Skulltrail

For the CeBIT show we had on Cooler Master’s behalf at the CeBIT, we decided to set up a Skulltrail system. Skull…what ? Skulltrail ! That’s the codename for the newest Intel delirium. Let’s consider a few specs:

• A workstation mainboard using the 5400 chipset,with four PCI-Ex 16x slots supporting both Crossfire and SLI, four FB-DIMM slots (yes, that’s server memory), and of course, two LGA771 sockets for the CPUs. Note that even though they’re LGA771 for the sockets, the mounting holes for the cooling solution are LGA775 style, allowing to use any common Core2 heatsink, good idea from the Intel designers. Last but not least, a BIOS which boasts almost every usual overclocking setting, except for FSB:RAM ratio. The board complies with the E-ATX form factor, meaning it won’t fit any case. and you’d better have a top notch power supply, because it requires a 24 pin plus two 8 pins connectors (one for each CPU). Overall design is good, and looks to be the fruit of a good brainstorming to fit all that stuff on a single PCB, especially for the VRMs, made for high loads, even the memory one. (We’ll see later how to mod them !)
• Special CPUs, called X9775. They’re Core2 based Xeons, with fully unlocked multipliers, factory setting is 8×400 = 3.2GHz. So that’s the latest generation of Intel processors, 45nm, FSB 1600 and for sure, quad cores. Throw a pair on the mainboard, and that makes a octo-core home system !
• Memory: that’s the bad point of the system, you’re forced to use FB-DIMM. It’s DDR2 based, but with ECC, and a completely different way to address it from the chipset (won’t enter into the details). It’s not that expensive, less than DDR3, but slow, and there’s no sticks available rated over DDR2-800, combine that with the automatic ratio selection, and you have a rather bad memory sub-system for overclocking.

Now the presentation is over, we can go further on funny things… let’s clock that stuff! Good news, it overclocks just like a “common” QX9770, meaning I can reach around 4.5GHz on aircooling, at the CeBIT, we went up to 5.26GHz using liquid nitrogen (limited by poor memory which wouldn’t overclock any further). At these speeds, it runs really fast, best way to test it is to run some Cinebench, 9.5 version takes as low as 5 seconds to complete… my good old quadcore took 12!

We didn’t have that much time to run every bench we wanted, but new tests are scheduled for next weeks.

For those interested, we couldn’t find any published volt mod for this board, so we created one. it allows up to ~1.77V for the CPUs, higher values make the board really overheating, and you don’t want to try, trust me. (I got my finger burnt holding it). Following pictures show the mod for one CPU VRM, but it is exactly the same for the other processor, and it’s easy to copy it. Voltage regulation is based on an ADP3189 chip, so you want to solder a 10K VR between the resistor shown on the picture and the ground.

More pictures and benchmark results will come quickly, but here are a few, and they can be used as a reference for the volt mod.

CeBIT: Pictures

Finally, I’m done with resizing and sorting by topic the pictures we’ve taken at the CeBIT this year. They’re from Damien and I, and cover most of the exhibition, including what happened outside the regular opening hours, meaning they’re quite exclusive.

We have pictures from the booth, from the overclocking show, but also some of our very special booth party for overclockers, and of course of the girls too.

As always, please don’t copy them, if you want one, just ask, I have them in higher resolution.

Pictures from CeBIT

CeBIT: overclocking on stage

Overclocking is like astronomy: it works better alone and by night, so a stage is exactly where you don’t want to be to get some good numbers… Anyway, computer conventions are funny places, and a very good way to advertise for our passion. The more people will know about OC, the more manufacturers will care about OC capabilities of their products, meaning it’s in our best interest to run public shows.

This year, Cooler Master had designed their booth around the overclocking stage: we work there, run 3DMark on a big screen, then people gets attracted, and finally discover the complete booth and the new CM products. Being installed there is both a favor (they’re really interested in OC), and a great source of stress: everybody looking at you all day long, especially when it crashes or when you’re fighting for hours with stupid driver issues.

It’s a really special experience to be there all day long for the whole week. You come in the morning, everything is silent,you run some warm-up benchmarks, and people start to enter the hall… the day lasts very long when you have to display something interesting during 9 hours ! Then it’s 6PM, and the crowd leaves… and you stay on stage because you want better results. Through the doors, you now realize it’s the night outside, and you don’t want to know how late it could be, because no one is staring at you anymore, and scores start to shine. Finally, you get satisfied with the work done, it’s 3AM, and you’re really exhausted, time to go back to the hotel. In 5 hours, you’ll be on that stage again…

CeBIT: LN2 delivery

For the week, I’ve ordered from Linde a 300 liters tank full of liquid nitrogen. We wondered how it could delivered until monday morning when a truck driver asked at the Cooler Master booth if they know where he should install it… After a few talks with the marketing guys about where to place it so that it’ s both impressive and safe, we went back to the truck to take pictures of the process.

