SR-2 Optimization Thread

R-Type said:
Have you tried the black slots?
Click to expand...

Can you populate the black ones instead of the red ones: 2, 4, & 6?

Nope, definitely can not do that. System does not post at all. I did get it boot in 'double' dual channel mode with 4 DIMMs per bank for 32GB. I guess I will call that good. With my OC settings I am getting some reboots. With 4 DIMMs verses 2 DIMMs, do I need to up the Vtt voltages for both CPUs? I believe the Vtt controls the voltage to the CPU memory controllers right?
 
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402blownstroker said:
Can you populate the black ones instead of the red ones: 2, 4, & 6?

Nope, definitely can not do that. System does not post at all. I did get it boot in 'double' dual channel mode with 4 DIMMs per bank for 32GB. I guess I will call that good. With my OC settings I am getting some reboots. With 4 DIMMs verses 2 DIMMs, do I need to up the Vtt voltages for both CPUs? I believe the Vtt controls the voltage to the CPU memory controllers right?
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm running all 12 dimms populated and had to up vtt a notch on both chips.
 
Hi guys.

Since you all occasionally delve into the mundane nuts and bolts ideas, I thought I would ask something about thermal dissipation and CPU backplates.

I had seen the big heavy ones on the back of this Supermicro I'm trying to sell, (went for SR2 once I found out what it's all about, and the 1st board I had bought, X8DAi used, is now back on sale unused by me), but:

The 212 EVOs I bought had the usual open frame backplates I was familiar with from the Hyper 212+, and since my Blackhawk Ultra has a second opening that is supposed to be popped for cooling, makes sense. The backplates that came with the SR2, certainly seemed strong, but seemed like a heat barrier by comparison.

I have a NHD-14 and could have bought another for the price of the two EVOs, but at the time I didn't know you guys had such things built, and that they cleared. Also 80W CPUs seemed less demanding than something like the 135Ws .

Any ideas? I promise to not be here constantly with small, simple questions, (I am up to page 34 out of 57 and still working on it). I will be firing up next week, if delivery is on schedule.

Then I begin the process of applying all that accumulated info. Not much on E5645s so far in my reading. Perhaps I'll be in on the groundwork stage for these CPUs.

With a couple of GTX560s, I won't be able to isolate my RAM banks, and with 24 GB of RAM, I won't be able to get up there with the best of you but I'll see how I do.

Bruce Hinton
 
Welcome to the fun Bruce.

If you're asking whether we should be concerned about trapping heat on the back of the socket, I'm not concerned.

That area gets zero airflow in most cases and that fact doesn't seem to bother amd or Intel, so that's good enough for me. Thermalright had a cooler for that area though at one point. Kind of a funny idea. I think it dropped overall CPU temps when used.

Feel free to stick around and ask questions. And f you end up folding for our team, that would be nice too :)
 
I had noticed a perforation there, possibly for an 80mm to ventilate that side of the case. The Azza Hurrican 2000, (loved it), comes with a special thin fan there.

Might take some baffling to even the air removal for both CPUs on the Rosewill, might well be worth a little effort.

The idea of folding for such an epic team as yours is intriguing; But after being lost in team EOC, I started out our KitGuru team, small but doing OK.

Bruce
 
Cool. I was on a small team for years. Came over here to fight EVGA :)
 
96 GB [2 x (6 x 8GB)] Registered ECC DDR3 Ram runs Win7/Linux fine in Supermicro X8DTN+ with 2 X5650's

48 GB [2 x (3 x 8GB)], same sticks, boots fine in SR-2 with BCLK 170 and 2 L5640 ES 2.26 GHz Eng Sample hex xeons

However the 96 GB will only POST after clearing SR-2 CMOS, and, if subsequent boot via F2 into Linux, then it will also see 96 GB,
BUT EVERY REBOOT after that FAILS to even POST.

The FRUSTRATION is that there are some "unknown" BIOS settings that work (after CMOS reset)
but these settings are somehow different to the Load Default settings and hence unknown!!!
This is driving me nuts!!! Any clues??? Anyone???
Can anyone running 96GB please provide their BIOS settings?
 
