Custom extension cables?

[daveyb]

Let's say in theory I have a server board and instead of having a 20+4 pin power it's using a 16 pin for the mobo power, are there any UK based companies who I could ship the board to and have them create a 24pin to 16pin for said board and how much would I be expecting to pay for something like that? Seems like a rather easy job but I don't own a multimeter or anything like that and knowing my luck I'd probably **** it up so I'd rather just pay to have it done

 

[daveyb]

You could ask James @pexonpcs he does a lot of customer psu cables

I asked Pexon and they were unable to do it.

There are adapters often available for most boards on popular action sites, at minimum you can find the plastic connectors for almost any Mobo power plug (lenovo workstations and servers have custom 10 pin connectors for example). I had to get the chap in my local phone repair shop make me an adapter for an HP z worstation board - only cost me a tenner and I just had to find the Mobo manual and compare the connectors to an ATX 24 pin psu.

The guys on the servethehome forum have some great posts in their DIY section for most server/worstation boards too (wiring diagrams etc)

Unfortunately there seems to be little to no documentation for the board, seems it was designed to be a cluster based rack scenario. The few pictures of the internals are pointing to a few PSUs I can find to buy but they come with 24 pin cables as opposed to the 16 I need and tend to be lacklustre at 476w.

Any other ideas?

 

[daveyb]

SGI Rackable C1001-TY3, board seems to be a pull from a 1u server. The psu I've seen in most pics is the model number ECD13050001 but the few I've found for sale don't have the required connector.

If I had access to a multimeter how exactly would I read the voltages needed from the boards connector or is that kind of thing not possible without actual power running through it? I figure it'd be pretty easy to turn a cheap atx extender into the required connector but the voltages have me at a loss

 

[daveyb]

Just a fun side project I enjoy playing around with older hardware, boards about 40 quid, two decent Xeon chips about 40, server ram is cheap as chips etc just trying to power it is the problem.

 

[daveyb]

Honestly I haven't ordered any of it yet, was wanting to be as sure as possible I can make it work before ordering even if it'll be sub 100 for the board, a chip, stick of ram and a heatsink just to test. There's a few supermicro X8's up on the bay but they're either an odd form factor or just cost too much. Only reason I wanted to do something like this is atleast in my eyes LGA1366 has some of the best price to performance atleast on the used market, plus the board is fairly cheap.

here's a few flicks of the board from various google/auction listings

there is someone selling a psu of the same model number that looks to have the required connector but itll be somewhere in the region of 60 quid shipped from america

if anyone can make heads or tails of that then any advice is appreciated

 

[daveyb]

Had a look around at some other dual 1366 boards, thought I was onto something with an Intel S5520URT but it needs some odd Intel 280 pin adaptive riser to PCIE which costs more than the board itself, then a node form factor supermicro board that needs a sata backplane that again costs more than the board Currently looking at the X8DTU-6TF+; dual 1366, pcie and sata onboard and fairly cheap however it's a very odd proprietary form factor at 12.8" x 16.5"

Predicting a lot of chopping/hacking at a case presuming I can find something that'll accommodate 16.5 inches. That being said would be fairly easy to gut a 4u chassis or eatx case out removing the 5.25/3.5 bays to make it fit. Looking at a cheap 4u case that supports eatx/eeb, 19" width 15.74" deep.

Going to be an odd but fun build ahead

 

[daveyb]

brand wise im not really too fussed, i've seen the hp dl380s, dell poweredges etc all using proprietary connectors or just weird nuances like needing front panel outputs to boot plus even a barebones z800 no ram cpu gpu or hdds still runs you about 350 quid. space wise i plan on building (or ikea'ing) a new desk soon so space is no object, money wise i'd prefer to keep it on the cheaper side. all in all i'd like to get something similar to your second rig - dual x56xx's (probably the x5650s), something like 16gb or 32gb of ram, probably also a 970 although i'll grab that after christmas when people start offloading old cards (i think the X8DTU is full 16x). atm im planning on trying to grab a board, a cheap 1366 xeon/heatsink and 4gb ram for say 150ish which should easily be doable just to test it all out, dont really wanna sink money into both chips, ram etc just for it not to work.

i was thinking if i do go ahead on the supermicro board i could just knock up a case out of wood; with the supermicro board being 12.8x16.5 i was thinking a two tier sorta thing; a 14x18 inch sheet with m3 standoffs drilled into the first sheet of wood to mount the mobo, then underneath that level another sheet with the same dimensions, supports for the mobo above and then i can just have the psu, drives etc under there with some feet under that for stability. the odd form factor of the mobo would also allow for running a riser card to the gpu and mounting that flat in the spare space as opposed to having it floating. would be fairly cheaper than hacking a case and im not too bothered about aesthetics.

what sort of wood would be best for that? was thinking particle as its fairly easy to work with but i heard heat from components could potentially weaken the resins in the wood. normal standard ply maybe?

