Well, build log, profession advancement... The works I guess!! :) Complete and Total Overkill part 3!!

[Space Lynx]

you know I’ll always cheer for 10gb internal networks but you know I’m bias

the new asus z490 $299 mobo comes with a 10gb pcie card (which usually retails for 100), so you get high end z490 board and a 10 gig card basically free, as the mobo itself is comparable in power stages, vrms to other 300 mobos.

its a pretty solid deal

 

[Solaris17]

Better than the weird standards like 2.5 and 5g. I run all my stuff with SFP+ SMF modules though so 10g over copper isn’t something I’d step down too. For people building up it might be worth it though.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I'm hoping soon, I can grab myself some water cooling loop hardware for my 3900X.. I have the parts I'm looking at and all I need to do next is have the cash to buy them.. Man when did EK kit become so expensive?? I think it's currently £200 for a pump and res combo, along with £120 for a rad (560 mind...) and then £90 ish for the AM4 block I like the look of... Ouch.. I have barbs and such here, but I do need some decent tubing. The last lot I had gave me plastiser issues in the tubing and such, so I'm wishing to try better tube next... Does anyone have any suggestions at all?

I went with EK-DuraClear, which they say is DEHP Free and also Phthalate Free

At first I was a bit put off by the cost of the EK pump/res combo but after dissembling/reassembling and running it, I was pretty satisfied with the quality for the price. I do regret getting the EK-DuraClear. It clouded almost immediately on me (plasticiser I guess) next time I'll try something else maybe the EK ZMT or hard line tubing.

 

[lorry]

At first I was a bit put off by the cost of the EK pump/res combo but after dissembling/reassembling and running it, I was pretty satisfied with the quality for the price. I do regret getting the EK-DuraClear. It clouded almost immediately on me (plasticiser I guess) next time I'll try something else maybe the EK ZMT or hard line tubing.

Not clouded for me at all so far

 

[Lorec]

Well guys, I've been meaning to add some pics in this thread for ages and I've still yet to get around to it... So.... Now here some are!!

View attachment 159063 View attachment 159064 View attachment 159065

I was looking through a few bits and pieces a few weeks back and I thought I'd like to do something and make use of some more hardware so I'm hoping for a few suggestions from everyone really

I was wondering about doing something with my 5960X and one of the X99 boards. Well I'm not happy with the MSI so it was going to go into either the EVGA or Asrock board (suggestions??) but then I was wondering about grabbing a big Xeon as cheap as possible (not ES or QS stuff, just retail models) and then putting in the spare 1080 Ti card for some folding and crunching but I was wondering also about setting up possibly another file sharing PC (10Gb network etc.) but also consider as Isabelle seems to be Minecraft crazy at the moment, about setting up a server client on that.... It'll give me something to learn and if there's other ways I can learn to setup things, then I'm all for it

As for the X79 kit, I was considering to stick with a 4930k I'd forgot was in the Rampage Black board and see what I can do with that... Maybe a testing system or bit of fun to bench with or even a GPU testing rig... Anyone have any ideas??

The X299 seems to be a bit of an issue simply because the 7980/9980/10980XE CPUs all seem to have done a runner and are costing way to much with all the excitement going on over at camp AMD.. I'd love to get one to just add it as a cruncher and a bit of a comparison CPU setup to the Ryzen 3900/3950X I have.. If I can ever splash out on a 3970X as I would like to, then well I'd love to do that too lol

A little more silliness, is that I've had a little sort out with the servers I've got left now Nothing like being a little OCD and trying to help yourself but I'm not so sure Here's a few pics of that....

