Zombie Mods - The I9 Steambox

[LukaP]

damn i feel like im learning so much just by reading this @AXLAndy i think you will become the 1366 expert when you are done with this haha

[ALXAndy]

What I need to do next is map out all of the ECC pins. I've already had a brief look and it seems that the Xeon has all of the memory IOs that the 980x does as well as the ECC ones. Well really I'd like ECC disabled too just to rule that out so I will map them out probably tomorrow now.

[alpenwasser]

The upshot? well if I were to start covering pins they would ALL come from the bottom. So the difference between the 980x and the Xeon are simply that the Xeon uses the pins from the bottom of the socket.

That is very much congruent with what I know about the Xeons, i7s and the SR-2.

The dark green QPI link would be the one pointing to the second CPU, while the

bright green one (which the 980X does not have) is the one pointing to the 5520

chipset. Hence why a regular i7 won't work.

[ALXAndy]

That is very much congruent with what I know about the Xeons, i7s and the SR-2.

The dark green QPI link would be the one pointing to the second CPU, while the

bright green one (which the 980X does not have) is the one pointing to the 5520

chipset. Hence why a regular i7 won't work.

 

Is it that they just don't work at all, or is it that they do work but won't work in twos+

[ALXAndy]

BTW an update (I almost forgot !).

 

So there's no point in mapping out the ECC pins. Basically my board is manufactured by MSI and is similar (very similar) to their own X58m. The serial number on the X58m and Alienware board are literally a few digits out.

 

Now MSI list the X58m as supporting a Westmere CPU.

 

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2320315

 

In fact, there you can actually see one being benched. The *ONLY* difference between the W xeon and the E xeon is the QPI. And I mean, only difference. I spent the later part of yesterday evening comparing the 980x to the Xeon in memory structure and it seems the Xeon does have non ECC memory architecture. So I can pretty much rule that out as the culprit.

 

The only thing really left to answer now is this. If I block the second QPI does that mean I end up with a W Xeon? or does it need to be completely disabled?

 

And the answer to that is not easy, as I no longer have a test power supply. 

[alpenwasser]

Is it that they just don't work at all, or is it that they do work but won't work in twos+

They don't work at all, even if you just put in one. No matter which socket you

put it in, the one QPI link the i7 does have will always be pointing to the other

CPU socket instead of the M/B chipset, so an i7 can't communicate with the board

(you might go really hardcore and try to make an adapter).

The only thing that will work are dual-QPI link Xeons, even if you use the board

in single-socket CPU mode.

[ALXAndy]

OK well for the past couple of days I have been quietly considering my options. I have a couple.

 

1. Buy a Haswell Pentium and a micro ATX board. Finish the build and forever feel a bit gutted.

 

2. Dell make two Precision workstations with a single socket that support my CPU. The T3500 and the T5500. The idea here would be to scrap the MATX project and change it to the Dell chassis (heavily modified of course). There is a company on Ebay selling T5500 barebones, sadly it's out of my price range.

 

So those are what I consider to be my only options right now. Which is very sad, because it's money keeping me from doing either really.

 

TBH I wish I could find a sponsor for this, but my type of modding isn't really bothered over any more as it seems to be all about money and ridiculously expensive equipment.

 

Either way this is all causing me considerable stress.

[Karumu]

OK well for the past couple of days I have been quietly considering my options. I have a couple.

 

1. Buy a Haswell Pentium and a micro ATX board. Finish the build and forever feel a bit gutted.

 

2. Dell make two Precision workstations with a single socket that support my CPU. The T3500 and the T5500. The idea here would be to scrap the MATX project and change it to the Dell chassis (heavily modified of course). There is a company on Ebay selling T5500 barebones, sadly it's out of my price range.

 

So those are what I consider to be my only options right now. Which is very sad, because it's money keeping me from doing either really.

 

TBH I wish I could find a sponsor for this, but my type of modding isn't really bothered over any more as it seems to be all about money and ridiculously expensive equipment.

 

Either way this is all causing me considerable stress.

we have a spare dell server here, not sure if we're gonna use it as a backup though, not sure of the model but it's a dell chassis.

