# 12-core Xeon engineering workstation build



## PooPipeBoy (Feb 22, 2021)

For years now I've had some ideas brewing in my mind of what I'd like to use for an engineering workstation and now I finally have the parts at my disposal to make it happen. This is going to be a very interesting one.

NOTE: This build definitely is NOT how you SHOULD build a workstation. But instead for personal use it will be plenty powerful enough for my own purposes.

There's a couple of stipulations I had for this build:

CPU must be a Xeon on a relatively modern architecture (less than 10 years old) with lots of cores and cache.
ECC registered memory, something I've never personally used and would be great to have.
Quadro graphics card that is powerful enough to play a game or two.
For those who want to get straight into the specifications list, here you go:



Spoiler: Xeon Build Specifications




Intel Xeon E5-2678 V3 X99 12-core Haswell processor
Coolermaster Hyper T4 cooler
Huananzhi X99-TF motherboard
4x8GB Samsung DDR3 ECC 1600MHz dual rank PC3L memory
Nvidia Quadro K620 2GB graphics card
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD
1TB 7200rpm hard drive?
Fractal Design Core 2300 case
Zalman ZM-700SV power supply




I've already done some initial testing to make sure nothing is DOA. Everything is working and good to go!






More to come.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 22, 2021)

The heart of this build will be the Xeon E5-2678 V3 processor. 12 cores on the Haswell architecture with 30MB of cache should be plenty if I want to run multiple workloads at the same time. Yeah the single core performance and gaming performance isn't brilliant, but it's not like I'm a heavy gamer and I've got my main Ryzen system for that stuff anyway.





I'm also keen to try out China's finest X99 motherboard, the Huananzhi X99-TF. I ordered the motherboard and processor as a bundle, totalling US$250. But it comes with a bunch of expansion features and has received lots of praise from reviewers for being a great budget motherboard. It also supports both DDR3 ECC memory (cheaper than DDR4 ECC), which is what I'm going for.





Speaking of memory, this was a great used deal. I got 32GB of DDR3 ECC registered 1600MHz Samsung used server memory for US$60. I opted for dual rank PC3L (1.35V instead of 1.5V per module) which is thankfully compatible with this motherboard.





For the graphics I already had the perfect candidate just sitting around and being used to test other systems. I think I paid US$30 about a year ago for this one, which was a steal considering you get 384 cuda cores on the Maxwell architecture and 2GB of DDR3 VRAM. Can't overclock this guy unfortunately (as with any Quadro) and you don't get GDDR5, but you do get CUDA version 5.0 and it performs similar to a GTX 650 in games. Should be great for 3D modelling and other workstation tasks.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 22, 2021)

Reserved, most likely for a review of the motherboard (500th post, wooooot!)


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 22, 2021)

For the case I'm going with a brand new Fractal Design Core 2300 case for US$55 that can accept a full size ATX motherboard. Looks nice and unassuming, it's sturdy, and it has the provisions of top fan ventilation and two 5.25" drive bays.





Installing components on the board and just verifying thermal paste contact patch. The Hyper T4 I'm using has a smaller contact patch than the processor IHS, but I'm not too worried when the cores run very cool anyway and it's also easier to clean up the paste when it stays on top of the IHS.





Apparently the securing ring they've included for the heatsink is compatible with any AM4-style cooler. Works for me.


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## oldwalltree (Feb 22, 2021)

Awesome!


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

I pulled the processor out to check it out. Processor came pre-installed in the socket. Actually the first time I've ever even seen an X99 socket in person.









Final assembly of motherboard components. I actually quite like this orientation of the heatsink so I might leave it like this for now.





Test fitting the board and getting the standoffs in. Just enough room to fit the board in. One of these days I need a better tool to install standoffs because using pliers is so tedious and cumbersome, and it's super easy to scratch everything.


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## storm-chaser (Feb 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> For years now I've had some ideas brewing in my mind of what I'd like to use for an engineering workstation and now I finally have the parts at my disposal to make it happen. This is going to be a very interesting one.
> 
> NOTE: This build definitely is NOT how you SHOULD build a workstation. But instead for personal use it will be plenty powerful enough for my own purposes.
> 
> ...


