SuperMicro SC748 case questions

[Peter Tong]

Hi Folks,

i have no idea whether any other folks are running their dual/quad CPU motherboards in SuperMicro cases... but i figured i would start a thread for them.

My first question is regarding the power supplies used in the earlier versions of these cases... these were 1000w dual redundant PSUs with the following part # and power distribution board/backplane for the PSUs to plug into:

PWS-1K01-1R SP1K0-1R 1U/1000W REDUNDANT POWER MODULE
Power Distributor PDB-PT748-8824

This is what my case came with.

Now the newer SC748s come with:

PWS-1K41F-1R 1400W 1U GOLD LEVEL PWS W/ PM BUS & WX106MM
Power Distributor PDB-PT748-6824 PDB for new SC748 with 6x8pin to support X9 Quad.

These supposedly are much more efficient and most importantly quiet.

i was wondering if any of you SuperMicro server knowledgeable folks could tell me if it is possible for me to update to the newer PSUs without also updating my Power Distribution board? Ie just buy new PSUs and slide them right in.

The older 1000W PSUs seem to run at 100% all the time... not so suitable for an office workstation... which is why i ask the question

[Gold Leader]

Well this is the PSU you are looking for:
After doing a simple search with Google, this is what I came up with:

More that 10 available for US $168.88 / Approximately £98.52 each:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ONE-YEAR-W...item54046f9ff8


10 available for US $224.88 Approximately £131.18 each:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SuperM...item33723aa1ed


I hope this helps

[Peter Tong]

Super Micro sent me a message saying thusly:

Thank you for contacting Supermicro tech support.
You may use FAN-0082L4 and FAN-0090L4 fans for the chassis.
For power supply, you may use PWS-1K41F-1R or PWS-1K43F-1R

So i guess i'll pickup one of those to verify that it works... as well as update some of my fans to PWM at least. Thanks for your effort Gold! i think that people that use those PSUs that you posted... they have even better options because there is an SQ (Super Quiet) version of those... i don't think those will fit in my case (at least not without a backplane swap).

One thing about this case... running MemTest on two 6180SE processors... 550watts on the kill-a-watt meter. Should be good for helping heat the house up during winter.

edit: PWS-1K43F-1R has a different backplane connector... so it seems that SM's advice wasn't quite correct on that one.

[Peter Tong]

Hi Folks,

Can any of you more knowledgeable folks tell me what this connector is for?



This comes out of the power distribution harness on my SC748 case. It appears to be plug compatible with the into the PWRI2C connector on my SuperMicro H8QGi-F motherboard (the black connector in the background that is on the bottom corner of the motherboard).

SuperMicro docs are rather atrocious when it comes to these... can anyone confirm that it definitely is for PWRI2C and how it is of any benefit?

[ratboy]

Peter,

I believe that is the PWRI2C connector. It looks identical to the 5 pin connector on my Supermicro board. Here is a blurb from the case manual:

Power SMB (I2C)
The Power System Management Bus
(I2C) connector (JPI2C1) monitors
the power supply, fan and system
temperatures. See the table on the
right for pin definitions.

I think is used in conjunction with SuperDoctor monitoring software...

[Peter Tong]

Hi Folks,

Just thought i'd let you know that i just plugged in one of the PWS-1K41F-1R power supplies and it works just fine. One excellent thing about these new PSUs. They are virtually SILENT. i haven't plugged the kill-a-watt in to see how much more efficient they are wattage wise... but i'll do that as soon as it becomes available.

Bottom line... with the new PSUs this case is much much more useable as a workstation. I think i am making good progress as far as this being useable in a home environment

PS: Ratboy i plugged in that PWRI2C and it didn't seem to make much difference in the IPMI page that deals with the hardware. The new power supply supposedly has PMBus... so i'll see if that made any difference at the first opportunity.

PPS: i've got a fan controller also coming in that i'll be using to control the 3 pin chassis fans... decided to go this route first instead of upgrading all those fans to PWM... because the fan controller should give me some idea as to the minimal amount of noise that can be expected from these chassis fans (the run full bore normally).

[Peter Tong]

Update: Under identical running conditions and running Cinebench 11.5... with a single older PWS-1K01-1R power supply plugged in... kill-a-watt indicated around 500w. With the newer PWS-1K41F-1R power supply... wattage was around 450. Standby power (PSU on, but computer not powered on)... is also much more efficient... only 13w vs 35w previously.

