Dell Workstation Owners Club

[rightbison]

Hi everyone again.

I tried to use SpeedFan to control my fans, but every few seconds my computer would freeze. It would do the same for Aida64 and HWiNFO64. It will only stop freezing if I uncheck "Enable Dell Support" on SpeedFan, stop monitoring the sensors in Aida64, and disable monitoring for "Dell EC: Dell Precision Workstation T3500" in HWiNFO64.

I left two YouTube clips of the freezing. Sorry the poor video quality, I couldn't use capture software as it will jumpcut it.

Is this normal? Any help will be appreciated.

P.S. I do run Throttlestop in the background, not sure if it could interfere, but I did quit the program while using SpeedFan as a test and it still would freeze unfortunately.

 

[Retrorockit]

A lot of people here just add a 2nd fan to the back of the CPU heatsink to improve cooling.
My favorite is the M35105-57 Nidec 92x38mm 1.8A. thermistor controlled fan which works for Mangupta in India. with very high ambient temperatures. But just about any 80-92mm fan will work. There are less powerful versions of the thermal controlled fan. But IDK the part numbers for them right off the bat.

 

[ManGupta]

Hi everyone again.

I tried to use SpeedFan to control my fans, but every few seconds my computer would freeze. It would do the same for Aida64 and HWiNFO64. It will only stop freezing if I uncheck "Enable Dell Support" on SpeedFan, stop monitoring the sensors in Aida64, and disable monitoring for "Dell EC: Dell Precision Workstation T3500" in HWiNFO64.

I left two YouTube clips of the freezing. Sorry the poor video quality, I couldn't use capture software as it will jumpcut it.

Is this normal? Any help will be appreciated.

P.S. I do run Throttlestop in the background, not sure if it could interfere, but I did quit the program while using SpeedFan as a test and it still would freeze unfortunately.

It was not heating issue as the temps displayed is normal .......

Thing is that ...... I guess, and I may be wrong ...... all the apps like SpeedFan, Aida64, HWiNFO64, Throttlestop, etc access and/or Control the system's Sensors .,......

Sometimes various app may trying to access and/or Control the system's Same Sensors simultaneously ....... may cause conflict in system leading to system crashing .......

Try running one such App at a time and see if that works.

 

[rightbison]

A lot of people here just add a 2nd fan to the back of the CPU heatsink to improve cooling.
My favorite is the M35105-57 Nidec 92x38mm 1.8A. thermistor controlled fan which works for Mangupta in India. with very high ambient temperatures. But just about any 80-92mm fan will work. There are less powerful versions of the thermal controlled fan. But IDK the part numbers for them right off the bat.

I actually have that fan installed on my CPU, the Xeon never touches 70c on full load.

It was not heating issue as the temps displayed is normal .......

Thing is that ...... I guess, and I may be wrong ...... all the apps like SpeedFan, Aida64, HWiNFO64, Throttlestop, etc access and/or Control the system's Sensors .,......

Sometimes various app may trying to access and/or Control the system's Same Sensors ....... may cause conflict in system leading to system crashing .......

Try running one such App at a time and see if that works.

I'll give it shot, I run HWiNFO64, Afterburner, ThrottleStop and Radeon Software (Adrenaline), I'll see if this helps.

 

[Retrorockit]

I'm just wondering why you need to bother with Speedfan etc. in the first place? I would keep Throttlestop and ditch the fan control apps. I see the HDD tray is there in the photo so the ducting to the heatsink should be intact.
Speedfan is known to have issues with Dells. With a PWM fan, and a Thermal control fan, and good temps. what are you trying to do?
I would look at having Afterburner, and Adrenaline running together as a possible source of conflict. also.

 

[candle_86]

T3600 owner here with the e5-1660, 16gb ecc ram, and rx470 my main rig, second t3600 e5-1620, gt610 my wife's rig for Facebook and browser games

Thought this would be a good place to put my writeup instead of creating a new thread for it. Just a bunch of things people should know about that plan to upgrade the GPU in their Optiplex 9020 mt.

