O.K., here's my two cents.  I'm only piping in because I HAVE recently built
a dual Xeon with a SuperMicro motherboard.  I was able to use the mounts and
heat-sink retainer clips that came with the motherboard to mount the Intel
heat-sink.  However, the Intel parts included a shroud that enclosed the
heat-sink and secured the fan.  The mounts that came with the motherboard
did not have the retaining tabs that these shrouds clipped to.  I could have
used the motherboard's heat-sink and fans, but I really liked the idea of
the shrouds as they forced the air flow straight through the heat-sink.  So,
I fashioned large C clips out of paperclips to hold the shrouds to the
mounts.  It worked like a charm.  If you are interested, email me off-line
and I will provide a more detailed descriptions of how I did this.

(The following is purely opinion.)  By the way, there is no such thing as a
Xeon "workstation".  The Xeon processor is a server processor, and as such
built for servers.  I used a Supermicro case, and this was the loudest piece
of machinery I have ever assembled (at least, in the world of computers).  I
would NEVER want to have this thing as my regular workstation.  It would
drive me batty.  The thing had seven fans running in it.

One other "gotchya" to watch out for.  I ordered a dual-Xeon P4 motherboard
and two P4 Xeon 1.8GHz chips.  However, when I ordered the case, I neglected
to verify that I was getting a dual-Xeon P4 power supply.  Yes, there is a
difference.  Not only do you need the additional 4-pin power connector for a
P4, but you also need an additional 8-pin power connector for the dual-Xeon
setup.  Make sure your power supply is dual-Xeon P4 ready.  I actually saved
face by finding a supplier that had adapters to convert the hard-drive power
connectors to four and eight pin power connectors for the motherboard.  I
will NOT make the same mistake twice.

And to support Jun, the hyperthreading worked great.  That was a new one to
me.

Good luck!

Kyle Elmblade

From: "Ultra" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 5:05 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Dual Xeon Workstation


> Mark,
>
> I don't know if things are much different at your part of world (normaly
> better), but I have built few dual Xeon systems (in Australia), and here
is
> what I feel.
>
> 1)Xeon mobo does not fit into any standard case, not even the biggest full
> tower case, you must use Xeon cases that usually come with Xeon power
> supply.  The case will be very different from our normal cases, you
install
> the mobo on one side of case, and everything else at other side, there
will
> be a big 9cm case fan at left hand side of case and you will have to make
> sure its air flow directed to air chennal on Xeon heatsink (I should say
> make sure you get the heatsink air chennal in right direction) and they
are
> at same direction.  depending on the mobo, you may either screw the intel
> heatsink on the case (on a metal board) or use the heatsink come with mobo
> (ASUS does this, it doesn't use Intel holes, so Intel heatsink won't fit).
> I didn't work with supermicro mobo, but I had bad experience with one of
> Tyan RDRAM board that its design won't allow Intel fan installed (I had to
> mod the fan held).  So watch out on this issue.  And from what I've seen,
> the heatsink/fan unit come with ASUS mobo doesn't have good quality as
boxed
> Intel unit (Intel unit uses copper base/fin, and has better fan, ASUS unit
> looks very cheap), so I will be worried if you are going to use 2.4G chip.
>
> 2) I'd recommend Tyan DDR board rather than ASUS.
>
> 3) As I remember, XP should see 4 CPUs, and I'm pretty sure win2k server
> should see 4 CPUs (that's what I've done last time).  HT worked pretty
well
> as far as I can tell.
>
> 4) last but not least, the Xeon case is very large and heavy (not tall,
but
> large), so make sure you have room for it (somewhere on desktop is not a
> good idea, you'll see why once you get it).
>
> Jun Qian
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Rode" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 3:21 AM
> Subject: [PCBUILD] Dual Xeon Workstation
>
>
> > I am considering building myself a dual Xeon Workstation. Either a ASUS,
> or
> > SuperMicro board, Xeon P4 2.4 Ghz chips, Crucial registered DDR.  I know
a
> > few PCBUILD subscribers have built such a workstation. I would
appreciate
> > hearing any real world feedback, as to performance, or surprises you had
> > after getting up and running, warnings, things you would do different.
> What
> > operating system you are using, XP Pro, or Win2K Pro or server, and how
> has
> > Hyperthreading worked out. In XP does the PC see two or four processors?
> >
>
>                   Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>                articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>                           http://freepctech.com
>

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               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com