Operation Black Quad G34 "Workstation"

S

sfield

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 2, 2010
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74
This is a "retrofit" around an existing workstation system.

Danger Den Double Wide 21 tower.
Supermicro Quad G34 Motherboard.
Silverstone ST-1500 power supply.
Koolance CPU-370 waterblocks.
Dual water loops, (3) 3x120mm radiators.

Radeon 6990 with EK 6990 water block.
LSI 9265-8i array controller attached to 4x Crucial C300 SSD.
ASUS Xonar Essence STX soundcard.

The Silverstone ST-1500 power supply is documented to have multiple 12v rails -- separate current limiters. Some (many?) versions of this power supply are really just one big rail. Thankfully, my copy of the power supply is one big rail, which avoids having to combine extra power connectors for the CPUs (overclocked 6990 running Furmark would have also pushed the limits of a split rail power supply).


More specs and photos over the weekend. Higher resolution gallery here:
http://sfield.smugmug.com/Computers/Operation-Black-Quad-G34/18178480_SGvrxc#1396580538_VVnPz8z

Initial chassis survey, needed to tap several standoffs, and add a support brace for two "floating" standoffs.

i-wbjq75R-X2.jpg


Standoffs & support brace completed. Motherboard, CPUs, and waterblocks mounted.

i-T7gwccZ-XL.jpg


Operational system:

i-brmsNfd-X2.jpg


Front of system, DVD & SATA drive array not yet installed in 5.25" bays. Some dust accumulation on radiators.

i-XHwGh75-X2.jpg


Right side of double wide case. Water cooling gear, power supply, TMS-200 controller (fans+thermal). Needs a bit of cleanup.

i-mmbm76Q-L.jpg


Desktop.

i-QwNVNjH-XL.jpg


Gaming.

i-d8XDBMw-XL.jpg


Solid copper blocks -- raw materials for CPU VRM blocks -- TODO.

i-hhGDPLQ-M.jpg
 
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oooh, that looks awesome! Will look forward to the finished build!
 
Very nice indeed.

Looking forward to the rest of the specs...
I have a build on the way myself. No Water or case through ;)
 
My Tyan board didn't come with fans on the I/o chips so I had to stick a 70MM fan on top of them.
 
Yeah that's a good call. I have dyno A6 on my 6172s so that rig is far from silent heh. I'm wannting a couple if those noctua.

Man, that exact zalman sink has been around forever. Notice the crooked chipset in the pic, that was a characteristic of the i865 chipset IIRC. I remember considering it for my own 865 mobo but I ended up with a thermalright one instead.
 
Ya that Zalmans been out forever. I think I used it in one of my builds a good 5-7 years ago.

I think some MCW30s would probably fit down there and are dirt cheap. :)
 
Thanks!

System is operational. More photos and details later. Initial post updated with more photos and additional system specs.

System is used for programming, photo and video processing, gaming, folding.

Yes, those chipset fans are louder than all other fans combined. In fact, they are even louder now given there is a radeon 6990 installed above the chipset fans -- unique airflow disturbance whine with card installed. Will work out proper cooling for those later.

I will also work out proper CPU VRM cooling. Added photo of solid copper blocks which will be raw material starting point.

Kardonxt said:
Looks sweet. Are you going to replace those crappy tiny fans with WC too?
Click to expand...
 
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When I saw the blocks installed my first half-thought was "what if you could put blocks on the VRMs?" but I just kind of let the thought go as too much work. That is going to be a beast.

Also Noctua porn:

chaandan said:
Dually QUAD Rigs

4p4.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Sweet! great looking rig there sfield, and an absolute monster. any issues with heat dump across all 4 processors? I seem to recall patriot saying that by the time the water hit the last chip it was pretty toasty, driving up core temps
 
I was going to ask that but he beat me to it.

