Turn an Old Server Into a Gaming Rig | 16 cores & 64gb ram

[@apocling]

It's like if Linus had no sponsors and was actually interested in teaching things and I love it.

[@Fantasticsturgeon]

Linus would have set something on fire and gone through fourteen different parts by the time he was through if he tried something like this. And he'd never let one of those horrid AMD graphics card abominations touch his pristine Intel/Asus hardware.

[@RogueCoup]

thats because EVGA is his sponsor. they only produce nvdia cards

[@docsonicmc8926]

And because he knows you can get better performance, thermals, and acoustics with NVidia...

[@eLJaybud]

+DocSonicMC and pay out a fortune for it...

[@Papaparmi]

Amd sheep much?

[@cameronmcmaster4323]

server videos are my favorite on youtube

[@Royal_Vengeance]

Love them old Xeons / Double CPUs and unholy amounts of SATA ports.

[@cameronmcmaster4323]

Anthony Savoie i like them cuz everyones server is different and servers arent the same as normal pc's

[@MrSamadolfo]

771 ftw 😍

[@9867-q6z]

TRUE THAT BROTHER! IN MODERN TIMES, THE PRICES OF 2016+ MODELS OF DELL AND HP ARE CRAZILY FANATIC! WERE THEY ON WHITE POWDER WHEN THEY DECIDED PRICING OF $100+k SERVER, WHILE IN CHINA, BETTER SPECS CAN BE CUSTOM-MADE FOR 40% OF MRP!

[@Chocwish]

Loving the Wendell videos. Such a calming accent and likable demeanor. Talking all this crazy tech like it ain't no thang.

[@djsensacion7]

He is refereed to as "Lord Wendall"

[@eLJaybud]

+Miguel Sensacion I think you'll find that's Emperor Wendell since the dissolution of the Republic.

[@1QuickSlovak]

A few tips from an engineer: 1) use a spring-loaded center punch to mark the holes- much easier/more precise 2) hand tap every hole - if you feel it bind, back it off 1-2 turns(to clear the chips/burrs) and keep going 3) use cutting lube for drill bits and taps to help them last longer

[@charmzee8749]

As a cnc machinist , i second this! Also use nuts+washers whenever possible.

[@computertech7570]

Now this is something I can relate to, I use that of things being thrown out by others and use them for their parts. On the other hand, this was so informative that I am honored to share your site with my former professors / classmates and I want to give you a thumbs up!

[@SlightlyMiscalculated]

Very, very cool! I really enjoy different builds like this using a combination of server, workstation, and gaming hardware. Keep being awesome :D

[@Hostilenemy]

My FreeNAS file server also uses a 2670. With 64 gigs of ECC memory. Good enough for 60TB of storage.

[@Hostilenemy]

Yeah.

[@mtunayucer]

+Hostile how dafuq u fill that 60TB? I cant even fill my 1TB HDD

[@zafarikiverhoeven5674]

+Tuna Yücer porn.

[@mtunayucer]

zafariki verhoeven xdddddddddd

[@jonmayer]

Media server. I have about 14TB and am running out of space really quick.

[@seanmcmunn88]

For tapping the hole, put a little grease on the bit if you can, or some wax/bar soap. The bits are very hard and can snap easy

[@HooverM75]

WD40 works as well

[@seanmcmunn88]

Well if you have tapping oil then yes just use that :P

[@gamelard1963]

or maybe a self tapping screw lol.

[@H-77]

Warning, if it's an aluminum case be careful about a lot of tapping fluids. They will react with the aluminum and ruin the threads. Alumtap or WD40 are better bets for aluminum, but something like TapMagic or RapidTap are good for steel. Those little taps are super easy to break, so do use something.

[@lolunderstated533]

This video was fucking awesome. We need more content like this since only a few people know as much as Wendell. Id like to see PaulsHardware work with linux and make a workstation like this....Oh wait Paul doesn't know shit about hardware just like 90% of hardware channels out there.

[@lordmmx1303]

for maximum performance use MS-DOS 6.22.

