Zando's Wack Hardware Choices and Other Oddities

[ZandoBob]

Ah yes, as any logical person would, I moved this rig into an even smaller case. Fractal Design Node 804, can fit an impressive amount of hardware in such a small package.

Clearance is, as per usual, yes:

But I managed to stuff in 4 HDDs and used the other bay for cable management:

Have some fan cables going out the front and over the top of the case, top panel just barely fits on. Boot SSD is actually mounted in the front panel as well, the amount of storage options are impressive: 8 3.5" HDD mounts on these slide-out trays (would need exact length cables or a shorter PSU though), 2 2.5" HDD/SSD mounts in the front panel, a MacBook-style slim disc drive mount in the front panel, and two more 2.5" HDD/SSD mounts underneath the GPUs.

Which did fit in, barely:

But I actually took the bottom card out. My SLI bridge isn’t here yet anyways, and I can’t access the CMOS reset button with the bottom GPU in place. More on that after the spec list:

• i7 920, stock (misbehaves when OCing, could be a shit bin or more likely, the mATX mobo not being able to feed it), on a CoolerMaster V6 GT
• 24GB (3x 8GB) HyperX Savage DDR3, 1600MHz CL9-9-9-28 at 1.6v to make sure there’s 0 stability issues (XMP voltage is 1.5v)
• EVGA X58 Micro, funky board and not that good compared to the competition (ASUS Gene and IIRC an MSI board), but it pleases my EVGA fanboyism.
• EVGA GTX 780 Classified(s)
• Assorted drives: 2TB - 2TB - 2TB - 1TB - 120GB boot SSD
• EVGA 1600W T2
• Fractal Design Node 804

On to the issues with the CMOS reset button:

TBH, never understood putting the POST code display, power/reset buttons, and reset CMOS button along the bottom or the top edge of the board. My X99 Micro2 has them in the perfect spot: just above the 24-pin power in. You have to have clearance there for the cable anyways, and RAM very, very rarely has heatsinks/waterblocks that would get in the way. Whereas on the top radiators will block them, and on the bottom the GPUs/PCIe cards get in the way.

[ZandoBob]

Oho a new addition:

Little hot-swap 2.5" drive bay. Fits into a 3.5" bay, and I have a 3.5" to 5.25" drive adapter so I can use one of those too. Got the idea I forget where, snooping around on here or YT IIRC. Some guy a few years back used one for dual booting, seemed like a great idea so I yoinked one. Given current SSD pricing, getting two cheap 128GB 2.5" SSDs is easy, and I don’t have to worry about one OS screwing the boot partition of the other if I have both in the system at the same time (I’ve had my PC stuck with the GRUB bootloader when trying to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows on separate drives).

[ZandoBob]

OEM Dell time. Fits a full mATX mobo, TFX/Flex-ATX PSUs, 3.5" and 5.25" bays, 2 3.5" HDDs, has decent ventilation and uses standard connectors and fans.

Planning to transplant my X99 Micro2/1660 Ti rig into here, it can clear my L12S and that’s been proven to keep my 5820K under control at 4.2Ghz/1.2v. Fits my 2.5" hot swap drive thingie perfectly too:

Leaving me the option to run a 5.25" disc drive (if it can clear the L12S), or various HDD to 5.25" adapters (can get 1x 3.5" + 2x 2.5" or 4x 2.5" ones) if I need more storage. Has a 250GB 960 Evo as a boot drive, and that’s a 1TB MX500 in the hot swap bay right now.

Just need to get a specific vertical GPU mount to fit my 1660 Ti in (this one), a PSU (either standard flex-ATX or OEM + breakout board) and then to chop out the 3.5" HDD bays so I can fit my GPU. Being a logical lad I am trying to fit a 2-fan full sized dual slot card in an mATX slim rig .

If this works out, come summer I’ll pull it apart and paint up the inside all nice, and probably look into custom sleeving whatever PSU option I choose. Go full send inside, OEM outside, ultimate smol sleeper.