View attachment 159067 View attachment 159068 View attachment 159069 View attachment 159070 View attachment 159071 View attachment 159072 View attachment 159074

I really do need to 'upgrade' the carpet out there...
Anyways, I'm only ever planning to use the top 4 servers at once really, simply because the heat output and the fact that they are all a lot faster/more efficient, is the only real reason. These things can suck juice from the socket without any issues :sad: Still, with all the plugs matching, with the ends and plugs labelled up, I now know which plug is doing what and so on.. Completely daft but thought it looked a little nicer
Oh and with the heat of the summer days, I've come to air conditioning... Well not really but it seems to help a little and even more so when I'm not at home or we don't have the conservatory door open to let the heat from the servers out (and now two more crunching machines!!) it can get a little toasty in there, so with the fan forcing and pushing a little more air through the servers, it does seem to help a little Since all the electric is free providing the solar and sun are working in harmony, for the amount of power they take, I'll try and keep the servers cool as possible

I'd done a little power test with the two servers I use and the two crunchers now sat on top of the server cabinet, with the 1070 folding away as well as all of them crunching WCG, it's pulling about 1100w ish... Now aside from ouchy on the power bill, for the amount of threads etc. crunching away, I didn't think it was so bad considering the age of the hardware

I'm hoping soon, I can grab myself some water cooling loop hardware for my 3900X.. I have the parts I'm looking at and all I need to do next is have the cash to buy them.. Man when did EK kit become so expensive?? I think it's currently £200 for a pump and res combo, along with £120 for a rad (560 mind...) and then £90 ish for the AM4 block I like the look of... Ouch.. I have barbs and such here, but I do need some decent tubing. The last lot I had gave me plastiser issues in the tubing and such, so I'm wishing to try better tube next... Does anyone have any suggestions at all?

I've also been able and lucky enough to be able to feed some more network cables out to the conservatory so instead of having a single cable and then it's splitting into an 8 way switch, I've got 6 cables out there now connected to my 24 port 1Gb switch.. It's such a shame my internet speeds suck (30Mb down/5Mb up) but there we go I won't bore you guys with pictures of that tho...

Now for a bit of a career update....
I've been applying or putting myself out for a change in job as well. Since nothing is happening with regards to me learning more Infrastructure stuff (not that this COVID-19 has helped and I'm not trying to defend the place I work at all) I'm trying to move myself on and get somewhere that I'm valued and actually wanted to push further in my career.
I think a few more years in 2nd line support/desktop support and with the jump into the Infrastructure side of things, I'd like to hope that when I hit my 5 years service, I might actually be able to jump up and on to some server based work supporting/setting up or something I think... I think I'd like to be like a project designer or something that I have a bit of a niche in. I do enjoy the putting together, building, configuring/learning and so on style of work and to be able to do that with large scale projects, meeting people/be in a team/maybe have a few people in a team I am responsible for and so on, I think that's where I'd like to be and end up to ultimately

I'll keep you all posted on the job front I'd like to think at some point I can move on and see what else is out there I need to tax my brain before I loose what little knowledge I have up there!!


Well as always guys and possibly gals, if you have read this far you need another medal!!

I'm sure there where some other things I'd have liked to have mentioned but as it's gone 1am here and my girls woke me up this morning after about 5 hours sleep last night (much like tonight!!) I had best get some rest as I'm in 'work' tomorrow...

See you guys and gals soon

As always much appreciated pictures of Your mancave Im really in love in Your server box, it looks awesome.
...that x79 Dark though...
Work-wise, glad You have Your sights set in a direction! Keeping my fingers crossed!
btw: Make sure Your girls get enough exposure to PC parts, hopefully it will stay with them

 

[phill]

Wow guys, many thanks for all the replies to the thread I've bene trying to get some brain cells working to write out a reply and that's not worked, so now I'm just going to wing it (Bat pun! As he says in Lego Batman...)

Still

So, aside from the 10G network I'd like to build up and such for the moment, I'd like to focus a little on the hardware I'm on the eye out for.. As there's always something that I'd like to get my grubby little hands on, trouble is, there's so much I could buy and get in debt over, I'm trying to be good and just do things piece by piece.. I'm sure it won't work that way or end up that way, but I'll do my best

I have a list in my head of things that I'd like to get, firstly and I guess to be honest most importantly, lets start with my 3900X build...

