Dual Opteron Build

[hunterjwizzard]

Some kind soul at VCFSoCal left this beautiful dual opteron motherberboard on the free table. Given my love for all things DP, I brought it home, and am presently assembling a system around it.

Here's the rub:

The fan headers on the motherboard are these impossible 5 pin style I've never seen before, whereas the off-the-peg coolermasters I bought for the project are standard 4 prong.

Powering the fans isn't such a problem, I can power those directly off molex. My concern is that the motherboard will freak out if it doesn't detect CPU fans.

The motherboard appears to be an HP-badged TYAN S2915, probably salvaged out of an HP server. If this works it will begin a new life as an eclectic purpose-built gaming machine.

 

[eswan]

I'm not famillar with those 5-pin connectors either.

Amazon's got something that claims to be a 5-pin to 4-pin adapter, but the 5 pin part looks similar to a CD-rom audio connector.

https://www.amazon.com/ITROLLE-6-89inch-Connector-Converter-Extension/dp/B099ZFQ2W6/

 

[HoJoPo]

On my HP Z 400 motherboard, the extra pin is a sense pin used to detect when a high TDP capable heatsink/fan combo is used, by grounding the fifth pin. This might be your pinout for that motherboard: https://pinoutguide.com/Motherboard/HP_Server_5_pin_Fan_conne_pinout.shtml

 

[hunterjwizzard]

I'm not concerned with trying to get power off of the headers, just concerned the motherboard won't like not knowing fan speeds.

 

[Chuck(G)]

HP added fan-related connectors to many third-party motherboards. I had one whose BIOS would nag me about "fan not connected" until I discovered that the extra pin was for a thermistor.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Well I got it to post OK. Its noisy and naggy. Turns out the board came out of an HP workstation, which explains a lot.

I've got a new issue to resolve before I conintue. The fan on the PSU is no spinning! This has me worried, but its a high end corsaire RM850 so it should not be doing this.

 

[HoJoPo]

Well I got it to post OK. Its noisy and naggy. Turns out the board came out of an HP workstation, which explains a lot.

I've got a new issue to resolve before I conintue. The fan on the PSU is no spinning! This has me worried, but its a high end corsaire RM850 so it should not be doing this.

The RM 850 has a smart fan and won't turn on until the power supply is hot or under enough load (in excess of 300W).

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Ah! That explains a lot.

Also weird that 2 opertons and a geforce 980 somehow pull less than 300w, but I'll take it.

I really need a bigger case if I want to make this build sing. The EATX board barely fits in the oldchieftec dragon I'm using now and I can't slot any of the 3.5" bay brackets. That just leaves me with 4x5.25 bays to work with, 3 of which I planned to consume with a SATA RAID cage.