128GB RAM and 16 cores / 32 threads X9DAI

[kingofkings6]

DAMN!!!
are ya gonna work for GOD? or taking over the world LOL

 

[lightninhopkins]

I fired up the system and loaded Lion onto it (didn't need to change any of the bios settings to have it install and detect the CPU, RAM, etc). Audio and LAN are currently not working. I think I will have to work on modifying my DSDT to get sound working properly and the onboard Intel 82756 NICs aren't supported (the e1000 driver that is included in MultiBeast doesn't support that chipset). Luckily I've got some spare Intel 1000PT's I bought in an Ebay auction a while back that *should* work with the driver.

Any suggestions on where to find information on editing the DSDT? Also do you find your Northbridge and Southbridge to put out a lot of heat? I notice on mine the temps are hovering around 75-80C on idle.

if you take a magnifying glass and bright light, and look toward the back, you can see the tiny chip with the lobster picture and see what audio chip you have. Sometimes I take a picture with the phone/flash and it shows up clear.

 

[lightninhopkins]

DAMN!!!
are ya gonna work for GOD? or taking over the world LOL

I applied to work for GOD, but was rejected. He doesn't hire a nobody. lol

 

[surrealillusion]

According to the Supermicro site it should be an ALC888 chipset. The only problem is when I go to pull the DSDT I'm not seeing an HDEF or AZAL section to modify. Is sound working on your setup using kexts or Voodoo?

 

[celstark]

FWIW, I've gotten the onboard networking going (after buying a pair of PCI cards...) hnak's AppleIGB.kext from here:
http://www.insanelymac_.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=273073

Both ports up and going nicely...

So you are saying hnak's driver enabled you I350 ethernet ports? Did you have to add new device id's? This could be very good news.

Kc

Ayup. With his AppleIGB, worked straight off - no mods needed.

 

[celstark]

celstark, seems like the linux is not running properly either? Should get at least 40K as per the results of the geekench site compared others.

OK, you're blowing folks away with your 40k score... Have a look here:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/search?utf8=?&q=e5-2690

So, why? The OS is clearly having a huge role.

While you're in there at 40k, others are are in the 28k range (Win-32). There are Linux-64's at 30-33k, so it's not just the 32 vs. 64-bit. Windows seems to be a HUGE factor as there is one bloke (Patrick_ServeTheHome) that has both Linux (33k) and Windows (39k) up there. He's on a different board -- TYAN S7053. But, that puts Linux at 85% of what Windows is getting.

I think all the E5-2670's are mine:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/search?utf8=?&q=e5-2670

Now, just on CPU speed alone, I should be about 88% of your score (factoring in base and boost speed). On Windows then, I might hit 35k if we de-rate your score to 88%. Given that the Linux-64 score for Patrick_ServeTheHome was 33k, that * .88 is 29k -- just a touch shy of a typical Linux-64 score for me. So, it seems we're scaling by clock speed pretty nicely.

If we take your Windows score and give the 85% rate from Patrick's matched setup, we'd predict about 34k for you under Linux-64. Which, if we then de-rate this to my CPU speed, we get to 29.9k -- pretty much my standard score.

So... The GB scores scale by CPU speed nicely (duh). But, we've got several lines of evidence showing clear OS differences. Linux is scoring at about 85% of Windows (try a Linux LiveCD boot there and see if you come up at 34k at some point). OS X is behind that. While I pull high 29k's in Linux, I pull mid 26k's in OS X. So, that put's OS X at, roughly 75% of the Windows score. This would predict you'd peak out around 30k for your OS X score.

Are you scoring much north of 30k under OS X?

 

[lightninhopkins]

What a great find and summary. I actually parted out that machine, but after a few days of not using it, I started to get withdrawal symptoms.

I might as well do a linux test. I'll test a CentOS 6 64bit install and see what I get on Geekbench. I assume it should be in line with the other 64bit linux, and your calculated proportions. I'll let you know.

 

[celstark]

The system is getting solid now... The Quadro 2000 is going with OpenCL and OpenGL nicely (thanks to this post http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=35148).

Lux GPU turns in 279 (beating Linux at 193 and the 24 I started with on OS X) and CPU+CPU turns in 1115. Cinebench on the graphics card is turning in 26.8 and it's not setup for these Fermi cards. But, this is worlds better than the 3.8 FPS I was at! CPU in Cinebench is 18.9.

GB-64 still comes in at 26400 or so. Also, my own benchmarks based on what I actually do with the machine, have it coming in at 80-90% the speed of the same things running on Linux. Running with the same number of cores, it's the same speed as the 2010 12-core Mac Pros here though - some a touch faster, some a touch slower. Nothing to sneeze at, but no boost in speed for the updated processors.

 

[brianragle]

Hey guys,

This is one of the first times I have posted, but felt I should in order to drop a note of thanks for the advice I found here.

I found this link when doing some preliminary Googling on a "new" server I "inherited" from surplus machines at work. I was toying with the idea of putting Linux on it and making it into a home server. Instead, it dawned on me that I could possible hackintosh it.

Here is my set up:

SuperMicro X8ST3-F
Core i7 3.06 Ghz
28 Gb RAM
Intel SATA RAID controller:
boot drive is 1T
scratch disk is 3T

LSI SAS1068e controller:
8T single volume

The Unibeast/Multibeast install went flawlessly. Getting the LSI to work required removing a jumper pin from the mainboard to put the controller in "IT Mode". I'm installing the Server software for 10.7 Lion right now and plan to deploy the machine as a DHCP, backup, and file server this weekend.

 

[celstark]

BTW, I think I've honed in on why my GB scores aren't hitting where they should be on OS X. How to fix it is another matter.

Using SMC Monitor, I can see the CPU speed throttling down, but it's never engaging the Turbo Boost to get it above the stock 2.6 clock speed. So, under OS X, it runs as a 2.6 GHz machine and under Linux (my guess -- need to verify), it'll Turbo Boost up considerably.