Project PowerMac G5/X86 - SLI you bet!

For a heads up in case you didnt know about how the Z7S runs with only 2 sticks of memory, It runs much slower then it should provided you give each Channel (Per CPU) a stick if you only have 2 to use. There are two independent buses for the memory. One per CPU. Many people have had terrible results with this board speed wise because they stuck just two sticks on the one bus leaving a CPU starving and thus nearly cutting the boards overall speed by half in all the benchmarks / tests they threw at it blaming ASUS rather then the way they set it up. 6 sticks on this board also kills speed as each bus is also dual channel

Yep, the 5400 chipset supports quad-channel memory bus, so the best is to use 4x sticks, equal sizing would make for lowest latencies.

Adding additional ram to the 2x black slots will increase latencies, but also give higher bandwidth - so depending on your application, you either populate them or not.

In my case, for gaming/benching, 4x will yield the best performance.

he picked up the Apple versions...

The point is I asked the question before bidding if they will work on the motherboard, and the answer came back conclusive - I would not have purchased if I knew they had the wide heatspreaders ;)

I have emailed Kingston on possibly selling me the 4x heatspreaders only, let's wait and see what they say.

The Seller already indicated he can take them back, but I may just as well swop the heatspreaders.

Will keep you posted.
 
Well, got the 2x Xeons (E5430's) too, hopefully I can get the ram sorted so I can test this setup - looking forward to it :)
 
I'm drooling dude.

I've thought of modding a G5 case, but theres no way my work could even hold a candle to yours.
 
Lol at Reanimation.

Anyway, finally managed to fire up the system tonight, with some borrowed 1gig 667 FB-Dimms - still awaiting my new ram, exchanging the incorrect (heatsinked) Apple FB-Dimms for the units with the correct heatspreaders on - should have them by Thursday according to supplier.

Well, I had some fun, believe me. Made all motherboard connections, 24V ATX, 8 Pin SSI and 4-pin aux motherboard power, reset CMOS, plug in 7850GX2, and fire away - fans spins up for a 1/2 second, and nada.

Mmmm...reset CMOS again, even disconnecting battery, plug in my spare ATX 1600 XT, nada.

Weird.

Thought it must be something with the 1KW PC P&C Turbocool.

Decided to stock a SATA drive on as a final test, and bliss. It booted. Well, I know you need to draw a certain amperage from the PSU 12V rails, but I would have thought having the motherboard connected would suffice - obviously not, luckily I remembered about this one :)

Quickly checked temps in the BIOS, settled at around 35deg C idle temps on both CPUs. Not bad - went through all settings, see what's where, and booted into WinXP on a very dirty ( P5WDG2 WS Pro) installation, all ok, detected a few devices, I loaded some drivers, and all ok.

Well, this was just a test to see if the board boots up, I am happy, have to flash to new BIOS as soon as I get my permanent RAM.

COUs are ok, motherboard all good, so the project can continue.

I fetched the 2x D-Tek Fuzion V2's this afternoon, awaiting delivery of my Tygon 3/8" black tubing, 4m of....

More pics on the weekend, will keep you posted.

Feedback welcome.

PS: Those 8-cores look really nice in Task Manager!
 
Ah well, having more fun :(

The new D-Tek Fuzions state they will work with socket 771.

As per D-Tek's website

AMD Processors:
AMD AM2 via 4-holes through the motherboard.
Socket 754/939/940 (all AMD Athlon™ 64 series) via the 2-holes screwing into the socket back-plate method.
Socket 462 (AMD Socket A) via the 4-holes through the motherboard method.
Important Note: AMD 462 Socket lug mounting is not supported.
Intel® Processors:

Socket 478 (Intel® Northwood P4/EE) via the 4-holes through the motherboard by removing the black plastic heatsink retention frame.
Socket 775 (Intel® Socket T Prescott-style LGA) via the 4-holes through the motherboard.
Socket 423 (Intel® Willamette P4) via the 4-holes through the motherboard.
Socket 771/603/604 (Intel® Xeon™ all versions) via the 4-holes through the motherboard.

Well, it ain't gonna work on this standard socket 771 motherboard - I wonder if there's an optional plate?

Need to get on touch with them, or make my own plate. Damn.

Fun anyways.
 
Ah well, having more fun :(

The new D-Tek Fuzions state they will work with socket 771.

As per D-Tek's website



Well, it ain't gonna work on this standard socket 771 motherboard - I wonder if there's an optional plate?