Good call on the CPU. Pretty good bang for the buck if you ask me. OEM Xeons are the way to go and typically . Usually running higher/very similar clocks using less voltage vs their retail counterparts.

Matter of fact I was eyeing that very CPU for my next workstation build.

I also have two of them in my C4130 GPU server and it's definitely a powerhouse of a chip.


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## Hachi_Roku256563 (Feb 23, 2021)

Dam this would make a pretty nice compile machine
Certainley be faster then my 3200g


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## storm-chaser (Feb 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> The heart of this build will be the Xeon E5-2678 V3 processor. 12 cores on the Haswell architecture with 30MB of cache should be plenty if I want to run multiple workloads at the same time. Yeah the single core performance and gaming performance isn't brilliant, but it's not like I'm a heavy gamer and I've got my main Ryzen system for that stuff anyway.
> 
> View attachment 189424
> 
> ...


I have a couple extra Quadro video cards in my stockpile here would you be interested? Both are better than this one. If you are interested I can round them up and get you the particulars.


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## tabascosauz (Feb 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I pulled the processor out to check it out. Processor came pre-installed in the socket. Actually the first time I've ever even seen an X99 socket in person.
> 
> View attachment 189579



Call me eccentric, but something about the Haswell-E and Broadwell-E IHS just rubs me the right way, and no other CPU since then has done quite the same


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## bobbybluz (Feb 23, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> I have a couple extra Quadro video cards in my stockpile here would you be interested? Both are better than this one. If you are interested I can round them up and get you the particulars.


I may be interested in a Quadro for my E5 2683 V4 workstation.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Good call on the CPU. Pretty good bang for the buck if you ask me. OEM Xeons are the way to go and typically . Usually running higher/very similar clocks using less voltage vs their retail counterparts.
> 
> Matter of fact I was eyeing that very CPU for my next workstation build.
> 
> I also have two of them in my C4130 GPU server and it's definitely a powerhouse of a chip.



I'm impressed by the 2678 V3 so far! While I was checking to make sure everything was working, it was idling around 61 watts and at full load was pulling 190 watts. It's not the power hog I was expecting it to be. Maximum temperatures on any of the cores was in the low 50C range. Multicore performance also seems to be not far off my Ryzen 5600X in Cinebench R15, maybe about 100cb lower.

I also tested my E5-2630L V3 eight core chip, and it's pretty good but it has around half the multicore performance and needs DDR4 memory.



tabascosauz said:


> Call me eccentric, but something about the Haswell-E and Broadwell-E IHS just rubs me the right way, and no other CPU since then has done quite the same



I know what you mean, it's like the chips haven't aged in their appearance at all. One thing I didn't expect is that these X99 chips have a very thick PCB on them (around 1.5 to 2.0mm) that's very different to any other CPU I've owned.



storm-chaser said:


> I have a couple extra Quadro video cards in my stockpile here would you be interested? Both are better than this one. If you are interested I can round them up and get you the particulars.



Nah that's alright, I'm good for now thanks. I should've pulled up on my spending a long time ago


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

For the power supply I'm re-purposing my Zalman ZM700-SV 700W 80 Plus Silver unit that I just extracted from my main system. It's served me well for 7 years and it's a good candidate for a build that needs decent reliability. It's got a single 12V rail capable of 660 watts and the ripple is "up to 120mV". No idea on the actual performance because there's practically no reviews or documentation on this particular power supply. That's why it's a good idea to go with the more popular models.





The whole build is starting to get this nice white-on-black theme going on, looks quite nice so far.


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## storm-chaser (Feb 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> For the power supply I'm re-purposing my Zalman ZM700-SV 700W 80 Plus Silver unit that I just extracted from my main system. It's served me well for 7 years and it's a good candidate for a build that needs decent reliability. It's got a single 12V rail capable of 660 watts and the ripple is "up to 120mV". No idea on the actual performance because there's practically no reviews or documentation on this particular power supply. That's why it's a good idea to go with the more popular models.
> 
> View attachment 189592
> 
> ...