[@lordmmx1303]

***** also a very good choice if you are not into command line

[@ian1064]

+MP-Tuners Productions I prefer windows 3.11

[@TheXlen]

Believe or not, it is the best optimized os I've ever seen

[@dionamuh]

Great build! I'm very happy with my E5-2680 on an Asus P9-X79 mobo I got for cheap, paired with a GTX1070 and 24GB of ram. Games run fine even at 3440x1440 and video editing is a delight.

[@lordvectrex]

> old server Has 16 cores and 64 gb ram.

[@gangantucan3171]

nice greentexting skills.

[@Narwaro]

Yes that is freaking old (2012) because a new one would have between 28 and 44 cores (Intel HCC) and 1024-2048 GB of RAM :P

[@xnax1993]

Rule of thumb is; if a high-end ATX build gets close to/matches the core count and/or RAM volume, the server is old ;)

[@Narwaro]

Undoubtably correct.

[@lordvectrex]

> nice greentexting skills. 4chan taught me well.

[@KRKATANAKID]

Built mine a while back. Dual X5680's on an HP Z800 rev 3 board. I had to make an 18 pin - 24 pin power adapter myself, as well as a 10 pin memory power connector. Also had to drill new holes for standoffs, but I just used a nut on the backside, instead of a tap. Sitting at 48GB of Ram as well, but only half of my 12 slots are full (with support for 192GB of ECC DDR3). Running several arrays, and booting in Windows 10 on a half TB SSD. Games great with a GTX 970. Love it.

[@lukefrahm3108]

4:17 "Because if one of those tiny little pieces of metal makes its way onto your motherboard, uhhh, your motherboard is destroyed.............................and that's bad." I love how blunt Wendell is haha

[@snarbywrx]

Tapping with a power tool is ballzy. I was half expecting the tap to break off.

[@ramrod126]

I've done lots of tapping with a drill, just not at the speed he was doing it at....lol

[@Pholostan]

Soft metal, like in PC cases, is usually OK. Good power drill will allow a slow speed to start with.

[@MrFraserLaser]

not really, power taping is common in industry. Computer people should stick to computers but here some advice small drill bits need fast speed, thickness of material should be atleast half of the tap diameter and lastly lube goes along way. Power tapping is only risky in a blind hole

[@wesorth4417]

Lube does go a long way!

[@ArturoTabera]

It's not if you're a pro. They do it all the time.

[@goskidmark]

The Cryorig H7 is also a good choice. (Around $35) It's a few milometers shorter then the Hyper EVO 212, and it brought be better idle and load temperatures with my old 4770k. No one ever mentions this CPU cooler. Thanks for the video!

[@christurnblom4825]

Also when you're dealing with tight tolerances, you aught to get a centering drill bit to use after the center punch & before the tap drill. These have very low length to diameter ratios to reduce run-out (makes the hole more accurate).

[@gaiustrollius9920]

It might sound weird, but such videos make me appreciate my x58 build even more.

[@JonahStratos]

I just bought the same Corsair case and it arrived today! What a coincidence!

[@IanTBH]

WENDELL JUST THROWING IT OUT THERE! There exists cloths coated in a light layer of adhesive that you can get at the Lowe's or Home Depot, and are used in sanding for collecting dust and chippings. Very handy to have for sheet metal projects as well.

[@slowdog294]

I have a Dell T3600 Precision Workstation that has had some stuff swapped out. We swapped the 425watt PSU for a 685watt unit. It has 16GB on four sticks of ECC at 1600MHz. It has a Xeon E52670 at 2.6GHz on eight cores with sixteen threads. It boots from a Micron 250GB SSD and uses an EVGA GTX660SC with 2GB of DDR5. Data gets stored on a WD Black 1TB HDD. It runs W7SP1x64 and the production packages from Sony and Waves beautifully. We use it for recording and media production.

[@hnhullax]

I am using the e5 2670 on x79 with 32gb ram since 8 months in my main rig and I am really happy about it parallel gaming and rendering projects in the background isn't a problem for this cpu

[@2nd_Channel]

Have almost the same thing. Got 2 2680v2's and 256Gb ram for free, found the z9pe-d16/2l motherboard really cheap and bought a phanteks pro (only 1 hole doesn't fit the motherboard), have 4 old SSD's running stripe on the optional raid controller, works great - ohh and I did buy the EVO 212 cooler. The cpu temp on full load is 64C on CPU 1 and a little less on CPU 0 - it runs windows 10 with VMWorkstation and runs great, I really like it

[@keikun6969original]

Dude ... take cardboard and tape it to the Back of the MB. Mark your mb mounting holes, trace out the MB shape. Remove cardboard from mb. Cut out shape of mb and poke holes through your traced holes. Congratulations! Now you have a light template you can tape to the case to help position mb where you want it and it will also protect the case's interior from scratches and tpu don't have to worry about damaging the all important mb with a center punch...

