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Dual Xeon Sweetness Unwrapped, The Asus PC-DL Deluxe
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Author: Robert E. Bailey aka: Rbreb13
Page: 1 of 4
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Here, I will be working with the Asus PC-DL Deluxe Revision 1.05. It's a Dual Xeon board based on the i875P Canterwood chipset. The i875P chipset was originally designed with the desktop market in mind but Asus has taken it a step further by putting it into a Dual Intel Xeon Workstation board. It supports 400/533 MHz FSB processors and DDR333 dual channel memory. It has multiple RAID options (ATA and SATA), CSA Gigabit LAN, 6 Channel AC'97 Audio and much more. For more information on the product and specifications you can go here.
Note: The AI Overclocking feature mentioned in the product overview is not available. This oversight by Asus should be corrected but has not been.
Right off the bat, one thing should be said though. If you're using a tall case the IDE and Floppy connectors are located at the bottom of the board you will need some long cables for the top bays. I had to use some 24" rounded cables to connect the optical drives. Other than the odd placement for the IDE/Floppy connectors it's laid out like just about every other motherboard. The 24 pin power connector is also placed where it is really hard to disconnect once the heatsinks are installed. I suppose this is of necessity though. After all Asus is cramming quite a lot of features onto a standard sized ATX motherboard and there's only so much space available.
I really wasn't in the market for a new system when I got this. I was perusing the 2CPU forums one day when I was bored. I just happened to go the Hot Deals forum and there was a thread about some 1.6 GHz Low Voltage Xeon's. Just for grins I clicked the link and there they were for $119.99 per pair, shipped! All I could say was OMG and whipped out the credit card! They were sold out in no time. So that's the story of how this all started. I'm not new to Dual rigs. I already have a Dual PIII 800 rig that I use as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). I haven't decided what this rig will be used for yet. I'm thinking it may be a new PVR or I just might use it for my own workstation.
Okay, enough background information. Let's get on to the build.
The processors I bought were OEM's so I needed heatsinks for them. After a little research I decided on the Swiftech MCX603V's. The Intel Wind Tunnels are too loud for my tastes from what I read. I've also been a big fan of Swiftech's heatsinks for a very long time. At just under $100/pair shipped they're not cheap but you get what you pay for.
Of course I needed a motherboard for them. I got this Asus PC-DL Deluxe from ZipZoomFly for $188 shipped.
The PC-DL Deluxe also needs an EPS type power supply, the motherboard connectors are a 24 pin main and an 8 pin AUX. I've read that you can use a standard PSU but it has to have very good 12 volt rails. I decided against using a standard PSU, even though I had an Antec 430 watt TruePower on hand. So I opted to get an Antec True550 EPS12V PSU, another $115!
Next I needed some good memory. This is one of the drawbacks of the PC-DL Deluxe. It supplies 2.5 volts (undervolted at that, in typical Asus fashion) for the memory so some of the memory available just won't run in this board without a VDIMM Mod. After searching forums and Newegg I decided on some KingMax PC3500 (2x512 MB). It's rated for 2.5 volts. Another $170 into the pot! Damn, this is getting expensive and all because I found a deal on some processors!
Fortunately for my wallet I had the rest of the components already in my possession. I have ordered a Cooler Master CM Stacker case though. The Chieftec case I'm using is just too noisy with all the fans.
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Motherboard
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Asus PC-DL Deluxe Revision 1.05, 1005 BIOS
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Processors
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2 x Intel Xeon 1.6 GHz Low Voltage (1.3 volts, 512 L2 cache, 400 MHz Front Side Bus)
Consecutive serial #'s: SL6GV 3301A159-0089 & 3301A159-0090
Volt modded to 1.6 volts (reads 1.55-1.57 in BIOS)
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Heatsinks
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2 x Swiftech MCX-603v
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HSF Fans
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2 x 80x80x25mm Sunon (2900 rpm, 39 cfm, 32 Dba)
1 x 120x120x25mm Vantec Stealth (1500 rpm, 53 cfm, 28 Dba) mounted over the VRM and NB Heatsinks
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Memory
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2 x 512 Mb KingMax PC3500
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Video
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PNY GeForce4 Ti4200 128 Mb
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PSU
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Antec TruePower 550 watt EPS12V
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Optical
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Lite-On 48x CD-ROM
TDK 840G DVD/RW Dual Format (4x, 8x, 24x, 40x)
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Hard Drives
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1 x 30 GB Maxtor (Operating System, Applications)
1 x 120 GB Maxtor (Page File, Storage and Backups)
2 x 160 GB Maxtor in RAID 0 on the Promise Controller (Video encoding, etc.)
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Case
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Chieftec Full Tower
Intake front 2 x 80x80x25mm YS Tech (3300 rpm, 48.5 cfm, 37 Dba)
Intake side panel 2 x 80x80x25mm Sunon (2900 rpm, 39 cfm, 32 Dba)
Exhaust back 2 x 80x80x25mm Sunon (3500 rpm, 50.6 cfm, 40.6 Dba)
Exhaust top 1 x 120x120x38mm Sunon (3100 rpm, 108 cfm, 42 Dba)
Total Intake/Exhaust: 175/209 cfm
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