Nice! It's like the inverse proportion to that of my


storm-chaser said:


> I have a couple extra Quadro video cards in my stockpile here would you be interested? Both are better than this one. If you are interested I can round them up and get you the particulars.


So I know I have another one around but for now its just the NVS 450. Also check specs and compare to make sure it's superior to your current GPU (obviously) lol


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

So unfortunately I've come across potentially the first major disappointment with this build: The Huananzhi X99-TF motherboard may, in fact, not support error-correcting memory.

Okay I'll elaborate a bit. ECC memory is _technically_ compatible with this board, in the sense that it will boot and work just fine. But the problem is that there seems to be no actual error-checking enabled behind the scenes. The DDR3 ECC registered memory will run just fine, but there's no actual ECC capabilities, therefore it just behaves like regular DDR3 memory.

Wuh, wuh, wuuuuuh....

I verified that all four DDR3 modules are definitely ECC and definitely registered using MemTest86. No error correcting though. I combed through every single BIOS setting for a good hour and couldn't find anything that would "enable" ECC. Resetting the bios, loading optimized defaults.....nothing.

Online information is conflicting to say the least:



> Diego on 11 September 2020 02:09 says:
> 
> I have installed an E5-2650Lv3 in a Kllisre X99 LGA2011-3 with a Micron MTA9ASF1G72AZ–8GB (DDR4 ECC). I know is not an usual combination, but I was looking for a low power consumption with lots of cores. Everything is working ok (can install linux, runs memtest), but after testing it I have noticed that ECC, although detected, is not used. ECC support in BIOS is Enabled, lots of options about scrubbing, patrolling, but none about enabling _usage_ of ECC.
> Linux at boot says:
> ...





> Miyconst on 11 September 2020 09:18 says:
> 
> Diego, from your comment it's not clear which Kllisre X99 motherboard you talk about. I have validated Memtest86 on JingSha X99 D8 and *Huananzhi X99-TF/F8/T8, these boards are surely using ECC, since I have some memory modules which are slightly faulty, and Memtest86 detects errors corrected by ECC*.



So......does it support ECC? The answer seems to be a definite "yesn't".

I may need to run some memory tests to see if there are any ECC errors detected, and if there are no actual errors, it may be the case that ECC is actually working. Even though everything is currently reporting that it's not.


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## Lorec (Feb 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I'm also keen to try out China's finest X99 motherboard, the Huananzhi X99-TF. I ordered the motherboard and processor as a bundle, totalling US$250. But it comes with a bunch of expansion features and has received lots of praise from reviewers for being a great budget motherboard. It also supports both DDR3 ECC memory (cheaper than DDR4 ECC), which is what I'm going for.
> View attachment 189425


I love how those huananzhi board look nowadays! Ive been eyeing them for ages, still for my 12C xeon system (on x79) i preferred an asus board. 
Looked and felt more reliable


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

Lorec said:


> I love how those huananzhi board look nowadays! Ive been eyeing them for ages, still for my 12C xeon system (on x79) i preferred an asus board.
> Looked and felt more reliable



For any serious build you're better off going with a real-deal motherboard, although my impressions of the Huananzhi board are that I've encountered surprisingly few problems so far. It fired up just fine on the first try and there's no weirdness going on. The RAM slots do feel quite cheap with how the mechanisms click into place, the matte black PCB stains easily, and the front panel pins aren't labelled at all. Manufacturer support for BIOS updates is non-existent. But those are mainly small niggling issues. You do get stuff like the on-PCB power button and code readout which are nice. VRM temperatures are in the mid-50C range and the two fans on there are quiet. It's strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses and it seems good so far. Still yet to find out if ECC actually works or not.

It's been relatively budget-friendly, honestly. For the US$320 I've invested in the mobo/CPU/RAM combo for this rig, you could definitely get something else that would be much better for gaming. But in terms of the multi-core performance and the quantity of RAM, I'm not sure how you'd be able to beat this.

