Dell Workstation Owners Club

[Retrorockit]

The 2nd video above also shows why I'm not in a hurry to install exhaust fans when using these blowers. But I do use them if I have GPU or other areas being heated up by the CPU outlet air.
You could install 2x80mm outlet fans and not even have to plug them in!

 

[rock]

is the w3690 unlocked and is it better then the w3680?

 

[lexluthermiester]

is the w3690 unlocked and is it better then the w3680?

Only slightly, and it's much more expensive. So unless you get one for a great deal, go with the W3680.

 

[ManGupta]

I am getting this Boot Error Message on my Dell Precision T3500 too often nowadays.

But after 4-5 Restarts my system boots successfully to Windows 10.

But after shutdown whenever I start my T3500, sometimes my system boots and sometimes it does not, giving this boot error message.
In case of boot error, after 4-5 restarts system boots to windows 10.

I changed both power cable and sata cable. But still the problem persists. This is happening only since last few days.

Request forum members to advice me on solution to this issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I am getting this Boot Error Message on my Dell Precision T3500 too often nowadays.

But after 4-5 Restarts my system boots successfully to Windows 10.

But after shutdown whenever I start my T3500, sometimes my system boots and sometimes it does not, giving this boot error message.
In case of boot error, after 4-5 restarts system boots to windows 10.

I changed both power cable and sata cable. But still the problem persists. This is happening only since last few days.

Request forum members to advice me on solution to this issue.

Thanks in advance.

You might have a drive going bad, a bad SATA cable or PSU problem. So get a different SATA cable and see if the problem still persists . If it does, get a known working drive and test to see if the same issue happens.. If the problem persists after that, you might have a power supply going out. Might also be the motherboard. It doesn't happen often, but it is possible.

A bit off topic, but I gotta say I'm eyeballing these used workstations. It appears the T7500 is dual CPU? Dual 6 core Xeons would really kick ass for multithreaded workloads (thinking mainly WCG). And they can be found cheap.

I'm still not sure I'd ever buy a new prebuilt system, but the used prebuilt market seems fantastic these days.

@MrGenius @hat
Bringing that over to this thread, both the T5500 and the T7500 are available in dual CPU configurations. A pair of X56xx CPU's would give a serious(and still relevant) level of processor power, even though they're older.

 

[ManGupta]

@MrGenius @hat
Bringing that over to this thread, both the T5500 and the T7500 are available in dual CPU configurations. A pair of X56xx CPU's would give a serious(and still relevant) level of processor power, even though they're older.

If you want more horsepower for your system, you may also consider T7600
T7600 supports dual 8C/16T processor + Quad Channel Memory bandwidth Vs T7500 Dual 6C/12T processor + Tripple Channel Memory bandwidth.

However used T7600 may be priced higher giving lesser Price to Performance ratio as compared to T7500/T5500/T3500.
But if you get any good deal, it may be worth going for.

PS- T7600 also supports PCIE 3 & USB 3 Vs T7500 PCDIE 2 & USB 2 (However PCIE USB3 Adapter can enable support for USB3 in T3500/7500/5500)

 

[Retrorockit]

"I'm still not sure I'd ever buy a new prebuilt system, but the used prebuilt market seems fantastic these days. "

If you're earning your living with a computer or running a large business the prebuilts with warranty and tech support are the way to go. But for an individual who does their own support, the cost- performance of the used workstations is hard to beat. The 3600/5600/7600 systems are a bit different in the PSU dept. and the single CPU machines run dual CPU processors and RDIMM RAM. This makes modding more restricted so you should buy one with the performance you need already available.

 

[TopHatProductions115]

There are many surplus PCIe SATA controller cards available to move onto the PCIe bus using your existing SATA drives.
SetFSB has not been supported for a very long time. There are other FSB utilities based on RW Everything that don't have the SATA issue (I've beeen told). When you start overclocking locked BIOS Dell 2 CPU workstations you're going to have to do some of your own R&D work. Nobody really knows the answer, and others don't usually post what doesn't work so even that information isn't available. The terminology changed from FSB to BCLK with the move away from LGA775/771 so that may help with your searches.
SoftFSB, CPUFSB, GetFSB, and Clockgen are some of the others.
...

I apologise for being unlcear when I mentioned this, but the reason I can't acquire any new hardware right now is due to monetary concerns. So, I'm currently stuck with on-board SATA for the foreseeable future. With that said, I went on and looked into the tools that you mentioned, since SetFSB is woefully out-of-date and unsupported. The only one that still supported and looks current is Clockgen (from what I saw). I'll have to start searching for the PLL model of my workstation now. Once I get that info, I'll be able to use Clockgen properly...

