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Firstly the case is the real problem
These Dual Xeon M'Boards with on-board SCSI are very big M'Boards and do not fit into a Standard Case. They are too long from front to back to fit into a Standard Case if you leave the Drive Mounts in Place.
Depending on the case most require you to remove all of the 2.5 inch mounts and most of the 3.5 inch mounts as well.
I maybe should also just add I do work for a company who renders Video for the Movies and with their 6,000 CPU Blade running SUSE it's not unusual to spend 3 weeks to render 30 seconds of Video. Rendering Video is neither fast or easy it's very time consuming and complicated particularly if you have any water involved and want it to look realistic.
With those Intel Server Boards and Cases they have 2 power supplies in them the main one plugs straight into the M'Board with both the 24 PIN ATX and a 8 Pin Supplementary 12 V Lead which most domestic Power Supplies don't have and then the Backup or Redundant Power Supply plugs into the Main Power Supply and as they are Specials built for the Intel Server Cases you can not generally speaking use a Domestic Desktop Power Supply in one of those cases without extensive metal work in cutting out to fit the single power supply and then blocking off the extra hole for the Backup Power Supply.
The Xeon CPU's Do Not come with a heat Sink or Fan and these are Optional Extras after you buy the CPU. Even then with some Dual M'Boards you need to use Passive heat Sinks and have large case fans blowing air in the front and sucking air out the back of the case. Intel only has available U Cases so if you what something that looks like a Desktop Case you need to find one and these are hard come by these days as not many make them any more. Antec used to and they stopped 6 or so years ago and Zalman had a Fanless Server Case which I also haven't seen for many years now. The Zalman Cases where great and at only about a 1K each without the PS where reasonably cheap for what they where. Of course the Fanless Zalman PS for those Cases was about another $500.00 but the 2 units involved where the best that I've ever used.
Also are you sure that this Server Board will use your existing RAM Modules generally speaking Server Boards use EEC Memory which is also a lot more expensive than the non EEC or sometimes called Parity Checked Memory.
If the board isn't using EEC RAM it's going to be a lot slower and no where near as powerful as a similar chip set that requires EEC RAM. Typically EEC RAM costs about the same as the Corsair Dominator Series RAM or more and comes in smaller sizes. Of course they also power the system to do some serious Number Crunching and those systems where never designed to idle away for any length of time.
I have a Dual Xeon Board here with RAM only 16 GIG which is all it takes and my problem is the Backing Plate only comes with the Intel Case which isn't suitable for my needs so I have to break out the Backing Plate on a very good and old Antec Server Case and leave a gapping hole in the back. For that reason the M'Board with RAM, Active Heat Sinks and CPU's has been sitting in it's box not being used but with the Dual Chanel SCSI it can nearly use all of the 23 External Drive Slots available in the case.
Col
Depending on the case most require you to remove all of the 2.5 inch mounts and most of the 3.5 inch mounts as well.
I maybe should also just add I do work for a company who renders Video for the Movies and with their 6,000 CPU Blade running SUSE it's not unusual to spend 3 weeks to render 30 seconds of Video. Rendering Video is neither fast or easy it's very time consuming and complicated particularly if you have any water involved and want it to look realistic.
With those Intel Server Boards and Cases they have 2 power supplies in them the main one plugs straight into the M'Board with both the 24 PIN ATX and a 8 Pin Supplementary 12 V Lead which most domestic Power Supplies don't have and then the Backup or Redundant Power Supply plugs into the Main Power Supply and as they are Specials built for the Intel Server Cases you can not generally speaking use a Domestic Desktop Power Supply in one of those cases without extensive metal work in cutting out to fit the single power supply and then blocking off the extra hole for the Backup Power Supply.
The Xeon CPU's Do Not come with a heat Sink or Fan and these are Optional Extras after you buy the CPU. Even then with some Dual M'Boards you need to use Passive heat Sinks and have large case fans blowing air in the front and sucking air out the back of the case. Intel only has available U Cases so if you what something that looks like a Desktop Case you need to find one and these are hard come by these days as not many make them any more. Antec used to and they stopped 6 or so years ago and Zalman had a Fanless Server Case which I also haven't seen for many years now. The Zalman Cases where great and at only about a 1K each without the PS where reasonably cheap for what they where. Of course the Fanless Zalman PS for those Cases was about another $500.00 but the 2 units involved where the best that I've ever used.
Also are you sure that this Server Board will use your existing RAM Modules generally speaking Server Boards use EEC Memory which is also a lot more expensive than the non EEC or sometimes called Parity Checked Memory.
If the board isn't using EEC RAM it's going to be a lot slower and no where near as powerful as a similar chip set that requires EEC RAM. Typically EEC RAM costs about the same as the Corsair Dominator Series RAM or more and comes in smaller sizes. Of course they also power the system to do some serious Number Crunching and those systems where never designed to idle away for any length of time.
I have a Dual Xeon Board here with RAM only 16 GIG which is all it takes and my problem is the Backing Plate only comes with the Intel Case which isn't suitable for my needs so I have to break out the Backing Plate on a very good and old Antec Server Case and leave a gapping hole in the back. For that reason the M'Board with RAM, Active Heat Sinks and CPU's has been sitting in it's box not being used but with the Dual Chanel SCSI it can nearly use all of the 23 External Drive Slots available in the case.
Col
Moderator Posted by HAL 9000
18th May 2011