Right now it's been sitting there for an hour running MemTest86. No errors so far. I added an LED strip to see how that would look.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 23, 2021)

Well I'm damn impressed right now. I had MemTest86 running for 7.5 hours during the night and it finished four passes without a single error reported. That's excellent for a Chinese motherboard and used Ebay memory. I was a bit peeved off that there's no error-checking capabilities, but with this result it might not matter anyway. No doubt now that the memory is reliable.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

Starting to roll some benchmarks. Apparently without the turbo boost hack you're still getting around 2.9GHz on all cores, not bad. I don't think I'll bother doing the turbo hack at this stage.





Multithreaded performance is getting within striking distance of the Ryzen 5600X:













Unigine Valley at 1080p Ultra with no anti-aliasing:


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## storm-chaser (Feb 24, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> Starting to roll some benchmarks. Apparently without the turbo boost hack you're still getting around 2.9GHz on all cores, not bad. I don't think I'll bother doing the turbo hack at this stage.


Yes 2.9GHz is the all core turbo frequency for that chip, effectively boosting your base clock substantially. 

The 2680 v3 has identical turbo specs as well.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Yes 2.9GHz is the all core turbo frequency for that chip, effectively boosting your base clock substantially.
> 
> The 2680 v3 has identical turbo specs as well.



I recall seeing in Memtest86 that the turbo multiplier is 32x on two cores. It had all the turbo specs listed out. I should bring it up again later to see what it said.


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## bobbybluz (Feb 24, 2021)

Can you raise the BLCK on that mobo? If so, 103.5 has worked well for the E5 V3's and V4's I've tried in X99. The V3's max out at 2133 and the V4's at 2400 by default.


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## storm-chaser (Feb 24, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I recall seeing in Memtest86 that the turbo multiplier is 32x on two cores. It had all the turbo specs listed out. I should bring it up again later to see what it said.


Here is handy chart that outlines the turbo operation of a 2678/2680 v3


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## storm-chaser (Feb 24, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> It also supports both DDR3 ECC memory (cheaper than DDR4 ECC), which is what I'm going for.


Does the board actually have provisions for both DDR3 and DDR4 (slots) on that motherboard?


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Here is handy chart that outlines the turbo operation of a 2678/2680 v3
> 
> View attachment 189771



33x on two cores, well there you go. I must be confusing it with the 32x multiplier that everyone runs these chips at on all cores with the turbo hack.



storm-chaser said:


> Does the board actually have provisions for both DDR3 and DDR4 (slots) on that motherboard?



Yeah the grey slots are DDR3 and the black slots are DDR4. The stickers show which Xeon chips have a DDR3 memory controller, although the E5-2678 V3 is the only affordable one. I believe the E5-2680 V3 (which is almost identical) doesn't have a DDR3 controller. Most of the Haswell-E chips out there are only DDR4 compatible, like my E5-2630L V3 that I also tried (which worked just fine on DDR4).

Depending on whether you go DDR3 or DDR4, you can get quad channel using either configuration.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

bobbybluz said:


> Can you raise the BLCK on that mobo? If so, 103.5 has worked well for the E5 V3's and V4's I've tried in X99. The V3's max out at 2133 and the V4's at 2400 by default.



There's some options called "Overclocking Features" in the bios but I haven't looked at them yet. I wouldn't get my hopes up because it's an American Megatrends bios and the options are pretty basic.

Edit: Yeah there's a few options in there for voltages and offsets, but nothing BCLK related.


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## storm-chaser (Feb 24, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> 33x on two cores, well there you go. I must be confusing it with the 32x multiplier that everyone runs these chips at on all cores with the turbo hack.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That did look like 4 slots on either side of the CPU socket. Sick.
Maybe you already answered this, but why are you opting for the slower of the two, DDR3? Budget constraints? I imagine the DDR4 stuff is quite a bit more expensive, but on the flip side, it sounds like you cant go ECC after all on that motherboard?

Its a catch 22 and but I wouldn't worry about ECC. Instead, go to 1866MHz DDR3 (or as high as you can find) with tightest timings you can find.
Otherwise you can do the same with DDR4 but it will get a little pricey. And I suppose you can always upgrade to DDR4 down the road, seeing as how your CPU choice is very versatile.

