Hardware Setup
This will not be a tutorial on how to assemble a computer. I would expect that someone building a server this expensive already has some build experience. Instead, I will just list some important steps specific to this system. Most readers may want to skip this section.
Motherboard
The heavy heat sinks that attach to the Xeon processors require that the processor is physically connected to the case and not just the motherboard. This is quite different from your typical workstation build and is why you can’t put a Xeon motherboard into just any case. The case will have standardized screw holes and the processors will have mounting clips that go on top of the screw supports but under the motherboard.
Because I will not be using the SAS controller on the motherboard, I put a short on pins 2-3 of jumper “SAS_EN1”.
Since the CPUs are passively cooled (no directly attached fan), I put a short on pins 2-3 of jumper “FAN_SEL1”.
Backplane
The backplane on my case can control up to four fans. Since I chose to use the motherboard as the controller, I had to change some jumpers on the backplane. I connected pins 2-3 on jumpers 97, 98, 99, and 100.
RAID Controller
Before modifying the RAID controller’s BIOS, you should have the OS volume defined. All the other RAID volumes are easier to set up from within Windows.
Always install the latest controller BIOS as the first step.
To go into the RAID setup for this specific controller, hit {Ctrl}+{A} during bootup. For the OS, I created a RAID 1 partition that uses the entire drive with a stripe size of 256K. I will discuss the stripe size and other important settings when I get to the Windows portion of the RAID setup. I chose to enable the write and read caches because I know that I can rebuild the OS volume at anytime without meaningful data loss.
Motherboard BIOS
After installing the latest motherboard BIOS, the following settings should be changed. These changes are primarily to improve performance.
| Main | |||
| Floppy A = Disabled | |||
| Advanced | |||
| Chipset Configuration | |||
| North Bridge Configuration | |||
| Demand Scrubbing = Enabled | |||
| PCI/PnP Configuration | |||
| Plug and Play O/S = Yes | |||
| Onboard LANx Configuration | |||
| Option ROM Scan = Disabled | |||
| Peripheral Configuration | |||
| Onboard Floppy Controller = Disabled | |||
| Server | |||
| Remote Access Configuration | |||
| Remote Access = Disabled | |||
| Boot | |||
| Boot Device Priority | |||
| DVD | |||
| Volume 1 | |||
| {Disable network boot} | |||
| Boot Settings Configuration | |||
| Full Logo Display = Disabled | |||
Next Page: Software Setup
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