I've started to design a large wooden water cooled case specifically for this motherboard.  







The case is large enough to hold four 140x4 radiators with 25mm fans and 25mm shrouds in a push/pull configuration, along with two long power supplies.  (The rads in the drawings are only 120x4s).

How many hard drives do you think need to fit?

Here are some extra images:

The other side:

And finally The top:

Well, I know the images are not in chronological order, but you get the idea. I later added some grills and fans on top, and in line blowers on the bottom, as well. Yea, you guest right - I'm not a huge advocate of water cooling. Call me a dino, but I still think air cooling is best (if you can't stand the noise, get out of my computer room!) at least until decent hydrogen cooling finds its way in to the market. 
I also made some small hardware changes but i guess it's time  for some major upgrades.
I've always been hardcore Asus freak, but at the moment there isn't anything from Asus I'm willing to pay a dime for!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The alternative is an Evga, naturally. I don't know if it's gonna be the W555 yet, but if not, then I'll probably opt for EVGA X58 3xSLI CLASSIFIED, but I'll wait for i9 before upgrading.
Now this brings me to THE question: are there any downsides?
I was trying to find any flows in them, surfing the net for at least 2 weeks and guess what? NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody has had any problems with them!! Maybe except for some minor overcklocking hitches and stupid people bending the contacts but that's it. Can this be right, are they this good? If the answer is yes, than they're well worth the premium price and them some!
Please post some exemples of the common problems, if any.
Thanks A

@ag11ga:

Of those hot swap bays which did you prefer? I am thinking of getting some for use in my W555 based rig but need to make sure that it will except them.

I think a good mobo shouldn't have any preferences to witch kind of hot swap frames you're using - it either supports it or not. On that note, non of mine mobo HDDs are hot swappable!  Wonna hot swap - get a PCI controller.  
In the photos you can see the old kind of frames, it's a bulletproof military kind with alu frame and alu/steel drawer where you screw your HDDs in. I later change to different style where you insert the "bare" HDD and only left the old style for my mobo drives. They all work just fine, so your circus-your monkeys    
I know it sounds strange, so let me make this more clear:
If you look at the front photo, you see couple of things. 1- the case is divided in two sides, 2- there is a lot of HDD, 3- there are 3 switches in the middle.
Only the left side is actually (what I call) the system, the right side starts separately from the system, hence the third switch. Those HDDs on the right run on 2 sata port multipliers connected to the PCI card.
Now that gives me 3 thing 1- I don't ware HDDs out by running them all the time, 2- they run on separate PSU, that is good for my main PSU, 3- it's easy on the mobo (for some reason I don't like hot swapping mobo drives).  I also found out it's faster. When you're moving huge amounts of data it is actually a lot faster to use mobo (or another PCI drive) to read and PCI drive to write. It can almost double the speed! 

Any update on when the contest winner will be chosen?

We all know the specs., they're probably not gonna change much, if at all. The question is: when it will be available?! I think it will be launched right about the same time as i9. Anybody wants to make it interesting? A little bet could help to pass the time.
My guess is  somewhere around the 28th of march and the 2nd of april.

 

Talonman

At any rate the answer is yes we have collaborated with EATX and will be getting trays made prior to the board release.  It will fit all 10PCI back panels and thus 6 cases.  

Ascension
Extended Ascension
U2-UFO
Extended U2-UFO
Pinnacle 18
Pinnacle 24

Thanks for asking,
Feel free to spread the word J"

If you are building one of these, I would love to hear your thoughts on the parts you select to go with it, and why...

I am starting to look at the various MM Cases listed above, to see what the pick of the litter would be.

I can't resist... thought any about a Thermochil PA140.3 radiator? Many of those cases you listed are the few that will even fit a triple 140mm setup, but the benefits in fin surface area should be worth it. Judging by how well my older model PA120.3 handles my setup, a PA140.3 should be sufficient to handle two hex-core CPUs with a hefty overclock if built with good fans, pump, blocks, and case airflow.

linuxrouter

I have been considering one of these boards for a folding setup. It would be a bare-bones setup that runs a small Linux (200-300MB). I was thinking of something like this:

EVGA dual-socket board
Dual L5640 or X5650 depending on pricing
6-12GB of memory per socket
MountainMods 10-slot PCI board tray
Compact-Flash to IDE adapter for the Linux OS (from looking at the board image, it appears to have an IDE port)
A low cost PCI-E video card for video output

I have a PC P&C 1200W I could hook up to it which is currently feeding an E758. I have not decided what would be best for cooling yet but will probably go with some kind of air cooling since the system will be running in the garage which for now is cold.