Another issue with ECC that gets on my nerves is the fact that ECC memory has VERY conservative timings. Meaning running ECC may effect your latency or performance. Very difficult to find high performance ECC memory and its usually 1-3 back in CAS from it's "retail" cousins in the mainstream market.


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> That did look like 4 slots on either side of the CPU socket. Sick.
> Maybe you already answered this, but why are you opting for the slower of the two, DDR3? Budget constraints? I imagine the DDR4 stuff is quite a bit more expensive, but on the flip side, it sounds like you cant go ECC after all on that motherboard?
> 
> Its a catch 22 and but I wouldn't worry about ECC. Instead, go to 1866MHz DDR3 (or as high as you can find) with tightest timings you can find.
> ...



Yeah the DDR3 ECC registered memory is by far the cheapest option because it's no longer in demand in enterprise. Really all I'm looking for is plenty of capacity and good reliability rather than chasing outright performance. Maybe DDR5 ECC server memory will come along eventually and bring the prices of DDR4 down, but that's still a long way off at this point.

This stuff I'm currently running is 11-11-11-28. I think a CAS latency of 11 is normally what you'd have on DDR3 2133MHz, so yeah the timings are veeeeery loose for 1600MHz lol Not too worried about it though.

I got some Userbench results to gauge how the system is performing:


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## PooPipeBoy (Feb 24, 2021)

Now it's starting to look much tidier after doing a bunch of work to properly organize all the cables. Still need to get rid of that ugly yellow sticker on the fan cable for the CPU heatsink.

I may end up ditching the white LED strip because you can't see much through the side panel when it's installed anyway. The Huananzhi motherboard apparently has some greenish-blueish LEDs underneath the plastic shroud, which you can sort of see in the bottom picture.









I've been using the rig for a few hours on an old Windows 8 install and it runs great! The onboard audio is surprisingly decent. No reason why this couldn't be used as a daily driver machine for gaming and office work.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 5, 2021)

New installation of Windows 10 and added a PCI-E wifi adapter card for internet. Funnily enough I had to install the wifi adapter in the lower PCI-E x1 slot on the board because the white Huananzhi PCB shroud is too thick and prevents my particular Asus card from being fully seated in the highest one. A bit of an odd quirk.

One of the things I would like to change about this Huananzhi board is the stupid little internal speaker that beeps on POST. It's soldered onto the board and there's no way to shut it up. I might need to de-solder it.

Device Manager lists what seems to be 63 unrecognized PCI devices called "Base System Device", plus some others. No idea what they are, but all the drivers are installed (the motherboard and wireless card are plug-and-play).



Spoiler













Nothing unusual going on in the Event Viewer though and the system is perfectly stable.

I've been using this system to get a bit of experience with FreeCAD and Blender for rendering assets. Idle power consumption is around 55 watts and it's up around 190 watts during an all-core load. So it's not a power-hungry machine with those 12 cores. Load temperatures don't go past 55C. The Quadro K620 is too weak for gaming but it's good for productivity. I'm yet to see how many years this Huananzhi board will last but so far it's proving to be refined enough to be used in a daily driver build.


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## jboydgolfer (Mar 5, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> One of these days I need a better tool to install standoffs


Cool project

I have a multi bit screw driver that fits right over most standoffs ive encountered. The drivers are not standardized Afaik, but it works great if it fits. With no bit in the driver, put it on the standoff & its a breeze


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## storm-chaser (Mar 5, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> One of the things I would like to change about this Huananzhi board is the stupid little internal speaker that beeps on POST. It's soldered onto the board and there's no way to shut it up. I might need to de-solder it.


Pull it clean off the board with a vice grip.


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## storm-chaser (Mar 5, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> Now it's starting to look much tidier after doing a bunch of work to properly organize all the cables. Still need to get rid of that ugly yellow sticker on the fan cable for the CPU heatsink.
> 
> I may end up ditching the white LED strip because you can't see much through the side panel when it's installed anyway. The Huananzhi motherboard apparently has some greenish-blueish LEDs underneath the plastic shroud, which you can sort of see in the bottom picture.
> 
> ...