[ZandoBob]

HDD bays removed, going to cut out the I/O panel at the rear and then I should be able to test-fit my mobo and such. Planning to get a PSU and GPU mount as soon as I can afford to. Should have pics tonight as well

[ZandoBob]

Aaaaaaaand bazinga payday was today so woohoo, PSU and such ordered. Should have all the parts I need:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tQBxgJ

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $0.00)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S 55.44 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: EVGA Micro 2 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (Purchased For $0.00)
Memory: EVGA SSC 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate FireCuda 2 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC ULTRA BLACK GAMING Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A8 FLX 29.67 CFM 80 mm Fan ($0.00)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A8 FLX 29.67 CFM 80 mm Fan ($0.00)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A8 FLX 29.67 CFM 80 mm Fan ($0.00)
Custom: “ICY DOCK MB290SP-B 2 x 2.5"” to 3.5"" Drive Bay SATA/IDE SSD/HDD Mounting Kit / Bracket / Adapter" (Purchased For $0.00)
Custom: SilverStone SST-FP59B Black External Enclosure (Purchased For $0.00)
Custom: IBest ImPetus Vertical Graphics Card Holder Bracket,GPU Mount ,Video Card Support Kit with Riser Cable (Purchased For $0.00)
Custom: Enhance 600W Flex ATX (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $0.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 15:01 EST-0500

Just have to wait on my GPU bracket, PSU, fans, and the 3.5/5.25" drive bay stuff. But all are on their way, should be put together in a month at the latest (PSU has a 14-30 day lead time because I believe they strip it down, paint it black, replace the fan, then put it all back together).

[ZandoBob]

All parts for the smol rig on the way, most are here/getting here soon, just waiting on the PSU. Need to cut some stuff out of the chassis this weekend, then it’ll just be waiting for the PSU.

Also large pog, two Nemesis 360GTS rads on the way, along with 2 more iPPC NF-F12 2000s (I already have 4, need 6 for the rads), and 3 NF-P12 Redux fans (need fans for another rig, these don’t break the bank but are full 6-year warrantied Noctua lads). Should be able to have the big boy rig up and running again around Christmas/New Years.

[ZandoBob]

Still waiting on the PSU for the smol rig. Good news though, rads came! Got the big rig 90% done yesterday, just need to fill/leak test/flush and then put the PSU in and finish the last of the cable management.

[ZandoBob]

Leak testing:

And complete:

Did my best on the cable management, pretty proud of it:

Temps are fine for the most part, though the hotspot on my Radeon VII gets a bit hotter than I’d like with the voltages I push (much above 1.2v and it’s 90s time). Probably due to the wacky, uneven die setups some RVIIs had. May need to remount the block and/or use a one of the thermal pad things instead of paste.

Did pull the 10th spot for my CPU/GPU setup though (5960X and Radeon VII): https://www.3dmark.com/spy/9986180

CPU running 4.7GHz/3.6Ghz 1.3v/1.22v core/uncore, GPU at uh… I forget which settings. I’m running 150-180% power target with a 320W limit, forget what setup I had for that run.

Also running an older version of Adrenaline 2019 (19.9.2 or .5 IIRC). Adrenaline 2020 is just… it looks pretty but nooooooo it does not work. Bad drivers. Wattman is as broken as ever, but it hates Afterburner too (whereas on 2019 it doesn’t). Gotta wait for them to fix that, till then I’ll have to make do without all those features I’d never use anyways other than just to turn them on for a few minutes for the heck of it then disable them forever .

It does annoy me how I can’t get the GPU to run above 2000Mhz though. I’ve benched it at around 2030-2050 (2100Mhz, but clocks are always 40-60Mhz off) before, with just the stock +20% power target and 1.218v (max stock voltage). Only matters for benches though lol, I game at 1080p so even stock is overpowered. Does sting that I told my friend with a Liquid Devil 5700XT about MorePowerTool too and now I can’t beat him on GPU score lmao.

Speaking of which, here’s the link for anybody that happens across this thread and has a 5700, 5700XT, or Radeon VII: https://www.igorslab.de/morepowertool-amd-radeon-rx-5700-und-rx-5700-xt-tweaking-and-overclocking-software/

Now this was a rambling mess uh… TL;DR: Big rig finished, it is zoom though not as zoom as I would hope for, but still OP for my use case.