Considering that the power supplies are what make a ton of the noise in the older SC748 case... SuperMicro really did a great job with the PWS-1K01-1R... makes this SC748 case completely usable as a workstation, or a home PC

i've got a Gelid FC-LC-01 fan controller coming in tomorrow (will use to control the 6 chassis fans)...

Just as an experiment i am thinking of modifying the transparent plastic wind tunnel shield (made for this case when it runs into processors) to work with my Opteron setup. It may be that i can run the larger diameter case fans at a low speed, and that will help remove some of the load from the dynatrons.

[Peter Tong]

Photo with the Gelid fan controller... everything is quiet now

[Peter Tong]

Hi Folks,

I've run across lots of places where people call these SC748 cases loud... but i must say... with the fan controller controlling all 6 fans at low setting (around 1950-2000 rpm)... and the newer style 1400w power supply it emits very little noise... its acceptable for normal desktop use.

The Dynatrons are noticeable when you put the thing under load (ie all 24 cores going 100%), but the rest of the time you can barely hear them. Probably because the airflow through the case with all 6 fans going (even at lowest setting) is more than enough to take some of the load off of them (case temps according to the temp probes on the fan controller are around 80F in a 72F ambient room).

i'll be adding a GeForce GTX 760 soon so we'll see how that affects things.

[Peter Tong]

Just picked up an EVGA GTX 760 for the quady Opty machine using this case. The PSU backplane for this has 4 EPS12V connectors (of which i am using 3 to power the SuperMicro H8QGi-f motherboard on this thing). Was wondering if any of you know what kind of wattage an EPS12V is good for? The reason being... the GPU requires 6 pin and 8 pin PCIE connector and i was wondering if the remaining EPS12V was enough to supply the required wattage for the GPU.

Any suggestions?

[SadTopher]

Not sure it works that way. Think the only specification for 8-pin connectors is that the +12V lines are split 2x2 across two different rails, so for any one connector you'd need to know what 2 rails they were on and what else was drawing from those rails to gauge spare capacity. Check online for the latest specs (v2.92 or 2.93).

[Peter Tong]

thanks... found it:

http://www.enermax.cn/enermax_pdf/EPS12V%20Spec2_92.pdf

http://www.supermicro.com/products/p...S-1K41F-1R.pdf

It doesn't look like this setup has multiple rails per se... looks like everything gets combined into a single rail (by the backplane?), as all the wires are yellow...

looks like i need something like this:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/22...ter_Cable.html

or this (might be more flexible with GPUs with 6 and 8 pin connectors)
http://www.aerocooler.com/product_in...oducts_id=2140

http://www.pdxlan.net/forums/viewtop...b3fefd9ad548e2

[SadTopher]

They look ideal for the job. As a GTX760 only pulls between 150-200W under load you've still got plenty of headroom (just in case you ever wanted to max out the cpu / gpu and memory count )

[Peter Tong]

hi, i ended up picking up that EPS 12V 8-Pin TO 2x PCI-E 6+2-Pin Splitter Cable cable from frozencpu.com. i also sent SuperMicro a message asking them what they do when folks run multiple GPU cards. Not sure what they will say since this is the only remaining connector available

Originally Posted by SadTopher

They look ideal for the job. As a GTX760 only pulls between 150-200W under load you've still got plenty of headroom (just in case you ever wanted to max out the cpu / gpu and memory count )

[Peter Tong]

Well the frozencpu.com EPS12V to dual PCIe cable works flawlessly.





As far as SuperMicro goes... they got back with me and told me that they had no cable for this purpose since customers that use this H8QGi-f board and chassis combo was not designed for graphics cards... whatever that means.

[Peter Tong]

Just curious if anyone knows if the SuperMicro part # MCP-320-00047-0N-KIT would work with the SC748...



these are the small exhaust fan housings that are normally added onto the back of the SM servers (usually SC747 and 743 i think) when they are running Xeon PHI setups. i've got 4 of the rear "slots" at the back of the case vacant... and the exhaust fan for processor #1 dumps hot air into that area... and it would be nice to add another one of the same type of SM fans i've already got on to the back of the case...

[Peter Tong]

One reason it probably would help for me to get that SuperMicro part # MCP-320-00047-0N-KIT fan kit:





i've been stress testing and running IntelBurnTest for hours and hours... ambient temp when this thermal pic was taken... around 67F.

