supermicro workstation compatible?

[jelle]

Hi,

 

I'm considering buying a supermicro workstation:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/...S-7045A-WTB.cfm

who's specs are (seemingly?) pretty close to a Mac Pro.

Thing is that i need to know in advance whether os x will run smooth on this machine.

Since this hardware is both very new and relatively uncommon, its hard for me to find out.

 

Any pointers to whether this would actually work are _much_ appreciated.

Of course I'm open to other suggestions than the workstation mention above, though I have the idea its hard to beat in terms of (performace + quality)/ $

 

Thanks!

[Team Scream]

Hi,

 

I'm considering buying a supermicro workstation:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/...S-7045A-WTB.cfm

who's specs are (seemingly?) pretty close to a Mac Pro.

Thing is that i need to know in advance whether os x will run smooth on this machine.

Since this hardware is both very new and relatively uncommon, its hard for me to find out.

 

Any pointers to whether this would actually work are _much_ appreciated.

Of course I'm open to other suggestions than the workstation mention above, though I have the idea its hard to beat in terms of (performace + quality)/ $

 

Thanks!

 

Jelle,

 

I have an 8 core workstation that I am running hackintosh on and EVERYTHING works perfectly.

See THIS THREAD and read it completely.

The board that comes with that Supermicro system is a nice board and based on the new Intel i5400 chipset, however it uses the same 6321ESB controller as my Tyan S2696 board and it also uses the LSI Logic controller for all of the SAS/SATA just like my Tyan, it also uses the ALC888 sound codec which is good and working perfectly on Hackintosh.

 

The one thing you will NOT like about that system is the system chassis, thos SuperMicro cases use built in power supplies which cannot be replaced, the case does not support standard ATX style mounting so you cannot just replace the power supply.

I have that EXACT chassis sitting in a box in my attic for that reason.

 

The things you will like about that system is SuperMicro's reputation for making good boards with solid support through bios etc.

You will also like the 8 hot swappable SATA drive bays up front, but I doubt that the daughter card which controlls the hot swappable part of it will work with Hackintosh, but then I dont know for sure, What I do know is that inside the case where all of those SATA hot swappable drives go, there is a small PCB which plugs into the motherboard, and that PCB then makes contact with the hard drives.

 

I would caution you against that chassis for those reasons, and I would suggest that you look at another e-ATX chassis that will suit your needs and build the system yourself, that way you will never be hog tied by the power supply (requiring you to purchase from Supermicro directly in the event of a failure) and you can customize the build to suit your needs a little better.

 

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to talk on the phone about it, I have 2 SuperMicro multi processor boards as well as that chassis and have since gone to Tyan as my board of choice in my workstation set ups.

 

But from what I can tell about the i5400 chipset, it is almost identical to the i5000 except that it has support for the new 45nm cores, and I can speak from experience and tell you it is the most stable Hackintosh I have so far, it is a BEAST, and it scores extremely well in the benchmarks, and all of the core applications work perfectly on it FCS2, CS3, DVDSP, Motion all of that stuff works with RT Extreme.

 

See my signature for system specs.

 

Scream

[jelle]

Hi Scream,

 

Many thanks for your elaborate post!

That's _exactly_ the thing I wanted to hear.

Thanks very much for pointing me to the interesting 8-core thread.

Its rather re-assuring to hear some good experiences with such a setup.

Regarding the Supermicro builtin power supply, that's an interesting point.

I'm rather surprised to hear you've had an issue with the supply though.

From what I've understood so far, and what you've stated in your post as well, it seems like its pretty much topnotch hardware. I'm sorry to hear your experience though with the messy supply. That really is a shame.

I have to say though that I've got quite some confidence in both the brand as well as the supplier, so there you go.

 

Regarding the RAID setup, I really wouldnt know. As far as I see now, no standard RAID controller comes with the workstation, and hw RAID controller seem hard to support under os x? I haven't have any experience with it, so I'm curious. I wont ( a shame, I know ) be using the RAID directly, but surely will fit in something in ~half a year or so.

 

Again, your post is *much* appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

-jelle

[Team Scream]

Hi Scream,

 

Many thanks for your elaborate post!

That's _exactly_ the thing I wanted to hear.

Thanks very much for pointing me to the interesting 8-core thread.

Its rather re-assuring to hear some good experiences with such a setup.

Regarding the Supermicro builtin power supply, that's an interesting point.

I'm rather surprised to hear you've had an issue with the supply though.

From what I've understood so far, and what you've stated in your post as well, it seems like its pretty much topnotch hardware. I'm sorry to hear your experience though with the messy supply. That really is a shame.

I have to say though that I've got quite some confidence in both the brand as well as the supplier, so there you go.