[ZandoBob]

PSU for smol rig is still waiting, due to the holidays their supplier has closed down till the 13th, so there’s not really anything they can do. Have changed plans a bit though, going to move the X99/1660 Ti rig back into my Meshify C or maybe another case, then put either an i5 2400/H61 or X5670/X58 combo in there. Have an AMD WX 2100 on the way as the GPU, tis a half height, single slot GPU so it’ll fit in easily. It’s Polaris based (basically an… RX 560 or so IIRC? Maybe 550?) which means it should play nicely with either Linux or macOS if I decide to hackintosh. Basically easier to work with and more options.

Main rig is doing well-ish. GPU still doesn’t wanna clock high so basically reeeee AMD drivers. Other than that it’s behaving quite well though, I’m running a slight OC (1900Mhz in AB which is 1880Mhz or so actual) and drivers do seem to have fixed the issues with Folding @ Home:

First day over 1m PPD on a single card. Used to pull around 1.9m on the best, best day with favorable WUs during the LTT Folding Month, and that was on my RVII, 1660 Ti, and a 1050 Ti. RVII used to pull the same, sometimes less than my 1660 Ti at about twice the power consumption so that was pretty disappointing. Now it sits at around 1.7-2.4m on the estimates, seems to be actually doing that much PPD as well.

CPU tuned a little harder. Sadly it won’t do 4.7 at much lower than 1.3v. But it does do 3.7Ghz uncore at 1.1v so hell yeah. Slight tweak but it’s just a liiittle faster and cooler running. Cap is 4.8Ghz all core, 4.9Ghz with HT off, and 3.7Ghz uncore, for CB20 stable. Anything higher is BSOD hours, or anything above 3.8Ghz uncore is instantaneous crash. Thus the tuning for 4.7, 4.8 doesn’t offer any performance worth the voltage increase I’d need. Temps max at around 77-78C.

[FaunCB]

[ZandoBob]

Yes lol. It did work for a bit but drivers got nightmarish, ended up just running the 1660 Ti and 1050 Ti.

[ZandoBob]

He do a speed.

Only 5960X/RVII scores higher are a madlad with two Radeon VIIs (IDK why it doesn’t filter them out even if I select single GPU only, but clicking details confirms they’re running 2 cards) in Crossfire, I can’t touch that with a single GPU.

[Argone]

I am jealous!

[ZandoBob]

he s m o l asn hecc

Doesn’t even use all the PCIe contacts lol.

Needed this for my slim mATX rig since it’s half height, but cheaper than a WX4100 or 1050 Ti in this form factor. And better than a GT 1030, since it performs similarly, but is built on Polaris. No Vega heat issues or Navi teething issues, will play nice with Windows, Linux, and macOS, so I can run it with any of those no prob.

Also it is blue, and that is super sturdy actual metal with a gorgeous finish.

[ZandoBob]

Well hoo boy long post incoming as a realize how much money I’ve dumped into old HEDT for little reason

Current big rig, now running on my 4K TV because that res actually justifies the RVII (and good lord BOTW looks amazing at 4K with AA and reshade):
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kHx6Nq

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3 GHz 8-Core Processor (Purchased For $284.95)
Motherboard: EVGA Classified EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (Purchased For $99.00)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Predator 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (Purchased For $245.00)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For $169.99)
Video Card: XFX Radeon VII 16 GB Video Card (Purchased For $699.99)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX TG ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair RMi 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $159.99)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $22.49)
Keyboard: Corsair K63 Lapboard Combo (MX Red w/Blue LED) Wireless Gaming Keyboard ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Corsair IRONCLAW RGB WIRELESS Wireless Optical Mouse ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Custom: Asus Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2 (2242/2260/2280/22110) Up to 128 Gbps for Intel VROC and AMD Ryzen Threadripper NVMe RAID (Purchased For $59.00)
Custom: Custom Loop (Purchased For $775.00)
Total: $2867.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-18 11:39 EST-0500

Still need to get the mouse/keeb at some point, rn I just have USB extension cables snaking across my floor lol. Also need an actual media center and a couch so hmmm perhaps my priorities have been too much on the tower itself .

Soon to be rig for the desk, since a 1660 Ti is much more appropriate for the 1080p Ultrawide I use there:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kYg3Nq

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $179.99)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S 55.44 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $49.90)
Motherboard: EVGA Micro 2 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (Purchased For $50.00)
Memory: EVGA SSC 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (Purchased For $65.00)
Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate FireCuda 2 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda Pro Compute 1 TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $64.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $60.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $60.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $60.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (Purchased For $300.00)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $109.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $49.99)
Total: $1049.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-18 11:43 EST-0500

Kind of in a state of flux though, right now I have the mobo in the Node 804, but if the PSUs I have free can’t support all the drives I can fit in that case I may move back to the Meshify C Mini. Or may do that just for the smaller footprint. Cooler may change as well, depending on case.

