Building an Affordable "Skulltrail" System

[Hawke]

My PSU can draw up to 1Kw

Thanks for your rapid reply, I'll try to post pics of my new hardware and my DIY E-ATX MIDI tower (Basically an old generic ATX tower that use to contain my old Athlon XP2200, extended to accept E-ATX - better than dumping it and letting it rust, and £60 cheaper) once it is up and running (hopefully tommorow when I install Windows XP), at the moment I am installing a heatsink (which is proving problematic because some of these pushpins pop back out (hate the design of LGA-775 heatsink attachments), I am not too keen on applying much pressure on it in fear of damaging the CPU and motherboard

 

[Rob Williams]

Well, the overall wattage doesn't matter as much as the volts the rail can handle. Still, it doesn't matter much... goof around and see what you can accomplish. I for one am very interested in seeing how far you can push things.

Definitely post pictures also... I love em.

 

[Unregistered]

northbridge fan

Hi,
TGG, what is the fan you use on the northbridge???? Can you guyz recommend me a decent northbridge fan, preferably a clip-on one????

 

[TGG Productions]

In response to Unregistered:

I bought
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?act=detail&id=72

Also, the other question on the Power Supply, I got this one, and got a 2x 4v molex to 8v CPU power adaptor and worked like a charm.

http://ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=97&pPath=632&productID=632

Let me know if you have any other questions.
THanks!

 

[Elvis]

How to over clock the xeon quadcore (E 5420), please help...!

Intel's new dual-socket enthusiast platform is in every sense impressive, but due to the price of the recommended CPUs, owning one is a dream for many. We're taking a look at a few ways to build your very own full-featured 8-core "Skulltrail" machine for a price that's a lot easier to manage.

You can read the article here and comment on it here.

________________________________________________________________

Hello Rob Williams,

I am long waiting to build the budget skulltrail system. Your article really shed light for me, and I had the mobo up running right now. I just wonder is there anyway I could pump up the speed of my CPU, right now it at 2.5 Ghz (Xeon 5420 x2). I am not a professional Techy person, so I have no idea of what to do to over clock the CPU safely? and what would be the safe margin? Please "shed light" to my "darkness" if you don't mind. Thank you so much and have a nice day.

Elvis

 

[Rob Williams]

Hello Rob Williams,

I am long waiting to build the budget skulltrail system. Your article really shed light for me, and I had the mobo up running right now. I just wonder is there anyway I could pump up the speed of my CPU, right now it at 2.5 Ghz (Xeon 5420 x2). I am not a professional Techy person, so I have no idea of what to do to over clock the CPU safely? and what would be the safe margin? Please "shed light" to my "darkness" if you don't mind. Thank you so much and have a nice day.

Elvis

Do you have a real Skulltrail board, like seen in the original article I wrote? If so, your BIOS will have a screen like this:

http://techgage.com/viewimg/?img=/r...l/d5400xs_bios_05.jpg&desc=Intel D5400XS BIOS

There, you would need to increase the CPU0 and CPU1 voltages... I would not go over 1.4v at all, and 1.35v would be the ideal cap to hit. You'd need to set the Processor Multiplier and Clock Frequency to Manual, then change the figures below.

For the 2.5GHz, I assume you are using settings of 7.5x and 333MHz. For fun, just bump that multiplier to 8, then reboot and see where it gets you. If it crashes, don't worry. You might need to move the CLR_CMOS or similar switch on the board to reset the settings, so make sure you have the manual nearby which tells you how to do that.

On those CPUs, I'm sure 2.8GHz is possible, just like it was with the ones I used in the article. Try a multiplier of 7, then a FSB of 400MHz, and then bump up each processor voltage to 1.350v each, then reboot. I'm almost positive that will boot up just fine.

 

[Elvis]

Sucessfully O.C Xeon 5420 2.5 GHz to 3.0 GHz, Many thanks to 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.

_________________________________________________________

Hello Rob Williams,
I follow the instruction you provided. I have the skulltrail D5400XS bios exactly like the one you post. So I set all the parameters as suggest. The voltage at 1.3125, FSB at 400 MHz, 7.5 Multiplier. So right now I have the CPUs running at 3.0 GHz and the regular voltage show on CPUz is 1.294. The temperature of the CPUs only raise between 1 to 1.5 degree Celcious but not a big deal, the GPU rais between 5 to 6 C, and hard drive between 1 to 3 C. However, everything works beautifully. I am deeply appriciate your kindness and your help. Wish you all the best.

My current system:

-Xeon E5420 (x2)
_Skulltrail D5400XS
_BFG geforce 280 GTX + Lian li side fan (addtional cooling for the GPU)
_Velocity raptor 300 Gig
_Ultrachilltec CPU fan-heatsink combo (x2) work nice, keep CPUs at 26 C
(tricky to install in the skulltrail but I managed and it worked)
_Silverstone Zeus 1200 Watts PSU
_8 Gigs FB DIMM memory + Dominator memory fan(cooler)
_A+ Diablo chassis

Thanks again

Elvis.

 

[Hawke]

Definitely post pictures also... I love em.

A bit of a delay in my system at the moment, when I opened the box that contained my Kingston FB-DIMM, my memory had big APPLE type heatsinks (no mention from the website where I bought them from that they were had Apple heatsinks, it also stated the D5400XS is an ATX motherboard, while infact it is an E-ATX motherboard), which prevented me from placing it in slot 0 because of some capasitors, I tried to see if my Skulltrail will work by placing the FB-DIMM in slot 1, I recived 3 beeps and no video, I read on the documentation that three beeps and no video is caused by the Skulltrail not picking up the memory.

