Couple pics of the DIY fanless GPU Normal temperature: 45 http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2063188/ http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2063189/ Asus Xonar D1 converted to PCIE http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2066478/ Storage system http://www.overclock.net/content/typ...

Well not that challenging... just choose the right drives and mounting systems :mrgreen: comparing to the old 3x4 bottom cage, this one (4x4, I cut out the bottom front 5.25" bays) looks like an expanded one but it's just the looks: it's fully braced on every side and on top with the industrial pane...

Now with 12 cores and ready for 32 drives. The old Tyan S7025 network cards died on me during a driver update (maybe because of a shorted cable... :-x) so I had to think about a new hardware platform. At first I thought about dual LGA2011 but it'd cost me a lot of $$$ to get two 6-core Xeons and a g...

Right now testing with the lowered height heatsink to make it fit in 1U chassis.

Of course it is, but on Seasonic models SS-300M1U and SS-350M1U it works like the X desktop series: it spins only if load exceeds 50% or internal temperature is too high. Until now I haven't been able to make it spin, normal power consumption of the system is 45W and temp never got hot. So in this s...

Those were normal usage temps (HD video playback), idle temps are 34. I use a top panel, for now I cannot put it on since I have to cut the heatsink fins by 1/4" to make it slightly lower. It will reduce radiating surface but not much. I already bought a fully vented top panel, I will test performan...

Just a refreshing of my old 2012 build, with some experimenting. :mrgreen: Intel i3-3220 underclocked to 1.6GHz 4096MB single channel Kingston DDR3-1333 Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Optiarc BC-5500A optical drive Seasonic SS-350M1U hybrid 350W Intel SSD330 180GB Seagate ST9750420AS WD10JPVT WD20EARX ESI Aud...

Nope at least when I removed the Spitfire I did not notice any issues, might be a broken diode. But upon removing the heatsink I noticed a broken capacitor near the X16 connector, it was still electrically connected to the PCB but touching it... it snapped off. Tried to re-solder it back, no luck.

Now I have to deal with a possibly broken Quadro 4000. :cry: :-x With a new Spitfire mounted upwards and a 2100-RPM fan on open case, idle reads 60 and load... 100. :shock: The thermal block in contact with the GF100 chip feels warm to the touch. If the core was 100, it would heat up to something li...

1) AFAIK the case is the same, apart one has the window and the other does not. There's two color versions but they differ only in the silver front trim (the stripes that run along the optical bays): one (mine) has them in dark silver, another in polished black. 2) The 3x bottom HDD cages are totall...

Lightning fast shipping: the GTs are here: They'll be modified and mounted once I finish checking 4 HDDs for bad sectors (already found one).

Was able to integrate all main ODDs inside, so no need for external FW800 but I'll test it anyway :mrgreen: It was not the TI card that was tricky: was the Icy Box external enclosure which has a buggy firmware in FW800 mode, works only in FW400 on a FW400 controller. But at least the LSI card won't ...

Next will be swapping the Belkin card for a LSI FW800 one. The TI-based seems to be very tricky on peripherals: doesn't work with my external Seagate 750GB USB-FW400-FW800 HDD, had to hook it to the Audigy IEEE1394-400. From what I remember, the LSI chip should work with Sata-to-FW800 connected ODDs...

Nope: E5520 Xeons are LGA1366. I bought the SE2011 because I could find it for slightly less than the multi-standard SE2 and it had the NF-P14-PWM fan which the SE2 doesn't have. Then I bought two NM-I3 multi-socket mounting kits, but they fit LGA775-115x-1366 without backplate (standard Ø4 mobo hol...

Tried upright with no fan just exhaust rear: 50deg.
Now downright with fan: 54deg. But bear in mind that it's warmed by the two SAS cards processors which get quite hot.

Nibbled away the rear exhaust grille, swapped the TY-140 with a Noctua NF-P14-PWM and on the Quadro we have now a NF-F12-PWM, I bought it in 2010 but never used it since in DC tests it always produced an annoying whining noise, but now installed in the system and powered via mobo, it's silent. :shoc...

Exhaust tubing.

All prepared, ordered 4x WD1003FBYX RE4 and they arrived, but unfortunately one was DOA :cry: Installed and configured the new 8x RAID6 volume, 6xWD10EADS and 2xWD10EACS all good old Greens from 2008 :mrgreen:, capacity: 5540GB. Small volume: RAID6 with 4xWD Scorpio Blue, 929GB. A small problem that...

It is not necessary: last night I powered it up after leaving it unplugged on the table for days, and it did not boot. Tonight, prepared to do some troubleshooting I removed it from the rack, opened it, retried... and it booted straight away :-|, then I tried RAM troubleshooting: single channel CH0 ...

Last night when I had done everything and mounted the PC in my Hifi, surprise: it kept powering on and then off without booting :-x already had this happen once with the i3-3220 and solved it by clearing CMOS and restarting. Thought it was something with system memory, 2x2048MB Kingston that always ...

Some minor variations for V2.5. 1) dual bridge boards for the slim-line BD-RW drives, better performance and compatibility. Externalizing the DVD-RAM writer (wanna maintain the onboard USB-A as internal emergency boot port). 2) recycling the old 8-port SAS controller to use it in an asymmetrical "SL...

Testing a Ivy Bridge CPU (i3-3220) standard power. Seems 22nm did the trick: forcing 1.6GHz we have 4W less than the i3-2120T, during Mediaportal use (that stresses the HD2000 GPU). Without underclocking RAM (officially I.B. should work only 1333-1600 while S.B. worked 1066-1333) and keeping HD2500 ...

Unfortunately without primer it doesn't stay on too much, but I didn't want to buy an entire can of primer just to use it now.

Got some water based retouch to try. First, LED and ODD holes. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/dunk5.1dts/RACK8/P1000532_zpsd0b3b71b.jpg A couple pics of the milling machine. :mrgreen: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/dunk5.1dts/RACK8/2013-02-22-184_zpsd6fbb4ae.jpg http://img.photobucke...

On the left, 3/8" normal blind holes about 50% deep. On the right, I routed it extending an indentation that was already present on the panel, to mount the handles I think. This way I can use any screw type and have more position adjusting. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/dunk5.1dts/RACK8/P10...

Tried with a black marker and on the ODD it looked good, but as always with ink it's somewhat shiny, I'll try searching for satin black model paint and a very small brush. :wink: Meanwhile, today I modified the inside of the 3/8" panel to allow protruding display mounting screws (they were countersu...

Trying again Linpack with 4 threads and 2000MB memory usage (x32 OS). Underpowering works: full load CPU struggles to reach 40°C and fan spins... 1000RPM. :shock: :shock: :shock: Fanless operation should be piece of cake this way. But there's one caveat: since the Seasonic SS-350M1U power supply has...

Made some solid state exchanges and tweaked a little. For now the DLNA server has been powered off. SSD exchanges: Intel 330 series 180GB from laptop to HTPC as music library volume (SATA2), replaces Seagate ST9750420AS. Now it is dual Sandforce driven: OCZ VTX3-60GB for boot and Intel 330 for music...

Power tests: average power consumption is 40W with single channel RAM, CPU underclocked to 1.6GHz, single display, front LCD and 3+1 HDD. Not much more than my DLNA server (25W with CF+SSD and Wifi)... I am thinking about replacing some HDDs in here with SSDs and dropping the DLNA server, recycling ...

Already planned on blacking out that, I just wanted to enlarge that opening since being 3/8" thick it can cast a shadow from some viewing angles, blackout or not. it should not be too much awful to see some display frame since it's black.