X79 rig:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FXL26R

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $100.00)
CPU Cooler: EVGA CLC 280 113.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $109.99)
Motherboard: EVGA X79 Dark EATX LGA2011 Motherboard (Purchased For $150.00)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $50.00)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $107.99)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3 GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $89.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3 GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $89.00)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $118.72)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA T2 1600 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $179.99)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $13.90)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $13.90)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $13.90)
Total: $1036.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-18 11:44 EST-0500

Mobo/CPU/RAM were a combo and should be shipping out today, everything else I do actually have in-house (or apartment in this case). Once the rest arrives it should be a relatively simple build. Will pretty much be a high end 2013 rig at this point, given both the CPU and GPUs are from that year. Should slap once OCed as well.

X58 rig:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Z6R4Zf

CPU: Intel Core i7-970 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $16.25)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $79.95)
Motherboard: EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 XL ATX LGA1366 Motherboard (Purchased For $248.95)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $30.00)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $30.00)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $64.95)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $149.99)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $130.00)
Total: $750.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-18 11:46 EST-0500

Just ordered the case today, thankfully it’s on the cheaper end of cases that actually support XL-ATX, while also being a very nice case in it’s own right. Still haven’t decided what GPU/GPUs I’m going to go with though. That’ll depend on budget and what seems cool. Maybe a 690? I don’t know that this PSU could handle 2 (wattage wise it can but IDK about the amperage they draw).

Once all these rigs are finalized I can re-tally what I payed, have a fucking heart attack, and then start collecting stuff for my eventual SR-2 rig if I can get that mobo to behave. At some point I’d like to pick up X299 as well, so I can claim to have one each of every HEDT generation “Modern” Intel has spit out. Except by then they’ll likely have a new one so oof.

That and gee whiz I have to actually put these rigs somewhere… have already sent off an X58 Micro, some GPUs, and some burnt out stuff to a friend who loves to tinker, have a few redundant cases I need to get rid of at some point as well. Downsizing isn’t something I’m good at, but I do need to get rid of all the excess hardware that isn’t necessary for my planned rigs or troubleshooting them if there’s issues.

[ZandoBob]

Well… things done, plan changed, some stuff completed.

X79 rig now up and running for the desk rig:

Updated list:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7PLVf9

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $100.00)
CPU Cooler: EVGA CLC 280 113.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $109.99)
Motherboard: EVGA X79 Dark EATX LGA2011 Motherboard (Purchased For $150.00)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $50.00)
Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $107.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $60.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $60.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (Purchased For $300.00)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $79.98)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $130.00)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P14s redux-1500 PWM 78.69 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $14.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P14s redux-1500 PWM 78.69 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $14.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan (Purchased For $13.90)
Total: $1191.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-09 12:30 EDT-0400

X58 rig underway, need to track down my 24-pin cable to get it running for now, will eventually swap over all fan corners to red, get custom cables, and some other little bits and bobs:

List for that:
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bxnqNq

CPU: Intel Core i7-970 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $16.25)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $79.95)
Motherboard: EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 XL ATX LGA1366 Motherboard (Purchased For $248.95)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $30.00)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $30.00)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $64.95)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3 GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $90.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3 GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (Purchased For $90.00)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $149.99)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA T2 1600 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $179.99)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $27.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $27.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $27.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $27.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $27.95)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $26.90)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan (Purchased For $26.90)
Custom: EVGA PowerLink, Revolutionized Cable Management! 600-PL-2816-LR (Purchased For $13.99)
Custom: EVGA PowerLink, Revolutionized Cable Management! 600-PL-2816-LR (Purchased For $13.99)
Custom: FSLabs Graphics Card GPU Brace Support, Video Card Sag Holder Bracket, Anodized Aerospace Aluminum (Upgraded Version Black) (Purchased For $11.99)
Custom: FSLabs Graphics Card GPU Brace Support, Video Card Sag Holder Bracket, Anodized Aerospace Aluminum (Upgraded Version Black) (Purchased For $11.99)
Custom: Phanteks Universal Fan Controller, PH-PWHUB_02 - Low profile design, (Purchased For $20.99)
Total: $1246.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-09 12:27 EDT-0400

