# Project Log :  The Leo Platform and Musical computers..



## bpgt64 (Apr 24, 2010)

Parts;

Gigabyte UD4P X58 Motherboard
Intel i7 920 Chip
Scythe Mungen II
3x2GB Crucial generic DDR3 1066 cas7(Operating at 88824-1600)
2 x Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 1.5 TB Drives
1 x WD Green Drive 1TB
Cooler Master HAF 932
OCZ Agility 60 OS Drive
Corsair P128 App Drive
Hitachi "Death Star" 2TB Storage Drive
Twin Sapphire Tech HD 5870s
Generic DVD-RW
BD-ROM
Two Gigabit PCI Cards

Arriving Next week;

400W Corsair PSU from Newegg
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX from ZZF
4X2GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 240-Pin DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) from Newegg
Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler from Newegg
AMD "Thuban" 1090T Phenom II X6 from Amazon
Cooler Master CM 690 from Microcenter
2 x Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 1.5 TB Drives from Newegg
1 x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 6gb/s  Internal Drive

Planned Configuration;
In the HAF 932:

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX 
4x2GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 240-Pin DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler 
AMD "Thuban" 1090T Phenom II X6
OCZ Agility 60 OS Drive
Corsair P128 App Drive
1 x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 6gb/s  Internal Drive
Twin Sapphire Tech HD 5870s
Generic DVD-RW
BD-ROM

In the CM 690:

400W Corsair PSU
Intel i7 920
Scythe Mungen II
3x2GB Crucial generic DDR3 1066 cas7(Operating at 88824-1600)
Hitachi "Death Star" 2TB Storage Drive
4 x Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 1.5 TB Drives
Gigabyte UD4P X58 Motherboard

Plan:  I intend to swap the guts of my current i7 rig into a CM690 and complete the Leo platform in my CM HAF 932.  The HAF 932 will remain as my main computer.  The i7 rig will become an ESXi VM box.  I will be running Pfsense(a comprehensive FreeBSD based firewall/routing OS), Ubuntu 10.04 Server Edition for hosting the 4.5TB Array to my network, as well as any other playground VMs I see fit.  The HAF 932 will off course be running Window's 7 64bit Pro for gaming and working.  I hope to be building sometime mid next week, Wednesday or Thursday.  The slow poke in the whole group I believe will be the Mobo coming from ZipZoomFly.  As it's no longer listed on there site, I may just have gotten my order in first 

Many Pictures...to come   Oh, and this is the Display Array the HAF 932 will be on...


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## bpgt64 (Apr 28, 2010)

Picked up my 1090T at micro center, Crosshair IV arrived at home. Noctua D14, Ram, HDDS, and PSU arrive tomorrow.


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## cadaveca (Apr 28, 2010)

Maybe I missed it, but can you tell me more about the monitor stand? Seems optimal for eyefinity.


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## bpgt64 (Apr 28, 2010)

http://www.frys.com/product/5955874?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Is the monitor stand, its made by ErgoTech.  Cost about 280 bucks including tax.  It was easy to assemble, and works perfectly with my 24 inch monitors.  The Right and Left monitors can adjust vertically, if your like me and have dissimilar branded monitors.  My center monitor is a an Asus True 24inch, but the right and left are cheapo JPS panel 23.6" monitors...so being able to adjust them was key.  It's very sturdy, my only complain is how big the base stand is, but I just raised the monitors up and put my keyboard on top of the stand, and problem solved.


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## bpgt64 (Apr 28, 2010)




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## Chicken Patty (Apr 28, 2010)

subscribed


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## bpgt64 (Apr 29, 2010)

So I am a little torn...I meant to spend only a very small amount on the new case, but the one I got,the Cooler Master Sniper, is actually pretty nice compared to haf932. I am somewhat considering putting the AMD rig in the Sniper...and Leaving the Intel Rig in the HAF...only thing is...the HAF 932 crushes its competitors in temperatures....

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2009/01/12/cooler-master-storm-sniper-review/4

So I am thinking I am going to just bunker down and do the legwork to move the Intel into its new home tomorrow...


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## bpgt64 (Apr 29, 2010)

More Pics


















Just need the remaining drives, another PSU, Noctua for the main box, and ram for the main box.


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## Chicken Patty (Apr 29, 2010)

oh what a way to start the morning for me looking at all this gorgeous hardware


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## bpgt64 (Apr 29, 2010)

This Storm sniper is a pleasure to work with, just likes its brother the HAF 932, lots of space, lots of cable management.  I have the i7 mounted in the new case, just waiting on PSU and HDD's to finish it up...Then onto the main rig later today.


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## codyjansen (Apr 29, 2010)

looks great


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## bpgt64 (Apr 29, 2010)




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## Lionheart (Apr 29, 2010)

Can I have one of your HD5870's pls


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## bpgt64 (Apr 30, 2010)

Good news, all hardware confirmed as working.  Bad news, its been a 14 hour day, and ESXi 4.0 won't recognize my NIC...I'll have pics later tonight of final products....


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## bpgt64 (Apr 30, 2010)

T-minus....2 hours to pictures...


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## bpgt64 (May 2, 2010)

Sorry, I have been wrestling with this ESXi server, and catching up on sleep in between.  But I finally got everything up and running, after having some ESXi compatible NIC overnighted.

My Comp(little messy now)

















ESXi server


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## leo1981 (May 3, 2010)

I was looking to assemble a computer with i7+X58 or X6+890FX.
You have both of them!

Both X58 and 890FX chipsets support IOMMU, but sometimes the motherboard vendors remove that feature.

Please let me know if you can enable IOMMU in the BIOS of the 2 motherboards.

Did you try to enable VMDirectPath in your i7 computer?
Did you test ESXi in your nes AMD computer?

Xen 4.0 has a similar feature: VGA Passthrough.

Thanks,
Leonardo


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## bpgt64 (May 3, 2010)

> I was looking to assemble a computer with i7+X58 or X6+890FX.
> You have both of them!
> 
> Both X58 and 890FX chipsets support IOMMU, but sometimes the motherboard vendors remove that feature.
> ...



I can only say, that the Gigabyte Bios doesn't have this, I have been through the bios thuroughly and can't remember ever seeing it.  I'd check the I7 rig, but right now I am migrating about 2TBs of data in across the net..and can't shut it off.  I am also finally getting some time to do what I really want..*play L4D2*, and I have only dabbled into the overclocking of my AMD rig....and by that I mean..4.1ghz 



> Did you try to enable VMDirectPath in your i7 computer?



I signed up for the trial, and it had a bunch of those features, but like an idiot I went ahead and activated the sever, which shut off all the good features.  ESXi for, a NAS, atleast a large NAS, isn't a good idea for several reasons.  I would have just used Ubuntu Server, and I might...given enough time, but I also have been pondering hosting a few other servers, and have yet to settle on what other things I'd like the server to do.



> Did you test ESXi in your nes AMD computer?



Nah, the AMD machine is my new over clocker/toy..I have had a lot of fun with the i7 920, but it's hit its limit at 4.2ghz.  Now I am using it to run Window's 2008 R2, and plan on running some VMs from there.  ESXi runs great, but I can't really afford a true hardware raid card just yet...and ESXi limits the provisioning of virtual disks to 2TBs.  For what I truly need it to do...that is host a large array, using a Software based raid..and crunch 24/7...Server 08 will allow me to handle that.

Give me a day or so to come up with some more concrete answers...I made allot of mistakes with this build, trying to do too much with this..instead of accomplishing a core set of goals, which I had to go back and re-evaluate to accomplish.


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