EDIT :: I went on and downloaded ClockGen. The UI doesn't allow me to edit anything And it looks different from what the website depicts it. Something tells me that this application isn't compatible with Windows 10

 

[Caring1]

EDIT :: I went on and downloaded ClockGen. The UI doesn't allow me to edit anything And it looks different from what the website depicts it. Something tells me that this application isn't compatible with Windows 10

Either look for a modified BIOS or try Throttlestop, that may give options that help.

 

[Retrorockit]

I mentioned the T3600/5600/7600 series but there is a lesser known T3610 which is making some interesting numbers at userbenchmark.com
https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Dell-Precision-T3610/1177
E5-1650 v2 looks like a good CPU for those. Many of the E series Xeons were unlocked so a TS overclock could be possible.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xeons-with-an-open-multiplier.15983/page-3
I know nothing more about these systems or modding them. But people are getting 1080 and 2080 GPUs running so I guess PSU isn't an issue at some level.

 

[Retrorockit]

I'm seeing reports of 8 core CPUs running in T3600s. IDK if it's only 2 CPU versions or the possibly unlocked single CPU chips.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm seeing reports of 8 core CPUs running in T3600s. IDK if it's only 2 CPU versions or the possibly unlocked single CPU chips.

I thought they were available like that from Dell? Fairly certain they work without a hitch.

 

[dorsetknob]

if its a westmere Xeon its LGA 1567 8 and 10 core varients

 

[Retrorockit]

There seems to be an optional proprietary 685W PSU for the 3600/3610 that can power the newer high end GPUs.

 

[ManGupta]

Apart from Dell Workstations 3500/5500/7500 ......... other option include Dell servers like Poweredge R410 ....... which can be Modded and converted into a Gaming and/or Productivity PC.

 

[M0rafic]

Hi, this is my first post here. Oh for the days when I worked in server support for Dell and was just given servers to play with (so long as they were 12 months old no-one wanted them back ...) and I got a healthy discount if I needed to buy stuff. AnyHoo As I type this any my suitably overclocked 12 year old 3.2 GHz m1330 I was wondering if you had any problems with the Noctua fans in your T7500 as I was thinking of trying some in my T7500. I picked it up off fleabay for £30 including delivery and the poor guy put his back out carrying it from the van. It only had one x5520 but I managed to find a cheap riser, upped the ram to 48Gb but could only stretch to a pair of X5650's for £25. I did splash out on a WD Black NVMe to as a boot disk (which is bloody fast even at PCIe2.0 speeds). Just now it has received a perc H710 ( I put in a low bid and was the only bidder again on fleabay along with 4 Hitachi 3TB SAS2 drives which were new but had been sat on a shelf since 2012 and so were also cheap. Unfortunately the new bit (the £25 4 way mini SAS cable seems to have a duff connector on it so I can only get three of the disks to work. Its raid5 so random reads and writes aren't great but sequential reads and writes are at Sata3 ssd speeds so I'm pretty happy apart from the cable though performance may well improve once the virtual disk has finished initialising. I copied about 250Gb onto it earlier from an external usb2 drive and found it quit amusing that the poor old usb drive was maxed out at 34Mb/s and nothing else was happening except the occasional flicker to 1% activity on the perc and the music the T7500 was streaming. I'm no longer exactly mobile and I live in the middle of nowhere so fleabay is really the only option for getting stuff, unfortunately. The only slight annoyance now is that now the T7500 no longer has a Sata hard drive in it and the perc isn't setup as a boot drive I have to press F1. Bummer.

 

[ManGupta]