This is just some information for people thinking about upgrading their Optiplex 9020 mt, or who are thinking about buying one for a budget gaming PC, and are looking for information on what will fit. Before I started, I swear I read every forum post on the internet and every Optiplex upgrade video at least twice, so I thought I knew what I was working with. Well, I ran into a couple of problems anyone looking at these should be aware of, that didn't get much or any mention. First, the well known limitations:

1) 8 pin motherboard power plug. You have to buy an adapter to use any PSU other than the stock 290W. Regular ATX PSU drops in though.

2) No GPU longer than 10" (250mm) without removing the hdd cage.
(not exactly true, see item 1 below)

3) Not much you can do about cable management, especially with a non-modular PSU.

4) Proprietary front panel connections (isn't worth the headache of trying to put into a new case.)

5) Proprietary fan headers on motherboard. Adapter needed to use any fans besides the stock CPU and system fan.

I was prepared for these things. I wasn't prepared for everything else :

1) The front panel wires are very short and take an almost direct route to their plug, which is on the other side of the GPU. If you leave the hdd cage, the GPU needs to be around 9" (228mm) to allow room for these cables behind it. They aren't long enough to go around through the cage, or over it, and the plug is too close to the GPU to go under it.

2) Double wide cards may or may not fit. Mine is 43mm wide (2.2 width slot), and it wouldn't fit between the RAM and the front panel plug. I had to shave the excess plastic off the plug to get them both to fit at the same time. I would say no cards wider than 36mm, if you're not comfortable shaving plastic off the front panel plug. It is also very close to the primary SATA ports, but didn't have to be modified in my case.

3) If you're using a double wide GPU with a backplate, or any 2.2+ card, you can't remove the RAM without first removing the GPU.

4) If you want to keep the HDD cage and get a new PSU, it either has to have enough 90 degree SATA plugs for what you have in there, or you have to keep using the 6pin power cable from the motherboard that has them, as the side panel will not go on with a standard SATA plugged into a HDD in the cage.

5) If you remove the HDD cage, you can't secure a 3.5" HDD in the hanging bay, as the wires from the front panel prevent it being fully inserted so the screw holes line up. Mine is just resting there, and the SSD is just hanging out until I figure out my final mounting solution for them.

6) If your GPU has a shroud rising above the backplate, you won't be able to use the standard Dell expansion card holder clip thing, you'll have to switch to screws.

I think that's it. I'll post more if I remember more, or if anybody has questions. I would not recommend this route for a "budget" gaming rig, as I ended up spending as much as I would have buying new components with similar (and better) specs, and am now pretty much fully upgraded, it isn't worth the time or trouble going any further.

Specs before:
Optiplex 9020 mini tower
i7-4770 4c8t 3.4 Ghz
14GB DDR3 1600
R7 260x (ran with SATA adapter from original PSU)
500GB 7200rpm HDD
Dell 290W PSU

What I added:
Kingston A400 240GB SATA SSD
EVGA 500W 80+ PSU
Saphhire Nitro+ RX 570 8GB


Here are some pictures:

Clearance between Ram and backplate:

The front panel plug is the one behind the blue SATA. It had to be shaved at the top or it won't fit at the same time as the graphics card. It also has to be plugged in first.

The entire rats nest.

I hope this helps people understand all the problems and limitations they can run into trying to upgrade even the tower version of one of these prebuilt enterprise machines.

Took these after I "cable managed."

I remounted the SSD and HDD, moved the optical to the top and put them under it. Did my best to cable manage, it isn't great, but I think the airflow is about 90% better. It would have been a lot easier without the 8 pin adapter.

This mess was half crammed up above the optical drive:

Mounted drives:

The final result:

Done a fair bit of modding to that era Optiplex case. Since you removed the front cage you can improve thermals with a 120/140mm fan. You need a drill and either a Dremel with cutting wheel, hole saw of the right side or a pair of snips and alot of patience. For hdd mounting you can grab a 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 adapter for the CD bay area or drill holes from the bottom of the case and mount the drive that way to secure them. You can also make an extension for the front panel quite easily by visiting Amazon and buying the right headers and wires to make an extension cable

 

[Retrorockit]

