New Workstation - Corsair 800D

[ND40oz]

Alright, finally time to get a new workstation and get off my trusty D820 for every day use.

Parts:

Asus Rampage II Extreme
Corsair Dominator 8GB (4 x 2GB)
Corsair 620HX
Corsair H50
Corsair 800D
Crucial M225 64 GB
Intel i7 920 D0
nVidia FX4500 (x2 SLI)
Silverstone SDP08

I'll be using my 2407 and 2007 for monitors to begin with, but I'll probably replace them with a matching set or 3 of LED backlits down the line.

OS will be Server 2008 R2 and I'll probably be adding some 2TB hitachi's to the hot swap bays to support some VMs.

Here's a pic minus the video cards as they'll be pulled from a dual 5160 box I have sitting here.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/DSC02612.jpg

[coolmiester]

Nice cards ND.......well nice system actually :)

[Baleful]

Looks good man, I only have one question - Whats up with the "High-Performance CPU Cooler"????

[ND40oz]

CM, yeah, they're a few years old now, but they still do the job. BTW free next day shipping from scan is awesome, much better then newegg.

Bale, figured I'd give the H50 a shot and it's pretty simple to swap with a 1283 should I have any issues. This will be my main work box, simple is better when it comes to my paycheck :D

[ND40oz]

Alright some updates:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/041.jpg
Processor installed

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/042.jpg
Memory installed

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/043.jpg
SSD installed in non-hotswap bay

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/044.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/045.jpg
Corsair fan mounted

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/046.jpg
Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive mounted

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/049.jpg
Rough wiring without video cards

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/051.jpg
Video cards installed

Having issues with enabling SLI on the Quadros, Asus tells me Server 2K8 R2 isn't supported on this board, so they won't help and nVidia doesn't seem to have a way to ask them directly, but I reported it as a driver issue. Tried both the Win 2K8 Quadro drivers and the Win 7 GeForce drivers, neither works. Going to have to figure something out, might put 7 on it and see if they work. Probably going to throw my 260s on it for the time being, but we'll see.

[Septim]

ahm, any more comments on the cpu cooling potential?

[Kuro]

looking good ND40oz :)

[ND40oz]

ahm, any more comments on the cpu cooling potential?

Well, I have it crunching at 3.2 now, sitting at 20x160, cores sit between 64-68 C according to coretemp. Idle is down at 30-34. Pretty good, if you ask me, 12-14 degrees cooler then my other 920 which is on a 1283 in a HAF 932 with lots of airflow. It's at 3.36 though, only difference is a 21 multi. This one will be cranked higher, still trying to get the video card piece straightened out, looking at 3.8-4.2, we'll see where temps sit.

[Septim]

not so bad for that OC, maybe they should make it a 2x120 rad...

[Floyd]

Why have 4 sticks of ram for a triple channel mobo?

[ND40oz]

Why have 4 sticks of ram for a triple channel mobo?

It's what BB had in stock and it was the same price as the 3x2 kit ($260 for 8 gigs of dominators seemed like a bargain). I'm going to buy another kit and fully populate it and then run dual channel with the spare two sticks in another build. Still reports as triple channel in CPUZ, not quite sure how that works.

And it would be interesting if Corsair made a 2x120 kit since their case could easily handle it. Tubing is small and they didn't make it the easiest to wire either. Fan obviously needs to hit the 4 pin header and then pump needs to hit a spare 3 pin. Since the fan is on the back of the case, you have to run it toward the front of the mb to plug in. It's all nicely sleaved though.

[ablatman]

Having issues with enabling SLI on the Quadros, Asus tells me Server 2K8 R2 isn't supported on this board, so they won't help and nVidia doesn't seem to have a way to ask them directly, but I reported it as a driver issue. Tried both the Win 2K8 Quadro drivers and the Win 7 GeForce drivers, neither works. Going to have to figure something out, might put 7 on it and see if they work. Probably going to throw my 260s on it for the time being, but we'll see.

You say you're running Server 2008 R2? Have you tried Server 2008?


