I accidentally did a thing.
So. I broke a thing.
Do you ever just break something you find important? Hi there. You're a part of the select
few idiots like myself who seem to have things break quite often. Thooouuugh I'm not
quite sure what caused my computer to break. For some context, I used to daily drive a
Dell Precision T5810. It worked pretty great for what I did, however I recently ran into
a pretty big issue. The motherboard was having power deliver issues, causing the system
to crash randomly. While it wasn't that bad, it really sucked to have a random crashing
issue while trying to get stuff done. So. It's time to make a new machine.
Chapter 2: Outbulking a workstation
So I need a new base for my machine. However, at the price point it doesn't make much
sense to only buy a new motherboard, considering I don't even know if that's the main
issue. Therefore, I've decided to upgrade to some degree. I'm going to stick with the
LGA2011-v3 socket so that I can keep on using my Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3. However, I want
to find a dual-CPU system. While it would be nice to buy a supermicro motherboard and do
a custom build, buying a prebuilt workstation is going to be more cost effective.
Therefore, I really only have three different lines of computers to look at. The Dell
Precision line, the HP Z series, and the Lenovo ThinkStation. Of those machines, there's
only a few differnet models that have the correct CPU socket. First off, I'm going to
remove the Lenovo Thinkstation from the list of possible lines to use. The only
possible machine from their line that fits is the P900. It does have a dual socket
motherboard, however I couldn't find one on ebay for a reasonable price. Therefore,
I'm automatically crossing it off of my list. I need something that not only fits
my requirements for what hardware it can support, but something that also will not
utterly kill my wallet, especially considering I hadn't expected the sudden need to
upgrade my machine. So that leaves me with the Dell Precision lines and the HP Z line.
Let's take a look at the HP Z line next. Of the many different models, there are only
three that support the LGA2011 v3 socket; the Z440, Z640, and Z840. Right off the bat
we can get rid of the Z440 and Z640. Both of those motherboards only have a single
CPU socket, which breaks my rule of "must be a dual socket motherboard". That leaves me
with the Z840 model. First, let's take a look at Dell's offerings. Then I can narrow
it down to two options and choose the best for my needs. As far as dell goes, the only
two viable solutions are the T7810 and the T7910. The main difference between the two
is the feature set. The T7810 is basically the machine I currently have but with a
second CPU socket. While this is nice, I believe that the T7910 will suit my needs
better. It has more RAM channels, and yes, while it is more expensive, it will leave
me with a system more suited to my needs and an upgrade path in the future. It will
be a more expensive solution, however I believe that the extra money will be worth
it. So that leaves me with the HP Z840, and the Dell Precision T7910. It really
wasn't that difficult to decide between the two. When looking on Ebay, most Z840's
were around the $500 range, where as I found a T7910 for under $300. Therefore,
I'm buying a Dell Precision T7910.
DUST DUST DUST AAAAA
Soooo I got the machine. AND BRUHHH this thing is full of dust. In retrospect I
I should have taken picture of just how dusty this stupid thing was. It made my
allergies flare up, it was so bad :( AND this thing is massive :O LIIIKKEEE look at
this in in comparison to the old one.
Sure, it doesn't look that big in the image. But it's massive LOL. The thing is
huge. To explain how big it is, I'm going to measure it's size in Wii's. Because
why not. It's 2.5x1x2 Wii's. (side note I used the longest edge of the wii to do
these measurements) That's like 5 square wii's of space taken up by one computer.
Anyway. I had to tear this thing down and clean it up. Soooo here's all of the parts
fully layed out. I did an entire deep clean and had to s c r u b the case to get
rid of the dirt. Bruh. Here's the cleaned parts.
Wooo!!! This image is missing a few things though. I have an additional 32GB of ram
from my old PC that is going to be going into this one. I also ordered a second
Intel Xeon E5-2697 V3 to put in the machine. I'll have a total of 28 physical CPU
cores and 96GB of RAM. That should be more than enough for whatever I need to do
at this current time. Thouuugh I wouldn't mind picking up a compute GPU to put in
the machine. Anyway, it took me a few hours to get it all put back together, but
here is the finished machine. (Yes I know the SSD mounting is heracy go yell at
someone else.)
Yayyy!! It's all put together now :D Now I just gotta do software config. Well,
obviously I have to do software configurations. How else would I be writing this blog
post from this very computer that is pictured in the images above LOL
SIDE RANT: EXPLAIN DELL?!?
Ok. So this is just plain dumb. At the end of this little rant there is an image
that I have attached comparing the surface of two different coolers. The cooler on
the bottom is the cooler that comes with the T7910. The cooler on the top is the
one that comes on the T5810. Both of these are coolers from Dell. Both of these are
coolers designed to cool chips for the LGA2011-v3 socket. However there's something
weird about the cooler on the top. There's little divots between the heatpipes.
Sure, that doesn't sound very odd, but it's really weird that they didn't take the
extra two pennies to do more precision machining like they did for the coolers on
the more expensive machine. They even could have just used the same cooler for both
machines, saving them money and production costs? I don't know. It most likely
makes a neglitable difference in real world performance. I just think that it's a
really strange oversight. Anyway, RANT OVER.