Aaand my X99 Micro2 is going to head off to a friend. SFF lad, he’ll actually do a properly compact rig with it, whereas as much as I absolutely love the board, I never will. Can’t bring myself to compromise on cooling so I always end up with mid to full towers that are the exact opposite of compact

On the plus side this helps me further downsize. Once I get my X58 rig completed and some other stuff done, I can then get rid of all the excess techie stuff I have. Then start looking towards an X299 rig to round out the collection. So far I have X58 - X79 - X99, just need the last one

[ZandoBob]

Welp. It’s been a year or few. Time for a ramble.

New X99 Micro2 got, that currently lives in the machine I’m typing on:

A Dell Inspiron 530S chassis with the rear I/O panel dremeled out. Inside:

It sports a 6950X in the Micro2 with 4x4GB EVGA SSC RAM and a 250GB 960 Evo. Has an L12S with a 92mm fan zip-tied to the bottom for CPU cooling, a DIY Ghost edition L12 basically. 2 80mm fans for intake and exhaust,
the entire system is inaudible under load unless the ODD spins up. ODD is a Lite-Ion iHAS124 DVD-RW drive, underneath is a 3.5" bay where there used to be a card reader from the original machine. Removed that, a 2x 2.5" to 3.5" adapter lives there, I will be moving the MX500 1TB from my main rig to that once the 2nd one arrives, so I can run them in RAID1 for redundancy. GPU is the WX2100 posted about a bit up, PSU was the cheapest TFX unit I could find with an 8-pin EPS. Stock front I/O plugged right up so I’m still using that for the sleeper look. Have since added a wifi card as well, a cheap TP-Link PCIe card sporting an Intel AX200. Has spotty bluetooth but I don’t use that on this machine so no problem. Currently running Linux Mint 21.

Also, did finally complete the collection with an X299 rig:

Had a hell of a time trying to get the original motherboard replaced after UPS made it do a banana curve cosplay, eventually got another one off eBay that still has a missing code readout, but the POST one works and the board is not bent so .

Running a 7980XE at 4.5GHz core/3.1 mesh with ~1.18v vCore (it varies, some cores pull lower). 32GB RAM running at 2400Mhz as one DIMM drops out if I run 3200MHz, not sure if that’s a RAM issue or if the CPU possibly got damaged somehow by UPS as well, I don’t like that idea and haven’t had performance issues so far so I have not done any further troubleshooting. ARC A770 LE for the GPU as the X299 Dark supports Resizable BAR, running a 1TB 970 Evo + a 500GB XPG Atom30 the original owner left in this board by mistake (they said I could keep it), and a 1TB MX500 I’m stealing for the Dell later. The Hyper M.2 card has since been removed as I was just running it for my 960 Evo, which is in the Dell now as well. Has an LG Blu-Ray drive up top, I may swap that into the Dell if I decide to make it a dedicated media rip/storage box as I have one blu-ray so far (Princess Mononoke). This rig may be entirely rebuilt soonish as I don’t really have another box to put my X58 board in, but do have another case that will fit this machine minus the ODD - an original Enthoo Evolv that I got for my 18th birthday. Running Windows 11 as I prefer it to 10, and the 7980XE with a current BIOS natively supports it no workarounds needed.

Current plan is that if I do that rebuild, I’ll put my 2060 Super back in - as it is on a waterblock so it’s easier to put it back in the loop than try and find the right thickness thermal pads and fit the FE cooler back on - and built a cheap 12th/13th gen i3 or i5 based system to use over the summer. This machine puts out a serious amount of heat, and I do not look forward to fighting it with my AC come summer.

Additionally, planning to rebuild my X79 system at least temporarily, I want to see how the Ivy Bridge hexacore chips hold up, and poke around with SLI again using my 780s. Also waiting for a new set of CPUs to get here for my Mac Pro 1,1, then rebuilding that into what is likely its final form: dual quad core CPUs, 32GB RAM, HD4870 512MB, 4HDDs for various OSes as old macOS really doesn’t care if it’s on spinning drives or SSDs. May leave the MX300 in there for El Capitan, or move that to HDD as well and scavenge that SSD to use somewhere else.

