Using an old dual CPU server as a gaming PC?

Paul wrote:

Get yourself an ESD strap, and strap in.

Paul

Working next to a pot of boiling water helps a lot too! The kitchen
doesn't have any carpet either!

The power supply noise issue is patched for now. Below is a repost about
the subject, to complement this thread and so I can find the information
easier if I need it later.

Now onto the J10 jig.


--

Using 5 V (as someone suggested) works. Very quiet, could be higher
voltage (if there were some intermediate supply voltage between 5 and 12
V).

Simple to test.

Just cut the two fan-connector V+ wires (see the picture and description
below) and connect the fan side of those wires to a 5 V floppy power
connector. Leaving the ground and signal wires untouched and connected.

So, Yes, all that matters is the power supply fan feedback signal be
present. Doesn't require the fan spinning at full 12 V speed. I guess
it's just that cheap, thankfully.

Should work while my room is cool, at least long for my purpose. I'll
regularly test the air (temperature) coming out of it.

OF COURSE THIS ISN'T WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED FOR AND COULD CAUSE A FIRE.

Don't try this at home.




I wrote:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/275322...n/photostream/

Looking at the two 3 pin fan connectors on the lower left.

The leftmost connector.

From right to left.

Black is ground. Red is 12 V. Apparently yellow is the return signal
wire.

The right connector.

Same orientation, from right to left.

Gray is ground. Orange is 12 V. Apparently purple is the return signal
wire.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/

Two pics of the riser card next to the slots (should be the first two
pics). They included an extra riser card, attached to the one being
used.

--

Paul wrote in :

John Doe wrote:

It has an x16 slot. That's what the riser is plugged into, with its tail
fin plugged into J10. I'm not going to use that riser, it's going to be
pulled out of there. It will be used just to determine where J10's
outputs go.

Well, what I'm worried about, is they did something like this....

| | | |
----- ----------
^ x8 riser out
|
/ ^
--------------------- | 8 of 16 lanes
/ |
| |
| J10 | | | | |
| ----- -------------
Mobo power from ^ x16 mobo (planar)
20-pin ATX connector |
Power pins not connected

They might also make the x16 mobo slot a "regular" one,
and the power section at the end could be connected
in parallel. But a guess would be, they avoided having
to run power routing layers over to the x16 power
section, relying on J10 and riser resources to route the
power.

Perhaps it's because there are potentially more
riser slots than input power busses, that they added
J10 to give more parallel paths. The idea is to get
enough ampacity, have enough pins on the input side of
the riser, to power all the slot power pins on the output
side.

So that's where my ohmmeter would go next. Buzzing the
3.3V and 12V pins of the x16 slot and seeing whether there
is continuity to the 20-pin connector or not. It doesn't
answer the question of copper track ampacity, just proves
they didn't completely cut that path as shown above.

It would make more sense to run all the powers in parallel,
in which case, you'd have no trouble running your card.
If it was like this, it improves the odds of not
actually needing J10. The power section on the
x16 then carries 3.3V @ 3A, 12V @ 2A, and the PCI Express
AUX carries 12V @ X amps.

| | | |
----- ----------
^ x8 riser out
|
| ^
----------------------+ | 8 of 16 lanes
/ | |
| | | --
| J10 | | | | | \__ GTX goes here
| ----- ------------- /
Mobo power from ^ x16 mobo (planar) --
20-pin ATX connector |
Power pins connected

HTH,
Paul

John Doe wrote:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/

Two pics of the riser card next to the slots (should be the first two
pics). They included an extra riser card, attached to the one being
used.


If you use the x16 slot on the motherboard directly
for a video card, won't the x4 which is right next
to the x16 conflict with the mechanical details
of the video card heel lock ? You might still
need some sorta small vertical riser to get the
video card clear of obstacles like that.

The video card "heel" might fit within the gap
provided by the x4 connector, but the thickness of
the end box of each PCI Express connector, is not
going to fit in the gap on the video card,
between heel and fingers.

