Building an Affordable "Skulltrail" System

[Rob Williams]

Yup. That's the most obvious drawback to that particular board for sure. I wish there were more choices from other vendors, or newer boards (based on the same platform) from Intel that addressed some of the common complaints about the D5400XS (such as max memory limit).

SLI is a fantastic addition, I admit. You just want to have sufficient cooling for any dual-GPU solution on this board though. I am running dual 8800GTS 512s in SLI, and man do they get hot. I am really thinking about hooking the entire machine up to water cooling... it might make some sense. It's kind of upsetting when the entire room heats up moments after turning the machine on.

The memory is another thing that is beginning to bother me quite a bit. Not the speed, but the fact that the modules themselves heat up so much. During normal use, the center chip on the FB-DIMMs hit around 70C (I tested this with a reliable temperature diode)... which is clearly asinine. It might run stable, but it sure does a great job of adding heat to an already hot machine.

 

[TGG Productions]

Getting the Procs to run the same way

Rob what steps did you have to take exactly in the BIOS to get the chips running stable at 2.8ghz?

I am assembling my system tommorow and will need some insight on this to get it specced the same way you had gotten it.

Thanks in advance,
Tim

 

[Rob Williams]

I really can't add to what's already been said in the article:

"In top of that, it was done with stock CPU voltages and ever-so-slightly raised secondary voltages (1.30v CPU, 1.3v FSB, 1.350v MCH)."

That's as complicated as it gets. Bump the FSB to 400MHz and make sure the multiplier is at 7 and you should be good to roll.

 

[TGG Productions]

Cool I will test it all out and let you know how it goes.

Also will take a few pics

Thanks Rob. Great article very helpful.

 

[Rob Williams]

Yeah definitely... I'd love to know how you make out. I know of someone else with these same CPUs who overclocked to the same speeds I did with their ASUS board, so hopefully you'll have good results also.

 

[TGG Productions]

Well thanks for all your help Rob.

OC'd no problems, and to add to it, this computer isn't even that loud!!

Got it running 2.8 stable no problems whatsoever and cpumark score of 8400+. Will post a pic as soon as I can.
Thanks!!!

Tim

 

[uncle-buck]

I'm interested in building a workstation for video editing and saw your article on the Skulltrail platform. Was thinking about building one with the DS5400XS board and two E5420 processors. However, I checked Intel's website http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=d5400xs and it indicates that the E5420 isn't compatible with that particular board.

Is that correct, or is Intel just trying to promote their high end processors?

 

[TGG Productions]

Sorry double posted

 

[TGG Productions]

Well,

Everything was a success, overclocked to 2.8ghz, everything is quite quiet, running smoothe, and not very hot at all. Set up was a breeze and computer had no problems posting.

I actually used a 1000watt power supply with an adaptor for the second cpu input no problems whatsoever. Running SLI if gaming and dualview if working.

This is definately a system some people should look at if they need something powerful.

Scored ~8800-8850 on Performance Test 6.1
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Thanks to Rob for the article, and I will take some pics once I find my camera.

Setup as is follows though:

2x Intel Xeon 5410 @ 2.8ghz
Intel D5400XS Extreme Motherboard
8GB Crucial DDR2 FBDIMM 667mhz (2x4gb)
2x 8800GTS Video Cards
2x Western Digital Raptor 75gb RAID-1
2x Seagate Barracuda 500GB Raid-1 (32mb Cache)
2x Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Northbridge Fan
Ultra M998 Case
Ultra X3 1000W Power Supply (with Extra CPU Adaptor)
Lightscribe DVD
Audio: RME Fireface 800

One other thing, I think since release they have changed the boards version, as the southbridge fan is not loud at all. The video cards are definately louder then it. It has the skulltrail logo on the southbridge heatsink fixture!

I have never used a system this stable and quick before, especially if you are into video or audio production.

Thanks again!

Tim

 

[Rob Williams]

I'm interested in building a workstation for video editing and saw your article on the Skulltrail platform. Was thinking about building one with the DS5400XS board and two E5420 processors. However, I checked Intel's website http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=d5400xs and it indicates that the E5420 isn't compatible with that particular board.

Is that correct, or is Intel just trying to promote their high end processors?

