RM0127 Dual Xeon Upgrade

The development process for the

RM0127 Dual Xeon Upgrade Kit

Background

The RM0127 Ultra-Lightweight Aluminum Chassis is an excellent candidate for the Intel Dual Xeon upgrade. The well-designed chassis did not require any major modifications to support the Dual Xeon system. The only essential change consisted of swapping out the 250 Watt power supply for a beefed up 350 Watt power supply. The chassis blower maintains high velocity airflow throughout the system and cools the system to an average temperature of 53° C when running a high load stress test program. The maximum peak reached during the maximum load stress test in an ambient room temperature of 25°C is 59°C. Upon returning the system to idle speed the CPU core temperature quickly drops to 32°C. A maximum load stress test in a 40°C ambient room temperature as specified by Intel is pending. The maximum allowed core temperature for Intel’s 2.40 GHz Xeon processor is 74°C. (ftp://download.intel.com/design/Xeon/datashts/25213503.pdf)

The aluminum chassis also contributes to the cooling factor since aluminum is a strong thermal conductor (237 W/mK www.efunda.com). Standard heatsinks as well as high quality cookware (Circulon for example) are made from aluminum for its thermal conductivity properties. Copper has a thermal conductivity that is twice as high as aluminum (401 W/mK www.efunda.com), but most heatsink manufacturers avoid copper because of the significantly higher production cost. The high thermal dissipation demands of an ultra dense 1U server require the use of copper to achieve adequate thermal cooling. For this reason, we selected PCW’s 1U Low Profile CPU Cooler/Blower (CPU-X4-B1) to handle this vital task.

The entire system power consumption was about 235 Watt on average with a maximum recorded spike of 272 Watts. The 350 Watt power supply is more than adequate to meet the electrical demands of the Xeon system.

Day 1

	First we begin with an empty RM0127 Chassis
	To support an Intel Dual Xeon system, we need to swap the standard 250 Watt power supply for a more powerful 350 Watt power supply. However, this chassis requires a power supply with a pigtail configuration, as shown in the picture to the left.
	We attached one of our existing production pigtail wire connectors to the 350 Watt power supply only to find that the connector bends downwards and will not fit in a 1U chassis.
	Therefore to fit the 350 Watt power supply, we constructed our own custom pigtail wire. The one shown in the diagram is our first prototype wire. We will explain how we constructed this wire in day two when we build our second prototype. Upon this project’s completion, we will manufacture a more professional version of the final prototype wire.
	The first wire prototype. One of the biggest flaws in this prototype is that the rubber insulation shrink tubing does not cover the connectors completely. Although a short circuit is unlikely, it is still a potential hazard in which we will address in the next prototype.
	We utilized a temporary PS/2 ATX power supply to test the prototype wire. In case the prototype wire fails, a mass manufactured PS/2 ATX power supply does not cost as much as a specialized 1U power supply.
	A closer view of the prototype wire with the PS/2 ATX power supply.
	A product line-up of power supplies. Starting from the left, the PS/2 ATX power supply with the prototype pigtail wire, the standard 1U 250 Watt power supply, and the 350 Watt power supply with the pigtail connector that cannot fit into a 1U chassis.

Click to continue to Day 2…