You and me both! There's no fun in having a system like this without the ability to actually put it to (good) use.

Linuxrouter, on the RAM aren't you sure each hex-core CPU wouldn't need at least 8GB minimum for Folding@home purposes? Half a GB per thread spawned would amount to 12GB just for Folding alone... factor in the OS, spare room, RAMdisk, and anything else and you'd likely want more than 6GB per socket. But, if you think otherwise I'd be interested to know why. Memory prices are crazy right now.

I posted above regarding the processors, so I won't make this post any longer by repeating it. I don't follow you on the storage, it sounds like you wish to use a CF card?? Wouldn't F@H be bottlenecked badly when writing completed data for sending? Flash memory isn't optimized to minimize writes and is lower grade NAND, it would eventually wear out in a year or two most is my guess. A cheap 30GB Kingston V+ drive would be a great potential idea I think, as I know the Toshiba controllers are decent in those.

With your expertise on Linux and Folding, given any thought to running it overclocked, and how to cool it if so?

kougar

linuxrouter

I have been considering one of these boards for a folding setup. It would be a bare-bones setup that runs a small Linux (200-300MB). I was thinking of something like this:

EVGA dual-socket board
Dual L5640 or X5650 depending on pricing
6-12GB of memory per socket
MountainMods 10-slot PCI board tray
Compact-Flash to IDE adapter for the Linux OS (from looking at the board image, it appears to have an IDE port)
A low cost PCI-E video card for video output

I have a PC P&C 1200W I could hook up to it which is currently feeding an E758. I have not decided what would be best for cooling yet but will probably go with some kind of air cooling since the system will be running in the garage which for now is cold.

You and me both! There's no fun in having a system like this without the ability to actually put it to (good) use.

Linuxrouter, on the RAM aren't you sure each hex-core CPU wouldn't need at least 8GB minimum for Folding@home purposes? Half a GB per thread spawned would amount to 12GB just for Folding alone... factor in the OS, spare room, RAMdisk, and anything else and you'd likely want more than 6GB per socket. But, if you think otherwise I'd be interested to know why. Memory prices are crazy right now.

I posted above regarding the processors, so I won't make this post any longer by repeating it. I don't follow you on the storage, it sounds like you wish to use a CF card?? Wouldn't F@H be bottlenecked badly when writing completed data for sending? Flash memory isn't optimized to minimize writes and is lower grade NAND, it would eventually wear out in a year or two most is my guess. A cheap 30GB Kingston V+ drive would be a great potential idea I think, as I know the Toshiba controllers are decent in those.

With your expertise on Linux and Folding, given any thought to running it overclocked, and how to cool it if so?

You are right, 8GB per socket would be better. The system I run has very little memory overhead. The base OS only uses around 25MB of memory so that is not much. However I do run the the Ramdisk also. If I go this route, I may start with 6GB per socket and -smp 12 without HT and then bump up the RAM to 12GB per socket down the line since RAM is very expensive now.

I use CF cards with my current rigs. What I do is put the folding data onto a RAM disk so that the data is not written to the CF card. I also have a CIFS mount to a directory on another server. I use this to backup my data to another system instead of the CF card. This minimizes writes to the card. The only things that writes to the CF card on occasion is the file system journaling and the Samba service.

Ideally I would like to run around 4.0 GHz per chip. I think with the lower TDP of these chips that this should hopefully be feasible. In the summer time, I would set the clockspeed lower than that also. I have noticed that I do not have to set the VCore quite as high in Linux as I do in Windows for some reason which helps a bit. One of my current i7's I have had folding around 4.3 GHz on air (IFX-14) in the garage during the winter and that has held up well. The max core temp is around 67C on most days. I am not sure what kind of heatsinks will fit on this new board though. I hope I can get something from Thermalright to fit okay.

It will support a single CPU no matter if Xeon or regular. Two CPU together need the built in ability to communicate >>2 QPI Links required.You can buy one CPU first an then the other if budget is overkill.

It can be possible (like it was in the past) that the highest end desktop quad/hexa CPU has free multiplier plus 2QPI links!?

