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Server Case Questions

E

EvilAlchemist

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Messages
2,732
I just purchase the LIAN LI PC-A70B Case

I am thinking about upgrading to a dual xeon server in a few months.

I keep seing the terms ssi or eeb on many of the dual socket intel motherboards.

Can anyone describe to me these terms or tell me if my case is accommodate this type of motherboard?

It does come with CPU plate
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/LianLi/PC-A70/images/hardware2.jpg
High-rez of motherboard tray
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/A70/detail.jpg

I would at least like to be able to mount an SSI motherbord , like skulltrail when it comes out.
 
SSI is Server System Infrastructure, they manage current and future specifications to try to keep things standardized.

EEB = Entry-Level Electronics Bay Max mobo size of 12" x 13" (also known as Extended ATX)

CEB = Compact Electronics Bay Max mobo size of 12" x 10.5"

They list that case as being extended atx, so you should be good with just about any board.
 
Thank you so much Killer[MoB]

I know Lian Li has nice cases and it just seemed odd to me that such high dollar server cases would not be able to hold these server boards
 
The Intel D5400XS motherboard used in the Skulltrail platform is out and available for purchase. I've seen them online a few times for sale at various sites. They are Extended ATX motherboards and will work in the following chassis according to Intel:

Coolermaster Stacker STC-T01
Coolermaster Stacker 810
Coolermaster Stacker 830
Coolermaster Stacker 832
Coolermaster Stacker Evolution
Coolermaster Cosmos

Antec P190
 
Dan_D said:
The Intel D5400XS motherboard used in the Skulltrail platform is out and available for purchase. I've seen them online a few times for sale at various sites. They are Extended ATX motherboards and will work in the following chassis according to Intel:

Coolermaster Stacker STC-T01
Coolermaster Stacker 810
Coolermaster Stacker 830
Coolermaster Stacker 832
Coolermaster Stacker Evolution
Coolermaster Cosmos

Antec P190
Click to expand...

Thanks ... a few of those cases also say "Extended ATX" only so I am thinkning it will work in mine as well.. Thanks for all your help!
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Thanks ... a few of those cases also say "Extended ATX" only so I am thinkning it will work in mine as well.. Thanks for all your help!
Click to expand...

Extended-ATX is a must for the D5400XS. Anything less and it won't fit. There are a ton of cases I missed. There is plenty of choices from Thermaltake and some nice Lian-Li options, but I don't know them as well as the Antec and Coolermaster lines.
 
One thing to remember is a skulltrail is vastly different then an SSI board. Skulltrail uses LGA775 coolers, SSI boards use the Xeon coolers that mount through the motherboard to directly the to motherboard tray/case.
 
ND40oz said:
One thing to remember is a skulltrail is vastly different then an SSI board. Skulltrail uses LGA775 coolers, SSI boards use the Xeon coolers that mount through the motherboard to directly the to motherboard tray/case.
Click to expand...

Right, but the D5400XS only requires extended ATX mounting holes. So the SSI stuff isn't an issue for it either way.
 
watch out for the connector placing on the skulltrail and your particular case as well as power supply positioning and the length of the cables on it. just because you have an e-atx mobo and e-atx case doesn't mean you are going to get everything to fit easily. also some e-atx cases are only e-atx if you sacrifice the hard drive trays to make room for the larger mobo. they will still advertise it as e-atx capable but in reality it is just an atx case with the hard drive bays yanked out. some lian li cases are like this so watch out.


also one has to wonder why you'd want a skulltrail system anyway. sli? just get an nvidia chipset based mobo that takes the xeons. you'll get the same performance with far less cost unless you want to overclock. at which point why would you want to buy slow fb-dimms with your premier overclocking system? I really don't get what intel wants to do with skulltrail. if it's for bragging rights someone is going to beat it with a single q series 775 cpu overclocked using faster ram in game benchmarks. and someone else will beat it with a xeon system in professional benchies with a xeon multiprocessor (greater than dual cpu) based system. there aren't going to be much bragging rights with this platform other than i paid $xxxx dollars to run sli on an intel chipset mobo and have dual cpus.
 
klergymusic said:
watch out for the connector placing on the skulltrail and your particular case as well as power supply positioning and the length of the cables on it. just because you have an e-atx mobo and e-atx case doesn't mean you are going to get everything to fit easily. also some e-atx cases are only e-atx if you sacrifice the hard drive trays to make room for the larger mobo. they will still advertise it as e-atx capable but in reality it is just an atx case with the hard drive bays yanked out. some lian li cases are like this so watch out.