Jon98064 said:
96 GB [2 x (6 x 8GB)] Registered ECC DDR3 Ram runs Win7/Linux fine in Supermicro X8DTN+ with 2 X5650's

48 GB [2 x (3 x 8GB)], same sticks, boots fine in SR-2 with BCLK 170 and 2 L5640 ES 2.26 GHz Eng Sample hex xeons

However the 96 GB will only POST after clearing SR-2 CMOS, and, if subsequent boot via F2 into Linux, then it will also see 96 GB,
BUT EVERY REBOOT after that FAILS to even POST.

The FRUSTRATION is that there are some "unknown" BIOS settings that work (after CMOS reset)
but these settings are somehow different to the Load Default settings and hence unknown!!!
This is driving me nuts!!! Any clues??? Anyone???
Can anyone running 96GB please provide their BIOS settings?
Click to expand...
Holy hell, I was impressed I managed to get 48gb stable in this finicky board. While I'm not using 'unsupported' 8gb dimms, I am using all 12 slots. The key for me was upping VTT and loosening memory timings.

Good luck on your quest, it is definitely [H]ard!
 
My PSU arrived today, a Corsair 1200... (Oops! :eek: The 1250 was another brand.)

Edited to add; Apparently Corsair doesn't supply the ATX/8 power cables with the exact molding on each pin's insulator, I don't have the voltage assignments in the mobo manual for the ATX/8 pins, just a bad picture. I'm trying to confirm the pin/V assignments before firing up. They will physically insert, so probably the molding is meant to fit more that one socket design, and all is well.

Build is with 24 Gb RAM (Crucial 6 x 4Gb1600), 128 Gb SSD also by Crucial, I'm told it will run with the big dogs, with a firmware update 0009. (?), not sure what that means yet. I Tb HDD, soon to be joined by more for a RAID config.

Two 212 EVO coolers with four 120mm Blademasters, all other fans, 5 x 140mm plus a 120 on the side under the CPUs, are on a NZXT controller, except the big side fan.

I've finally read, or at least scanned for pertinence, most of this thread. Looking forward to the challenge.

Click on the small photo to see the large & larger one, if your browser does such things.

Bruce Hinton
 
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I was concerned because the pattern of the insulators did not match and I didn't want the voltage or polarity to be wrong and fry some expensive CPUs.

If you'll allow a cheap graphic, (where brackets = the square ones, (my closeup camera is several miles away):

CPUpwr.jpg


Talked to Corsair tech, he said "No Problemo"! They do plug in, so they shall run tonight!

It seems that the design allows plugging into more than one motherboard design, yet prevents hooking up to a GPU x 8 or whatever.

Bruce Hinton
 
Anyone had their SR-2 just stop being stable after months of stability?

I can't even get it to boot into Linux after loading default settings in the Bios :(
 
All of the frustrations and foul language are still in store for the future! :eek: :) As I go higher on the BCLK, and begin to fight the voltages and temps, it will soon be more challenging, guaranteed.

I'm familiar with only ASUS's multiple BIOS on the fly capability. I have yet to decide on the BIOS upgrade to use there is a lot of conflicting opinion on which of the last several are best for any particular board.

The physical makeup of the CPU power plugs from Corsair turned out to be a non issue; the design simply allows or disallows depending on the motherboard variants, I suppose.

At this point I'm at a snail's pace compared to most of "you'se guys" here, 3420MHz on E5645s, 24 Gb of 1600 RAM operating just below rated speed, a 128 Crucial M4, & single 1 Tb HDD.

Folds the old familiar WUs at 65-75K PPD.

I hope to try one of those -bigadv units someday, but haven't seen one yet!

Bruce

P.S. I hope KitGuru stays around forever, our team of about 20 (active), mates is a good bunch, but if the unthinkable happened and they had to send us packing, I'd be here in a heartbeat.
 
Biffa said:
Anyone had their SR-2 just stop being stable after months of stability?