THe board seems to have the ability to clock each CPU different. If that is true, then you can to mix quad/hexacore xeons together.

Each CPU controls it's own bank of memory, so there shouldn't be any issue mixing a Quad and Hex-core... it wouldn't be matched so I believe their would be a slight loss of performance, but I could be wrong. I am fairly confident that the motherboard doesn't support two Bclocks, so it can't clock the CPU's differently. You might be thinking of the CPU's auto-clocking themselves... but the underlying Base clock the CPU's use to determine their clockspeeds needs to be identical for both CPU's to stay synced.

ag111ga    Some people are crying about the prices, but think about it: how often do you change you setup? And you don't throw the old one away, you probably sell it. O.k. you loose some money, but thats the price of being an enthusiast! If you didn't spend it on computers you'd spend it on something else. So get the best rig you can afford and enjoy!

 

$2,000 for two Xeon X5650's is one thing, but I'm willing to bet that it's going to be even closer to $3,000 for 2 of the cheapest hex-cores. Add another $1k for RAM+board, and we only have half a computer! I only talk about the price because I can't afford that, and because it would be cheaper to buy 3 complete Quadcore Core i7 computers if I'm right. I'm not trying to bash the board, but if I can't justify the premium it commends then I'll go elsewhere for the same results.

I presume 12 cores, 24 threads is the goal... so using Core i7 920s... (930's will be launching now)

3x$200 Core i7 920
3x$150 6GB 1600MHz DDR3
3x$200 Any midrange X58 board
3x$120 CM UCP-700 80Plus Silver PSUs

Ignoring GPUs, cases, and cooling that works out to be $2,010 for 3 working setups versus (I'm guessing) $4,200. Those numbers include CPU, RAM, board, and a $200 1.1kW PSU for the W555 for both builds to stay comparable.

As far as selling goes, look at Skulltrail. Nobody in their right mind would want to buy it since it doesn't accept Nehalem processors. Sandy Bridge will introduce yet another new socket next January, so who knows how long LGA1366 will stick around either.  The EVGA W555 would be the more elegant, easier, and efficient solution nonetheless...  

You both make some valid points. I must admit I can't afford the Xeons either, that's why I'm waiting for the i9. I'd like a little more memory too, a full 24GB (currently running on 8GB). Server boards are not the answer, as they're missing those PCI express sockets. SkullTrail is rubbish, that's why nobody is willing to pay for it, but I bet you can sell your current setup, and get a fair price too. That's why I said "buy the right staff to begin with", but I forgot to add "and sell it before it's totally outdated". We all probably change something in our setups fairly often and there is a lot of people waiting to buy hardware a little bit cheaper. Never the less, from time to time we change everything and that costs. On the other hand it doesn't have to be the most expensive Xeon, you just get the best you can afford and maybe upgrade later.

http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=203081




w555 p0rn in the states now:

stephan-as-ice

So now I tell you guys my rig for this babe...

>>Colour Concept: Black, little red
>>Corsair Obsidian 800D customized
>>on deck: 2 Radstands with 2x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Xtreme 560 - black
>>Fans for Rads: 8x Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PK2 - 140mm
>>Fans under deck of Obsidian (blowing upwards):  3x Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PL2 - 120mm
>>G1/4 - 13/10mm tubes
>>Laing DDC Pro tuned
>>Alphacool Heatmaster for Fans and temps
>>Tubing: 13/10mm Masterkleer Black UV
>>all connectors @ black nickel
>>2 x Alphacool HF 14 Yellowstone - B / B / B Sockel 775/1366/1156 for Sockets
>>Sleeves: MDPC Black - over 50 Meters in different flavours...Only few in Red

so far so good --- cant wait to get my hands on that board ;)

if this is your setup you need to go back to the drawing board, that is unless you want to cut out rather large parts of the 800D. The outside radstand will do you good thou for the cooling needs, so that might work if you are willing to cut the 800D as i said.

I would go with two pumps, not one if you want to do cooling on several GPUs. 

Please try to measure the mobo and see how that  will work out in that case. If you wonder how big the mobo is, there is a link on this thread that is just a tiny bit of but good enough to try to see if there is room in that case. There is no way it will house quad setup thou in that case but you never said you need that so you might be all good given you want to cut the 800D in huge ways :-)