I'm currently running Server 2008, and I plan to migrate to R2 at some point down the line once I figure out how to get to feel the way I want it to, and I've had some issues with old programs/installers not being written to be able to handle Server 2008 -- I've had to modify support files for installers on more than one occasion because the people that wrote them didn't anticipate someone running anything other than XP or Vista using the installer (UT III anyone?). It's possible that you're running into something similar -- that the driver doesn't see the OS it expects to and reacts in an unpredictable way.

[ND40oz]

You say you're running Server 2008 R2? Have you tried Server 2008?


I'm currently running Server 2008, and I plan to migrate to R2 at some point down the line once I figure out how to get to feel the way I want it to, and I've had some issues with old programs/installers not being written to be able to handle Server 2008 -- I've had to modify support files for installers on more than one occasion because the people that wrote them didn't anticipate someone running anything other than XP or Vista using the installer (UT III anyone?). It's possible that you're running into something similar -- that the driver doesn't see the OS it expects to and reacts in an unpredictable way.

I used the 191.66 Quadro driver specifically for Server 2008 R2, it doesn't allow SLI. I haven't used these cards with an SLI capable board with Server 2008, but they do work in an SLI capable board with XP x64 and Vista. I haven't had any issues other then this with R2, works great and has TRIM support out of the box, just like 7. I mainly use it to run hyper-V and then run the VMs I need for work, XP, Vista and 7.

I am currently running Server 2008 x64 on both my laptop and my other workstation, but they're both going to get upgraded to R2 shortly. Wanted this one running first, but I may go another route. That's why I ordered another SSD, going to rebuild the dual X5355 system with it and run the VMs in there for the time being. Need to order the HR-01Xs for it as well, since the stock intel coolers get a little noisy.

[ND40oz]

Alright, changing directions with this, workstation is now a TJ09 with X5355s.

So out of the build:

Corsair 620HX
Crucial M225 64 GB
nVidia FX4500 (x2 SLI)
Server 2008 R2 Ent.

And in their place:
Silverstone ST-1000
OCZ Agility 60 GB (x2 RAID 0)
BFG 260 Maxcores (x2 SLI)
EVGA 8800GTS (G92 Physics)
Windows 7 Ult.

Currently waiting for my 2nd Agility to arrive...

[coolmiester]

Was wondering what the early morning Scan delivery was :)

[slpdLoad]

Currently waiting for my 2nd Agility to arrive...

These are back down to $130 after rebate @ the Egg...

[smee]

Wait... you say its a TJ09 now, does that mean your not using the Corsair 800D? :eek:

[ND40oz]

Was wondering what the early morning Scan delivery was :)

Yup, ordered some more 3.5 to 2.5 adaptors and a 24 pin extension, needed that for the ST-1000 to reach. Ended up ordering a second one from newegg today, want to see how the single sleeved wire nzxt's (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812170007&cm_re=nzxt-_-12-170-007-_-Product) look.

These are back down to $130 after rebate @ the Egg...

Yup, that's what I'm waiting on. Picked them both up for $130 AR, talk about a steal.

[ND40oz]

Wait... you say its a TJ09 now, does that mean your not using the Corsair 800D? :eek:

Whoops, missed this one. Just repurposing it. Honestly, I started working with my TJ09 again and man, I forgot how well built it was. I'm also starting to think I should have gone with a TJ07 instead of the 800D for this build. If SS would get off their Fortress kick and build a newer version of the TJ series with some of the features of the 800D, I'd be heaven. The 800Ds cable management is awesome, plenty of space behind the motherboard, plenty of cable routing options, hot swap feature is great. If it was all aluminum, it would be the perfect case, but it being steel, just seems to knock it down a level.

[ND40oz]

Ok, dragging this one back up, rebuilding my 800D with a few updates.