Im liking this case you've got for this project. You say it has two 5.25" drive bays? Any more that are hidden? I need a case with at least 4 drive bays as I am running two reservoirs in my custom loop 9600KF.... the price is definitely right and it's definitely sleeper status.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 5, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Im liking this case you've got for this project. You say it has two 5.25" drive bays? Any more that are hidden? I need a case with at least 4 drive bays as I am running two reservoirs in my custom loop 9600KF.... the price is definitely right and it's definitely sleeper status.



Yeah it's a decent case, I got it on sale. It has an internal enclosure for two 5.25" bays and you can mount other stuff to the removable brace on the side. See what you think.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 6, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Pull it clean off the board with a vice grip.



That was a good recommendation, thanks lol The little squawker has been silenced.

All it needed was a pair of pliers and with a bit of leverage action you can pull those electrical pins out pretty easily. It didn't even leave a scratch on the board!


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## storm-chaser (Mar 6, 2021)

those pesky little motherboard speakers.. they always get silenced if they come into my domain lol


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 10, 2021)

I tried another completely different kit of DDR3 ECC REG memory on the off-chance that the ECC functionality would work, but I'm not surprised that it doesn't. So unless there's some kind of ECC functionality working that cannot be detected by any software, I'm calling it that the Huananzhi X99-TF board doesn't support error-correcting. HOWEVER, at least the memory itself works and that's a good thing when DDR3 ECC registered memory is so cheap. This 4x4GB DDR3 1333MHz kit was about US$22.

At least I got some spare memory now. The black heatspreaders look good on this Micron kit. It may be possible to transfer them onto the Samsung modules, but I'm not interested in ripping things apart just for some better aesthetics in a windowless case.


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## jaggerwild (Mar 10, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> For years now I've had some ideas brewing in my mind of what I'd like to use for an engineering workstation and now I finally have the parts at my disposal to make it happen. This is going to be a very interesting one.
> 
> NOTE: This build definitely is NOT how you SHOULD build a workstation. But instead for personal use it will be plenty powerful enough for my own purposes.
> 
> ...


 Weird how that board even runs with no battery in it? Usually that borkes a board right away.....


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 11, 2021)

jaggerwild said:


> Weird how that board even runs with no battery in it? Usually that borkes a board right away.....



I didn't know that normally screws things up. But yeah, I was actually running tests on the board for a few days with no CMOS battery. The only difference really was it doesn't remember any BIOS settings (which is what the battery is obviously for). The Huananzhi boards don't ship with a CR2032 battery.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 11, 2021)

Changed the CPU heatsink orientation to a rear exhaust.

One of the things that strikes me about this system is that it's supremely quiet under load. I mean the 12-core maxes out in the mid-50C range, so the fan doesn't even ramp up while I'm stress testing it. It's got a grand total of six fans running at all times (PSU, GPU, CPU, case and 2 x mobo) but even at full load it's almost as quiet as my Ryzen system is at idle. Fans ramping up can get very annoying and so really this kind of quiet operation is ideal for a workstation.


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## storm-chaser (Mar 11, 2021)

Sounds like you have plenty of fans to keep it cool. Is there a provision on that case for a 140mm fan above the CPU?

Are all your case/mobo/CPU fans PWM? What I've found with my rad and CPU fans is that there is a limit to effectiveness, in other words, above a certain RPM, you get diminishing returns in terms of cooling effectiveness. For example, I have all my fans set to a maximum of 40%, which is sufficient enough to keep my 5.0GHz 9600KF under 180*F under full load.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 11, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Sounds like you have plenty of fans to keep it cool. Is there a provision on that case for a 140mm fan above the CPU?
> 
> Are all your case/mobo/CPU fans PWM? What I've found with my rad and CPU fans is that there is a limit to effectiveness, in other words, above a certain RPM, you get diminishing returns in terms of cooling effectiveness. For example, I have all my fans set to a maximum of 40%, which is sufficient enough to keep my 5.0GHz 9600KF under 180*F under full load.



There's provisions for 2 x 140mm fans on top but there's 120mm mounting holes as well.