10 pics are worth a thousand words…

CeBIT: hardware

As weird as it may seem, it’s really hard to have a correct internet connection in the CeBIT. We’re in the middle of the largest IT fair in Europe, and no way to get more than 1Mbit/s shared for all the computers in the booth… So, as I’m back home, I now can upload pics, and write a little more.

I’ll write some articles in the next days about different topics, and let’s start with the hardware.

Cooler Master and its partners (Intel, Foxconn, Asus, Powercolor, Kingston, Corsair…) provided us with a lot of great parts for the overclocking show. We only used a short amount of them, but it was good to have backups.

• CPUs: QX6850 - E8500 - QX9650 (*2) - QX9775 (*4)
• Mainboards: Foxconn X48ES - Asus P5E3 Premium (X48ES) (*2) - Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38ES) (*3) - Asus Maximus Formula - Intel D5400XS (LGA771) (*2)
• Memory: Kingston FB-DIMM 2GB (*4) - Corsair Dominator XMS3-1800C7 (*2) - Corsair XMS2-800 (*8) - OCZ DDR3-1600 (*6)
• Graphics: Powercolor HD3870X2 (*2), 8800GT (*2), 8800GTS (*3), 8800GTX(*2), 9600GT (*2)
• HDDs: Western Digital Raptor X (*2) - Raptor 150GB
• PSUs: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1250W (*5)
• Coolers: a LOT !

Let’s go for a few pictures, more are in the Gallery

CeBIT preparation (D-3)

Overbooking: One Word to rule them all, One Word to worry them, One Word to bring them all and in the abyss of Outlook bind them.

We’re now only a few days away from the grand opening of the CeBIT ‘08, and clock starts ticking louder and louder. We can feel the time running out while we try to fix the last details. Today, I made the last arrangements for on-site deliveries, talked a few with our Cooler Master contacts, a lot with Oliver and Damien which are doing a great job on that preparation phase, then started to pack our hardware.

A few weeks ago, we decided to go by car instead of plane… and that choice really seems to be good now. When I see what I already put in boxes and the whole amount of things yet to to be packed, I realize we would never have fit that into a plane, nor in a UPS box. i’m pretty sure now we’ll completely fill our car with all that stuff.

What’s really hard now, occulting technical issues, is to think about everything we’ll need as there won’t be a second chance: if we don’t bring it, we won’t have it, period. So we’re carrying a full toolbox, a Dremel with lots of accessories, a hairdryer, and even more surprising things… I think i’ll write something about this when the show is over.

There still are a lot of things we don’t know, and that’s both exciting and worrying…. in that business, surprises may be good sometimes, but are usually the source of several nights trying to make that darn new part work properly! Let’s bet on an average 3hours sleep per day in Hannover, that should be a close call.

Enough with the words, let’s talk numbers: 4, 8, 8, 30, 77. Find what they’re up to, and you’ll know almost everything we planned even before the show opens. Good luck!

CeBIT preparation (D-6)

Next week at the same time, I’ll probably be running all around our booth at the CeBIT trying to fix the last things (at least, I hope it will be this way, other possibility is trying to make something work at last, to be able to show something on the opening day)… so we’re 6 days away from the departure, and a lot of work is still to be done.

Most important things are now sorted out, such as finishing the cooling system (biggest part of my demonstration), or getting a place to stay there. We just did the first today, and it seems to work fine, if it keeps that way, it must be very impressive when running at full power on stage, but we’ll see that in a week.

Other parts are yet to be done… like… getting the hardware we’re supposed to clock there… I already received and tested some parts, but most of them are still far way in Taiwan, and I only hope they’ll now arrive in time for the big show. Funny part (or scary, pick your favorite word) is that I’ll have to discover their behavior in 24h if I want to show something interesting on the opening day… sounds like a time attack overclocking thing.That’s gonna be a first for me too.

We’ve arranged a huge xtremesystem’s members meeting in Hannover, with people coming from everywhere on Earth, including Japan, Chile, Australia, Taiwan, China, USA, and most of European countries. Who said geeks are no good at socializing ?

Live from CeBIT !

In now three weeks, the largest european computer convention will open in Hannover, Germany. The CeBIT will take place there from the 4th to the 9th of March, and we’ll be there !

I’ve been asked to host an overclocking show on Cooler Master’s behalf, we’ll be in Hall 21, booth C17/19, with plenty of hardware and cooling things. This time, we’re well prepared, and as a part of the project, we launched a dedicated website : LiveFromCeBIT, which will report live our work there, with pictures, articles, and if bandwidth allows it, video streaming.

For all the latest news on our overclocking project, visit LiveFromCeBIT.com !