What's out:
Corsair Dominators 4 x 2GB kit
2x GTX 260 216s
8800GTS 512mb
2x Agility 60GB
Corsair H50 - piece of shit quit on me about 6 months ago, so much for set and forget
Silverstone ST1000

What's in:
GSkill Ripjaws 4 x 4GB kit (just received)
2x GTX 465 (already have)
LSI 9265-8i (in the mail)
Corsair Force 3 120GB (just received)
Xigmatek 1283 (already have)
3x Silverstone AP121s (ordering)
Corsair HX1050 (ordering)

I've been wanting to mess with the newer Sata III drives, so I figured it was time for an update. I'll mess around with Force 3 until I figure out what SSDs I want to use for RAID 0 array. I had planned on using Vertex 3 MaxIOs but I'm a little leary of OCZ until they get the firmware kinks worked out. I figure Corsair won't give me any crap if I have to RMA the Force 3, so I'll be using that for the time being. Haven't purchased fastpath yet for the 9265-8i, want to see how it performs without it. Waiting until next gen for the video cards.

[becandl]

I just recently bought a Force 3. I haven't used it in RAID or anything but I have to say, for the money, it is really quick

[ND40oz]

Yeah, mine's here in the box, waiting for the LSI card to come now, the only Sata III controller in the house right now is the MBP, wouldn't really do me any good in my wifes machine :p

On another note, I cannot for the life of me get both my GTX 465s to work with the RIIE. One works fine, I stick the other in and it can't initialize the card in windows. Then, if I try overclocking anything over a 150 BCLK and it hangs on VGA BIOS. Tried three different bios's for the board, all do the same, tried different combos of the slots with the same issue.

So, pop the GTX 465s into my P6T6 WS Revo, work fine. Pop both my GTX 260 216s in the RIIE and they both work fine. For some reason, it just doesn't like these 465s. So now I have to swap boards, oh well, I like the P6T6 Revo better then the RIIE anyway.

[runnin17]

I'm not sure I would mess with RAID with the Force 3. I seriously doubt you will notice much difference in speed.

[ND40oz]

No sense in having a good controller if you're not going to use it though, might as well have some fun with it. Next year I'll dump it in a norco and use it for a home server build.

[ND40oz]

Well I think I've found the issue, it's the original ST1000, it doesn't appear to be able to handle the load from two GTX 465s, I know it's a split rail design and wonder if that may be the issue. I'll test with my TX750 tomorrow, tired of screwing with it tonight.

[ND40oz]

TX750 works, guess my ST1000 just isn't up to the task, oh well, I've wanted a fully modular ps for my FT03, so it will work fine in there.

[ND40oz]

Some parts came in, got the AP121s, 8087 breakout cables, 800D Sata 6Gbps upgrade kit and the LSI 9265-8i.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/DSC_0316.jpg

Waiting on a second Force 3 120, another 8GB of ram (might as well max it out at 24GB) and the Corsair HX1050.

[ND40oz]

Starting to get somewhere, still waiting on the PSU, 2nd Force 3 and 8GB of memory. I'm going to have to rerun all the power cables once the HX1050 gets here, I'll tidy it up after it's re-cabled.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/DSC_0319.jpg

[mcoffey]

Pretty tasty there ND, keep it coming:up:

andyc

[jacobroufa]

Yeah, looking good for sure. I LOVE that cooler. Best value as far as price/performance is concerned. Have one on my wife's computer. Wish I could attach two fans to it, but with an AP-15 mounted it seems to keep pretty freaking cool.

[ND40oz]

So I got a few more parts in, 2 more 4GB sticks of g-skill so we're up to 24GB total now, page file disabled, check.

Got the second Corsair Force 3 120GB in and in testing both of them with the LSI card, the new Corsair Sata III backplane is causing issues. If I bypass it, everything works fine, but as soon as I put the 2 SSDs in it all sorts of problems. Didn't realize the LSI has an audible alarm on it, damn is that thing loud when it was getting errors from the array. So back to the drawing board there.

Still waiting for my Corsair HX1050, hopefully it gets here by tomorrow.

Looking at getting the icydock 2.5" 4 disk hotswap bays for the SSDs instead, anyone used them yet?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994095

[ND40oz]

Alright finally got it all wired up with the HX1050. Had to put the SSDs in the bottom 3.5" slots instead of the hotswaps, pain in the ass, hopefully Corsair figures out the problem with Sata III SSDs and their new Sata III backplane.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j148/ND40oz/DSC_0419.jpg

Wiring doesn't look too bad for a quick job, the new PSUs wires are stiffer then the HX620 or TX750 I have, oh well, what can you do.