[@l0k1ky38]

I am thinking about doing this just for the fun of it and seeing what comes out of it.

[@WPTUNED]

I've always wanted to do a dual Zeon build, I think it's awesome!

[@Therobloxgamer11]

Will Palmer Zeon?

[@JackStavris]

I actually just built a new system with one of these E5-2670 CPUs on an ASRock X79 Extreme6 board, it's actually a really great performer. Single threaded performance technically isn't as good as my old E3-1230 V2 system however I don't notice a whole lot of a difference, however multi-threaded performance is awesome for the price, it runs rings around my old Ivy Bridge machine.

[@XaL47]

"then your motherboard is destroyed... and that's bad." Uff, i'm glad you made that clear :o

[@eZwa306]

Thank you for posting this, and for providing me with a plan to convert a Coolermaster HAF-932 to support an ASUS Xeon EEB motherboard.

[@tranquil14738]

The dude in this video moved channels, you can find his new channel by looking up TekSyndicateHardware, or /TekSyndicate, this channel is the original tek but the url is RazeTheW0rld, he rebranded his channel once he left tek

[@gregadams8983]

done that 10 years ago,dual 2.4 x processors in a stand up server case.was the backup unit for data mostly.

[@dogboy0912]

6:22 "... so be sure to practice on.. other stuff.." Gave me a good chuckle

[@Narwaro]

For years I have been constantly begging for rack mount cases and you take a consumer case for these parts, shame on you! :'D

[@wombatau]

I use a pair of Deepcool Gammaxx 400 coolers in my dual E5 2440 setup. I added standoffs and just screwed directly onto them. They work brilliant. Cost me bugger all.

[@oelverlust8250]

FINALLY! Been waiting for this for a long time

[@Yalka_Arc]

Yeah, this is what I called "techgeek" not these branding shite stuff

[@Mandela12W3]

I just finished building a pc out of a X9SRI-3F supermicro MB. Turned out nice

[@Mr_Meowingtons]

I used the same heat sink just put diff fans on runs fine... temps are good 60c or less as a note!!!!! the south bridge gets HOT is a server case there is air flowing over it you may need to set up a fan to just blow air over it

[@bristo1984]

I would always recommend tapping hole by hand instead of using power toys. more chance of breaking your tap. you can warp the metal in other area that could make contact with your motherboard. there is few more reason why you should not use power. if going to use power tool to do this task. you should look for this type of drill bit. SHEET METAL IMPACT DRILLTAPS on drill press.

[@Diegor35]

This was a amazing video, pls, more like that one!

[@m2hmghb]

A spring loaded center punch comes in handy for doing things like that.

[@cloudninjas]

that's some great ingenuity.

[@nimrodery]

LOLed when I saw your "Silencer Mark III" PSU. They're right, it's like I can't even hear it.

[@Aspen32roblox]

Looks like a spring loaded punch tool would work great for marking screw holes, just dial it back a bit 😂 the tools is like a couple bucks, and the dimple it creates keeps the drill bit from walking

[@NEFeldman]

Anything built in a Corsair 780T case is awesome because you can do so much with it. I know there are cases such as the newer Be Quiet Dark Base 900 Pro with tempered glass but negative on that is power supply placement. Now if this had an option for a tempered glass panel would I love to get that or even full cast acrylic side panels. I would love it better if they could make a power supply shroud to cover up the extra wires coming out in this particular case.

[@Tnlich1]

I got lucky with a X79. Buddy had a Rampage 4 clack with bent pins and said if i RMAed the board i could have it.so after a little money to repair the pins and a 2670 for 60 bucks. Going to try this out Monday. Let you know mor after Big W.

