Spotopolis

New build based around the EPYC 64 core CPU(s) and unRAID OS. Being how no one person in their right mind would do something like this (aside from LMG for our viewing pleasure) I figured I would "theory craft" an updated 7 Gamers 1 CPU system. I understand how completely ridiculous this is. Just building the 10 systems separately would be more sane, but with the new R&D room they have, I would love to see an in-house case designed to fit this monstrosity or something like it. PCPartPicker List Link CPU(s) 2x AMD EPYC 7742 64 core CPU CPU Cooler(s) 2x Dynatron A35 (placeholder) Motherboard Supermicro Motherboard MBD-H11DSI-NT-B Memory 4x NEMIX 512GB (4x128GB) DDR4-2666 LRDIMM 8Rx4 Memory Storage unRAID Cache Drive - 1x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive unRAID Unassigned Drive - 10x Samsung 860 Pro 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive Video Card(s) Passthrough - 10x EVGA RTX 2080 Ti Power Supplies 3x EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 (1 for motherboard, 2 for each expansion backplane) Expansion 2x OSS PCIe x16 Gen 3 Host to Target Kit 2x OSS Expansion Backplane (5 PCIe x16 slots) Operating System unRAID Pro

I have everything I need to get this done and sitting here with my laptop open and ready to go, but after removing the heatsink, it's mostly all copper, but the plate above the GPU is silver and not copper like the rest. Is it possible it's just copper with a coating on it? Maybe I could sand it down to get to the copper? I don't want to put the metal on the GPU side if it's aluminum. I've attached a photo. What do you think?

I enjoyed the ridiculousness of the concrete video. I did, however, think up a what-if scenario from it. In regards to the custom loops such as the 10GbE switch cooling, would it be at all possible, to fill a custom loop with liquid metal, and test its results vs pure water and water cooling solution? I understand that LM comes in such a small quantity, but I am curious how well the liquid metal would work, if at all to cool a system on a loop. Would the constant flow of the LM also keep it from "aging and drying up"? Just a fun thought. Would love to see a video where a store bought loop was filled with it or even LMG created a custom loop of their own for this case.

I just figured I would share my recent score and how cheaply I have been able to upgrade it. I am currently running my unRAID server out of a HPz400 with a Xeon w3520 and 6x1GB DDR3 memory sticks. I mainly use this for my Plex Media Server but I also use it for Transmission and a single Win7 VM. I am running out of space in the small HP case for drives and I would like more memory for running more VMs. I got lucky and managed to get an IBM x3650 M2 for free. It only had a single heatsink, single CPU (Xeon E5530), and 2x2GB DDR3 ECC modules (out of 16 DIMMS). It has 4 PCIE 8x slots available and can have 8x 2.5in SAS/SATA drives. I managed to buy 2x Xeon X5570's for $19 each and 16x4GB DDR3 ECC HP branded and heat-shielded sticks for $108. I then had to buy new 95w heatsinks that had 2 copper heat pipes for the higher end CPUs. I managed to get 2x of them for just under $23. So far I have only spent $169 and I have a 64GB DDR3 ECC 16 core system. It looks like I may have to get a few 4 port SATA controllers as the IBM SAS controller and hotswap backplane may limit my drive capacity to 600GB drives. I managed to get a 4-port PCIe controller from the e-waste bin at work. Not sure if it will be any better than the IBM one that came with the system. I am still waiting on the heatsinks to show up at my door so I can power this thing on. I will probably need to buy a few 4-port controllers so I can support 2TB drives. My current HPz400 has 9TB of storage, so at the minimum I would like to have 4x2TB 2.5in drives in this server. Im pretty happy with what I have been able to find so far for so little. Once I have everything, this will be a great upgrade and I will be able to run quite a few more VMs, not to mention setup LACP between my switch and unRAID server finally. Any recommendations on what way to go for controller cards and what would be the best one to go for would be much appreciated.

I would love to run one to replace my socket 775 media center. Im currently running a q9550 with 6gb ddr2 (mixed ram), a EVGA GTX460, a 500GB WD blue (OS), and 2x 500GB WD (software RAID 0) for games. I use this system mostly for Plex Home Theater and Netflix, but occasionally use it for nVidia's Game Stream from my main PC. This smaller, higher end tech would be a much appreciated upgrade! I did some research on the specs vs what I have in my current mid tower. the i5 will use roughly 12W of power where the q9550 will use 77W. Thats a fair ammout of power savings on the CPU alone over the course of a year. The i5 is also a 14nm chip whereas the q9550 is a 45nm chip. So heat output should be less of an issue. The i5 is also obviously built on newer tech and is 30% faster in clock speed. The GTX 960 also uses 30% less power than the GTX 460 while providing roughly a 123% increase in pixel fill rate. This is great for higher resolutions and will help noticeably on the projector I have the media center running on. The 2.07" x 7.99" size of the ZBox is a huge space saver compared to the Corsair Spec 01 case currently housing my media center. That will free up room on the floor and the ZBox could be set on the entertainment center away from the cat hair on the floor. Overall I think the ZBox would be a welcome change and upgrade in my household and would get daily use. Thank you for doing the giveaway Zotac and LinusTechTips!