Water cooled BigBlack LianLi SSD Powered Workstation ;)

Hi,

so i get asked for in a other thread/pm to post a build log of my workstation,

well, ok I do ;)

lets go:



(please over-read my english language :rofl:)







Thats my workstation (just named BigBlack ;D) for a few months:


"old" Workstation with still actual Tripple Setup...
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_172.jpg


CHAOS :D may 2008 ;) ...Q6700 was incomming....
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_219.jpg





biggest changes are now...



Fight agains the sun (lol) a very special "Windows-Mod" :D :D

Bad Sun... If outside reaches 25 Grad Celsius,
I have inside 30... and if outside is 30 than inside 35... and now... ;)

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_229.jpg



Styropor is my Frend ;) but anyway the room is full of light if the sun is shining,

positiv: now i never need an sunglas to look on my screens again in summertime ;)

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_230.jpg


http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_231.jpg


========

the HDDs...




2x500Gig are de-installed... 4x1TB comming home hehe...

(First time I buyed Samsung F1 1TB HDDs... they are DIED all together in one day!
much work and time loosed! So I send them back and buyes Seagate ES.2 that drives are fine)

German Thread about the Spinpoints
-Samsung Spinpoint F1: 6 Stück gekauft. Nach 2h: 1 Defekt, 3 Smart-Fehler = nie wieder
-http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=420714


Installing Seagate HDD RAID5
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_220.jpg



============


The SDDs....



I had to store the Drives anywhere...so...I choosed this storage devices
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_243.jpg


http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_244.jpg

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_245.jpg

Size comparing... and who need gold and silver :D
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_251.jpg


http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_252.jpg




=====


Look inside
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_254.jpg


HDD Raid and first look where to place the ssd storage


http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_255.jpg


So..then... what controller should I use...


German Thread
- Welchen Raid-5 Controller für 8 SSDs. Areca ARC-1231ML oder Adaptec RAID 5805 / 51245
- http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showthread.php?t=501358



I had tested three :

Adaptec Series 5 for 16 Drives, 1200 MHZ Dualcore CPU
Areca 1680ix-12 for 12 Drives, 1200 MHZ Dualcore CPU
Areca 1231ML for 12 Drives, 800 MHZ Dualcore CPU




=====

Controller Contest...




Hot... yes..mega HOT ;) lol

Adaptec Series 5 Controller...

but... :(

a) only passive cooled. Had 107grad C in IDLE(!!) HOTTT like helll
the specs told maximum is 45... and with the LiIo Battery still lower
In my eyes this is a BOMB and i dont understand why adaptec sell this controller
with only passive cooler! Ever see a laptop explode? Yea... Imagine now
my Workstation lol... ;) nono

b) the Adaptec performed very bad with SSDs. with Raid 0 and 8 SSDs only 400-450MB/S. Expected 960 ...

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_256.jpg



====



Areca 1680ix-12
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_121.jpg

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_122.jpg

German Thread, warning about the poor SSD Performance with the nextGen Controllers
-> http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showthread.php?t=503891
-> Warnung: SSDs "Low" Speed mit Adaptec Series 5 und den neuen Areca 1680-X Controllern


Ther 1680 performed poor too, so...bye bye and hello to 1231 ML ;)



====

Now... Things are changing...


Meanwhile I saw...there is something wrong...

8 x MTron Pro 7000 Raid: only 500MB/S with Areca 1680ix and Areca 1231ML? + BIG Bench
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=193619

Ob Boy. My old Gigabyte board had 2x PCIe16 but the second one was only 4xelectrical...

and due I want still run my 3 monitors AND use an 8x controller, I needet an board with 3x16...



Gigabyte Board replaced to the Asus Board.

Q6700 replaced to QX9650 (due with the new Truecrypt 6.0 which scaled like HELL with more MHZ and cores...
I dont wanted that my cpu is the bottleneck now... ;))

So I also replaced my 8800 and 8600 again two GTX280

And my XFi Soundcard....to an Xfi Soundcard... ;) PCI out, PCIe Version IN










Areca 1231ML

(Funny Thing...replacing the 256MB Cache Modul to an 1GB or 2GB one pushed the Accesstime 10-40 times higher!)