T3600 owner here with the e5-1660, 16gb ecc ram, and rx470 my main rig, second t3600 e5-1620, gt610 my wife's rig for Facebook and browser games



Done a fair bit of modding to that era Optiplex case. Since you removed the front cage you can improve thermals with a 120/140mm fan. You need a drill and either a Dremel with cutting wheel, hole saw of the right side or a pair of snips and alot of patience. For hdd mounting you can grab a 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 adapter for the CD bay area or drill holes from the bottom of the case and mount the drive that way to secure them. You can also make an extension for the front panel quite easily by visiting Amazon and buying the right headers and wires to make an extension cable

There is a drop in Dell 365W PSU with a 6 pin PCIe cable from the Optiplex XE2 computer. Dell #T1M43

7VK45 T1M43 7020 9020 upgrade power supply for DELL D365EM-00 HU365EM-00 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 7VK45 T1M43 7020 9020 upgrade power supply for DELL D365EM-00 HU365EM-00 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Also I'm seeing some i7-4790K running in those.

UserBenchmark: Dell OptiPlex 9020 Compatible Builds

With some CPU cooling mods an Intel XTU overclock should be possible to somewhere around 4.5Ghz. Since it has 4.4 Turbo listed in the spec. sheet. The 4790K has better cooling than the i7-4770K and starts off 500MHz faster base clock. No confirmation of this mod on that system yet.

 

[Blob of old outdated part]

Update

The cpu came in today xeon x5687.
runs like a charm 3.7 GHz is more than fast enough for me.

Processor (CPU)
CPU Name

Intel® Xeon® CPU X5687 @ 3.60GHz

Threading

1 CPU - 4 Core - 8 Threads

Frequency

3733.47 MHz (28 * 133.34 MHz) - Uncore: 2666.8 MHz

Multiplier

Current: 28 / Min: 12 / Max: 29

Architecture

Westmere-EP / Stepping: B1 / Technology: 32 nm

CPUID / Ext.

6.C.2 / 6.2C

IA Extensions

MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T, VT-x, AES

Caches

L1D : 32 KB / L2 : 256 KB / L3 : 12288 KB

Caches Assoc.

L1D : 8-way / L2 : 8-way / L3 : 16-way

Microcode

Rev. 0x1F

TDP / Vcore

130 Watts /

Temperature

63 °C / 145 °F

Type

Retail (Stock Frequency : 3600 MHz)
Motherboard
Model

Dell 09KPNV

Socket

Socket 1366 LGA

North Bridge

Intel X58 rev 22

South Bridge

Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev 00

BIOS

Dell Inc. A17 (05/28/2013)
Memory (RAM)
Total Size

12288 MB

Type

Triple Channel (192 bit) DDR3-SDRAM

Frequency

533.4 MHz (DDR3-1066) - Ratio 2:8

Timings

7-7-7-20-2 (tCAS-tRC-tRP-tRAS-tCR)

Slot #1 Module

Kingston 2048 MB (DDR3-1337) - P/N: 9905472-001.A00LF

Slot #2 Module

Kingston 2048 MB (DDR3-1337) - P/N: 9905472-001.A00LF

Slot #3 Module

Kingston 2048 MB (DDR3-1337) - P/N: 9905472-001.A00LF

Slot #4 Module

Kingston 2048 MB (DDR3-1337) - P/N: 9905472-001.A00LF

Slot #5 Module

Samsung 2048 MB (DDR3-1062) - P/N: M391B5673EH1-CF8

Slot #6 Module

Samsung 2048 MB (DDR3-1062) - P/N: M391B5673EH1-CF8
Graphic Card (GPU)
GPU Type

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (GM206) @ 746 MHz

GPU Brand

Galaxy Microsystems Ltd.