Hi, this is my first post here. Oh for the days when I worked in server support for Dell and was just given servers to play with (so long as they were 12 months old no-one wanted them back ...) and I got a healthy discount if I needed to buy stuff. AnyHoo As I type this any my suitably overclocked 12 year old 3.2 GHz m1330 I was wondering if you had any problems with the Noctua fans in your T7500 as I was thinking of trying some in my T7500. I picked it up off fleabay for £30 including delivery and the poor guy put his back out carrying it from the van. It only had one x5520 but I managed to find a cheap riser, upped the ram to 48Gb but could only stretch to a pair of X5650's for £25. I did splash out on a WD Black NVMe to as a boot disk (which is bloody fast even at PCIe2.0 speeds). Just now it has received a perc H710 ( I put in a low bid and was the only bidder again on fleabay along with 4 Hitachi 3TB SAS2 drives which were new but had been sat on a shelf since 2012 and so were also cheap. Unfortunately the new bit (the £25 4 way mini SAS cable seems to have a duff connector on it so I can only get three of the disks to work. Its raid5 so random reads and writes aren't great but sequential reads and writes are at Sata3 ssd speeds so I'm pretty happy apart from the cable though performance may well improve once the virtual disk has finished initialising. I copied about 250Gb onto it earlier from an external usb2 drive and found it quit amusing that the poor old usb drive was maxed out at 34Mb/s and nothing else was happening except the occasional flicker to 1% activity on the perc and the music the T7500 was streaming. I'm no longer exactly mobile and I live in the middle of nowhere so fleabay is really the only option for getting stuff, unfortunately. The only slight annoyance now is that now the T7500 no longer has a Sata hard drive in it and the perc isn't setup as a boot drive I have to press F1. Bummer.

Hi M0rafic, Wecome to the forum.

I think Noctura Fan maybe possible in T7500. Retrorockit has done some awesome Fan Mods in his T5500 system. You can browse for his posts. T7500 being a bigger case will have more room to play with fans.

I had bought X5680 for $35 from Aliexpress, but now price seems to have moved up a bit.

What mod you did to make NVME to work as a boot drive ?

Link to some of the Retrorockit's post -



https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...ocking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-8#post-3825043

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...ocking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-9#post-3828002

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/dell-workstation-owners-club.243124/page-16#post-3942913

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/dell-workstation-owners-club.243124/page-17#post-3943654

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/dell-workstation-owners-club.243124/page-18#post-3946579

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/dell-workstation-owners-club.243124/page-18#post-3946602

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/dell-workstation-owners-club.243124/page-28#post-4008839

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...cking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-18#post-3893645

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...cking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-18#post-3893947


https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...cking-desktop-pcs.235975/page-24#post-3974225

 

[M0rafic]

Hi M0rafic, Wecome to the forum.

I think Noctura Fan maybe possible in T7500. Retrorockit has done some awesome Fan Mods in his T5500 system. You can browse for his posts. T7500 being a bigger case will have more room to play with fans.

I had bought X5680 for $35 from Aliexpress, but now price seems to have moved up a bit.

What mod you did to make NVME to work as a boot drive ?

I used a kryoM.2 card (a decent bit of kit if a little pricey) an old scabby usb stick I found down the side of the sofa and a combination of Duet & Refind which together form a sort of cut down version of the Clover UEFI used for creating a Hacintosh. I did contemplate dual booting the T7500 as a Hacintosh but I grew up with 3 button mice and one button is just plain wrong. Should you be interested the info can be found here:-

https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-G...h-legacy-BIOS-and-older-UEFI-DUET-REFIND.html

read page one and then from around page 20 as the info you need is on page one but it was updated at around the same time that the posts between about pages 17 - 23 were made so some of page one post dates quite a lot of what appears to come after it.

I shall go and have a look at Retrorockits fan mods, if the Noctua fans do move enough air and are nice and quiet then they may be well be worth the extra and a little investigation. There are a pair of X5680's on fleabay at the moment from China but I don't have the £95 their asking. The T7500 did get treated to a vega 56 which I forgot to mention earlier which has sort of broken the budget to say the least.

Mike

 

[ManGupta]

I used a kryoM.2 card (a decent bit of kit if a little pricey) an old scabby usb stick I found down the side of the sofa and a combination of Duet & Refind which together form a sort of cut down version of the Clover UEFI used for creating a Hacintosh. I did contemplate dual booting the T7500 as a Hacintosh but I grew up with 3 button mice and one button is just plain wrong. Should you be interested the info can be found here:-

https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-G...h-legacy-BIOS-and-older-UEFI-DUET-REFIND.html

read page one and then from around page 20 as the info you need is on page one but it was updated at around the same time that the posts between about pages 17 - 23 were made so some of page one post dates quite a lot of what appears to come after it.

I shall go and have a look at Retrorockits fan mods, if the Noctua fans do move enough air and are nice and quiet then they may be well be worth the extra and a little investigation. There are a pair of X5680's on fleabay at the moment from China but I don't have the £95 their asking. The T7500 did get treated to a vega 56 which I forgot to mention earlier which has sort of broken the budget to say the least.