 

[daveyb]

Firstly I'm 99% sure you can but I'll ask anyway, I can run just the one chip with one 8 pin connected right? As I mentioned I'm going to buy the cheapest 1366 xeon possible at first (literally 2 quid) and power it with my old psu so I can test it works before I fork out on two chips and a psu with dual eps 12vs. I noted on the supermicro documentation it lists the board as supporting "Intel® Xeon® processor 5600/5500series" so I'm presuming I can run just the one E5530 to test the board.

On the subject of power, how much do you reckon your system pulls under full load? I'll probably end up with something like dual x5650s, 16 or 32gb ram and a 970. I've ran an oced x5650 with a 7950 previously on a 550w psu and that was fine so I'm thinking maybe 750w to play it safe?

what brand/type of ram are you running and what channel? Had a flick through supermicros documentation but there's a whole bunch of **** I need to get my head around (udimms, rdimms etc) before I make a decision. I'm presuming if I wanted to test it with 4gb I'd need 2x2gb with a stick in either set of channels?

I'm also curious as to what sort of usage scenario your xeon rig is for with that amount of ram, and also how it stacks up compared to your threadripper build. Being a student with a part time job funds are sparse so I won't be running any cutting edge hardware for the foreseeable future but I'm sure the dual xeon and 970 route will be more than adequate for my needs.

Lastly, what heatsinks/coolers are you running? I know the 1366 xeon boards bolt through to the backplate so I'm watching a few 1366 server coolers on eBay and read about some fella using hyper 212s simply by putting standoffs in the mounts to get the required heights.

If there's any other odd nuances related to the boards or issues you ran into id also be interested in hearing those, I'm not expecting it to be plug and play by any means but I figure I'll try and get as much info as possible. Any help advice or information is appreciated, cheers.

 

[daveyb]

first thanks for the very concise answers, a few things i'd like to address/extend upon

memory: i forgot about it being triple channel even though i've used x58 for years, the board does indeed have 18 total dimm slots. so say for 24gb in total its a case of doing 6 2gb dimms in either bank?

cooling: as for coolers, did they work out of the box? i couldve sworn the 1366 xeon boards had a weird metal backplate that heatsinks are designed to bolt into which basically stopped you using aftermarket heatsink brackets.

other: as we can tell i'm not really looking at the latest and greatest so to speak however are we looking at the same board? the first picture posted had a riser card in i think so heres a clearer one

however now i've sent my self down the rabbit hole as supermicros documentation states "7. Left Side 1 (x16) PCI-E 2.0 by riser card, Right Side 1 (x4) PCI-E 2.0 by riser card (in x16 slot)" yet theres two x16 slots and an x4 so it seems atleast one of the slots will be x16 2.0 - was planning on using the first x16 and risering the card (essentially planning on knocking up my own sort of test bench/case out of wood) below something like this rough sketchup design:

atleast it wont block the sata ports i run usb speakers/headset so i'm presuming i can get away with that.

i think the line of "If you are really into tinkering and building systems - there's a lot of fun to be had with these boxes" really sums it up - i'm not looking for cutting edge top performance out of this, just a fun little project thatll work as a daily driver. i most likely wont be doing any sort of hard hitting virtualization or to be honest any server grade stuff, most of what i do is usually just editing/rendering/encoding 1080p footage, photoshop work and the light bit of gaming ie csgo, gta, etc. maybe it's just me, but i like seeing the odd scrapyard esque builds, stuff like that is much more interesting than your standard run of the mill i7 1080 builds. performance/price wise yeah im aware it wont in any way hold up to to something newer, however even just a regular ryzen 1600 is £180 quid whereas with something like this i can easily get the board, chips, ram for under that amount (70 for the board, 40 for the chips, 40 for ram) then it's just a case of decent psu (say another 50/60), a card and it's off to the races. im also looking forward to trying to put together my own case/bench so all in all it should be a fairly fun project thatll work for my needs.

again, cheers for the response and any input and advice.