You got it... they want to sell more higher-end processors. Anything from their 5xxx line-up will work fine. Just make sure it's LGA771 and DP (Dual-Processor). The E5420 is one of those.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/xeon5000/specifications.htm?iid=products_xeon5000+tab_specs

 

[Rob Williams]

Tim, sorry for making you double-post... I changed some permissions on the forums recently, not knowing they'd add regular posts to the moderation queue. It's fixed until I can figure out a better solution :-/

Glad to hear the rig is working so well though! I'd love to see pictures. Nice to hear yours is quiet... mines the opposite and loud. I had to haul out one 8800 GTS 512 card because they were overheating. Not a good setup, hehe. Need to figure out a better cooling solution.

 

[Oz]

Everything in

Well, I have got almost all the needed hardware and will start soon building.

The system will be:
- Intel D5400SX mainboard.
- 2 x Xeon 5420 with SIG coolers (http://www.sig-cooling.com/SX7754E.html)
- 2 x ASUS 8800GT 512MB graphics (in SLI). Unfortunately no money left for 2 9800GX2's (will be first upgrade)
- 8GB FB dimm (4 x 2GB).
- 4 x Samsung 750GB 7200rpm 32MB SATA disks. Maybe in the future I will add some SAS drives (with SAS RAID-controller) or two WD Raptors.
- SATA DVD drive.
- SATA DVD+/-RW drive.
- Coolermast Cosmos S with M1000 powersupply.

Does anybody have experience with an quiet memory cooler that fits on the board?

Why not ASUS Z7S:
I did not choose the ASUS Z7S. Yes it is cheaper. No,it does not offer the same possibilities and for sure not the same level and quality of warranty! I think the price-difference will be about € 80-, tot € 100,- but all the additional options and the better warranty made the decision easy. Tyan makes some nice boards too but again not as loaded with options as the Intel is.

Rob, if you want some pictures when the system has finished let me known

 

[TGG Productions]

Pics of the System

Here are some pics for viewing:

 

[TGG Productions]

by the way:

If you are doing multimedia production of ANY TYPE, there is nothing on the market better then this machine. I am using a full digital system for audio production and I am having no cracking or popping while using over a hundred rendering plugins in real time.

 

[Rob Williams]

Nice setup man! Love the LEDs on the coolers... lot more interesting than the rig here. Out of curiosity, do you find the RAM gets -real hot- after a while? Using a thermo diode, I measured the center of the modules here at around 70C. Ridiculous, and one reason I need to hurry up and get a RAM fan...

 

[TGG Productions]

Surprisingly, I can touch the ram myself after running the computer for hours. The whole case is very quiet, and does not get hot whatsoever. I definately think they revised the boards design before sending this out, as its a bit different from the one pictured in the review.

I have my fans on 1/2 capacity even at peak with no heating or slowdown problems.

Definately an amazing rig and would recommend to anyone.

I mounted a RAM fan on my case somehow (luck) and I don't even need it.

.

 

[Chaddix]

My New Skulltrail System

Hey whats up everyone, 2 things...i just ordered a skulltrail and i got the intel xeon quadcore 5400 series, and i havent recived my new case yet and was wondering if the processor was compatable with the board, im pretty sure it is, but i wanna double check, and 2, the heatsink that came with doesnt match the board so if i get those zalmons would those do the trick, or would i need different ones??
thanks for the help
-chaddix

 

[Rob Williams]

If you picked up the same processors I mentioned in the article, then they will definitely work no problem at all. Grats on the purchase, and enjoy!

TGG Productions: Sorry I missed your post here. Good to hear about the RAM... I wish mine was more like that. I have some pre-production stuff, and I'm assuming that's the reason it's less-than-stellar.

 

[Hawke]

Overclocking with one 8-Pin +12V connector?

About overclocking, my PSU only has one 8-Pin +12V connector, and I am using a Xeon E5430, now unlike the C2E QX9775 CPUs, the Xeon E5430 uses a lot less power.

As far as I understand, for overclocking, I would need to have a PSU with dual 8-Pin +12V connectors, but since the Xeon E5430 uses less power than the C2E QX9775, would it be safe for me to overclock the Xeon E5430 to somewhere around the 2.80-3.2GHz mark?

 

[Rob Williams]

You won't know unless you try. If you have a beefy PSU, it might be just fine. Just be sure to perform a lot of stability testing to assure that the overclock is good to keep.

Those CPUs wouldn't use THAT much less power then the QX9775, but again, it probably won't matter. Give it a go.. it sure can't hurt. If it's unstable, the computer will probably let you know fast enough.