Ryzen 3950X... I'd like to replace the 3900X I have and grab a 16C 32T Ryzen.. Most likely a big waste of cash but, for crunching and my OCD, well enough said!
Custom water again - Some parts are -
EK Velocity Water block - Not for the RGB by any means but the sleek clean look of the metal
I'm considering some EK Vardar 140mm white fans for the case fans, not so much the radiator fans.. Looking to try a bit of contrast between black case and what fans. If I could have got white rads, that would have been awesome... I was also looking into the Black Ice Nemesis GTR line of rads but I think even from the reviews I've seen, they are king of the hill but if I can get the CE560 rads for a little over £100, then the GTR's are nearer £200, they aren't going to be twice the performance I'm sad to say... Do love the naming of them tho, GTR.. Favourite car and all... still, moving on
I'm looking at a EK 560mm Coolstream CE rad, two I think, one for the CPU and the other for the GPUs (eventually) And a bit of overkill cooling never hurt anyone...
Two EK Plexi Quantum D5 pumps and res combos, possibly 300mm res... I think these must be one of the best combo's out there surely??

There's probably more at the point when I have the kit in front of me for how to get it fitted into the case and such like, but for the hardware side of things right now, that'll be what I'm after for that rig...

For the rest of the rigs and some for my collection of kit -

Isabelle's 1700X rig, I'd like to get a tower for that one. Isabelle likes the one the Mrs's has, the Fractical R5 in white.. I'm not sure how lucky I'll be to find another but...

My EVGA X299 Dark board... As I literally just have the motherboard (and it's as yet, never been opened!!) I'd like to fit it was a crazy ass CPU but at the moment, there's nothing really around which is kinda frustrating but not the end of the world. I'm looking for the 7980/9980/10980XE models in particular. I guess I need a little Intel crunching going on aside from the servers, so I'd like to pick one of those. I'm kinda leaning towards the 10980XE as it was a £1000 to buy new, so hopefully it could be a fair bit cheaper, especially with all the new AMD releases with the 3 series and the 4 series whenever they drop.. I live in hope Also with this on, I'd need the rest of the system, so that'll be a big ask and big money I'm not doubting to get sorted out. I do however have a spare 1080 TI with water block and I think some G Skill 3600 C16 RAM, so I suppose I could use that It's kinda on the back burner that one...

Next up is my Ryzen 2700 CPU.. I'm unsure quite what to do with this one. I would love to get it crunching as well and since I already have the Hero 7 non wifi, I'd like to try and grab the hero 7 wifi model. Now sadly from what I've been seeing the prices of these boards are still very high but I guess it is still something you can use with the 3 series CPUs and so on, so maybe that's why it's holding it's price so well? I was toying with the idea of a Asrock Tachci model, I believe the Ultimate model does have a 10G network port. I'm with @Solaris17 in that I can't get the idea behind these 2.5G and 5G wired network ports. Must be trying to keep the price of 10G higher for a while and then release 10G on everything as these others didn't catch on... I dunno
I've been toying with this to use the 1080 Ti I have spare also and use it as a Media type streamer since I can imagine having a beefy GPU to help with the 4k encoding and a good 8C 16T CPU as well would also make light work of that sort of thing.. I'm still not so sure tho... Suggestions anyone??
If I can find a Hero 7 Wi-Fi board, this will go in the collection with the other Crosshair Hero boards I have. I might MIGHT grab another Hero 8 with Wi-fi but I hate Wi-Fi lol But then if I do go stupid crazy, I could like to consider keeping the 3900X as a full time cruncher and then using the 3950X as a daily machine...

I do have some storage requirements which are for replacement drives in my Synology system. As mentioned a lot of times before, I have 6 x 4TB WD Reds in there (limited by 1Gb network which hence I'd like to change it for a 10Gb network...) but they aren't the fastest of drives (never really bought for speed considering the network bottleneck I have) but for the price at the time I bought all 6, best price to size ratio I could find.. I can fit a total of 10 drives in the case I have (Fractical Node 804) so there's space for more capacity if I need it
I'm looking to do the same again basically. I'd like to go for as big a drive as possible which gives me the best GB/TB per £ quite simply. I've looked into the Seagate Ironwolf drives but also noticed the Exos drives which I think have a better price, better warranty and are rated for longer and more writes etc. Now I'd never hit those usage figures for love or money but I am again thinking of best price/size performance here.. I'd like to I think, grab at least 4 to 6 drives to start with. Two to four in Raid 1 possibly (two pairs - might consider Raid 5) and then another two for backups as currently I have 6 drives which total the 12TB size I'm currently backing up. Sadly there's more data on the R730 I have, which I'd like to get pulled off and consolidated in the Synology rig.. It's been so stable and brilliant, I've really had nothing to complain about. Its a custom put together one but it's been so stable, just can't fault it.

