Scratch Build Platinum Edition - SFF Dual CPU Work Station - Minor Update 20th October

[Ruairi]

About the project;
In brief:
This project was hatched when I brought a rather unusual Motherboard off John Morrison (a.k.a confusis) the Supermicro X7DWT a half SSI (16.5*41.6cm) dual socket motherboard. The board was a perfect candidate for a small form factor workstation build. The build gets it name from planned monochrome chrome and black exterior.
Explained:
Platinum Edition was designed as a movie editing and 3d Rendering workstation, for my work in indie films, computer modding and architectural design. The dimensions of the build are roughly 225mm W 450mm D 185mm H or just a little bit under 19 litres (the Intel SFF specification). This will be a scratch build made out of aluminium and glass. The colour theme will predominantly monochrome, with the exterior design being black and chrome. The design has been heavily influenced by Art Deco and Diesel Punk architecture and design. I will be placing a strong emphasis on silence, something usually neglected in server builds. I will be using 80mm Towers for the CPU's and aftermarket cooling for the GPU (I have allocated space for triple slot coolers in the design)

Specs:
CPU - Intel Xeon L5420 * 2 (overclocked using old school taped pin method to 3.00GHZ)
Motherboard - Supermicro X7DWT
Ram - 8GB DDR2 667 FB-Dimms
GPU - Sapphire HD 5670 with artic cooling cooler (temp)
PSU - Silverstone essentials 500w*
Coolers - Deepcool Ice Edge Mini FS * 2

* Run down of power usage; PSU has 408w of 12v power available (board runs solely off of 12v) CPU's are 60w * 2 overclocked. Chipset is 30 + 10w. Ram is 8w * 8w. HDD/SSD under 10w. Total : 234w. Leaving 174w Available for GPU. Why not leaves some headroom? Because power supply's operate much less efficiently when below 20% of there total output, by choosing a PSU that will keep the system power consumption in an optimal range I will save money in electricity over the life of the PC.




Modding started, first panels cut to size out off 3mm Aluminium (Tip: Get ripped in 30 days, become a manual case builder.. filing )

Silverstone 500w PSU, primed and ready for sleeving.

Modified 20 Pin connector for funky motherboard, thing i'll go with Black and Grey MKII, with maybe a hint of B-Magic, those empty slots bug me a bit, so I might have some dummy cables there


You all know what this means




PSU Sleeving started ( going slowly )
MDPC Kitteh

[siliconfanatic]

no vid card slots? why not jus go fer an sr-2? i mean, is that cheaper or something? will be following closely as its still dual cpu and as for the air cooler: me gusta

[improprietary]

When i saw the four ram sticks i was salivating, then i found out that its only eight gigs Do you really not need anymore?
Otherwise can't wait to see more!

[Balder]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

no vid card slots? why not jus go fer an sr-2? i mean, is that cheaper or something? will be following closely as its still dual cpu and as for the air cooler: me gusta

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...5400/X7DWT.cfm

Anyway that looks like a really funny (in a good way) board xD
Looking forward to see it come together!

[siliconfanatic]

ah. overlooked that.

[legoman]

Thats quite a tasty board that.... Subbed!

[B NEGATIVE]

I love that board,you should put the word about for a custom block....

[Ruairi]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

no vid card slots? why not jus go fer an sr-2? i mean, is that cheaper or something? will be following closely as its still dual cpu and as for the air cooler: me gusta

No video card shots as its in the rig I'm using at the moment (tis abit dusty too )
Not going with a SR2 for a few reasons:
A: it's consumer quality - Server gear is designed to run 24/7 in hot cramped enviroments, boards like the SR2 are more designed for short term benching runs and don't quite have the same durability.
B: it's MAHOOOSIVE case would have to be 2-3 times the size.
C: Pricey and hard to get a hold of.

Originally Posted by improprietary

When i saw the four ram sticks i was salivating, then i found out that its only eight gigs Do you really not need anymore?
Otherwise can't wait to see more!

Hey, yeah only 8gb at the moment, I will probably be upgrading to 16gb at some point though.

Originally Posted by Balder

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...5400/X7DWT.cfm

Anyway that looks like a really funny (in a good way) board xD
Looking forward to see it come together!

Yeah it is a funkay board, its design has allowed me to fit dual processors in a SFF case though.

Originally Posted by legoman

Thats quite a tasty board that.... Subbed!

Thanks

Originally Posted by B NEGATIVE

I love that board,you should put the word about for a custom block....

I won't be watercooling this build to save cost, complexity, size and maintenance. Maybe in a future build though

Picture of design added to first post

[BeauchN]

This looks very interesting! Subbed!

[Dk_vr]

Indeed very interesting...
These coolers are sponsored or you bought them and how are you going to mount 775 cooler on 771 socket? Some custom made brackets ?

I am asking because Supermicro motherboards can be really tricky when you decide to install a cooler.

Apart from that did you thought to make a channeling cooling with one fan on front plate to cool the whole machine ?

P.s. Do you think you will be able to cool the FBDIMMS like this ?

[Phame]

Looking forward to this.. GL

[siliconfanatic]

whoa there! sr-2 built for short benching runs? just how short are we talking. if not able to be a gaming/server rig ima need a dual socket board like it with same # of pci slots+ram... and built to fold/etc all the time... ho does it perform if insulated+ below ambient? would it last longer? asking cause my knowledge of it just got up turned. talk about a rude awakening to cold hard facts if you ask me.

[Ruairi]

Originally Posted by BeauchN

This looks very interesting! Subbed!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Dk_vr

Indeed very interesting...
These coolers are sponsored or you bought them and how are you going to mount 775 cooler on 771 socket? Some custom made brackets ?


I am asking because Supermicro motherboards can be really tricky when you decide to install a cooler.

Apart from that did you thought to make a channeling cooling with one fan on front plate to cool the whole machine ?

P.s. Do you think you will be able to cool the FBDIMMS like this ?

I brought them, had a lot of good experiences with them though, I will be making custom mounting brackets for them

I haven't shown it in the model, but I will indeed be having a shroud to channel air over the chipset and ram coolers.

Originally Posted by Phame

Looking forward to this.. GL

Thanks!

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

whoa there! sr-2 built for short benching runs? just how short are we talking. if not able to be a gaming/server rig ima need a dual socket board like it with same # of pci slots+ram... and built to fold/etc all the time... ho does it perform if insulated+ below ambient? would it last longer? asking cause my knowledge of it just got up turned. talk about a rude awakening to cold hard facts if you ask me.

Hey,
I'm not saying that the SR2 isn't a great board, and will work fine as a regular gaming or workstation board. But this PC I'm building will be at 100% nearly 24/7 either with rendering, folding or other tasks. Something it was designed to do, something the SR2 could probably manage but was probably never designed to do/

About running it below ambient I have no idea to be honest, never really been into that stuff. IF you are looking for a dual socket board, and looks aren't on the top of the agenda I'd whole heartily recommend a Supermicro Board.

Minor update, cut some alu strips and put some of the pieces together for a little mockup

[siliconfanatic]

ohh. okay.. guess ima havta look into that. thnks for the suggestion. was just kinda ridin the sr-2 wagon, cruisin along then BAM! it does have a weakness after all!

[llamafur]

Can't wait to see more of this.

[avolla]

Looks like fun. Can't wait to see this thing progress into something really special.

[KidMod-Southpaw]

This is turning out to be very interesting! I love the idea a lot! Can't wait to see more!

[marius_mym]

Now that's what I call a special motherboard ! Subbed!

[voigts]

I really like the look of this design. Very nice, modern, and yet the lines flow well.