The only PWM fan in the system is the CPU fan, no custom fan curves though. Not sure what speeds they're running at so I'll need to check next time I'm on there. They're just running at whatever the default is.


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## storm-chaser (Mar 11, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> There's provisions for 2 x 140mm fans on top but there's 120mm mounting holes as well.
> 
> The only PWM fan in the system is the CPU fan, no custom fan curves though. Not sure what speeds they're running at so I'll need to check next time I'm on there. They're just running at whatever the default is.


Maybe you have already addressed this and I missed it... does this board allow you to modify the base clock? How are the overclock options overall? Are you going to be OC this rig?


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## ThrashZone (Mar 11, 2021)

tabascosauz said:


> Call me eccentric, but something about the Haswell-E and Broadwell-E IHS just rubs me the right way, and no other CPU since then has done quite the same


Hi,
Probably the 44 lanes tickling you


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## Caring1 (Mar 12, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> One of the things I would like to change about this Huananzhi board is the stupid little internal speaker that beeps on POST. It's soldered onto the board and there's no way to shut it up. I might need to de-solder it.


Usually there's a Bios setting to have that on or off at startup.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 12, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Maybe you have already addressed this and I missed it... does this board allow you to modify the base clock? How are the overclock options overall? Are you going to be OC this rig?



It's pretty powerful as it is so I probably won't overclock it, but there are some settings in there for voltages, power states, that kind of stuff. I don't recall seeing anything labelled for BCLK, but I haven't looked very hard either.

Edit: Just double checked and there's definitely no BCLK adjustment. Ah well.



Caring1 said:


> Usually there's a Bios setting to have that on or off at startup.



Yeah I looked for a setting that would do that and I couldn't find anything. It beeps as soon as you hit the power button so I doubt it would have that capability of turning it off.


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## storm-chaser (Mar 13, 2021)

Can you run a quick CPUz bench? I'm curious how this chip does in ST / MT


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 13, 2021)

storm-chaser said:


> Can you run a quick CPUz bench? I'm curious how this chip does in ST / MT



I did a CPU-Z run on the first page (post #19), but here's a re-run from just now:





Performance has gone down a little bit although I've seen better numbers recently. It might be because I've got Spectre/Meltdown protection enabled right now. Cinebench R15 still performs good at around 1713cb multi core and 128cb single core.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 17, 2021)

New power supply installed. Not that the Zalman unit was bad, in fact this is more of a downgrade in terms of overall wattage.

These Be Quiet! System Power U9 400W 80+ Bronze units were being sold at US$35 each (AUD converted to USD) and it was such a deal that I bought four of them. They're cheap but far from being bad quality. Ripple is around 10 - 20mV up to 80% load and it's based on a modified CWT platform using good quality Elite capacitors.

Running both the Xeon CPU and Quadro GPU at 100% load only consumes 220 watts in this system, so having 384 watts available on the 12V rails is more than enough to allow for a bit of future expansion.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 17, 2021)

The Huananzhi board is starting to show a sign of weakness. Nothing major, but one of the dual VRM heatsink fans (or potentially both) is starting to make some intermittent noise. It almost sounds like a mouse scratching away in the ceiling, except it's inside the computer. I checked all the fans and it's definitely the VRM heatsink fans making the noise. Possibly a speck of dust has contaminated a fan bearing and it's being chewed up in there.

I was worried for a second that the motherboard was frying itself after the power supply was changed, but that's not the case at all. Just a random coincidence.

I do conveniently have a spare Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM 60mm fan that I could mount in there and hook up to the CPU #2 fan header. It would actually be a worthwhile change considering that it would make the system quieter and more reliable anyway. Those VRM fans look like cheap junk and I don't expect them to last very long.


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## PooPipeBoy (Mar 18, 2021)

Original VRM fans are out and I've replaced them with the larger Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM fan that I've just sat on top of the CPU heatsink. Even with the Low Noise Adapter the fan spins a bit too fast at 2300rpm, but it will cool the VRMs just fine and be far more reliable than the original ones.