I can't even get it to boot into Linux after loading default settings in the Bios :(
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your problems.

What kind of diagnosing have you done?

Have you swapped out the:
hard drive
PSU
taken all memory out but one stick
remove one CPU

Where are you at in trouble shooting?
 
Well its a watercooled monster so pulling parts hasn't been high on my agenda so far. :)

Its been crunching solidly for just over a year now on the usual settings at 4.1Ghz

I've tried the following with everything at stock

1. Updated the bios - no change
2. Swapped drives for my windows drive - no change
3. Reset some of the bios settings to what I was using before, namely voltages on the CPU to 1.35 boot and 1.35 eventual, DRAM voltage to 1.64 and IOH to 1.35 and set the speed to 1333Mhz

Doing 3 got me into windows, but I tried one run on IBT on the standard settings and it rebooted. Upped the voltage to 1.375 and same thing, I'm going to try some higher volts but this is at stock speeds and I'm not too happy about having to run 1.4V through the X5650s to get them just to run at stock :eek:
 
In case yes, not tried lying it down. Its not having trouble detecting RAM so I don't think its that, but its worth a try if I can get the pump into position.
 
I am presently the new owner of an SR-2 and two L5640 es chips. I have read this entire thread and look forward to setting mine up. I have a couple of critical questions though. Mine will be mounted in a case that I am presently building from an old 5u server case I had laying around. I am a bit of a nut when it comes to cooling so will add a lot of fans, including cutting up the case to allow more fans from the sides and the top.

My first question is what cooler should I use. If there is little difference I will probably opt for the coolermaster 212s as they are inexpensive. I will have plenty of airflow but am worried that maybe I should opt for a better cooler. Yes I will be overclocking these to the max and running folding 24/7. Watercooling is not an option I wish to persue.

Second question is memory. I see the GSkills get good marks here so am leaning that way but should I opt for 1600's or 2000's?

Realize cost is a paramount concern as I really can't afford to spend much more on this build. So...

What do you guys think?
 
rick5127 said:
I am presently the new owner of an SR-2 and two L5640 es chips. I have read this entire thread and look forward to setting mine up. I have a couple of critical questions though. Mine will be mounted in a case that I am presently building from an old 5u server case I had laying around. I am a bit of a nut when it comes to cooling so will add a lot of fans, including cutting up the case to allow more fans from the sides and the top.

My first question is what cooler should I use. If there is little difference I will probably opt for the coolermaster 212s as they are inexpensive. I will have plenty of airflow but am worried that maybe I should opt for a better cooler. Yes I will be overclocking these to the max and running folding 24/7. Watercooling is not an option I wish to persue.
Click to expand...

A number of similar systems have been setup using True Spirits. You could always pull the True Spirits from the combo I sold you and use them on the sr-2. Alternatively, 212's should work. Though, they are not as good as True Spirits. If you go with the 212's, you will need to replace the backplate on the sr-2 (a smaller backplate should have been included with the sr-2).

I'm using 212's on an sr-2 with e5645's @ 3.8ghz. I've upgraded to some high speed panaflo fans. I'm not sure how much warmer my temps would be on the stock fans. Full folding load is giving me temps < 62C (ambient temp is ~76F).
 
Temps of the eight that Tthrottle shows me, as I write this:
54.5,61.7, 51.7, 56, 53.5, 58.7,51, 48.7C. FYI it takes 3 or 4 seconds to drop to approx
30C average when I stop folding SMP. This is with no GPU in action, that definitely slows the cooling off process!

For comparison, in the same ambient, a 2600K@4,2 GHz with NHD-14, in a wonderfully airy AZZA Hurrican, shows 54-57C, full tilt folding 27K PPD.
The same individual core "offset" exists at idle, and is similar to all my recent mobos and CPUs, some have an offset, some have a plateau they will not drop below.

I have not had the time to go above BCLK 200, it won't, not even 201, but when there is time to experiment and adjust voltages, and droop, perhaps a bit more,

Short of milling the cooling blocks for six sensors each, (just kidding!), I chalk this up - mostly - to sensor irregularities. I see activity levels moving one or another up and down from surfing so I understand there will be real differences.

