TPU's WCG/BOINC Team

[thebluebumblebee]

If you have a spare HDD, I'd recommend that over and SSD due to the constant writing. I haven't seen it personally, but I'd be worried about wearing out the drive.

Kiev burned out the 64GB SSD that it was running with....would discourage

Have you seen the SSD endurance test over at The Tech Report? They're north of 1.5 PB of writes on a couple of SSD's. All of their test subjects far exceeded their expected life span. Of course, they're testing 256 GB models. I would be hesitant with the older 64/32 GB SSD's.

 

[theonedub]

Yup, no worries running WCG on my SSD.

 

[twilyth]

I probably shouldn't pollute the thread with this crap, but I'm wired and can't sleep so tough titties.

The last bsod I got said it was a machine check error. I figured that can't be good. So I've disassembled it. I'm swapping out the 5645 chips for the 5660's in the SR2 board. I'm also swapping out the old seasonic 550w psu for an 850w antec - assuming it fits inside the case. This vastly over powered for that rig since it only draws between 120 and 150w, but wtf. It was just gathering dust. I swear, some of these parts breed. PSUs especially - with all of those tentacles. Ewww. Just grossed myself out.

The paste on the chips didn't look healthy. It almost looked infected. I'll try to take a couple shots before decontamination. It also looks like some of the paste may have "leaked" since there is spooge on the hasps but the pins in the sockets looked ok. Will need to take a closer look though.

Board doesn't show any visible scorching but the plastic power connector looks a little toasty. Anyway, if this partial rebuild doesn't help, then the next thing to look at is the RAM. I used ECC memory but I guess even that can go bad. Fortunately I can cannibalize that from the SR2 as well if need be.

 

[twilyth]

Seems quiet of a sunday so here are some pics I promised.

Here you can see the state of the thermal paste on one of the chips. It looks like I may have used 2 different types, it's hard to tell.

Here's the residue on the hasps

Here's the underside of the heatsinks. It looks like some of the paste was vaporized and recondensed on the chrome.

Here are the cleaned up chips - first the 5645's at 2.4ghz that are coming out and next . . .

The 5660s that are going in.

Lastly a shot of the board.

I wanted to give everything a chance to dry since I'm pretty liberal with the alcohol when cleaning. But the psu is in place so a little thermal paste and we'll see what happens.

 

[[Ion]]

Hopefully it works better like this

I'm now back at school and have thing sorted out again. Two of the laptops lost their WiFi, but are going again now. The i7-920 got unplugged halfway through a dist-upgrade; I don't really know how to fix issues with Linux very well, so I just reinstalled.

Sachsen-Anhalt, the AMD X4, is currently running on a cardboard box while I try to find a case for it. The intent is then to sell it; it's far too inefficient to make a good cruncher long-term.

Rostock, the i3, is built in an Antec 900. This was basically my dream case when I built my Q6600 system seven years ago; seven years of advances have not been too kind to it, but it's still a tidy setup IMO. The Antec liquid cooler is way overkill for the 55W Ivy i3

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Seems quiet of a sunday so here are some pics I promised.

Here you can see the state of the thermal paste on one of the chips. It looks like I may have used 2 different types, it's hard to tell.

Here's the residue on the hasps

Here's the underside of the heatsinks. It looks like some of the paste was vaporized and recondensed on the chrome.

Here are the cleaned up chips - first the 5645's at 2.4ghz that are coming out and next . . .

The 5660s that are going in.

Lastly a shot of the board.

I wanted to give everything a chance to dry since I'm pretty liberal with the alcohol when cleaning. But the psu is in place so a little thermal paste and we'll see what happens.

I will give you $20 for those 5645's

 

[[Ion]]

I will give you $20 for those 5645's

Hah, I'll offer $30!

 

[twilyth]

I'm not sure you want them. Did you look at the photos? I think one of those chips was running way too hot and burned itself out. When I was going through the bios settings, one was showing 10C higher than the other just sitting at the bios screen. One was at 38 the other at 48. And remember, I was getting a machine check error which is never good.

Granted, I probably should have tried to trouble shoot one thing at a time to be sure, but I took one look at that fried thermal paste and figured it was a good idea to switch out the chips. Also, they're 0.4ghz faster and were idle so it seemed like the way to go. But I really have my doubts about the 5645s - one of them at the very least. And since they're both from the same ES batch, I'm not sure I'd want to trust the other one.

Anyway, everything is back together but had some trouble finding the right cables for the PSU. I have a few Antec modulars but the 850 doesn't seem to like cables from the other models I have. The psu would click and then switch off.

But it seems to be running now. During one of the crashes I lost something in BOINC and had to reattach to the project so there are only a couple wu's right now. Will check in later to make sure that this isn't just another fake out.

 

[[Ion]]

I'm not sure you want them. Did you look at the photos? I think one of those chips was running way too hot and burned itself out. When I was going through the bios settings, one was showing 10C higher than the other just sitting at the bios screen. One was at 38 the other at 48. And remember, I was getting a machine check error which is never good.