GPU Specs

GM206-300 / Process: 28nm / Transistors: 2940M / Die Size: 227 mm² / TDP: 120W

GPU Units

Shader Units: 1024 / Texture Units (TMU): 64 / Render Units (ROP): 32

GPU VRAM

2048 MB GDDR5 / 128-bit Bus @ 810 MHz (Samsung)

GPU APIs

DirectX 12.0 / OpenGL 4.6 / OpenCL 1.2 / Vulkan 1.0
Storage (HDD/SSD)
Model #1 Name

Western Digital WDC WD5000LPVX-28V0TT0 (FW: 01.01A01)

Model #1 Capacity

465.8 GiB (~500 GB)

Model #1 Type

Fixed - Bus: ATA (3)

Model #2 Name

HITACHI HTS725050A7E630 (FW: GH2ZB390)

Model #2 Capacity

465.8 GiB (~500 GB)

Model #2 Type

Fixed - Bus: ATA (3)

Model #3 Name

KINGSTON SV300S37A240G (FW: 583ABBF0)

Model #3 Capacity

223.6 GiB (~240 GB)

Model #3 Type

Fixed, SSD - Bus: ATA (3)

Model #4 Name

Seagate ST1000DX001-1CM162 (FW: CC43)

Model #4 Capacity

931.5 GiB (~1000 GB)

Model #4 Type

Fixed - Bus: ATA (3)
Display
Screen #1

ELEFW247 (ELE0000)

Screen #1 Spec

24 inches (61 cm) / 1920 x 1080 pixels @ 48-62 Hz
Miscellaneous
Windows Version

Microsoft Windows 10 (10.0) Professional 64-bit

CPU-Z Version

1.91.0 (64 bit)

 

[rightbison]

I'm just wondering why you need to bother with Speedfan etc. in the first place? I would keep Throttlestop and ditch the fan control apps. I see the HDD tray is there in the photo so the ducting to the heatsink should be intact.
Speedfan is known to have issues with Dells. With a PWM fan, and a Thermal control fan, and good temps. what are you trying to do?
I would look at having Afterburner, and Adrenaline running together as a possible source of conflict. also.

I wanted to add a fan into the northbridge heatsink because it gets very hot. I seen images of a fan attached to it IIRC and I have a spare 80mm fan from the riser card heatsink so I figured I could use the fan for the northbridge. It is a 5-pin fan so its PWM, I tried using SpeedFan, it would freeze on me and here we are. It concerned me so that's why I asked about if it was normal for the T3500.

Here's the northbridge and the 80mm fan.

The wires are not touching the heatsink,
just in case if you are wondering.

I probably should've said this earlier so sorry for that.

 

[Retrorockit]

The cooling in the T3500 is a variation of the BTX cooling layout.
BTX was designed to cool Pentium4 CPUs at speeds up to 4GHz. They got as far as 3.73Ghz before Core2 architecture made them instantly obsolete.
BTX cooling used 1 huge fan with VRM cooled first, Then a CPU turned 45* for shorter traces to the chipset, then the column of cooling air went over the chipset and out the back. The fan was ducted to the CPU. It's a positive pressure design so the air should go out the back vent without an added fan there. The T3500 uses those design principles except with the memory controller on the CPU the 45* twist is no longer needed. The chipset heatsink is located behind the RAM cooling shroud. It already has air moving over it.
Instead of a fan I just put a bigger passive heatsink I had laying around on mine.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/trifire-002-jpg.99713/

 

[ManGupta]

The cooling in the T3500 is a variation of the BTX cooling layout.
BTX was designed to cool Pentium4 CPUs at speeds up to 4GHz. They got as far as 3.73Ghz before Core2 architecture made them instantly obsolete.
BTX cooling used 1 huge fan with VRM cooled first, Then a CPU turned 45* for shorter traces to the chipset, then the column of cooling air went over the chipset and out the back. The fan was ducted to the CPU. It's a positive pressure design so the air should go out the back vent without an added fan there. The T3500 uses those design principles except with the memory controller on the CPU the 45* twist is no longer needed. The chipset heatsink is located behind the RAM cooling shroud. It already has air moving over it.
Instead of a fan I just put a bigger passive heatsink I had laying around on mine.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/trifire-002-jpg.99713/

I was wondering that with a relatively very heavy HS on NB ...... it may cause warpage in MB if kept the Cabinet in Tower Orientation.
Do you keep the case in Horizontal /Desktop Orientation ? ....... Does it actually have any issue if it is kept it in Vertical / Tower orientation ?