also one has to wonder why you'd want a skulltrail system anyway. sli? just get an nvidia chipset based mobo that takes the xeons. you'll get the same performance with far less cost unless you want to overclock. at which point why would you want to buy slow fb-dimms with your premier overclocking system? I really don't get what intel wants to do with skulltrail. if it's for bragging rights someone is going to beat it with a single q series 775 cpu overclocked using faster ram in game benchmarks. and someone else will beat it with a xeon system in professional benchies with a xeon multiprocessor (greater than dual cpu) based system. there aren't going to be much bragging rights with this platform other than i paid $xxxx dollars to run sli on an intel chipset mobo and have dual cpus.
Click to expand...

Care to point out these nVidia based boards that take xeons?
 
klergymusic said:
also one has to wonder why you'd want a skulltrail system anyway. sli? just get an nvidia chipset based mobo that takes the xeons. you'll get the same performance with far less cost unless you want to overclock. at which point why would you want to buy slow fb-dimms with your premier overclocking system? I really don't get what intel wants to do with skulltrail. if it's for bragging rights someone is going to beat it with a single q series 775 cpu overclocked using faster ram in game benchmarks. and someone else will beat it with a xeon system in professional benchies with a xeon multiprocessor (greater than dual cpu) based system. there aren't going to be much bragging rights with this platform other than i paid $xxxx dollars to run sli on an intel chipset mobo and have dual cpus.
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I should be most specific. I really just want a V8 system.
I am leaning toward the skulltrain for a few reasons.

1) I have a tri-monitor setup - meaning I need 2 PCI-E slots ..... (using x1950 & x1650 now)
2) Would like to use the 775 Coolers - but not a requirment.
3) Would be nice to have the ability to use a 1600fsb CPU in the future.

If I could solve my #1 problem, the rest are workable.
I have not yet been able to find a decent board but I have not had a lot of time to look.

So far, I have found this one that seems to meet my needs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131250
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Well, I guess I should be most specific. I really just want a V8 system.
I am leaning toward the skulltrain for a few reasons.

1) I have a tri-monitor setup - meaning I need 2 PCI-E slots ..... (using x1950 & x1650 now)
2) Would like to use the 775 Coolers - but not a requirment.
3) Would be nice to have the ability to use a 1600fsb CPU in the future.

If I could solve my #1 problem, the rest are workable.
I have not yet been able to find a decent board but I have not had a lot of time to look.

So far, I have found this one that seems to meet my needs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131250
Click to expand...

I ordered that board a month ago, it finally shipped, I should have it monday. I'll let you know how the setup goes. dual 5355s, dual 2900XTs in TJ09.
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Well, I guess I should be most specific. I really just want a V8 system.
I am leaning toward the skulltrain for a few reasons.

1) I have a tri-monitor setup - meaning I need 2 PCI-E slots ..... (using x1950 & x1650 now)
2) Would like to use the 775 Coolers - but not a requirment.
3) Would be nice to have the ability to use a 1600fsb CPU in the future.

If I could solve my #1 problem, the rest are workable.
I have not yet been able to find a decent board but I have not had a lot of time to look.

So far, I have found this one that seems to meet my needs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131250
Click to expand...

the D5400XS would certainly meet your needs. However the board you linked would cover most of it. One thing that board can not do however is use standard LGA775 coolers. I don't know if it can handle 1600MHz FSB CPUs but seriously I doubt anything will come out that is LGA771 compatible before Nehelem is released. So I wouldn't worry about that too much.
 
Dan_D said:
the D5400XS would certainly meet your needs. However the board you linked would cover most of it. One thing that board can not do however is use standard LGA775 coolers. I don't know if it can handle 1600MHz FSB CPUs but seriously I doubt anything will come out that is LGA771 compatible before Nehelem is released. So I wouldn't worry about that too much.
Click to expand...

The Coolers are not a big issue. I have heard the Xeon Coolers are pretty decent.
The only CPU's that I know run on the 1600FSB is the X5482 and the QX9775.
Just looking to maximize upgradibility down the road ..
 
EvilAlchemist said:
The Coolers are not a big issue. I have heard the Xeon Coolers are pretty decent.
The only CPU's that I know run on the 1600FSB is the X5482 and the QX9775.
Just looking to maximize upgradibility down the road ..
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of the Xeon X5482. Then again, I don't keep up with all the Xeon models.
 
