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    Ratdude's main rig V5.0

    Guess what? It's ratdude main rig build time again!

    This one is special, for a couple reasons.

    First, Main rig V3.5 died (VRM cooked, see post #196 of it's thread) and I more or less have a hollow shell of a kickass workstation sitting.

    Second, topcat is, by a lucky coincidence, giving me a new (to me) board + RAM + CPUs to play with, and this is what will form V5.0. However, revealing where it's coming from (how Topcat got it) would reveal some stuff Topcat hasn't gotten to posting, so I'll let that be topcat's story to tell.

    Here's what I will post about the board: (just enough to make the rest of this OP make sense, plus what topcat has already posted himself)
    • It's EATX and made by supermicro
    • It's socket 771 with twin quad cores, no coolers included
    • It has 32GB of RAM
    • It has twin PCI X16 slots, but no SLI


    So, in addition to a new board+RAM+CPUs, there will be some more changes:

    -No SLI means no real point in running twin GPUs. This board also uses more power, so unless I swap PSUs, that's not a good combination. So, for now, I'll be running a single Geforce 250GTS although I will be looking for better GPU. That said, if you have a somewhat newer (geforce 200 or newer, AMD equivalents are also fair game) higher-end GPU you want to sell, shoot me a PM; I have a real job now so I'm not super cash-strapped (although I'm not blowing $$$$ on this obviously).

    -That leaves me with a free x16 PCIe slot... what to do there? Well, a cheap and simple upgrade is this:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/252356891045

    I don't have drives fast enough to warrant a higher end card, although I have the option to.

    FWIW I did look at the supermicro UIO RAID cards but the price of admission is high and nothing had a BBU (they made them but nobody's selling them). Not to mention I like 3ware better than adaptec.

    -I need some coolers... and found these:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816101288

    They use 80mm fans and if my temps stay low enough I might be able to swap in some Arctic Cooling CO fans to quiet it down a bit. I'll have to see.

    It's a good thing I'm running a SM case, as otherwise I'd have to get different (read: pricier) coolers. This one has the mount holes already punched and tapped, so I'm in good shape to run them. Speaking of SM case and board combos:

    -SM makes their cases so if you use their boards (like in a barebones), you can plug the ribbon cable for the lights and switches right in. Which is no good for RAID cards. Once upon a time I fixed that issue on another rig:



    However, that board was the only one of it's batch to turn out as anything decent. Not to mention it was made as a PCB mill test and one can get PCBs made super cheap these days. So, I took a night to redesign that a bit:

    https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/zszsAHZa





    It's a board that allows one to at the flip of a switch redirect the HDD and NIC2 lights to something other than the motherboard.

    I have the parts already but the boards have yet to come in, so no actual pictures.

    I eventually plan to get better hard drives too, but that will wait. For now, this is as far as I'll go.

    Look like a plan for a decent rig?
    Attached Files
    sigpic

    (Insert witty quote here)

    #2
    Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

    Looks like you are starting out a business. Good for Ratdude747.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

      Originally posted by keeney123 View Post
      Looks like you are starting out a business. Good for Ratdude747.
      Umm what?

      This is my hobby. My day job is as an engineer at Arvin Sango in Madison, IN.
      sigpic

      (Insert witty quote here)

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

        Not too shabby RD.
        It might not do SLI, but the real reason for twin PCI-E is multiple monitors.
        I can get far more work done with 4 screens than i can with 2.
        Now you have a job, surely SSDs are the way to go ?

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

          Originally posted by diif View Post
          Not too shabby RD.
          It might not do SLI, but the real reason for twin PCI-E is multiple monitors.
          I can get far more work done with 4 screens than i can with 2.
          Now you have a job, surely SSDs are the way to go ?
          My desk barely has room for two of my 22" HP LCDs... no room for more.