 

[Retrorockit]

I actually wandered off onto E bikes at that time and never ran that rig. Riding urban south Florida means I have some serious skin in the game. But a smaller heatpipe cooler could be used.
Now that I'm shut in and not riding I may get back to it. I think I put a foam rectangle under the heatsink so it has broader support than just the chip in the center.
That's on page 8-9 of the Throttlestop Overclocking thread. It was kind of an exercise to see what would and wouldn't fit in a T3500 case. But horizontal operation is a feature of the Dell workstations. There is a turned face plate for the drive area and the Dell badge rotates 90*.
The thing is Dell workstations are often leased, under warranty, or extended service contracts. Down time and repairs are a big deal. Especially when competeing for many millions of dollars with HP and Lenovo. They're designed to run hard and long. AT/ATX is based on cloned 386 era computers and cooling them has always been a mess of fans all over the place. I just upgraded what was already there and working. If the heatsink is hot that means it's working. If it was cold then you would have a problem. A heatpipe cooler for a 65W CPU would be more than enough.

 

[Macio4ever]

Happy, happy. I have just bought Dell T7810 as a new rig. I have run basic tests with some old GPU and one CPU only (waiting for upgrade parts). Very nice machine, much lower noise than my old T5500. I am thinking about purchase E5-2643 v3 as it seems to be good allrounder - for general usage and some gaming. I am considering RTX2060 Super or 1660ti - still not decided...

 

[remixedcat]

Cloned from a Lenovo W530 laptop to my main Dell w Xeon and Linux acted like nothing happened. Works so super smooth.

I used a drive dock and it was quick as well.

 

[ManGupta]

Now Linus goes our way .......

 

[Retrorockit]

That's a start. Here's one with a 3770K.

Dell OptiPlex 9010 Performance Results - UserBenchmark

Intel XTU and some heatsinks on the VRM MOSFETs would get an overclock going. With an SSD you can take the HDD cage out and put a real GPU in there.
I saw some Xeons running in that also. Many of those are unlocked and could save some money.
I'm pretty sure they have a PSU ,GPU, and some cooling solutions sitting around their lab. They need to finish the job.

I found this dual X5687 overclock chart at CPUZ

Intel Xeon @ 6003.15 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

[025um0] Validated Dump by DR4G00N (2016-02-27 16:23:28) - MB: Gigabyte X58A-OC - RAM: 4096 MB

valid.x86.fr

There a dual CPU hyperthreaded T5500 going 5GHz there on 16 threads. Beating the 8 thread EVGA SR2.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Intel Xeon @ 5053.24 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

[zqtdfm] Validated Dump by AILEM-PC (2016-07-06 21:17:25) - MB: Dell 0CRH6C - RAM: 11262 MB

valid.x86.fr

Actually looking closer I'm seeing a multiplier of 38 on a locked CPU so I'm going to say it's bogus.

 

[sepheronx]

So I finally made the switch and moved my GTX 1070 to the Dell T3500 and moved the GTX 970 to my core i7 4770 and used my itx 4770 as my home theater and use the T3500 as my main machine. Been playing some games and really enjoying it but I feel that the 1066mhz DDR3 ram is holding it back. Plus I was thinking of getting a SATA3 card to improve the SSD speeds and eventually a USB3 card with more ports (current one only has 2 USB 3 ports). But unsure if I want to spend any money on the T3500 as it may just be better to hold off till I have enough to build a new intel or Ryzen machine with the newer generation coming out (4000 AMD and 10000 Intel).

What do you guys think? Should I shell out and get ddr 3 1333mhz memory and the expansion cards?

 

[lexluthermiester]

and use the T3500 as my main machine.

Remind me, what CPU do you have for it?

 

[sepheronx]

Remind me, what CPU do you have for it?

W3680. I ran it at 4ghz but the fans sped up to the point I think it was taking off. So I lowered It back to 3.4

 

[lexluthermiester]

W3680. I ran it at 4ghz but the fans sped up to the point I think it was taking off. So I lowered It back to 3.4

Yeah you'll need a solid third-party heatsink for that kind of performance.

 

[sepheronx]

Yeah you'll need a solid third-party heatsink for that kind of performance.