I am so new to this equipment that I hesitated to post, but I have the coolers you were considering. I think they are some of the very best for the money. Actually the Hyper 212+ seems to be just as good with lesser fan design. Maybe not the same noise curve and max envelope but very comparable.

I've put some NHD-14s on 2600Ks but it looked like such a physical jam, I didn't even try. My CPUs are low wattage, without the higher multipliers, so that it seemed the EVOs would be completely adequate, and continues to appear so.

Bruce

Bruce
 
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My SR-2 stopped running a work unit yesterday. Maybe it rebooted all on it's own. I am not sure. When I hooked up my monitor I found that I couldn't use my mouse. So I rebooted again and noticed an error message that came up pre-BIOS. I went into the BIOS and noticed that all of the settings had changed, and none of my saved BIOS settings had any data. :mad:

This was all after midnight, so I quickly got things running without any OC and I booted back into Ubuntu. I got folding running again, and the big-adv work unit picked up again at 87%.

I ran i7z and confirmed that the CPUs are running at ~2.2 Ghz instead of ~3.2 Ghz. :(

Why do SR-2s fail in this manner?
 
I have experienced that exact behavior twice now with my system/setup :( I have to restore my settings from backup...... pen and paper :D
 
What are some safe bets for SR-2 RAM these days? From what I've read I'll want 6 identical sticks to have more of a chance of disabling NUMA.

What about voltage? I see there are 1.35v, 1.5v, 1.6v, and 1.65v flavors of DDR3 for sale. Other than power consumption, is there any advantage to the lower voltage RAM in the context of an SR-2?

For frequency and timings, I know that lower timings are faster, and higher frequencies are faster. Is there anything else to keep in mind in this regard?

Are there any brands that are particularly well-suited to the SR-2, or particularly not well-suited?
 
Biffa said:
In case yes, not tried lying it down. Its not having trouble detecting RAM so I don't think its that, but its worth a try if I can get the pump into position.
Click to expand...

Update:

Tried lying it down, no difference, pulled all the ram and reseated it, no change. Ran memtest, no errors, so I think its not the RAM.

Could be the PSU. Or could be the N200 overheating.

Managed to fiddle with the bios enough to get it booting and crunching at default clocks but had to use overclocked voltages (1.4v) on most cpu and pll settings, also had to manually set the voltage on the memory. But most of this was just the settings we are all using for overclocks.

Except its not overclcocked now :(

Managed to get it stable folding at stock, then pushed the fsb to 150 and its stable there.

Tried the dummy overclock settings in the bios but not stable with that, I'll leave it at 150 for now until I get a chance to strip it all down and rebuild

Before that I'll try a new PSU :eek:
 
Two things I encountered with my setup and memory issues:

1) Over tightened the blocks and that caused a slight flex. I loosened up the bolts a little bit and I got 16GB ( 4 x 4GB ) to show. It did not matter if the case upright or on its side.

2) I could not get things to be stable even at stock settings. I ended up changing the Vtt to 1.35 for both CPUs that stablized things. I was even able to overclock to 166 bclk.

When I upped the RAM to 32GB ( 8 x 4GB ), started to get stability issues again. I upped the Vtt to 1.40 on both CPUs stablized out again. I am currently running a 189 bclk stable.
 
firedfly said:
A number of similar systems have been setup using True Spirits. You could always pull the True Spirits from the combo I sold you and use them on the sr-2. Alternatively, 212's should work. Though, they are not as good as True Spirits. If you go with the 212's, you will need to replace the backplate on the sr-2 (a smaller backplate should have been included with the sr-2).

I'm using 212's on an sr-2 with e5645's @ 3.8ghz. I've upgraded to some high speed panaflo fans. I'm not sure how much warmer my temps would be on the stock fans. Full folding load is giving me temps < 62C (ambient temp is ~76F).
Click to expand...

