These days pretty busy with work. For work related reasons, I am building a new multi-core monster in the form of dual Intel Xeon E5-2650 Sandy Bridge based LGA2011 cpus. Each Intel Xeon E5-2650 has 8 physical cpu cores with Hyperthreading = 16 total cpu threads per cpu. So dual Intel Xeon E5-2650 will have a total 16 physical cpu cores and 32 cpu threads

Mostly, this server will be used in Linux/CentOS based testing. But with 8-16 memory dimm slot motherboard support and up...

Here's some preview photos of Gigabyte X79-UD5 motherboard. Full preview photos here

Been a while since I had new gear to play with and had the time away from work to give the new gear some attention

• Intel Core i7 2600K L038A660
• Gigabyte P67A-UD7

First pairing will be with 256GB Crucial RealSSD C300 on Marvel SATA 6G port 6 and 2x2GB A-Data 2000X DDR3-2000Mhz 9-9-9-24 memory modules, pretty old kits from Elpida BBSE days.

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Some more gear arrived as need more storage space and need to replace my very noisy Netgear G516T gigabit switch with a fanless HP Procurve 1810G gigabit switch with jumbo frame support.

• HP Procurve 1810G 8 port Gigabit Switch
• 2TB Samsung F4EG 5400RPM SATAII
• 2x 8GB Corsair Voyager USB Flash drive

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New hardware arrived LSI MegaRAID LSIiBBU07 Battery Backup Unit (BBU) for 8880EM2, 9260-xx and 9280-xx and LSI MegaRAID Fastpath key for my LSI MegaRaid 9260-8i unit.

The LSI LSIiBBU07 BBU is meant to provide at least 72hrs of battery backup in case of power outage. But user reports have the BBU providing as much as 130 hrs. Apparently, the BBU has a learning cycle for 24-48hrs after first use which happens after the initial automated discharge and recharge cycle within the first...