On top of that lot, I wouldn't mind trying to grab some new coolers for more of the Ryzen CPUs I have here. The AMD Coolers are a load better than Intel stock coolers but nothing can best a fairly well priced (under £40 for example) aftermarket heatsink/fan combo.. Crunching machines here need to be kept as cool as possible and quiet.. That's the plan anyways!! The Arctic Freezer 34's I have aren't too bad but I believe the size of the base on them doesn't give them the best start possible. They don't quite cover the CPU for me which is a bit of a disappointment. They do however work fairly well

Apologies any/everyone if you have got this far (which is awesome cos you've not fallen asleep with all these rambling I'm doing!!) lots of text but so much rattling around in my little mind, I need to get it down and out there so new stuff can go in and I can hear back from people who are a lot more intelligent than me (Shouldn't be too hard to find that at all!! )

Any feedback, suggestions, slaps around the face, feel free to reply!!

 

[lorry]

And i thought that I could ramble !

 

[phill]

Too much in my little head and it all needed to come out lol That lot will surely keep me going but it's not everything Still, I do want to finish my projects, I hate things unfinished

 

[tabascosauz]

On top of that lot, I wouldn't mind trying to grab some new coolers for more of the Ryzen CPUs I have here. The AMD Coolers are a load better than Intel stock coolers but nothing can best a fairly well priced (under £40 for example) aftermarket heatsink/fan combo.. Crunching machines here need to be kept as cool as possible and quiet.. That's the plan anyways!! The Arctic Freezer 34's I have aren't too bad but I believe the size of the base on them doesn't give them the best start possible. They don't quite cover the CPU for me which is a bit of a disappointment. They do however work fairly well

NOCTUA NOCTUA NOCTUA

Seriously though, you need to step up to a higher segment to get a baseplate on your air cooler as opposed to the inconsistent direct heatpipe contact. Any Noctua, or any Be Quiet Dark Rock family cooler.

The noise and thermal headroom is why I've always been a firm believer in getting a quality cooler (or even just a 212 Black) even when it's not strictly necessary. Stock coolers really aren't on the same level, regardless of how people seem to be in love with the Wraith Prism.

 

[lorry]

Too much in my little head and it all needed to come out lol That lot will surely keep me going but it's not everything Still, I do want to finish my projects, I hate things unfinished

Yeah I hear you there, sure most of us are like that. My own modest setup took 9 - 10 months to complete because I was Having to get it virtually piece by piece.

 

[lorry]

NOCTUA NOCTUA NOCTUA

Seriously though, you need to step up to a higher segment to get a baseplate on your air cooler as opposed to the inconsistent direct heatpipe contact. Any Noctua, or any Be Quiet Dark Rock family cooler.

The noise and thermal headroom is why I've always been a firm believer in getting a quality cooler (or even just a 212 Black) even when it's not strictly necessary. Stock coolers really aren't on the same level, regardless of how people seem to be in love with the Wraith Prism.

Until I swapped from air to water cooling the CPU, I didn't really believe the difference in noise, and I have two extra fans and the pump noise to compare to the air cooled.

 

[xtreemchaos]

thats my type of room and de-core, id never want to go out, ive one just like it but with a little less compute kit but i make up for it by having about 15 to 20 telescopes "some ive built for folk and some i use" and imaging kit. well done and thanks for the view.

 

[YoRick]

So now all the boring text is out the way, I'd just like to ask about the forum to see if anyone else 'bothers' with this sort of thing at their home, whatever the scale.

