which case would you recommend for this set up?

[Hank]

I am thinking of getting this board

TYAN S2696A2NRF (SATA) Dual Socket 771 Intel 5000X Extended ATX Server
Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813151048

with these fans

http://www.veraxfans.com/Merchant2/..._Code=V&Product_Code=0200416&Category_Code=CC

which are described as

Cooling system designed for Intel XEON Dempsey Woodcrest Covertown socket
LGA771. 3 U-form 6mm heatpipes. 4 Wires with Molex plug.

which case would you recommend to provide the best cooling ?

Thanks alot !


(Paul , yes I am trying to ask over at 2cpu.com and xtremesystems but
neither of which have found the time to process my account yet)

 

[Paul]

I am thinking of getting this board

TYAN S2696A2NRF (SATA) Dual Socket 771 Intel 5000X Extended ATX Server
Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813151048

with these fans

http://www.veraxfans.com/Merchant2/..._Code=V&Product_Code=0200416&Category_Code=CC

which are described as

Cooling system designed for Intel XEON Dempsey Woodcrest Covertown socket
LGA771. 3 U-form 6mm heatpipes. 4 Wires with Molex plug.

which case would you recommend to provide the best cooling ?

Thanks alot !


(Paul , yes I am trying to ask over at 2cpu.com and xtremesystems but
neither of which have found the time to process my account yet)

Well, so far, your original choice looks promising.

TYAN S2696A2NRF
ftp://ftp.tyan.com/img_mobo/i_s2696.tif

CHENBRO SR10769-BK
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-123-076-06.jpg
( from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123076 )

CPU cooler front view (Verax X21NGA cpu coolers, 18-23 decibel
http://www.verax.de/catalog/bdccf8a67f5dafd87eec4cf14fe00af6.jpg

CPU cooler back view (Verax X21NGA cpu coolers, 18-23 decibel)
http://www.verax.de/catalog/8e6ed5fb112d224fe55ef194df63aa84.jpg

( from http://www.eekie.be/ )

At least the Chenbro has the holes in an obvious place, for the
two Xeon coolers. But I'm still not sure of the details of the
standoffs and CEK spring steel plate that fits underneath the
motherboard.

The Verax coolers are expensive. At least compared to the price of the
Chenbro case. They can probably be run full speed all the time, without
a problem.

The case fans on the Chenbro, might benefit from a fan speed controller.
My current case has a 120x120x38mm fan in it, which is capable of 110CFM.
I use voltage reduction to slow it down, and make it bearable. You can get
rheobus controllers for stuff like that, as long as their ampere rating
is sufficient for the fan. (Most cases would come with a 120x120x25mm
fan, but I removed mine and found a 38mm thick replacement locally.
If you need a lot of air, that is the way to do it, but the noise is
like a vacuum cleaner, if fed the full 12V.)

There are a few fan speed controllers here, from Vantec and Zalman. Check
ampere rating, and compare to the fans the case uses. A lot of these
"knob boxes" were badly built. There don't seem to be too many left.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=fan controller&bop=And&Order=PRICE

For the SR107, they list a special CPU kit on this site (from a pulldown
menu on the page).

http://www.servercase.com/miva/miva...duct_Code=SR107&Category_Code=Chenbro+Chassis

I see some Lian-Li cases that might be big enough, but I cannot see
a hole pattern in the motherboard tray, that lines up with the coolers.

Some more "cooler porn". Don't know the make and model of this...

http://store.orbitmicro.com/objects/catalog/product/extras/1710_e3w-nptxs-04 large.jpg

If you want to search the 2cpu.com site, you can use Altavista:

http://www.altavista.com/web/adv

Set the "Location" to 2cpu.com and
enter something like "CEK spring xeon" for "All of these words".

Paul

 

[Hank]

Well, so far, your original choice looks promising.

Yeah, I'm going to go for the chenbro.