 

if i find out what we're using it for and if there is a possibility to sell it, (since we're a charity it will go in our pc builds fund) i'll let you know

[ALXAndy]

we have a spare dell server here, not sure if we're gonna use it as a backup though, not sure of the model but it's a dell chassis.

 

if i find out what we're using it for and if there is a possibility to sell it, (since we're a charity it will go in our pc builds fund) i'll let you know

 

That's very kind of you. Sadly I think a server would not have any PCIE lanes and wouldn't be suitable.

 

It really needs to be a workstation. I have my eye on one as we speak but I am £100 short of the price they are asking

[Karumu]

That's very kind of you. Sadly I think a server would not have any PCIE lanes and wouldn't be suitable.

 

It really needs to be a workstation. I have my eye on one as we speak but I am £100 short of the price they are asking

i thought you were looking for just a chassis ^^ hope you find what you are looking for at an appropriate price! it would be a real shame to see this project dead!!

[ALXAndy]

i thought you were looking for just a chassis ^^ hope you find what you are looking for at an appropriate price! it would be a real shame to see this project dead!!

 

No I'm looking at a chassis and board complete with a 875w power supply. It's £180, I have £80.

 

It is a workstation though, so basically I can drop in all of my parts (cooler, hard drives, Lightning and so on). At which point I would then modify the chassis around the hardware, if that makes sense.

 

I just phoned the company selling it and they said the best they could do was £170. Sadly I'm £90 short and it would take over a month to save the rest

[Karumu]

No I'm looking at a chassis and board complete with a 875w power supply. It's £180, I have £80.

 

It is a workstation though, so basically I can drop in all of my parts (cooler, hard drives, Lightning and so on). At which point I would then modify the chassis around the hardware, if that makes sense.

 

I just phoned the company selling it and they said the best they could do was £170. Sadly I'm £90 short and it would take over a month to save the rest

i'm tempted to donate that help a brotha out i can safely donate £45 if you would like ^^

[ALXAndy]

i'm tempted to donate that help a brotha out i can safely donate £45 if you would like ^^

 

TBH man I would accept that. I hate to, but *I* don't want to see this project die either. I've put in so many hours of work.

 

If you want to help then fire me a PM man

[ALXAndy]

OK, so I've had some time to sit down and think about this.

 

Right now I think it's probably for the best that I call it a day. This makes me really sad, but the last thing I want to do is come across as a charity case. It's bad enough that I am getting all stressed over this but the last thing I want to do is make myself look like an idiot.

 

I've put a lot of work into this project but all the way through it I will admit that THE most important thing was posting for you guys. I couldn't wait to get the memory card out of the camera at the end of the day and show you guys what I had been up to and share my ideas with you.

 

As such at first I felt OK about taking donations but now I just feel wrong. The fact is in order for this project to continue it would need a fair injection of cash. Cash I don't have, and won't have for the foreseeable future. As I mentioned before I took some huge gambles and sadly they did not pay off. As such, instead of being compulsive I think it's better that I just leave things be for the moment before they make me ill.

 

I suffer from mental illness so the last thing I should allow myself to do is become stressed as it acts as a trigger for my depression and my mania. If I'm not careful I will end up being very sick which is the last thing I need or want.

 

Building computers and then working on them is what I use to keep me sane. Sadly though this project is starting to have the opposite effect on me as I am sitting here looking at ways to fix or continue it but don't have the cash to do so so all it serves to do is pile on stress..

 

I'm going to take a step back for a while. If you need or want anything please feel free to pm me !

 

Andrew.

[Karumu]

good to be rational about things, take whatever time you need, if it's endangering your health you should definitely take a step back, you should go take a walk in the sunshine, while it lasts here in the great britain

[Chris is awesome]

Sad to see this go, but as you said you should put your health before anything. +1 for having the guts to stop when it was needed, I probably wouldn't have.

