Build Log: The Manhattan Project

[EHW Ai]

The Manhattan Project is a combination of a cooling tower/control panel called Muffler Bearings, a multi-purpose test bench, and Nights in White Satin (a white CaseLabs SMA8 build which can be hooked up to the cooling tower/control panel combo). Both the test bench itself and Nights in White Satin can be hooked up to the cooling tower by way of Koolance quick disconnects.

 

Anyway, I actually got the idea forThe Manhattan Project one day going back and forth with J7SC in the ban thread over on OCN, followed up by a series of PMs between the two of us. Muffler Bearings' main platform consists of a control panel that is used to manage temps as well as monitor just about anything within the realm of feasible possibility (and then some), as well as conduct experiments and component level testing. The control panel is attached to a frame built to house two Watercool MORA3 radiators, 4x Watercool D5 vario pumps (2x2; dual loops), and two Heatkiller 200 reservoirs. Quick disconnects for both cooling fluid and electrical connections (e.g., signals; psus for the sub-platforms will be unique) will allow for relatively easy connection of the control panel to either the extruded aluminum test platform containing the motherboard or the Caselabs SMA8. Since I have just about every conceivable module that I wanted and was available via Caselabs for the SMA8 on hand, there will be no real need to add anything but fans for airflow to the SMA8, and perhaps aux radiator cooling between components in the same loop

This will be a work in progress.

 

dedicated to my dad, hewasbenco.

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco
Initial post, updated.

[EHW Ai]

First, why muffler bearings?

...because I was going around in circles for quite some time and finally decided what I really want to do. That's not really why though, just a simple statement of fact. If you like, think of it in terms of the following equation: C = 2ϖr, the circumference of a circle.

 

A little bit about me:

 

Age-wise, I am older guy, but not the oldest. I spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a technician, during which my my job title went from Search & Weather Radar/Airborne Navigation Systems, to Communications & Navigation Systems, to Jack of All Trades and Master of Some. During that time, I worked both the flight-line and in-shop, finely honing what was then state of the art equipment, as well as some of the most ancient tube (valve, if you will; you know, as in Half Life) based relics. I've worked on (in order of timeline) C141s, C130s, C124s (old shaky), KC-135s, F4Cs, F4Es, F101s, A10s, and RF4Es and their respective kits, troubleshooting and repairing those systems and their LRUs (line replaceable units) both onboard and in the shop on the bench, all over the western world, but mostly in Europe (Spain, Holland, the UK, Germany, Turkey and Italy).

 

After I retired from the military in 1992, I picked up some extra tricks (far more than I ever did in the military) working for a small, private company staffed by what I can only call geniuses, which specialized in developing and manufacturing custom multiprocessor-platforms geared toward testing air- and ship-borne electronic warfare control system receivers. They called me a systems integration tech/field service engineer, and I eventually added "trainer" to that hat.

 

That training was some of the toughest work I ever did because it was geared toward not only how to keep those systems up and running, but also how to develop and implement effective EW software-based scenarios (gamers probably would have loved that). My mix of students being international and in places as far off as Ankara, Turkey, I of course came across all kinds whose understanding of what they were doing ranged from great, to the rather mediocre, to the downright piss poor (pardon my French); hence, the challenge, and also the reason why I would spend many a class night on the phone back to the states debugging scenarios on the fly. Creating them was tough noogies.

 

Anyway, I eventually moved into technical writing, as I became a father who wanted to be a father, and just couldn't afford to continue "seeing the world."

 

There's more to my bio of course, buy let's leave it at that for now.

 

Now for Muffler Bearings...

 

First, see this. You don't have to read everything at that link, but whatever you do read should give you an inkling of what muffler bearings are all about. My goal is to create a platform I can use to test just about anything associated with consumer and professional grade pcs and their associated components, and help breach the gap between "I don't have a clue about what I'm doing" and "oh, I see now, thumbs up" , at least for those who feel faced with such.

 

Anyway, I'll leave it there for now, as my order of elbow grease has arrived and it's time to get things up and running.

 

The prototype control panel mounted:

 

 

The control panel today:

 

 

 

You can view a short video of the initial fan test here:

 

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco
Initial post, updated.

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Nights in White Satin.

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Test Bench and specific motherboard/cpu combos.