Mike

well about 7-8 months back a pair of X5680 costed only $70 (equal to £54) on Aliexpress, but now price seems to moved up quite a lot. Now it is showing as $45 (for one) and X5675 for$31 (for one, pair at $62)

 

[M0rafic]

Maybe I should take a look on Aliexpress, the price I quoted earlier is around half of the next cheapest I've seen in the last month on ebay and after that that its several hundred a pair, which is just ridiculous

soo i guess that the m.2 pcie ssd is not bootable either?

My T7500 is booting from an nMVe ssd with a little jiggery pokerey and the assistance of a crappy old usb stick I found down the side of the sofa and a decent NVMe card from overclockers. It did mean a fresh install of windows 10 though and once I've finished playing around and building it, I will put the tiny little usb stick in one of the internal ports out of harms way. At the moment its round the back hidden between the cat5 cable and the usb keyboard cable. I'm sure I have a one of those indestructible old IBM ones somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find it.

Anyway assuming you have a pci-e card to mount the ssd and your machine will boot from an external usb then the method I I used should work. But it does require a clean install of windows. The method can be found here:-

https://www.win-raid.com/t3286f50-G...h-legacy-BIOS-and-older-UEFI-DUET-REFIND.html

The meat of the method is about half-way down page one but there is useful clarification if needed between around pages 17 to 23 or so. Don't read all the way through from page 1 to 17 because the stuff in-between happened before the middle of page 1, which was edited and tidied up towards the end of the thread (if that makes sense!!).

As you can see the WD black ssd on the left is pretty good at streaming stuff but not so clever at random writes and even worse at random reads. Perhaps I should have gone with Samsung who at least supply proper drivers rather than relying on native windows support.

I just remembered that I left the bios set to prioritise pci-i/o maybe that's what's killing the small packets of random stuff.

Mike

Well I solved my stupid little press F1 to boot problem, like a pillock I hadn't unchecked sata-0 in the list of drives......

I turned off the pcie-i/o priority and also numa support and lost a couple hundred Mb/s on the sequential reads & writes without making much difference elsewhere.

 

[AwesomeMarioFan]

Hey guys,

I had purchased a T5500 a few years ago (2016), and was wondering when running 24/7 how long these machines last? (I guess more specifically I am wondering about the motherboard since that would be the most difficult component to replace.) It is mostly sitting idle but I wasn't sure what kind of lifespan the motherboard has.

 

[Retrorockit]

Dell's are pretty much designed for 24/7 service. The MB is a $40 part and sometimes NOS spares get sold when the systems become obsolete. I would have a spare sitting around.
But it depends on how important your data is. Capacitors do age at some point. Building gaming rigs out of old workstations is one thing. Running serious mission critcal apps. on 10 year old hardware is another.

 

[XerXen]

Hi @ all xD
I musst say I love my T3500
I will ad some pics tomorow and hope anyone give me a tip for some nice DDR 3'S

I mean Tested,worked and rly Big enought :')
Also need 2 silence and nice little fans for more auf Flow for my 1070 GPU

The little corsair h45 is nice rly enought for x5680......rly the little money Worth!!!!

Read my profile for my set up

 

[PenX]

Hi guys, this is my first post here. I have Dell T5500 with Xeon 5650, 24 GB RAM and 1050ti graphic. Im thinking upgrading to RX580 8GB but im not sure can this rig handle that card. PSU is 875W but i dont know does it have 8pin connector needed for this card. I have 2 6pins and one 8 pin but it is in white color and im not sure is it for card or for second cpu. I new Dell user so I don't relly know how this sistems work. Also i read that RX580 cannot boot into bios, and i alredy dont have quadro card that came with it. Can i go with this card or not. Thanks.

 

[XerXen]

Hi guys, this is my first post here. I have Dell T5500 with Xeon 5650, 24 GB RAM and 1050ti graphic. Im thinking upgrading to RX580 8GB but im not sure can this rig handle that card. PSU is 875W but i dont know does it have 8pin connector needed for this card. I have 2 6pins and one 8 pin but it is in white color and im not sure is it for card or for second cpu. I new Dell user so I don't relly know how this sistems work. Also i read that RX580 cannot boot into bios, and i alredy dont have quadro card that came with it. Can i go with this card or not. Thanks.

You can upgrade with riser for a second cpu
For that is the second 8pin

Your psu handle it easy when Alu habe only 1 cpu i Think

Ive a t3500 but my solution for my only 1x6pin was a cable
1x6pin to 2x6/8 pin
Links for Cable
And with it my only 525 psu handle a x5680 and a gtx 1070oc
I Think ist np for your psu