          SSDs are still pricey... for the amount of storage I'd need I'd be spending a few hundred at least. Maybe down the road, but not off the bat. That said, SM makes an addon for my case that allows one to add four 2.5" drives (that empty are in front of the intake fan) so If I changed cards and rewired I could do some fun stuff. I think I'll stick with 10K spinners though.
          Last edited by ratdude747; 04-23-2016, 12:00 AM.
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            #6
            Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

            At least put the OS on one or two.

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              #7
              Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

              Originally posted by diif View Post
              At least put the OS on one or two.
              Nah, that wrecks my setup plans; a 4 drivr RAID 0 array, just like it currently has.
              sigpic

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                #8
                Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                Looked closer for UIO cards:


                http://www.ebay.com/itm/AOC-USAS-S8I...8AAOSwoudW2bnc

                Making an offer... The trick is not to search for "UIO" as listings that mention that also seem to have higher price tags.
                sigpic

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                  #9
                  Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                  Four disk RAID 0 ?
                  Two sets of two ?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                    ^Nope. One of 4.

                    Well shit.

                    Looks like SM cheaped out and only gave me one USB header. Bye Bye card reader (unless I add in a USB card and use my floppy combo card reader, which is an option)

                    This build isn't going the best it seems... too much shit that doesn't quite fit. I'll make it work, but dang. I have older SM Boards with twin USB headers (4 front ports total)... Why???
                    Last edited by ratdude747; 04-23-2016, 12:56 AM.
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                      #11
                      Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                      Umm ok, 10 would be better you know. I suppose you do have your other machines for backup.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                        Originally posted by diif View Post
                        Umm ok, 10 would be better you know.
                        I think the motherboard would reject that like a human rejects the heart of a baboon.
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                          #13
                          Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                          LOL. Best comment 2016.
                          Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.

                          My computer doubles as a space heater.

                          Permanently Retired Systems:
                          RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
                          Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.


                          Kooky and Kool Systems
                          - 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
                          - 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
                          - 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
                          - Main Workstation - Fully operational!

                          sigpic

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                            ^ I think he meant RAID 10, not windows 10. I don't run RAID 10 because at 74GB a pop, The only way to get a decent (for a main rig) amount of space is to either JBOD it or RAID 0. RAID0 has a performance boost, so that's why I went the way I did.

                            I have a server which holds backups of all the important files.
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                              #15
                              Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                              Yes, were were on the topic of RAID, and as an IT pro certainly don't recommend 10 although there are a couple of nice features in it.
                              I'd be interested in seeing your read/write speeds RD with your RAID. Your chance of corruption is increased 80% using 4 drives in RAID 0. You might have backups but its a lot of effort. A Samsung Evo 850 500GB is a little over £100. I do appreciate that you might not be building for practicality and more the cool factor.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                                I skimmed it...and stumbled @ 10... RAID10 is nice for non critical stuff, its fast with a touch of redundancy. RAID in ANY form is NOT BACKUP! Very common misconception!! Raid is purely a redundancy to to reduce downtime or immediate dataloss for a drive failure....but RAID is no substitute for good backups. I'm off my soapbox now. Carry on.
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                                  #17
                                  Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                                  Originally posted by ratdude747 View Post
                                  Umm what?

                                  This is my hobby. My day job is as an engineer at Arvin Sango in Madison, IN.
                                  Just better watch out that your hobby doesn't become your Day Job. Seems to me that is were you are heading.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                                    Hey, what happened to my other posts? :/
                                    Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.

                                    My computer doubles as a space heater.

                                    Permanently Retired Systems:
                                    RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
                                    Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.


                                    Kooky and Kool Systems
                                    - 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
                                    - 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
                                    - 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
                                    - Main Workstation - Fully operational!

                                    sigpic

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                                      Originally posted by TechGeek View Post
                                      Hey, what happened to my other posts? :/
                                      They were useless, I removed them.
                                      <--- Badcaps.net Founder

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                                        #20
                                        Re: Ratdude's main rig V5.0

                                        Originally posted by TechGeek View Post
                                        Hey, what happened to my other posts? :/
                                        these ones?
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