 

Some of the test equipment I'll be using follows (current links have been added, where available):

 

• Amprobe TMA10A Anemometer Thermometer
• Digital Water TDS Meter, Kill-A-Watt Meter, pH Meter
• DMMCheck Plus R5 Calibration Standard
• DT6236B Contact and Laser Photo Tachometer
• Dwyer Series 490-1 wet/wet Digital Manometer 0-15psi
• Extech 380499 Resistance Decade Box
• Extech 407736 Sound Level Meter
• Fluke 289 True RMS Multimeter
• Fluke i1010 AC/DC Current Clamp
• GW Instek 1850D Lab PSU
• Keithley 2231A-30-3 DC Power Supply, 30V, 3A, 195W
• King Instruments 75302113C-04 Liquid 2 GPM Flow Meter (2x)
• King Instruments 75302117C06 Liquid 5 GPM Flow Meter (1x)
• King Instruments 761223052W 1FSSSSVT Liquid 3.8 GPM Flow Meter (2x)
• Reveltronic RevelProg IS Serial Device Programmer
• Siglent SDG2042X Function/Arbitrary Waveform Generator
• Siglent SDS2104X Plus Super Phosphor MSO Oscilloscope
• Tektronix 465 Analog Oscilloscope

 

 

Index: Motherboard/CPU/RAM combos:

 

EVGA Z490 Dark K|NGP|N (LGA 1200)

EVGA Z490 Dark K|NGP|N / Intel® Core™ i7-10700K | i9-10850K | i9-10900K G.SKILL Trident Z 32GB (2x16GB) F4-4000C17D-32GTRSB

 

EVGA X299 Dark (LGA 2066)

EVGA X299 Dark / Intel® Core™ i9-10940X / G.SKILL Trident Z 64GB (8x8GB) F4-3200C14Q2-64GTZ (only four sticks will be used) | G.SKILL Trident Z 64GB (8x8GB) F4-3600C16Q2-64GTZSW (only four sticks will be used)

 

ASUS X299 ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME (LGA 2066)

ASUS X299 ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME / same cpus as the X299 Dark / G.SKILL Trident Z 64GB (8x8GB) F4-3200C14Q2-64GTZ (eight stick capacity) | G.SKILL Trident Z 64GB (8x8GB) F4-3600C16Q2-64GTZSW (eight stick capacity)

 

EVGA SR-3 Dark (LGA 3647)

EVGA SR-3 Dark / Intel® Xeon® W-3265 Processor

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco
updated, ordered i9-10900K for Z490 Dark build

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Test Bench and specific motherboard/cpu combos.

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Test Bench and specific motherboard/cpu combos.

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Test Bench and specific motherboard/cpu combos.

[EHW Ai]

Reserved for Test Bench and specific motherboard/cpu combos.

[ENTERPRISE]

Wow holy....rude words. That's AMAZING. That is what I call a build. I also enjoyed hearing about your background, I can see how your past has helped you with this monster.

So to get this straight in my mind, this is basically a super test bench for testing all sorts of PC components ? I mean you virtually say that but every time I look at the pictures I am like Nahh cant be haha.

Definitely subbed to this. I think this will be home page worth

[axipher]

As an electrical engineer and automation technician, this project excites me

[EHW Ai]

Thanks, guys 

On 17/09/2020 at 17:11, ENTERPRISE said:

Wow holy....rude words. That's AMAZING. That is what I call a build. I also enjoyed hearing about your background, I can see how your past has helped you with this monster.

So to get this straight in my mind, this is basically a super test bench for testing all sorts of PC components ? I mean you virtually say that but every time I look at the pictures I am like Nahh cant be haha.

Definitely subbed to this. I think this will be home page worth

 

Yeah, that's about the jist of it, E. I might add a chiller down the road, but that wouldn't be at least until next year. Also thinking about replacing the cheapish IR camera I currently have with a FLIR E4 and upgrading the firmware in it to E8 specs. Right now I'm just gathering my thoughts on how best to proceed with the build log what with the W-3175X that's supposed to arrive Saturday. I'll be delidding that and already have a der8auer LGA 3647 delidding tool to accomplish that.

 

On 17/09/2020 at 21:40, axipher said:

As an electrical engineer and automation technician, this project excites me

 

Thanks. Interesting that you mentioned automation tech. I wrote user guides for Anorad's linear motors for a couple of years back in the '90s. Anorad eventually got picked up by Rockwell Automation toward the end of my stint with them.