The cpu I was planning on getting sold out so I'm looking at this one now

Intel Xeon 5060 Dempsey 3.2GHz Socket 771 Active or 1U Processor Model
BX805555060A - Retail
Model #: BX805555060AIntel Xeon 5060 Dempsey 3.2GHz Socket 771 Active or 1U
Processor Model BX805555060A - Retail
Model #: BX805555060

this is basically the same cpu. I don't understand what makes a cpu a 1U
versus 2U unless they're counting the fan and heatsink

 

[Paul]

Yeah, I'm going to go for the chenbro.

The cpu I was planning on getting sold out so I'm looking at this one now

Intel Xeon 5060 Dempsey 3.2GHz Socket 771 Active or 1U Processor Model
BX805555060A - Retail
Model #: BX805555060AIntel Xeon 5060 Dempsey 3.2GHz Socket 771 Active or 1U
Processor Model BX805555060A - Retail
Model #: BX805555060

this is basically the same cpu. I don't understand what makes a cpu a 1U
versus 2U unless they're counting the fan and heatsink

<<snip>>

The 1U or 2U part, would be the passive heatsink that ships with the processor.
The choice would be important if the processor was going into a 1U or 2U chassis
(the kind of chassis with fans sitting right next to the CPUs). You can be
sure that they don't care about noise, when dealing with things as thin as
1U and 2U. Fans have to run fast and loud, to keep things cool in such thin
packaging.

As for processor choices, the history of the various Xeon families is here. So
you can see what each one is based on. I wish there was a nice web page like
the Tomshardware site, with benchmarks for all these, to help frame the choices
better. Which might leave the spec.org page as a source of info, but when there
are anomalies there, there is no one to explain the why of it. (I notice some
of the "rates" benchmarks seem to be FSB limited.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon

CINT2006 and CFP2006 measure the performance of one core. The "rates" versions
measure all cores in the computer. Unfortunately, there are no 5060's in the
list. Maybe you'd have to dig around in one of their other results pages
for that ?

http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/cpu2006.html

I cannot find a 5060 in an older result (had to look for 4MB cache as a
distinguishing feature):

http://web.archive.org/web/20060113024548/www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/cpu2000.html

A 5060 is 130W TDP, so it has the potential to get hot.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL96A

I think there is still room to optimize your processor choice. I
don't know if you are going for lowest cost, coolest operation,
highest performance or what not.

Paul

 

[Hank]

<<snip>>

The 1U or 2U part, would be the passive heatsink that ships with the
processor.
The choice would be important if the processor was going into a 1U or 2U
chassis
(the kind of chassis with fans sitting right next to the CPUs). You can be
sure that they don't care about noise, when dealing with things as thin as
1U and 2U. Fans have to run fast and loud, to keep things cool in such
thin
packaging.

As for processor choices, the history of the various Xeon families is
here. So
you can see what each one is based on. I wish there was a nice web page
like
the Tomshardware site, with benchmarks for all these, to help frame the
choices
better. Which might leave the spec.org page as a source of info, but when
there
are anomalies there, there is no one to explain the why of it. (I notice
some
of the "rates" benchmarks seem to be FSB limited.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon

CINT2006 and CFP2006 measure the performance of one core. The "rates"
versions
measure all cores in the computer. Unfortunately, there are no 5060's in
the
list. Maybe you'd have to dig around in one of their other results pages
for that ?

http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/cpu2006.html

I cannot find a 5060 in an older result (had to look for 4MB cache as a
distinguishing feature):

http://web.archive.org/web/20060113024548/www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/cpu2000.html

A 5060 is 130W TDP, so it has the potential to get hot.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL96A

I think there is still room to optimize your processor choice. I
don't know if you are going for lowest cost, coolest operation,
highest performance or what not.

Paul

I'm building a server to do some heavy memory intensive number crunching
with some c++ programs I wrote. I'm looking to set up a couple different
virtual machines via VMWare to run these programs and give me and another
person each a virtual machine to test with.

I guess it would be a mixture of performance and mid level costs.

Thanks