I zip tied a 80mm fan to the heatsink and it works quite well but the darn thing is loud.

I was thinking of watercooling it but I just dont have the money nor want to spend much on this system as it will eventually be turned into a nas eventually.

 

[Retrorockit]

W3680. I ran it at 4ghz but the fans sped up to the point I think it was taking off. So I lowered It back to 3.4

The W3680 should support 1333 RAM, but if you have 1066 then new parts will be in order. Simce it can run ECC you might get a deal.
You might try the added CPU fan mod. Nidec MS35105-57 is a good one. No PWM needed, just add 12V. Thermistor controlled so must be pulling through the heatsink. Mangupta reports it's working well for him in India with no A/C.

Lot Of 2 Nidec Beta V Ta350Dc M35105-57 Cooler Fan 12V • $18.69

LOT OF 2 Nidec Beta V Ta350Dc M35105-57 Cooler Fan 12V - $18.69. FOR SALE! LOT OF 2 NIDEC BETA V TA350DC M35105-57 COOLER FAN 12V 192971479034

picclick.com

I did this aftermarket heatsink swap with that fan also. Dynatron G17. Pretty close to bolt in.

Throttlestop overclocking Desktop PCs

Always wanted an older Mac Pro...Where'd you put the pics?

www.techpowerup.com

 

[sepheronx]

What I have is a 80mm Arctic cooling F8 fan zip tied to the cooler. I connected it to a splitter that I use that is connected via an adapter from the Dell 5 pin onboard the motherboard and split between the 80mm fan and a noctua 120mm fan I have on the front. Cooling is rather fine now.

Cant seem to find a decent price on DDR3 1333 memory, ECC or non. So I am not sure its worth the price to replace the 1066 memory.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I zip tied a 80mm fan to the heatsink and it works quite well but the darn thing is loud.

I was thinking of watercooling it but I just dont have the money nor want to spend much on this system as it will eventually be turned into a nas eventually.

Youn would be well served by one of these;

GeminII S524 Ver.2 CPU Air Cooler

Cooler Master, industry leader for PC components and cooling, releases a revision of GeminII S524 featuring exclusive technology and incredible performance with a top-down design. With 5 heatpipes Continuous Direct Contact (CDC) tech, GeminII S524 Ver.2 provides better heat dissipation than the...

www.coolermaster.com

Or one of these;

GeminII M5 LED CPU Air Cooler

The new GeminIIM5 LED low-profile CPU air cooler packs even more performance into its compact design with a red LED and five heat pipes using Direct Contact technology. This is a great entry-level cooler finds its strength in smaller PC configurations like mini-ITX or HTPC. Not only does the...

www.coolermaster.com

Both will fit into the T3500 chassis and provide exceptional cooling. Fair tip though, install a pair of 80mm fans in the rear exhaust locations to properly vent warm air.

 

[sepheronx]

Youn would be well served by one of these;

GeminII S524 Ver.2 CPU Air Cooler

Cooler Master, industry leader for PC components and cooling, releases a revision of GeminII S524 featuring exclusive technology and incredible performance with a top-down design. With 5 heatpipes Continuous Direct Contact (CDC) tech, GeminII S524 Ver.2 provides better heat dissipation than the...

www.coolermaster.com

Or one of these;

GeminII M5 LED CPU Air Cooler

The new GeminIIM5 LED low-profile CPU air cooler packs even more performance into its compact design with a red LED and five heat pipes using Direct Contact technology. This is a great entry-level cooler finds its strength in smaller PC configurations like mini-ITX or HTPC. Not only does the...

www.coolermaster.com

Both will fit into the T3500 chassis and provide exceptional cooling. Fair tip though, install a pair of 80mm fans in the rear exhaust locations to properly vent warm air.

well, unless I am willing to spend over $100 CAD for coolers then yeah. But I dont know if it is worth it tbh. Good silent 80mm fans are about $22 CAD each and then that cooler? Who knows. And the Geminii 5 doesnt seem to exist on amazon.ca

Currently my temps hover around 40C under load when playing games at 3.4ghz.

I may buy into the 80mm noctua fans though to help reduce heat and the noise levels.