[@lightguy250]

Great, I was actually planning on doing something similar. But I was actually considering buying a used 2670v3 and running it on a x99 motherboard. So then I get updated features that come along with the newer chipset.

[@Royal_Vengeance]

Are these compatible ? If they are that sounds like a good freaking plan to me.

[@DBHHellhound]

+Anthony Savoie they are compatible. But make sure to go with Asus Mobos if you want to game. Go with a dual cpu mobo they are 400$

[@lightguy250]

Mickxal Actually, don't go with an ASUS motherboard. Even though they have to correct socket and chipset, almost every ASUS motherboard that is not a workstation or server board doesn't support high end xeon processors. An Asrock board would be much more suited for this situation because even their lowest end boards support all xeon processors.

[@reaperreaper5098]

The X99 chipset on Xeon is kind of pointless, nearly all the features of the X99 chipset aren't available on the Xeon line.

[@lightguy250]

://ReaperReaper Right but I'm not about to spend 1000 dollars on a server motherboard.

[@ruslanmathvich8593]

What about northbridge temperature? I'm sure it's extremely hot. Because the heatsink suggests server high-rpm direct case fans. Actual temperature may exceed 90'C degrees at idle.

[@morgorth3242]

im gaming on a HPz800 with 2 W5580 xeons! and i love it! 16 threads at 3,20ghz!

[@TheBibliofilus]

I use 2 Noctua NH-U12S on my Z9PE-D8 WS as they fit serverboard sockets as well and are virtually silent. The case i went with to fit SSi-EEB was Corsairs 900D which also makes the PC theft protected as it weighs at least 45kg and is to bulky to be moved more then a few meters...

[@The2bdkid]

Did you guys make the hardware passthrough video yet?

[@teksyndicate]

Yep. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2fHk3SLp9mAjpY Some time ago. Sub to TekLinux. We're adding more videos soon, Kernel 4.7 + Gnome 3.20 has kicked my ass with the RX480

[@The2bdkid]

That's weird I looked through the Tek Linux videos a few days ago and didn't find it

[@The2bdkid]

Wow I have already watched the video, I even commented on it 10 months ago... guess I forgot about it lol

[@RawmanFilm]

I just built appon a 50€ Dual XEON (x5660) LGA1366 - still need the proper PSU and Case though :)

[@kazumakuvaru1976]

Where the fuck do you find stuff so cheap in yurop?

[@ArturBernardoMallmann]

Minding VGA Passthrough!! yes! you are of mines!!! Great video!!

[@MrRapistify]

Side note on small drill bits, The smaller the drill bit, the faster it should spin. The bigger the drill but, the slower it should spin. The critical thing todo is not pushing to much.

[@seanthomas2906]

Got a xw6400 with a r9 280 3gb gpu and 8gb ram works good for me nice video cheers

[@thestig007]

I bought a dual CPU Dell workstation, been wanting to put it in a more attractive case for awhile now. This video will help with that. You can find old Dell workstations with dual xeons for extremely low prices on the bay.

[@Royal_Vengeance]

I can see a double setup in my 750D. Any aftermarket case with a double CPU config looks epic.

[@DBHHellhound]

Go on newegg and buy a NZXT case at like 30$ they are awesome. Go for the 4-5 stars rating.

[@thestig007]

Yeah that's a good idea. I like how NZXT cases look. My main PC is a Fractal design case, but NZXT is one of my favorites too.

[@TheNiteNinja19]

I'm playing on a Opteron 6386SE, and 64gb of RAM. At this point it's pretty much a beefed up FX processor on the cheap. I dug out an old 8gb 290X and it's working nice, but I got a 980ti off eBay cheap as well. Should hold me over for the next year or so while I save up for a new build.

[@JoshHoppes]

What's that CPU frequency status screen you're showing @9:44? I don't think I've seen that one before.

[@MsPokemonsoulsilver]

awesome build man

[@cdoublejj]

i had similar-ish 1366 supermicro board and i installed dual Arctic freezer pro 7s in it. TIGHT fit but, works well.

[@ikemeffects]

something to consider, some games will not support the dual cpu setup. Im running an Asus z9-ped8 and it wont run a few games without disabling 1 cpu.