Need to get on touch with them, or make my own plate. Damn.

Fun anyways.

If it works on all standard 4 hole xeon boards, you shouldn't have any problems, since that's what your board is.
 
I think the problem is on xeons it might mount to the motherboard tray, not the motherboard, so he'd have to put the mounting points on the motherboard tray.
 
I think the problem is on xeons it might mount to the motherboard tray, not the motherboard, so he'd have to put the mounting points on the motherboard tray.

All of the xeons hsf 603/604/771 mount to the motherboard tray if they use the standard 4 hole mount, so if the D-tek blocks say they work with that, then it should be fine.
 
As I have mentioned, doesn't care what is stated on D-Tek's site, it doesn't work. The holes in the D-Tek plate doesn't line up with the holes in my motherboard.

Here's the pictures - Daniel from D-Tek was in touch with me, and their service seems on a good level - quick response, which I always appreciate :) Seems their support for Xeons was lost in the V2 upgrade, he mentioned they will sort something out:

Asus plate overlayed onto the D-Tek plate:

backplate1.jpg


backplate2.jpg


and a side-by-side:

backplate3.jpg
 
Damn liars... :eek:

Danger Den and Swiftech both have blocks that supposedly fit. The Apogee GT you have to buy a separate fit kit and the Danger Den TDXXEON comes with the appropriate fitting.
 
@ ND40oz: Nope, I wouldn't be that harsh - it is just a human error, somewhere going from V1 to V2 revision, the templates got lost for the Xeon support, something D-Tek would fix without any issues.

They didn't get to manufacture arguably the best block for commercial use by shoddy workmanship/support/sales :)


Daniel's quick response to my query is testament to this, so let's give them time to work a solution - after all, not to many enthusiasts would use Xeon boards like this anyway, it is a very expensive solution, and you can build better/faster single-cpu gaming-rigs that will beat this one by a fair margin, especially wrt memory bandwidth and latencies.

So yes, I will keep you guys posted as to the solution wrt the mounting-plates for the blocks.

Kind regards,
MrBean.
 
Hello Guys,
Ok, I have ordered the correct ram from BigFiveShop, and the price was exactly 1/2 what a local Australian supplier was asking.

Paid $540- AUD vs the $1079- AUD?

Amazing, and a bloody rip-off, mate.

These guys should be ashamed :(

Anyway, should have the memory within the next 10 days, so all I can do is wait.

Will do some other things in the meantime, such as sorting out waterloops, etc.....
 
I will make a solution, no problem.

Just hope for the sake of the others out there D-tek fix the issue.
 
Ok, just got back in from Bangkok after a week business trip, and my wife hands me a parcel - yeay - my new memory!!

I am stoked....

And, without further ado, here they are, in all their glory....

new_kingston_8gig.jpg


a close-up (if somewhat blurry, soz) so you can spec the part-number:

new_8gig_close.jpg


and here you can see where I have installed them for quad-channel operation, in the 4x white slots on the Z7S....

new_8gig_installed2.jpg


and a last shot of the memory:

new_8gig_installed.jpg


Well, I can confirm the memory works 100% fine, no issues - I ran the latest memetest version, which managed to get them up to around 58deg C, even with a 3-fan Dominator cooler - will do something special to keep them cool(er).

I installed 32-bit Windows Server 2008, which of course only detects around 3gig of the ram, but Windows installed without any issues, so all ok. I guess I am in memory heaven.

Finally, an update to my harddrive situation, I have added the 3rd drive to my setup - I will ultimately run 4 drives in Raid 0+1, as it's now, I can probably run Raid 5, but I will prefer the mirrored stripeset option.

In all it's glory.....

3_harddrives.jpg


Now things can proceed ahead, will get as close to finish as I can in the next couple of weeks :)
 
WOW!!!!! you went to town on that thing! very very VERY VERY VERY nice.

p.s
you have to much $$ :p
 
Hi there.... any updates on this? Is your rig finally running? Can we have pics?

Also - did you still plan on running OSX on this little baby? / Do you know if it will work?
 
i saw your posting from #300's necro post. how is the build coming? have you figured out your heatsink situation?

if you haven't, i thought i should warn you that you need to include extra mounts on your case for the heatsinks to lock into. if you dont, your board will flex too much and it will slowly die. happened to me before i figured it out. luckily tyan was willing to replace my board.
 
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