Old thread, long thread, sorry did not read it all as I am headed to bed--but I also just found this site joined it and wanted to check out at least one article first; and I am glad it was yours. My 'short answer' is "no". The long answer is: "I'm about to be. And I started pricing things out more seriously today. Windows Server is a bit expensive to be adding on top of the price of a test bed and all, so I started looking at Server Essentials to avoid the cost of CALs. Well... I stumbled across something in my research that made me go hmmm.... and rekindled an old desire. LINUX! Build a bare-bones test bed, download Ubuntu server, and learn how to install, configure and run a Linux based PDC, SDC, DNS, DHCP, and I saw something about using OpenLDAP for an AD DS linux based emulation. I could then put a $115 virtual Windows 10 Pro and network that with my home PC (which I refuse to use for a test bed for these purposes--I don't want to crash this thing), and then play around with it. I've been Service Desk for a while, but I am fed up with our upper tier support; and I know more about their jobs than they do, so it is time for me to step out of this realm and look for an engineering position--but first I have some learning to do! (Real learning--not "college learning" where you "mesmorize" things for a semester then do a data dump...)" I look forward to delving more into this thread tomorrow afternoon!

 

[trparky]

I just had to stop in this thread and say... Damn, I've not seen DFI LanParty motherboards in a long time. I used to own one way back in the nForce 4 days.

 

[phill]

Well everyone, I thought it's been a little while since I posted in here so I thought what a better day to do something as I was having a sort out and generally thinking about the project, things are moving on, slowly, but there are moving on!!

So what to start with first... Lets go for the job side of things...

Works been getting me down a little for a few weeks/months, so I'm off work now for a week as it's my birthday today and I have my eldest daughter with me (I hope!!) later on in the day.. I'm going to have a serious look around for work as I really need to move on to get myself back in touch, so to speak. Bringing stress and unhappiness home with me is not what I wish for, so that needs to change and change for the right reasons and for the right job too I'm hoping to find something that's going to push me forward and make me start thinking again as at the moment it's very hum drum and dull for me. I'm very grateful for being in work make no mistake but it has to change because I'm not moving on as I wish and wanted to be.

So as that bit is out the way, next on the agenda
The 3900X rig... It seems to be causing a bit of a stir around with whatever it's doing boosting and such with the vcore I'm using but still, I've progressed the plans on for it now so, I've got some things to share with you just waiting for the last few bits and pieces to show up

Now, I'm sure as everyone who has at least looked at the pictures in this thread can tell I'm a bit of a loon when it comes to liking my hardware.. Then hopefully these few pics, should speak 1000 words and yadda




Now some say, he might be crazy, some say he probably is, some say he might know a thing about overkill, but all we know, he's called Phill

All jokes aside I hope that you enjoy the pics and that hopefully with a few more parts turning up soon, you'll enjoy the build log a bit more If there's anything you'd like to ask for question my craziness or madness, then please do I'd like to hear from you

 

[lorry]

Enjoy!

 

[Lorec]

Well everyone, I thought it's been a little while since I posted in here so I thought what a better day to do something as I was having a sort out and generally thinking about the project, things are moving on, slowly, but there are moving on!!

So what to start with first... Lets go for the job side of things...

Works been getting me down a little for a few weeks/months, so I'm off work now for a week as it's my birthday today and I have my eldest daughter with me (I hope!!) later on in the day.. I'm going to have a serious look around for work as I really need to move on to get myself back in touch, so to speak. Bringing stress and unhappiness home with me is not what I wish for, so that needs to change and change for the right reasons and for the right job too I'm hoping to find something that's going to push me forward and make me start thinking again as at the moment it's very hum drum and dull for me. I'm very grateful for being in work make no mistake but it has to change because I'm not moving on as I wish and wanted to be.

