, nice!
More than good enough for modern use.

Originally Posted by Topcat

That's the second time that system has fooled you!

LOL!
Fool me once, shame on you!
Fool me twice, shame on me!

(And it probably won't be long before there's a 3rd time, given my lazy brain cells. )

Originally Posted by Uranium-235

do those optiplexes even sell?

I'd say they probably do.
At least here in my area, PCs have been selling a lot more since Covid-19 hit and people started working/learning from home.

Originally Posted by Uranium-235

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

I think there was a dispute between him and another member, though I don't remember the details too well and over what.

Then again, I've seen a lot of good people come and go ever since I joined here.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Uranium-235

do those optiplexes even sell?

Originally Posted by momaka

I'd say they probably do.
At least here in my area, PCs have been selling a lot more since Covid-19 hit and people started working/learning from home.

Surprisingly well, especially when the panic set in with the Wuhan cooties! Cheap work-from-home systems were going like crazy!

Originally Posted by momaka

Oh, nice!
More than good enough for modern use.

Yup, they perform well for what they are....if you don't mind the big lunky tower....and for the price, nobody seemed to mind. The nice part about them, the 380 runs DDR3 and can take up to 16gb (2x 8gb modules), I've been sticking 8gb in them...and the bare board can be had for ~$10 shipped (I paid $50 shipped for 5 of them when I hatched this idea, I did have to recap them...but hey, kept them out of the landfill or the shredder). The 330 is DDR2, and max @ 4gb, which IMO is inadequate for Win10 these days... 4gb seems to be 'standard', but I really think that 8gb and a SSD is 'entry level' for a smooth-running Win10 system today. I outfit these with e5450's (3GHz/1333 quadcore harpertown), 8gb RAM, and usually a 240gb SSD, they're screamers!! The modification for the Harpertown CPU is minimal. I have roughly $70 in each system after this, and I sell them for ~$199 for a complete (tower, monitor, and KB/mouse). Everyone has loved them!

Originally Posted by momaka

LOL!
Fool me once, shame on you!
Fool me twice, shame on me!

(And it probably won't be long before there's a 3rd time, given my lazy brain cells. )

Maybe it was the change of venue...I retired that system a couple years ago....but I still had to LOL

Originally Posted by Uranium-235

Jeez when I first read this title I thought you were talking about someone coming back to the forum like PCBONEZ. What happened to him??

Originally Posted by momaka

I think there was a dispute between him and another member, though I don't remember the details too well and over what.

Then again, I've seen a lot of good people come and go ever since I joined here.

I think Mathog ran him off with his far left weirdness.... I hope he's doing ok....IIRC he was up in the years and not very healthy....and it's probably been a good 10 years since he's been on.

[TechGeek]

He last signed on in May 2012.