[ZandoBob]

Not much done on the other stuff I mentioned, but did get an even older interest satisfied finally:

iPod Video flash swapped, running Rockbox with the InfoMatrix-Classic theme.

Said iPod is a bit of a derp: it is a 30GB “5.5th gen Enhanced”, a slight refresh of the original iPod Video. Manufactured December 5th 2006 according to a serial # check. But whoever had it before me installed the back off a normal 30GB 5/5.5th gen (as the serial # reported by firmware and the one on the case are different) and put in an aftermarket battery. Replaced said battery as it was dying very quickly so I assume it was toast (old one top, new one bottom):

The actual brain of the iPod is an absolutely packed little board:

I used an iFlash Solo with a 128GB PNY SD card as apparently SanDisks can have issues with the iFlash for some reason.

And a close up of the stock drive with most of the foam removed, as it’s pretty neat:

Damn reliable for a 5mm thin HDD from 16 years ago, I never had issues with this one. Weirdly enough I have a 6th gen 80GB that nuked its HDD after not even being powered on for a full day according to SMART, so either it got drop kicked from the moon before reaching me, or there’s a wide variance in how reliable these drives are. Or SMART is just lying to me? It was working perfectly fine for me before the drive grenaded, and I’m pretty sure I had it running for a total power on time well over 23 hours. Will only boot into the “OK to remove” disk mode screen or the built-in diagnostics mode, and plugging it in to my PC freezes Explorer and iTunes so I think it’s pretty dang toast, dead USB drives I’ve owned before had the same behavior. Sending it to a friend who wanted one, he’s going to do a similar flash swap + new battery so the stock drive being toast is a non-issue. Here’s the SMART readout from the diagnostics mode:

Various other notes:

Should be a nice increase in runtime with the swap to flash, looks like 1/3-2/3s better vs the stock drive: Runtime shootout 2016 : Quad, Dual, Solo, mSata vs. Original Hard Drive – iFlash.xyz

Sync speeds didn’t change much as SD Cards aren’t terribly fast. Around 10-11MB/s where the stock drive was around 8-10MB/s. Interestingly though, have to copy files over while booted into stock Apple firmware - Rockbox installs alongside it and yoinks the bootloader upon reboot unless you leave the lock slider on - as Rockbox seems to corrupt FLACs for… no known reason, it just sorta does. Had to re-copy over my stuff, but I only have ~ 5GB of music currently so no biggie. As another note, Rockbox doesn’t seem to have any option for playing video, though the stock Apple firmware will do so fine. Not sure Princess Mononoke crunched from 1920x1080 at ~27,875kbps off a Blu-Ray (37.3GB file size) down to 512x272 at about 500kbps (0.643GB file size) is the optimal way to view that film, but it is neat.

[ZandoBob]

X79 not yet running, haven’t had the energy to get it assembled after bumbling about with all my other hardware.

2060 Super swapped back into the main rig:

Got the air cooler back on (I had bunged up the thermal pads on top of the middle-plate thing the FE cooler uses, removing them let it make proper contact with the die and temps are normal now) so I didn’t have to rebuild my loop. Which is nice, as I assume the ARC card will eventually get fixed in Destiny 2 and Fallout 76 - the two current DX11 holdouts I play that are absolutely horrid on ARC - and then I can easily swap it back in.

Dell running Proxmox now:

GPU removed to save on power draw as it isn’t needed, currently runs a TrueNAS Scale VM (with a passed-through HBA and 2x 1TB MX500 drives for data) and a Linux Mint VM for disc ripping.

Mac Pro CPUs succesfully swapped:

Tis now running Snow Leopard, I need to work out why the Lion installer image claims it’s corrupted so I can install that, is the latest OS supported by these Macs. Also gotta track down a Tiger install disc at some point, that’s one of the older, if not the oldest these support. I had it running on another Mac Pro 1,1 I had, it was a very nice OS to muck about in. Incredibly snappy and a nice clean UI.

[PaintChips]

What could be wrong with the Lion installer image is when Apple updated their security certificate around the time period of High Sierra and Mojave it required redownloading the installers of any previous OS then remaking the installer USB.