[@sinephase]

process lasso is free eh

[@CMDRTeatime]

Nice build Wendell - I also use a powerful magnet to sweep up the steel chips sometimes after drilling (make sure no sensitive components are in the case first of course). CU tonight on PGP hopefully :-)

[@landwolf00]

Thank you. I asked for this earlier today! :)

[@deekdouglas3055]

oh man low graphics mode lol the pain!! i always found this topic fascinating. with things like the suspected 16 core ryzen i say throw 4 gpus on that and see what happens in a few games. i am usually met with comments like "that is pointless" "the cores wont all be used so it is just the same" "4 way gpus have diminishing returns" ect ect. . . who cares tho it still seems like fun to me :D defo gonna check out more of your vids computing is supposed to be fun and enjoyed watching :)

[@MikeG-js1jt]

quite the unique machine, found it quite entertaining

[@nasonharms1245]

Those E5-2670 on ebay were old facebook server cpu's that they upgraded, (rumor has it). They are a super good deal except finding a LGA 2011 v1/v2 motherboard cheep is pretty hard. I also found out that the E5-2670 SR0H8 CPU ver C1 doesn't support the hardware pass through but the SR0KX ver. C2 one does.

[@thatguyontheright1]

If you drill slower, you can get strings of aluminum rather than a pile of shavings, you don't need alot of torque to drill through aluminum or any kind of metal really and by drilling fast and pressing down with your bodies weight you are dulling the bit.

[@MitchDenham]

I'm doing this with an Asus KCMA-D8, dual Opteron 4332 HE, 32GB DDR3 ECC, and an MSI R9 390. My old 1150 system was having issues, and this KCMA-D8 was sitting around waiting to be turned into a server (literally years building lol). Just need to install Windows, and see how we go 👌

[@spacecadet2827]

"we're going to have to mount our own holes" who would have thought tech could get so debauched

[@DonzLockz]

I had a spare X79 mobo so i got an E52680 2011 8C/16T from ebay and now it runs W10 for my file and plex server and occasional folding with my old GTX570 GPU. Soon it will also run a VM, the main reason i went for the Xeon so i can free up my main PC.

[@robertfontaine3650]

The z9pe-d8 ws is very slick vs the d16 but around $500USD. The x9drg-qf is too darn big for almost any case but the slot spacing is for 4 double wide cards. Ask me how I know. The d16's can be found at better prices. DDR3 ECC 8GB Dimms are cheaper than the 2670 so other than generally unreasonable price of the motherboard this is a great build.

[@UndieingLust]

Always remember to screw backwards first. This aligns the threads so you don't cross thread.

[@canerpense]

Great video! Educative, unlike many other channels who are trying to sell these CPUs and mobos by affiliating aliexpress sellers... --- I have a few questions for the server gurus: 1) Can I use "normal" DDR3 rams that I have been using on my desktop PC with the server boards and Xeon cpus? 2) Does these boards have RAID0 capability out of the box? 3) Can I overclock these CPUs (multiplier or FSB overclock etc.) without any physical alteration? To be clear: I want to both game and render videos on such a setup (not at the same time though).

[@ApeBoy240]

I didn't go dual cpu or anything but I did mod a socket 771 cpu (Xeon X5450) to work on a socket 775 mobo and it works just fine.

[@Keduce22]

I have a metal punch (an old school on that needs a hammer) before you drill into metal you should use a punch as denting the metal may not stop wandering by the drill

[@VynZography]

Well done! Very impressive.

[@JamesMichaelDoyle]

"gaming rig" "going to be using Linux" so which did you decide to stick with?

[@JamesMichaelDoyle]

got to the end. you said it plays your games decently, but neglected to say whether or not the coolers were obnoxiously loud.

[@powderedwater67]

Could always add a windows drive and dual boot.

[@zybch]

Dual boot and it might be possible to game, but with linux sitting there with win in a VM, well, you might as well go take that WiiU out of the closet.

[@TJ5897]

@@zybch Yall clearly don't know what VFIO PCIE passthrough is

[@cmj20002]

I have a Hot Swap bay on mine I keep Windows 10 Pro on one and Linux on a second one that way you can have two completely separate systems and prevents the issues with dual boot systems.

[@crypticpower]

Great video mate

[@mrmasters1211]

thank you so much for making things understandable ! keep up the great work !