8 x SSD im Raid 0 Controller with 2GB Cache instead 256MB 10 times higher Accestime??

http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showthread.php?t=507705
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=194045

so...back to the original 256mb modul...


Now the controller get H2O ready :D


Areca 1231ML...low space.....
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_138.jpg



=====


Things comes to an End...




Asus Striker II Extreme Mainboard. Areca 1231ML space test
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_146.jpg




http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/controller04196.jpg

http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/controller03645.jpg

http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/controller02208.jpg

http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/controller01584.jpg

http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/controller02208.jpg




Asus Board with Northbridge



Asus Northbridge
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_137.jpg



Thinking about the water lines...
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_161.jpg



One of the four OCZ DDR3 ones
http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_148.jpg



========

GFX-Cards...

GTX280 comparing... small, cool, nice again big black Monster ;)

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_149.jpg




http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_150.jpg





http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_159.jpg






=========




Final Impressions




http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08280/bigblack_01351.jpg



http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08280/bigblack_05370.jpg



http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08280/bigblack_06155.jpg




http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08280/bigblack_03293.jpg




http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08280/bigblack_04380.jpg




The End.

ok...maybe till Nehalem :D ;)



and...

=========


Size dont matter? ;D




I think I have now here the biggest "Case Fan"? ;D hihi

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_225.jpg


http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_226.jpg


PS

You can see here a little low quality (sorry about my mobile-cam :))
video from me, SSD Desktop Speed Test...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZwvtQEMIvE


PPS: the WHOLE building of my workstation can be found here
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showthread.php?t=294845




.

i can tell this will be an awesome build. :up:
however you posted it in the wrong subsection.
We have a section called work logs. :P

If it magically disappears, its cuz it was moved in the worklog.

Anyhow very nice build!


BTW, i had that IO card. :[ ARC-1680ix 12 port. According to a lot of people. thats the BEST Controller card. :shrug:
But i returned it. It is definitely a Uber Sexy Controller Card. How many gigs did you have on it? 4? ahhh wait, that looks like the spacer, or a 1gb.

Also seriously sexy IO sector, are you in the music or video editting business?

gigs? If you mean Drives: 8 SSDs and 4 HDDs, if you mean Gigabytes : Brutto 4TB HDD and 128GB SSD. :)

Ok, sorry about the wrong sections, I mad an decission between water cooled and case forum...lol...and now I think both are wrong hehe.

Looks great. Love the block on your controller card, now that's extreme.

I'll move this to the worklog section and I have one comment, OK, two comments:
1) You have too much money
2) Interested in adopting a 56 year old guy? Medium milage, low overhead.:p:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drmaniac

gigs? If you mean Drives: 8 SSDs and 4 HDDs, if you mean Gigabytes : Brutto 4TB HDD and 128GB SSD. :)

Ok, sorry about the wrong sections, I mad an decission between water cooled and case forum...lol...and now I think both are wrong hehe.

---

nono i ment what ram is that in your controller.

:P isnt the 4gb ECC module double sided?

wow OMFG!!! I dont even wanna know the price tag on that sucker!

Neat system! I love how you managed to watercool your Areca. Of course, your SSD raidset, although I'm swinging between SAS and SSD at the moment. :up:

its now the original 256MB single side ECC memory module.

Due the 2GB ECC Module and as backup check an 1GB none ECC Module have pushed the latency/accestime from 0.1/0.2 to 2.0/3.8 ms. which was not ok for me...

WOW!

I am guessing you're into this build about $5000 or so?

Super Sweet, Nice Job. I am taking notes on future upgrades :)

Thanks !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drmaniac

its now the original 256MB single side ECC memory module.

Due the 2GB ECC Module and as backup check an 1GB none ECC Module have pushed the latency/accestime from 0.1/0.2 to 2.0/3.8 ms. which was not ok for me...

---

wow...

i never knew that.

Dayam, if i do get that controller again, which i might, i'll take this into consideration.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HaCKs

WOW!

I am guessing you're into this build about $5000 or so?