While waiting on "ND40oz" review of the board, starting looking at different cpu's and memory

Having a harder time finding 800 fd-dimms ... and the ones i did find were all cas 5 .... seen some reviews of skulltrain with cas 3 memory, but i am sure that is expensive..wonder what kinda of benefit this will provide

On the CPU front ... what would be the benefit of using a Harpertown @ 1333 fsb vs one on a 1600 FSB .....
 
ND40oz said:
Care to point out these nVidia based boards that take xeons?
Click to expand...


my bad on that i kept thinking n-force pro chipset derivitives and forgot that they never released it for intel cpus only the desktop variants. however it should be fairly soon that we see a workstation version for intel from nvidia especially with nehalem around the corner and amd banging away at decent integrated graphic chipsets to take market share away from nvidia. and the real next gen discreet graphics parts from amd won't be another 2900 vs 8800 situation. the playing field should be quite level when the true next gen direct x 10.x cards show up and amd will have their own workstation chipset so nvidia will need a new market.
 
EvilAlchemist said:
While waiting on "ND40oz" review of the board, starting looking at different cpu's and memory

Having a harder time finding 800 fd-dimms ... and the ones i did find were all cas 5 .... seen some reviews of skulltrain with cas 3 memory, but i am sure that is expensive..wonder what kinda of benefit this will provide

On the CPU front ... what would be the benefit of using a Harpertown @ 1333 fsb vs one on a 1600 FSB .....
Click to expand...
none other than inter cpu communication, as the memory will still be 800. the advavntage is only for intel's marketing dept. to claim a faster frontside bus. for a consumer the system will benchmark the same except for heavy (more than 4 core) multithreaded apps that rely on data in the other cpu's l2 or l1 cache. that will see a boost from the higher fsb but nothing else will.
 
klergymusic said:
none other than inter cpu communication, as the memory will still be 800. the advavntage is only for intel's marketing dept. to claim a faster frontside bus. for a consumer the system will benchmark the same except for heavy (more than 4 core) multithreaded apps that rely on data in the other cpu's l2 or l1 cache. that will see a boost from the higher fsb but nothing else will.
Click to expand...

Just running F@H and some video encoding ..... where I need to real horsepower ..

I know the extra memory timings will help on that area ... just not sure about fsb ..
 
I mounted the Asus board in a TJ09, works fine. Silverstone doesn't ship a backplate to use, you just use 8 standoffs to mount the Xeon coolers to. They have post holes in the correct place for the heatsinks.
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Just running F@H and some video encoding ..... where I need to real horsepower ..

I know the extra memory timings will help on that area ... just not sure about fsb ..
Click to expand...

Actually FB-DIMMs on a quad-channel capable motherboard with quad channel enabled will provide faster performance in some applications. So memory speed isn't the issue. Timings aren't the problem, it is lack of speed. The X38, P35 and 680i/780i SLI chipsets all support 1066MHz or faster RAM. So in some instances they'll perform slightly better than a Xeon/Core 2 Extreme setup would provided the processors are equal. As for the horsepower for coding, well you are correct. 8 cores will always beat out 4 in that particular application. Also you will be able to do more in regard to folding with 8 cores.

The processors FSB won't help much if at all. FSB has never helped Intel's processors to a significant degree. Each upgrade is a minor one at best.
 
ND40oz said:
I mounted the Asus board in a TJ09, works fine. Silverstone doesn't ship a backplate to use, you just use 8 standoffs to mount the Xeon coolers to. They have post holes in the correct place for the heatsinks.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing this out, ND40. I should have popped in to mention, but it's also a very rare thing, that.

Also, people. One channel is 800MHz of bandwidth. The problem is, as others have hopefully figured out by now, that you're STILL limited by a single channel bottleneck to your processors with no effective Inter-Processor Communication layer on the Xeons.
 
Found some Kingston Mem 667Mhz FB-Dimms 2GB ( 2 x 1) for $69 New ..
If I run the 1333 FSB Xeons .. this seems to be a good deaL am i wrong?
 
Newegg had the wintec modules for $109 (2 x 2gb) but they sold out in one day and now they have them priced in the 160s. That seems like a good deal for 1 gig sticks, but you probably want to go with 4 pairs of 2 gig sticks in the long run, that'll give you the most theorectical bandwidth.
 
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