[brownninja97]

Its all cool man, you are amazing at what you do but health comes first, we might be friends or so across the internet but we dont see anything behind the curtains. At any rate you just stay awesome, ive gone through mental issues before and i can understand the hell it can raise. one step at a time, whether you finish this or not, it is one of the best works of art ive ever seen, in a perfect world you would be making millions. gg

[EpicGeekonFire]

A Prototype CHIP FROM INTEL OMFG

[ALXAndy]

Its all cool man, you are amazing at what you do but health comes first, we might be friends or so across the internet but we dont see anything behind the curtains. At any rate you just stay awesome, ive gone through mental issues before and i can understand the hell it can raise. one step at a time, whether you finish this or not, it is one of the best works of art ive ever seen, in a perfect world you would be making millions. gg

 

My brother used to say that to me. That I had that spark of creativity that could have made me a millionaire. Sadly I usually get sick and fall on my face. But hey, life is all about dusting yourself down and getting on with it

 

So after a lot of soul searching I have decided to most probably start a new project. Sadly there's no way I can mangle it into this one.

 

So, there are two options here.

 

1. If any one wants to buy the case as it stands (tbh the case is actually finished it was what was going in there that wasn't) then I do not want anything more than what I have spent to the penny on parts and the case itself.

 

2. Strip out the case of the buttons and so on and carry them into the next project.

 

Any interest? please PM me. I can only ship to the UK though unless you want to pay the monstrous shipping fees. I will even sign it for you haha.

[paulsterio]

@ALXAndy

 

Hey buddy, 

 

So sad to see this project go to waste. I have an idea that hopefully can work. 

 

I have a friend who has an i7 950, which should work in the motherboard you have. His motherboard supports the Westmere chip that you have, would you be interested in doing a swap or something?

 

Maybe with the right CPU and motherboard combo, your project will be back on track. 

[ALXAndy]

@ALXAndy

 

Hey buddy, 

 

So sad to see this project go to waste. I have an idea that hopefully can work. 

 

I have a friend who has an i7 950, which should work in the motherboard you have. His motherboard supports the Westmere chip that you have, would you be interested in doing a swap or something?

 

Maybe with the right CPU and motherboard combo, your project will be back on track. 

 

Sadly the motherboard I have is damaged mate. There are two suspect pins. One points to VDDC (voltage) in the schematics, the other points to DDR01. 

 

So I don't even know if the board is incompatible or it's just screwed. It happened when I was removing it. I tucked the 8 pin EPS away from the board but just as I was removing the last screw it dislodged and swung down.

 

As such this case is useless, even more so because of what I ordered this morning. Keep an eye on the forum today mate. I had a very odd knock at the door this morning that turned out to be a complete revelation.....

[ALXAndy]

OK so a final post in this thread..

 

I guess it's just for closure really..

 

Right. So basically I had an inkling that the board was the problem. Not as in the way that it doesn't support the CPU but more in the way that it was broken. Basically it would post after a long delay but only from a CMOS reset. As soon as I saved any settings and rebooted that was it, nothing but a black screen.

 

Now basically there were two suspect pins in the socket. I spent hours studying socket 1366 and the answer seemed to lie in the schematics for the I7 980x. Basically the two damaged pins reported back as VDDC (snapped) and DIMM1 (bent but making it home I feel).

 

VDDC is obviously some sort of voltage supply.. I had no issues with memory. Basically a very very common occurrence with Intel sockets with bent pins are memory problems. Either one of the memory slots doesn't work or you end up with the wrong amount of ram being reported in CMOS and Windows. That wasn't the case here at all though as any memory I put in was being detected as normal in bios, so I think we can write off that pin as working and making it home properly.

 

The VDDC though? well it's only one pin, but it seems it was critical.

 

In the end, to stop me obsessing over it to the point I blew up the CPU I ended up giving the board away. I sent it off packed well and when it got to the other end it was tested with a I7 920. And what would you know? it exhibited exactly the same symptoms as it did with me.

 

So, basically the culprit was one single damaged pin out of 1366. Hence the name, 1366.

 

I would imagine that with the correct equipment the board can be repaired, but thankfully it's now out of my hands.

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be that.

 

You can now follow this onto the second part which is entitled "The Bit Tech beast".