I'm looking for a solution here, that doesn't
require sawing up the video card :-)

Paul

Paul wrote in :

John Doe wrote:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/

Two pics of the riser card next to the slots (should be the first two
pics). They included an extra riser card, attached to the one being
used.


If you use the x16 slot on the motherboard directly for a video card,
won't the x4 which is right next to the x16 conflict with the
mechanical details of the video card heel lock ?

The video card would cover all of the SAT a slots, too. I'm using a 2u
riser card/board (a right angle adapter). To raise the video card up out
of the case. Hopefully it's high enough so that I don't need to cut the
huge hole in the case. I just got the 2u riser card, it's sitting over
there in the package, screaming "Take me out and look!"



--

You might still need some sorta small vertical riser to get the video
card clear of obstacles like that.

The video card "heel" might fit within the gap provided by the x4
connector, but the thickness of the end box of each PCI Express
connector, is not going to fit in the gap on the video card, between
heel and fingers.

I'm looking for a solution here, that doesn't require sawing up the
video card :-)

Paul

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/?

That's the 2u riser sitting in the case.

I might go with the chassis open for a while. The riser is not
high enough for the card to sit facing downwards on top of the chassis.
I just want to get something going.

Now I will see where the J10 outputs go to on the stock 1u riser.

Thanks for the interest/help.

Maximum sustained wattage during PassMark is 175 W. Peak is about 180 W.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/?

PassMark, server, L5630, onboard video, Raptor (7500 RPM)

Seems memory score should be higher, but look at the CPU score and
notice the 2 x CPU clock speed (2.13 GHz). It's a 40 W package.

That's about what I expected, not worried about the composite score, the
video kills it (as we will see if and when the GTX 960 is installed).





--

I wrote:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371543511693?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301325754598?

I wanted only 12 GB of RAM, a multiple of six modules (2 GB). But
since they are 4 GB modules, I will sell 24 GB (half) of it. Should be
easy, since apparently memory is very expensive for that motherboard.
Don't know what they're doing, apparently somehow they get 4 GB
modules cheap.

Without the riser card, the GFX 960 video card would block all of the
SATA ports.

Hope I get this right...

The riser card and GTX 960 are installed and apparently functioning
properly. It's hooked up to a CRT monitor. I guess it will still run
benchmarks half decently. Will see.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/?





I wrote:

This is just fascinating me. Apparently only for people who can build
stuff. That's what I was looking for. Otherwise, everybody would be
doing it.

https://youtu.be/epIlB49SNTI?t=474

There he is self-critical about his system, but if you zoom in and look
at the specs, you will notice it's running at 2.5 GHz. There are cheap
Xeon CPUs available running much faster than that.

This is thrilling... But must avoid the pitfalls. Lots of research
ahead. Wish I could do it with my Q9550s. But it looks like basically
the same thing, except having to buy them again.

If you know offhand, Paul, should the faceplate the grounded to the
case?

Or are all the other ground connections good enough?

Thanks.

Posted the Passmark results. Probably not a great test, but it's
something. I might do some 3DMark or PCMark too.

Maximum short-term wattage (for the whole system, measured at the plug)
was 230 W during that test. Peak was about 240 W. Go figure.




I wrote:

The riser card and GTX 960 are installed and apparently functioning
properly. It's hooked up to a CRT monitor. I guess it will still run
benchmarks half decently. Will see.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/?





I wrote:

This is just fascinating me. Apparently only for people who can build
stuff. That's what I was looking for. Otherwise, everybody would be
doing it.

https://youtu.be/epIlB49SNTI?t=474

There he is self-critical about his system, but if you zoom in and
look at the specs, you will notice it's running at 2.5 GHz. There are
cheap Xeon CPUs available running much faster than that.

This is thrilling... But must avoid the pitfalls. Lots of research
ahead. Wish I could do it with my Q9550s. But it looks like basically
the same thing, except having to buy them again.