Having looked around some I found there is a new True Spirit and now made in both 120 and 140mm. So I am thinking I might just get two of the 140's. However I can't find anyone posting anything about the fit. Does anyone know if the 140's will clear the memory slots or any other fit problems?
 
rick5127 said:
Does anyone know if the 140s will fit an sr2?
Click to expand...

No idea but if the mounting is the same as the 120 it will go on. However, I HATE the mounting method for the True Spirit and on the the SR-2 in particular you need to pay attention to how much you bolt it down or you will crush a choke on the board.

I would just get Hyper 212+ myself, you have to swap the mobo's backplates out but its worth it. Additionally, there are many more fan options available at 120mm and the Hyper comes with the hardware for push/pull while the TRUE does not.
 
Can I use 2 PSUs ( HX620 & HX520) to feed this board? Do they have enough power to feed 2 x L5640 ...ooking at 3.8ghz Ocing ... (watercooling, 1 hdd, 1 low profile gpu) ???
 
Interesting question. Possibly; you could use some of the CPU headers on one PSU, and some on another, using the paperclip trick to keep one of the PSUs on. Would you need to? I doubt it...the HX620 should suffice, IMHO.

Have fun on your OC!
 
sbinh said:
Can I use 2 PSUs ( HX620 & HX520) to feed this board? Do they have enough power to feed 2 x L5640 ...ooking at 3.8ghz Ocing ... (watercooling, 1 hdd, 1 low profile gpu) ???
Click to expand...

The HX620 should be fine - I had that machine x 4, and never saw one of them over 500W.
 
but the hx620 itself has only 1x 8-pin +12v... while sr-2 requires 2x 8-pin .. :(
 
I don't use any adaptor, just ran wires connect black & green from "main" 24-pin (to mobo) to secondary 24-pin ... :D ..

Fired up system ... and OCed to 3.6ghz .. :D .. install Kraken, and langouste ... currently crunching 6903 .... less than 20min/frame.
 
sbinh said:
I don't use any adaptor, just ran wires connect black & green from "main" 24-pin (to mobo) to secondary 24-pin ... :D ..

Fired up system ... and OCed to 3.6ghz .. :D .. install Kraken, and langouste ... currently crunching 6903 .... less than 20min/frame.
Click to expand...

I'm going to show my ignorance here, but how do you get the -bigadv units, (Win7x64). I have used the console properly flagged, and Tracker with the check in the proper box.

Both show 24x24 cores in the logs and both show 24GB RAM available.

Completed almost 200 WUs and still no -bigadv units. I need to have Windows running for many everyday tasks that I am not fluent enough to integrate into SudoLand.

Is there some 'secret' code to direct me to the proper servers?

Sorry to bother you here but Dec 24 is the latest from F@H forum, and they talked about the slowdown, but I am a 'NoStarter', not even up to a SlowDowner.

Bruce

ETA: My machine logs in as 3.2GHz, because that is my BIOS setting. I have it set by ELEET at 3.6 GHz and it is very stable there folding 24x100% while also using the machine normally. -adv methods is not selected or flagged, and "big" WUs are selected in the console.
 
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Are you using the folding passkey?

Are you running linux?
 
No, Win7x64. Is Linux required?

My passkey is working, 24/7 folding nets about 75-85K PPD according the the [H] -Stats page with most of my past WUs. They complete in about 2.5-4 hours. TPF from 1m15s all the way up to 3m45s for the 6097 it's working on now, which is an 8hr. project.

Most of my recent WUs are not on the project summary page a F@H, and show no points in HFM, though they are eventually credited.

Bruce
 
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-bigadv on win 7 have been scarce for months, partly due to the large number of i7's, i5's and x6's that have been running -bigadv. So far i have not seen anyone post that they are now getting -bigadv on win 7 and i reckon that won't change until new projects are released
 
No wonder! I have folded Linux on my old quad, but gave it up because I could never get NV GPUs to fold with SMP; Wine is my friend beside the keyboard --- but not in my Ubuntu.

I need the machine for other things, and Windows must run for many of my regular ops.

With my 24 thread machine at 3.6GHz, what would be a typical point total for a WU that takes over two days?

B.
 
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