The white plate that held the original fans on the heatsink is actually painted metal and the screws are decent quality. It's just the tiny VRM fans themselves that suck. They seem to be unbranded 25mm four pole jobs with no speed measuring capabilities and most likely basic sleeve bearings. They say 7000rpm at 12V although I have a hard time believing they actually reach those speeds because they're both quieter than the Noctua.


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## PooPipeBoy (Apr 21, 2021)

I moved the Hyper T4 to another project and replaced it with my Deepcool Ice Edge Mini dual heatpipe cooler. Load temperatures have gone from 55C up to 72C, so it's running quite a bit hotter and the fan is louder but it's still under control. I wouldn't go any smaller though. The Noctua 60mm fan does a good job of keeping the VRM heatsink temperature cool at 58C.


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## Zyll Goliat (Apr 21, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I did a CPU-Z run on the first page (post #19), but here's a re-run from just now:
> 
> View attachment 192205
> 
> Performance has gone down a little bit although I've seen better numbers recently. It might be because I've got Spectre/Meltdown protection enabled right now. Cinebench R15 still performs good at around 1713cb multi core and 128cb single core.


Nice build!!!...I have Xeon 2697 V2(X79-12c/24t) and it's OC (Via bclk) so now all cores works on 3,45Ghz + turbo goes up to 4Ghz the benchmarking results are close to yours maybe just a bit better....I am also using it sometimes for gaming and ATM I paired this CPU with the R9 Fury and everything works like a charm....


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## oldwalltree (Apr 22, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I moved the Hyper T4 to another project and replaced it with my Deepcool Ice Edge Mini dual heatpipe cooler. Load temperatures have gone from 55C up to 72C, so it's running quite a bit hotter and the fan is louder but it's still under control. I wouldn't go any smaller though. The Noctua 60mm fan does a good job of keeping the VRM heatsink temperature cool at 58C.
> 
> View attachment 197616


Your 60mm makes me appreciate my built in VRM fan on my x299. But i love xeon builds anyway!


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## PooPipeBoy (Apr 23, 2021)

Zyll Goliath said:


> Nice build!!!...I have Xeon 2697 V2(X79-12c/24t) and it's OC (Via bclk) so now all cores works on 3,45Ghz + turbo goes up to 4Ghz the benchmarking results are close to yours maybe just a bit better....I am also using it sometimes for gaming and ATM I paired this CPU with the R9 Fury and everything works like a charm....



I'm impressed with it. It's quite costly compared to a Ryzen Zen 2 or something, but having all those cores means you never run out of multi-tasking ability.



oldwalltree said:


> Your 60mm makes me appreciate my built in VRM fan on my x299. But i love xeon builds anyway!



Yeah it's not ideal, but it's relatively quiet and being a Noctua fan it won't die any time soon. I tried different methods of attachment but in the end I just left it there sitting on the heatsink and it doesn't rattle around or anything.


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## Zyll Goliat (Apr 23, 2021)

PooPipeBoy said:


> I'm impressed with it. It's quite costly compared to a Ryzen Zen 2 or something, but having all those cores means you never run out of multi-tasking ability.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah it's not ideal, but it's relatively quiet and being a Noctua fan it won't die any time soon. I tried different methods of attachment but in the end I just left it there sitting on the heatsink and it doesn't rattle around or anything.


Well yeah to be honest I choose this setup over the first-gen Ryzen.....I did some detail testing with Xeon 2697 V2 and also Xeon 2650 V2 if you want you can check that HERE .....Personally I will go for the turbo-hack on X99 with that I believe that you could get probably around 5%-10% overall better performance with that Xeon 2678 V3....


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## PooPipeBoy (May 8, 2021)

New CPU cooling solution. This is also a Chinese product just like the Huananzhi motherboard, it's a Snowman M-X6 90mm dual tower cooler with six heatpipes and dual fans that I got for US$25. It's the first Snowman cooler I've tried and I actually really like it. Even when the dual fans are running at full speed they're quieter than some of the single 120mm fans I have. Temperatures on the 2678 V3 are down around 48C to 52C after multiple Cinebench runs. Performs better and quieter than the Hyper T4.


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