Granted, I probably should have tried to trouble shoot one thing at a time to be sure, but I took one look at that fried thermal paste and figured it was a good idea to switch out the chips. Also, they're 0.4ghz faster and were idle so it seemed like the way to go. But I really have my doubts about the 5645s - one of them at the very least. And since they're both from the same ES batch, I'm not sure I'd want to trust the other one.

Anyway, everything is back together but had some trouble finding the right cables for the PSU. I have a few Antec modulars but the 850 doesn't seem to like cables from the other models I have. The psu would click and then switch off.

But it seems to be running now. During one of the crashes I lost something in BOINC and had to reattach to the project so there are only a couple wu's right now. Will check in later to make sure that this isn't just another fake out.

Well, that's very possible that one or both of them are dead. But I can easily test them in one of my other LGA1366 systems, and at a price like that it's IMO well worth the risk
Do LMK if you intend to sell one or both of them.

 

[twilyth]

OK. I'll think about it. The batch number on these is Q2WV and I actually saw a few of these on ebay under completed listings when I searched just now. Presumably these are working chips so maybe it's not really a bad batch after all. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any current listings but I guess I could just get a regular 5645 to replace the bad one. Too bad I didn't mark which one was which - D'oh.

 

[xvi]

Ubuntu is pretty easy, and as long as you don't dink around with it too much it should be fine. I broke mine once and had to do a reinstall. Nothing different there from many others who run Windows.

iirc, this is one of the default jokes in fortune-mod. "What's yellow and deadly? A canary with su privileges."
Linux is easy to mess up. Get your dependencies out of whack and you're generally in trouble.

Me though? I instantly drop to root because I like to live dangerously.

Edit: I have a HP Workstation with a single LGA1366 socket and a quad proc. I could use a six-core, if you find that only one of them works, Twily.

 

[[Ion]]

Clearly I've managed to irritate someone at the Post Office; I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

 

[thebluebumblebee]

I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

Common Core Math?

 

[manofthem]

Clearly I've managed to irritate someone at the Post Office; I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

 

[Nordic]

Clearly I've managed to irritate someone at the Post Office; I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

What were you shipping? Are you sure it isnt going to a secret NSA mail sorting facility?

 

[[Ion]]

What were you shipping? Are you sure it isnt going to a secret NSA mail sorting facility?

It's a dual-socket G34 motherboard and a pair of twelve-core Opterons I bought from a user on HardForum. Upcoming WCG system, in other words

 

[Nordic]

Ooh. You will post pictures of course?

 

[[Ion]]

Ooh. You will post pictures of course?

What kind of a question is that?
Of course I will

Ought to easily be my second-fastest system just behind Kiev and ahead of Bucharest/Ostpreussen

 

[Norton]

Put up a FS thread with some ram and an SSD- Cruncher/Folder's discount is active
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...ale-2014-2x8gb-ddr3-256gb-corsair-ssd.207673/

 

[twilyth]

Clearly I've managed to irritate someone at the Post Office; I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

The post office is like the evil love child of the NSA and mafia. They know everything you do and say and they hold a grudge. You're only option at this point is to visit one of their high priests (sometimes called postmasters) with an appropriate sacrifice. I think it used to be 2 chickens and a goat, but you know, inflation and what not.

 

[t_ski]

Clearly I've managed to irritate someone at the Post Office; I do not think that Massachusetts is on the optimal route from Illinois to North Carolina

Damn Kai - if you had let me buy it, I would already have had it crunching...

 

[xvi]

Spoiler: Edit: Nevermind. I'll ship it back in the box.

Off topic, but I was hoping to pick everyone's collective brain about a Corsair RMA. I figured I'd ask here since you are all intelligent and good looking. </charm>

Spoiler: Snip! (It's not all that long)

I'm RMAing my keyboard to Corsair. I've kept the original box in Sneekypeet-like pristine condition, but I'd like to keep it in case I decide to sell it. Corsair's RMA page states:

The original packaging material should be used to pack the product for return; if the original packaging is not available, you should use packing materials that provide the same or greater protection to the product.

So, the real question here, if I pack up my keyboard in the original box with love and care, am I likely to get a pretty box back?

 

[Nordic]

I doubt you will get a nice box back. All they want is it to be properly protected. If you do everything you can to make sure that keyboard can fly around the back of leaving dents in the box but the keyboard untouched, you will be good. Or you could just do equal protection.

 

[[Ion]]

Bought another HP Z400. Gonna see if I can't find another X5670 so it can be Moscow's twin

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Linux question: How easy is it to move a Linux install from one HDD to another?

I don't think I'll ever have 3 dedicated boxes for DC like I've had since May. 2 of those systems need to move on to update other systems. (X2-4400 and PII-805(that's much slower than it should be - doesn't make sense, other than it was my kids "do whatever" system))