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco
fixed paragraph spacing

[ENTERPRISE]

3 hours ago, iamjanco said:

Thanks, guys

Yeah, that's about the jist of it, E. I might add a chiller down the road, but that wouldn't be at least until next year. Also thinking about replacing the cheapish IR camera I currently have with a FLIR E4 and upgrading the firmware in it to E8 specs. Right now I'm just gathering my thoughts on how best to proceed with the build log what with the W-3175X that's supposed to arrive Saturday. I'll be delidding that and already have a der8auer LGA 3647 delidding tool to accomplish that.

Thanks. Interesting that you mentioned automation tech. I wrote user guides for Anorad's linear motors for a couple of years back in the '90s. Anorad eventually got picked up by Rockwell Automation toward the end of my stint with them.

Nice ! Well that Flir E4 will help no end with the thermal recordings and a chiller down the line to boot !

Can anyone say product review bench

[Bastiaan_NL]

That is a lot of interesting hardware in that tower!
Good luck with all the challenges, but you'll be fine looking at your background

Thanks for sharing the build log, and I can't wait for the next update!

 

[EHW Ai]

So I had a bit of a setback yesterday regarding my plans for the EVGA Dark SR-3 motherboard I have on hand and am going to set that aside until I get a processor for it. I was going to use what was supposed to be a Xeon W-3175X that I picked up for cheap on eBay ($2,000 + tax), but it turns out that when it arrived here it was anything but new:

 

 

Just another you get what you pay for experience.

 

Anyway, I've already filed a return request for a refund with eBay and the cpu will ship back to the seller tomorrow. Appropriate feedback was also left for the seller, simply for the sake of others.

 

In the meantime, I'll move forward with the build using the following two motherboard/cpu combinations:

 

• EVGA Z490 Dark K|NGP|N / Intel® Core™ i7-10700K
• EVGA X299 Dark / Intel® Core™ i9-10940X

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco
fixed paragraph spacing

[axipher]

That's unfortunate about the CPU, hopefully they get you taken care of and you find a good replacement that works for you.

[Bastiaan_NL]

.... after all the excitement, that must have been a huge bummer...  

[EHW Ai]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it was a bummer, but I got over it quickly. Should get my refund tomorrow or Friday. 

[ENTERPRISE]

Is this a press F to pay your respects moment ?

 

Sucks though. Dishonest sellers are the worst... especially when it is painfully obvious the item is anything but new. I'm fairly sure they hope the buyer is blind or something.

 

This happened to me on much smaller scale with a cheapo celeron I purchased just to flash an up to date BIOS on a motherboard to take a better CPU. Anyways, bought it NEW just for the sake of knowing it was going to work and not give me any setbacks. Few days later it arrived in very much the same condition as yours. As it happens this was for the community folding project.

[EHW Ai]

Thanks E 

 

Got an update about the refund for the CPU: it took some doing because of how difficult it is to contact live bodies at eBay Customer Support these days, but they did approve a full refund for the purchase. I received emails to that effect from both eBay and Paypal yesterday; and the refund should show up in my bank "toys" account in a few days.

 

Thought you guys might like to know that.

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco

[ENTERPRISE]

3 minutes ago, iamjanco said:

Thanks E

 

Got an update about the refund for the CPU: it took some doing because of how difficult it is to contact live bodies at eBay Customer Support these days, but they did approve a full refund for the purchase. I received emails to that effect from both eBay and Paypal yesterday; and the refund should show up in my bank "toys" account in a few days.

 

Thought you guys might like to know that.

Nice ! 

 

Glad it all got sorted for you. Yes speaking to a human at Ebay is difficult, especially now. Anytime I go through the process now I just leave it to the messaging system.

[axipher]

Great news that you are getting a refund on it.

[Bastiaan_NL]

Good to hear that you'll get the money back! 
 

[J7SC_Orion]

...now you can use that refund money to buy an 8-channel TR Pro 5995 WX

 

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by J7SC_Orion

[EHW Ai]

^lol, you do like your toying with Photoshop, eh?

 

Anyway, an update: I managed to nail down a Xeon Cascade Lake W-3265 for the SR-3. It's a newer release than the Skylake W-3175X, somewhat cooler TDP-wise (by 50W), and coupled with the SR-3 will allow for 64 lanes (instead of the older cpu's 48). 

 

Following is an image of the actual CPU I'll be getting:

 

 

The QVL for the SR-3 (CPUs):

 

 

I expect the chip to arrive sometime early next week, if not sooner.

Edited July 1, 2021 by iamjanco

[axipher]

Well that's some damn good news for sure, can't wait