 

Regarding the RAID setup, I really wouldnt know. As far as I see now, no standard RAID controller comes with the workstation, and hw RAID controller seem hard to support under os x? I haven't have any experience with it, so I'm curious. I wont ( a shame, I know ) be using the RAID directly, but surely will fit in something in ~half a year or so.

 

Again, your post is *much* appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

-jelle

 

Hey Jelle,

you are quite welcome my friend.

Let me clarify something for you.

I have NOT had a single issue with the Supermicro chassis nor the power supply.

When I had my first dual processor system built using that hardware it was an AMD dual Opteron 285 system which I still have and use regularly.

The problem was not with the power supply per se, but rather with how loud the power supply is, and the fact that it never shuts down.

The PSU on these Supermicro chassis are designed for server or workstation environments and are built to be powered on 100% of the time, so when you go to power down the system, there is a fan inside the PSU that continues to run all day and all night no matter what.

Then on top of that, when the system is up and running, the PSU fans are the loudest things on the planet.

So for that reason, the hardware did not suit my needs, I edit video and do a lot of graphic crunching and I like my edit suite to be quiet unless I am listening to music.

Thats the major bummer for me with the SuperMicro chassis.

 

Now, with regards to the RAID.

 

Dont assume that you will be able to use those hard drive slots in that chassis even if you intend to use them as single drives, the point is that they use an interface board which may NOT be supported in OSX which would render those hard drive slots unusable in any (hot swappable) fashion if they cant communicate with the motherboard through OSX.

I can tell you this much, there ARE drivers which are required to be installed under Windows for that hot swappable segment to be used and THATS what might cause you some issues under OSX.

 

Now, that being said, you would of course be able to remove the "hot swap" PCB and attaach the hard drives directly to the mobo via SATA cables, but that takes all the value out of that chassis and makes it a boat anchor in my book.

 

One other thing to consider,

That chassis uses an internal fan ducting system to route airflow around the motherboard, the HUGE bummer about that system is that it uses small 80mm fans to do it's job.

80mm fans are the loudest fans on the planet and there is NO getting around that unless you remove that fan ducting system from inside the case.

Then you are left with 80mm fans for the intake and exhaust from the chassis.

This is 1985 technology and will drive you UP THE WALL as the system will sound like a fighter jet on take off roll ALL OF THE TIME.

 

I am just trying to let you know about all of the potential pitfalls.

If i were you I would insist that someone from your team or you go down to the vender/supplier and demo the system to see if you like what you are buying. Make sure you can sit in a QUIET room with that system and listen to how loud it is.

 

There are other options out there that will allow you to take advantage of the SuperMicro architecture while eliminating some of the things they overlook when it comes to workstation systems.

I integrate systems for some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and 9 times out of 10, near silent operation is a MAJOR concern.

 

Do your homework, because as it is, you are looking at a system well above the $5000.00 mark and probably closer to 8K. depending on memory and hard drive requirements no?

[jelle]

Hi Scream,

 

You're right ( again ), I am trying to do my homework and thank you for pitching in ;')

 

True, noise level is a *huge* concern. I work most of the time in my apartment, and don't need another computer to keep my awake while crunching render throughout the night. It sure is a major concern.

 

Thing is that a workstation like this will make _some_ noise, if you don't go to extreme measures such as watercooling for instance. Still, the machine is advertized of 33db, which seems a very good performance, given the specs of the machine. I'm taking your advice and will surely go for a sound check before buying it, makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the hint regarding checking whether the RAID will work in a hot-swappable manner.

 

Even if it would work not hot-swappable ( though that's pretty cool of course! ), it would still be acceptable for me frankly speaking.Though its an interesting point. I intend to shell out in ~half a year to integrate the RAID, since the basic machine itself is hitting my budget limit.Actually, I think its a pretty good deal, it ~3k Euro's with a fast graphics card ( I'm thinking of an 8800 ultra ) since i do a lot of very GPU intensive work ( ranging from catia, maya to VTK ). That comes with 8gigs of memory ( 4 slots ) a 500gb hd, and 2 * 2.5 Ghz 45nm xeon procs.

 

Perhaps its a less costly way to assemble the parts oneself, but I have confidence in the vendor, and am not knowledgeable in hardware whatsoever I'm afraid... more into programming. Which is why I appreciate your help so much. The issues you've addressed are things I'm bound to look over.

 

I'm very, __very__ curious to hear from whom you're building systems! This machine is tailored towards my simulation / rendering needs, which get to be very cpu intensive as you might imagine. Recently I've started to program my renders in renderman (3delight specifically). I've been working with radiance a lot as well, which is a photometrically validated lighting simulation engine (which runs very well on osx).

 

Thanks again Scream, big help!

 

Cheers,

 

-jelle

 

by the way, happy to hear you're Supermicro box is still alive!good for you, reassuring for me ;')-jelle