I contaced the shop I bought my first set of FB-DIMMs from, and they wont take them back, so I have purchased some new FB-DIMMs from another store (hopefully they wont have these Apple heatsinks on them) - I have recently placed my current Kingston FB-DIMMs (with the Apple heatsink) for sale and placed a notice that they are suitable for Apple Mac Pro - odd thing is that the picture that came with my first set of FB-DIMMs had a picture of a thinner heatsink on them.

Bit of luck, my PC may be running by Monday/Tuesday

 

[Rob Williams]

Elvis: Congrats on getting the rig overlooked! Keep an eye on those temps and make sure they keep within reason. It's a very-nice overclock though... hard to complain!

Hawke: Well... that sucks. I have no idea what the Apple heatsinks look like, but it sucks they are bulky enough to get in the way. They are designed for Apple computers specifically, it seems.

As for the store you bought them from... that's not right. They didn't tell you that they were Apple. That's not your fault.

 

[sgmunson]

Time and Money, and New Stuff...

Rob,

Just wondering what mobo's are out there that support at least 16 GB RAM and have at least a dual socket configuration, without them being server boards with minimal capabilities like not having built-in fire-wire or sound or other such "problems"...

I'm looking to build a Vista Ultimate x64 system, which will be running SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition and some serious mulitprocessor chess software. Overclocking capability would be nice, but isn't entirely essential. However, being able to use a pair of QX9660's in said mobo would be the ideal. I'd really rather not have Xeon processors.

Also, I'm looking at the Antec Nine Hundred or Twelve Hundred for a case, and a Coolermaster PSU of 1000W capability.

Any suggestions on the mobo?

Steve
(aka sgmunson)

 

[Rob Williams]

Hi Steve:

"Just wondering what mobo's are out there that support at least 16 GB RAM and have at least a dual socket configuration."

That's a great question, and it has me thinking. When we first did this article, we were told that the board supported up to 8GB of RAM, but now the product page for the D5400XS states otherwise:

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D5400XS/D5400XS-overview.htm

If it now supports up to 16GB of RAM (can that even be fixed in the BIOS?!), that might be the best option. I'll talk to Intel this coming week to make sure that's the case, because it's weird that we were told one thing, and the product page now says something different (it also shows 16GB support at NewEgg).

Other than the D5400XS, I don't believe any other non-server motherboards are available for this purpose. I'll definitely ask around though.

 

[Hawke]

My Skulltrail is now up and running with Windows XP, my only problem now is that it wont recognize the other cores on my Xeon E5430 (looked on CPUZ as well), I am not sure why

 

[Rob Williams]

My Skulltrail is now up and running with Windows XP, my only problem now is that it wont recognize the other cores on my Xeon E5430 (looked on CPUZ as well), I am not sure why

Both CPUs are the same, right? Go into the task manager and see if there are eight cores under the performance tab.

In CPU-Z, there should be a drop-down menu under the Processor... yours isn't like that, even WITH both CPUs installed?

 

[Hawke]

Ok, scrap my last comment, I found out why only one core was showing...

I was using an XP installation disk without SP2 slipstreamed on - just reinstalled XP with SP2 slipstreamed on it (I am only using one Xeon E5430 CPU at the moment) - I was reading Intel's website that the D5400XS needs SP2 during XP installation.

Thanks for this wonderfull article that helped me out in getting a budget skulltrail, I shall be trying to extract images of a camera of the building of the tower and running of the system...

 

[Hawke]

Here are my images, I managed to install my mobile phone's USB drivers to get the images out of its cameras

http://www.nuclearwinternights.gb.com/PSkulltrail/

Sorry I about the link that leads to the directory, I am in a rush at the moment, but all the images are in there...

The last picture shows use ofthe LGA-771 fan that was included with the Xeon (At times I really wish the D-5400XS used LGA-771 heatsink+fan, as the pushpins on the LGA-775 type heatsinks are a pain to put in (and potentially dangerous as the motherboard started to bend a little), plus I'm worried one day they will fall out because they are made out of cheap plastic

 

[Hawke]

I have another question in hand.

My Xeon E5430 run at 50-50 degrees C, what tempratures does everyone else run at?

Reason I'm asking is because my heatsinks was a real pain to put in (cursed LGA-775 type heatsinks and their pushpins) and I only managed to get 3 of them in propperly

Cheers

 

[Rob Williams]

Looking good man, but wow, you need a new chassis! It in no way represents the power it's pushing out, haha. Of course, if that's the monitor you are using... then it does indeed match.

What are you using this beast for again?

 

[rudi]

On those CPUs, I'm sure 2.8GHz is possible, just like it was with the ones I used in the article. Try a multiplier of 7, then a FSB of 400MHz, and then bump up each processor voltage to 1.350v each, then reboot. I'm almost positive that will boot up just fine.

Will this work on a 2 x E5430 with skulltrail E5430 ?

multiplier of 8 (locked on this cpu) FSB of 400 MHz, voltage to 1.350v each?

 

[rudi]

On those CPUs, I'm sure 2.8GHz is possible, just like it was with the ones I used in the article. Try a multiplier of 7, then a FSB of 400MHz, and then bump up each processor voltage to 1.350v each, then reboot. I'm almost positive that will boot up just fine.

Will this work on a 2 x E5430 with skulltrail?

multiplier of 8 (locked on this cpu) FSB of 400 MHz, voltage to 1.350v each?

 

[TGG Productions]

I have another question in hand.

My Xeon E5430 run at 50-50 degrees C, what tempratures does everyone else run at?

Reason I'm asking is because my heatsinks was a real pain to put in (cursed LGA-775 type heatsinks and their pushpins) and I only managed to get 3 of them in propperly

Cheers

Mine run about the same. anywhere from 45-55 depending on the load.

I think they can safely go up to 65-70?