Activate: AMD said:
Sweet! great looking rig there sfield, and an absolute monster. any issues with heat dump across all 4 processors? I seem to recall patriot saying that by the time the water hit the last chip it was pretty toasty, driving up core temps
Click to expand...

That thing is awesome.
 
not sure how it could get much prettier than this

i-brmsNfd-X2.jpg


What's the 6990 for? Gaming?
 
Under load, temps are up about 5C by the time the last CPU in the loop is hit. Noctua 120mm radiator fans are currently running at 1000RPM. This is similiar to the first WC 4p machine I built -- temps are up 6C at the last CPU in the loop.

Activate: AMD said:
Sweet! great looking rig there sfield, and an absolute monster. any issues with heat dump across all 4 processors? I seem to recall patriot saying that by the time the water hit the last chip it was pretty toasty, driving up core temps
Click to expand...
 
So I have wondered how my beast would game... how is it?
 
I only played the one game for about 15 minutes last night, since I'm still setting up software. Seemed very playable, as before. I'll install FRAPS and check framerates tonight.

Most games will likely only use one physical CPU, so it may be worth pushing that CPU to an even higher clock frequency, with CPU affinity set on the game process.

BTW, when I have enough forum posts here, I'll post some Opteron 6180s and SR-2 gear that I have for sale (opterons just posted to EVGA for sale forum).


Patriot said:
So I have wondered how my beast would game... how is it?
Click to expand...
 
Mmmmmmm

Our for sale subforum in the DC section doesn't have a post requirement, does it?
 
I'm away from the internets for the weekend, and I miss out on some awesome porn. This is amazing and I never even knew you could game on a system like this.
 
sfield said:
Thanks, wasn't aware of that -- tried the main for sale area first. Items posted.
Click to expand...

We get our own special FS thread here.

I think they felt it was better if they kept us in here together out of the general populas.
 
Kendrak said:
We get our own special FS thread here.

I think they felt it was better if they kept us in here together out of the general populas.
Click to expand...

flooding the market with cheap hardware...:rolleyes:

I wanna know how the fraps are...

and what clocks your running at...
 
Here's a brief video. Try the "FullHD" version -- try downloading the file as it's very high bitrate.

http://sfield.smugmug.com/Computers/Operation-Black-Quad-G34/18178480_SGvrxc#1401255653_r8WxsF7-A-LB

Memory in this new/retrofit system is still running at 9-9-9, cpus @ 2.7ghz -- still need to update memory, push further, etc.

amdgamer said:
I'm away from the internets for the weekend, and I miss out on some awesome porn. This is amazing and I never even knew you could game on a system like this.
Click to expand...
 
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sfield said:
Here's a brief video. Try the "FullHD" version -- try downloading the file as it's very high bitrate.

http://sfield.smugmug.com/Computers/Operation-Black-Quad-G34/18178480_SGvrxc#1401255653_r8WxsF7-A-LB

Memory in this new/retrofit system is still running at 9-9-9, cpus @ 2.7ghz -- still need to update memory, push further, etc.
Click to expand...

That looks pretty impressive. I find this absolutely amazing because I always thought those server boards were very fickle when it comes to gaming compatibility. It is almost sad to game on a system like that considering how incredibly productive it is at folding with all 48 cores.
 
Here's a progress update on the VRM cooling.

I changed the approach from building copper blocks that mate to other blocks to just fabricating solid copper one-piece waterblocks. These will be attached to an aluminum channel mated to the case; one different approach to this would be to mount as an extension to the CPU mount apparatus.

Photos of blocks here. Still need to mill out a channel for the inductors (which are offset 6mm from the VRMs) and some other minor finish work (polish blocks, etc). Will be making at least 4 more of these.

In process of finishing design for chipset coverage -- will coverage 5690, 5670, 5100 chips, the former of which have very noisy 6000RPM fans currently.

i-bRtHMLq-L.jpg
 
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A freakishly awesome machine. Nice work on the custom blocks. I can't wait to see the PPD you get out of this monster!
 
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