---

His IO cluster alone kills that. cou*800-1g dollar controller*gh.

cpu: depending how where he bought it $700?
mobo? $250?
RAM: 300?
GPU: at least 500 each
case: isnt it worth like $500 as well?
..

Nah the Q6700 is cheap now.

Let's see, my favourite case. Yay. Watercooling. Yay. 2 9800GTXs. Woot. Striker II Extreme. Nice. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD 8 SSDs. -faints-

I soooooo don't want to know how much this rig is worth. You should consider insuring it for the full amount you know. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MomijiTMO

Nah the Q6700 is cheap now.

Let's see, my favourite case. Yay. Watercooling. Yay. 2 9800GTXs. Woot. Striker II Extreme. Nice. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD 8 SSDs. -faints-

I soooooo don't want to know how much this rig is worth. You should consider insuring it for the full amount you know. :)

---

:rofl:

maybe i should of coughed that part out instead huh? :rofl:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MomijiTMO

Nah the Q6700 is cheap now.

Let's see, my favourite case. Yay. Watercooling. Yay. 2 9800GTXs. Woot. Striker II Extreme. Nice. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD 8 SSDs. -faints-

I soooooo don't want to know how much this rig is worth. You should consider insuring it for the full amount you know. :)

---

Correction, two gtx 280's!!!!!!!

Thanks Hacks. I'll assume he's an early adopter for the pricing.

Even though they are only 16Gb each, they look like the Enterprise versions of Mtron's SSD which makes them worth as much as a 32Gb normal SSD. So let's say 350 x 8 = 2800 + 800 controller = 3600 + 500 (SIIE) = 4100 + 2 x 650 (2 GTX280s) = 5400 + 300 (case) = 5700 + 400 (4 Gb DDR3) = 6100 + 600 (wc gear) = 6700 + 200 (SSD array hot swap) = 6900 + 300 (Q6700) = 7200 + 300 (1000W psu I presume) = 7500.

Should I factor in the 30" and the two 22"?

EDIT:
Craptastic, QX9650 and 4 lots of 2Gb DDR3 sticks soo (500 + 400) = 900 + 7500 = 8400. . . .


To save my brain, a bee came to me and told me that this rig can only be valuated in magic rupees and mushrooms stalks. Ok I'm going mental.

Pwar!!:eek: There's some serious mulah going into this rig! I did a double-take when i saw all those SSDs:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MomijiTMO

Nah the Q6700 is cheap now.

Let's see, my favourite case. Yay. Watercooling. Yay. 2 9800GTXs. Woot. Striker II Extreme. Nice. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD 8 SSDs. -faints-

I soooooo don't want to know how much this rig is worth. You should consider insuring it for the full amount you know. :)

---

Hi,

its the QX9650 inside ;) no more the Q6700, they lived only from may till the last weekend ;)


The pricing is fast perfekt ;) but only two correctios: Iam not a early adopter of the GTX, so i pay only 560 each, the controller incl. LiIo Batterie and LCD Controller is ~ 970,-- and yep, watercooling had approx. eated maybe 2000,- in last years.

But, hey, this is the xTreme Forum, isn it ;D :)

.
.

:shocked:

Holy crap, man. Damn, that's a hella expensive machine. Your work must seriously require some horsepower, and pay well.

No need to explain your actions drmaniac. Crazy build there. :up:

falling in line for adoption...

1. movieman
2. septim
3.
4.
5.

very nice budget... nice build. post some temps of bigblack?

what you mean with temps?



Small update,

due heat problems with the HDDs, I installed them in an air flowed LianLi Block,
before I got ~50Grad Celsius, now cool 35 on the four drives...



http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_299.jpg

http://www.synthetical.de/pc/2008/IMAGE_300.jpg


And also a little reorg of the SATA Cables... but hey,
try to install the cables for 13 drives better :D


additionaly here are a few High Res Pics, taken with an real digicam ;)


PIC
PIC
PIC
PIC
PIC
PIC
PIC
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PIC



cu :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by septim

falling in line for adoption...

1. movieman
2. septim
3.
4.
5.

very nice budget... nice build. post some temps of bigblack?

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3.disruptfam