EDIT: ordered the part... so will see if it works

[Peter Tong]

well... i'm happy to report that i did get the SuperMicro part # MCP-320-00047-0N-KIT in and i did get it installed. This is an extension fan housing meant for certain SuperMicro servers that use GPU processors.

this thing came with a 5000 rpm PWM style fan...

its not really designed for the SC748 as neither bracket works... no instructions either... however after a bit of finagling i found that it is easily and well mounted if you use two set screws on the interior side to clamp things down.







i just plugged the PWM fan into the motherboard header... set the Fan control setting in the BIOS to balanced... and it runs around 3500 rpm...

i've had it running about 15 iterations of IntelBurnTest... now temps on CPU1 (CPU1 sits right in front of that fan) are the lowest. Overall CPU temps dropped by 5C. So i would say this is a good mod! Works well

[Peter Tong]

Holy cow... i just disassembled and pulled the unused SCSI backplane circuit board out of unused drive cage (CSE-M35S)... now air flows right through with no obstruction. Seeing a 6C reduction in processor temps across the board... even more than adding the extra fan. Its just a little bit warmer than running with the case open.

[HEMI]

That's a pretty amazing case. I bet that wasn't cheap.

[Peter Tong]

Thanks... by pure chance i managed to pick it up extremely inexpensively on ebay... under $100... although i did have to upgrade the power supplies and do a few things to quiet it down. i like it though... built like a tank! Extremely high quality.

i'm thinking of putting a large fan up in that empty drive cage... should be a cheap experiment

Originally Posted by HEMI

That's a pretty amazing case. I bet that wasn't cheap.

[Gold Leader]

What about a sound card, unless your GeForce does this?

[Peter Tong]

Hi Gold,

i use an external USB sound card - Asus Xonar U3... works absolutely great

[Gold Leader]

Originally Posted by Peter Tong

Hi Gold,

i use an external USB sound card - Asus Xonar U3... works absolutely great

Hmm I never seen these before got some pics of it?
Also I wonder if Windows 10 Pro will allow 4CPU support, that would really be welcome for people like you and I too want to build a 4CPU G34 someday, I kept them 6140's since they can come in handy, if I play on doing a 4 CPU build with my 6180 SE's xD

Ah well just hope Win 10 Pro x64 gets 4 CPU support as well

[SadTopher]

Originally Posted by Gold Leader

Ah well just hope Win 10 Pro x64 gets 4 CPU support as well

Suspect it'll max out at 2 sockets, same as Win 7 - 8.1 versions on the upgrade path to Win 10 Pro.

[Peter Tong]

hi folks,

After some experimentation with trying to reduce the heating of my processors/getting cooler air to my Noctua NH-U9DO heat sinks... i found that by completely removing the empty drive caddy inserts that my processor temperatures dropped by around 7-9C... so i picked up an Antec 900 drive cage since that has a 120mm fan on the front... and that now has my processor temps down to around 41C during normal running (1.275v and 16 of the 48 cores running at 3.6 GHz)...

i also found that my processors now clock higher presumably because things are running cooler. instead of being able to run one core at 3.6 GHz and another core at 3.5 GHz on each die... i can now run 3.6 GHz on both. So 16 cores at 3.6 GHz. Cinebench 11.5 running on 16 cores now scores 16.03. Everything is stable at the higher Ghz. i might just try to see if 3.7 Ghz works

The only downside to this... is that it seems that the extra air going into the case makes the Supermicro power supply fans spin faster... since they are now having to push against a slightly higher pressure i am presuming. i might pick up a deeper Noctua fan to help exhaust the area behind the power supply better.

All in all.. about a 8C difference in processor temps... and i can run things faster.

took a photo since no thread should be without some



As an aside... i can now run all cores at 3.1 GHz no problems as well at 1.275v. The only problem with running all the cores at that speed is that my wattage meter shows 1080 watts while running Cinebench! Yowza...

[Gold Leader]

Hah 48 Cores @ 3.1Ghz that is Niiice man!

Could you please run a BarsWF X64 CUDA @ 3.1Ghz?
It's that I really would wanna see what this monster does at it's max stable 64 Core Speed

You can post the results here:
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=99107

This is possible our most powerful AMD Opteron Setup of 2CPU.com I am thinking