So as that bit is out the way, next on the agenda
The 3900X rig... It seems to be causing a bit of a stir around with whatever it's doing boosting and such with the vcore I'm using but still, I've progressed the plans on for it now so, I've got some things to share with you just waiting for the last few bits and pieces to show up

Now, I'm sure as everyone who has at least looked at the pictures in this thread can tell I'm a bit of a loon when it comes to liking my hardware.. Then hopefully these few pics, should speak 1000 words and yadda

Spoiler: spoiler

View attachment 164271 View attachment 164272 View attachment 164273 View attachment 164303 View attachment 164274

View attachment 164265 View attachment 164266 View attachment 164267 View attachment 164268 View attachment 164269 View attachment 164270

Now some say, he might be crazy, some say he probably is, some say he might know a thing about overkill, but all we know, he's called Phill

All jokes aside I hope that you enjoy the pics and that hopefully with a few more parts turning up soon, you'll enjoy the build log a bit more If there's anything you'd like to ask for question my craziness or madness, then please do I'd like to hear from you

Its always a massive pleasure to see pictures of Your attic!
Im a little concerned that the ceiling might drop on You one day from the weight of all that hardware!

I hope Your work situation clears out, money is important but being proud of what You do is a mandatory!
Also im kinda late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE! Hope You had a great day @phill

 

[phill]

Its always a massive pleasure to see pictures of Your attic!
Im a little concerned that the ceiling might drop on You one day from the weight of all that hardware!

I hope Your work situation clears out, money is important but being proud of what You do is a mandatory!
Also im kinda late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE! Hope You had a great day @phill

I hope you're doing well mate?
Well many thanks @Lorec for the reply back I realise I might have one or two issues with the weight of the loft, but I think that's generally down to me putting on a few pounds Where you offering your services about hardware placement to protect the weight of the loft??

Today has been a good day, managed to get a few things tested I needed too (found another CPU that needed a quick, does it work test LOL and a board I'd bought that didn't work that today has done.. Must have been my lucky day!! Good job I entered into the competition... We'll see... )

I've had my two girls around with me, a lovely tasty BBQ setup by my Mrs and all of the family was there. Happy days

Will see if I can find some other work tomorrow, or at least put out some interest searches to see what comes back

 

[Arjai]

HB @phill !!

Hope the Job search goes well!

 

[phill]

Thanks @Arjai It's time I moved on, wages aside I've just not got the love anymore so I need to go.

How are you getting on with the job front? I've not seen anymore updates on your profile just yet?

 

[Robert B]

Happy Birthday phill! Sorry I was late to the party.

Your attic makes me want to build my own man cave with all my stuff.

I hope you find the job that suits your needs.

Looking forward for more posts from you. That 3900x seems tasty or toasty?

 

[Arjai]

Got the Security Job but, have not started yet. I think I am waiting on the Uniforms, got some, but not all of the stuff. Not sure that is what is happening. I just got the email address of my site Manager so, gonna hit him up and see why I have not been scheduled for anything.

 

[phill]

Happy Birthday phill! Sorry I was late to the party.

Your attic makes me want to build my own man cave with all my stuff.

I hope you find the job that suits your needs.

Looking forward for more posts from you. That 3900x seems tasty or toasty?

Your never to late to join one of my parties sir!!

You should do it!! I bet you have 10 times the hardware I do I'm sadly running out of room in the loft to be honest, there's only so many times you can touch the roof before you start to worry about "What would I do if the roof caved in......"

Whenever the rads arrive, I hope to get the 3900X system in the case, how pretty it'll look I'm not sure and if it has a chance of looking pretty but I'd so love it off the side of my desk!! LOL

Got the Security Job but, have not started yet. I think I am waiting on the Uniforms, got some, but not all of the stuff. Not sure that is what is happening. I just got the email address of my site Manager so, gonna hit him up and see why I have not been scheduled for anything.

I'm glad to hear it @Arjai !! No start date as yet then or just waiting for go go go email??

So production will be back up and running 24/7 soon enough then??

 

[biffzinker]

Happy 40th Belated Birthday @phill! Sorry I missed it yesterday.

 

[phill]

Happy 40th Belated Birthday @phill! Sorry I missed it yesterday.

No need to apologise but many thanks for the best wishes