[@12me91]

Dude this is awesome. I'm doing something similar with the x5670 two of them in one box with a 480

[@matthewmans3984]

The used server market is an AMAZING buyer's market. Any server over 4 years old gets dumped onto the market in bulk and nobody wants to really buy them, so they are fucking incredibly cheap. I bought two 4 core 8 thread Xeons, a mobo, and 24 GB RAM for 150$. Paired it with a GTX 1070 and so far I have not bottlenecked the GPU with the CPUs.

[@vergelbansill9811]

i know its been 7 years since u built this but what server did u use? i like to build one also coz that asus mobo is good... thanx a million!!

[@powderedwater67]

This was indeed a cool build Wendell. But a benchmark video would be awesome. Maybe a bit of Vulkan testing?

[@FlickExplainTV]

love these Cpu's!! I have a x79 ws with the 2670. got it from ebay. awesome to have as I do animation and vfx. prefer it ove the 4790k i had. next is 64gb of ram and maybe a 12core xeon. perfect balance for gaming and post-production work

[@vwlouk2]

Great video, please put up some benchmarks or at least a follow up video on how this machine performs. I am considering making a build like this for Gentoo, and would really like to know more about any problems encountered on the Linux side of things. Thanks in advance.

[@pandahacker789]

I've been so excited for this :D

[@Etheoma]

Given the number of SATA ports personally I would use that board as a NAS for streaming content to multiple devices which the high core count would be perfect for that.

[@EsenbekAliev_]

so where is the "gaming" part?

[@TerryJulianLive]

i know i was pissed..

[@NekoYuki]

Did you benchmark this? If so, what are its capabilities, and how much would it cost to make a build of the same type?

[@charleshines2142]

One nice thing is that a lot of server boards have plenty of SATA connections (possibly SAS).

[@IND4GR0V3]

i literally face palmed when i saw him put the rx480 in there.

[@JoranSneath1229]

why?

[@Royal_Vengeance]

Seems like a good bang/bucks GPU. Nothing fancy nor worthy of facepalming.

[@Major_Patrick_Star]

good one, only one thing thats not good as the hardware in 2018 they need much more voltage as the new generation of CPUs, but this doesn´t really matter cause the budget allways counts

[@rpieja]

I'm getting ultra-low budget zone with HP XW6400 i've bought recently. For 50$ I've bought dual dual-core xeon workstation witch 2 gigs of ram and some basic graphics. Unfortunately dual lga2011 or lga1566 boards are at least 250$ in my country, so I went with dual lga775 which is ultra cheap. After some upgrades I expect it to be guite beefy machine for my requirements. Nothing too fancy, just a price to performance bargain. I'm going to put in it two quad core cpu's for total of 30-40$, then 16GB of FB ECC DDR2 for 25$, basic 120GB SSD boot drive (I have a few terabytes of free hdd storage laying somewhwere in my drawer) and finally some firepro graphics (or anything, i'm not a gamer) just to have three digital outputs to connect my screens. As I find some free time I'll put os x and maybe ubuntu on it to be able to start working with it. Hope to see more videos with using server-grade components as they're awesome if you have some kowledge apout pc's.

[@thedude4795]

just what I was looking foor in a video, was the compile speed impressive?

[@jonathanengwall2777]

I have two Opteron 2380's, a Poweredge 1435 motherboard, 8 x 4gb ddr2, two 250 go enterprise hard drives and a Radeon r7. It is still in parts and lots of fun so far, but a chassis that will hold an e-atx continues to elude me. I would have been no better off buying a used sc1435 for the trouble the power button, pcix riser and fans are turning out to be.

[@kastorkobold]

I really love your videos. Very good job.

[@ScullyBrewing]

I love these builds, especially with these CPUs, I'd totally pick them up but the lga2011 boards are still so damn expensive even second hand

[@ruslan0824]

Great build. What server did you take out the motherboard from?

[@hellraiser436]

Ruslan Mazur i need to know too. id kill to build one

[@junkies4463]

Intel NVME supported? what the name of this board my friend?

[@HelipOfficial]

Deym, loved this PC build, :D

[@The_Penguin_City]

Hey teck you just solve one of my problems thanks!

[@michaszczodry4903]

What a monster!