flogside,
The uprated cooler with the Copper pipes is a really good idea. I have a Precision 390 and changed the 1.86GHz dual core for a Xeon X3230 2.66 four-core and made the same change.
I had a look at the Arctic Cooling F8 at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186072
> and in the retail box, there's an interesting cable, but more interesting as I don't have a clue what it is- possibly it has some kind of in-line switch. These do use that tiny, tiny three pin connector.
The Molex I'm thinking of (my T5500 has two of them) is a spare power connector for something like an optical drive- you know the one, the bigger white plastic four pin- the pins are set in a little box, are fat and have rounded ends. This kind of adapter is difficult to narrow down, but this is the kind of thing I mean:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Evercool-EC-DF003-4-Pin-Molex-PSU-to-2x-12V-3pin-2x-5V-3pin-Fan-Cable-Adapter-/400707002615?hash=item5d4bffa0f7
>Where the idea is to split the Molex into two three pin fan power connectors. This doesn't provide any kind of control, so the auxiliary fans would run all the time. That listing has stupidly expensive shipping, but is the right connector
if the T3500 has a free Molex.
Probably, the first thing to do, is to look at the spare power connectors in the T3500. In the T5500, there are two spare 4-pin Molex- they're sort of wired up inside so as not to dangle about- plus there are two four pin egg crate power connectors for extra GPU power. The PCIe slot provides 75W and (I think) each 4=pin adds another 75W. When the T3500 was new, a lot of workstation GPU's were 150W or more and the T5500 and T7500 were rated to use two of them- the T5500 PSU is 875W, T7500 1100W.
The manual is useful:
http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_dell_precision_workstation/precision-t3500_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf
> and there's a list of connectors on Pg 10 / 11, but the best thing is to have a look and find the spare connector- and I think the spare Molex is the best one to use.
Controlling the fan is another problem as Dell designed the cooling control to be more or less tamper proof- I was never able to change any fan settings on any Precision using Speedfan and etc The front panel fan controller is a nice idea, but at $30 average, could pay most of a faster CPU.
Workstations are assumed to be run full speed all the time and the T3500 could have a W3690- 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73 GHz and some were sold with a Quadro 6000 (6GB and $3,800) video editing card that used 225W so I think the stock system would work well with the standard cooling.
The W3530 4-core 2.8 /3.06GHz is a very good CPU- like all the LGA1366, but you might keep an eye out for a good buy on:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-W3580-3-33GHz-8M-6-40GT-s-SLBET-CPU-Server-Processor-/301698892068?hash=item463ea7c124
> which is the W3580 4-core at 3.33 /3.6GHz and that's more in the range of modern gaming speed- and only $40-60 these days. If you have $150-200, you can have the W3690 6-core @ 3.47/ 3.73GHz and run Maya to animate and render your own games!The LGA1366 range of CPU's are fantastic. You can buy brand new dual LGA1366 motherboard / case / PSU systems from Supermicro ("Superworkstation") and build a new system using CPU's like the X5690- (6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz) that cost $1,650 new, but today are $200-250.
The T3500 was a smart choice- beautifully made, can run forever.
Cheers,
BambiBoom
Dell Precisions
390: Xeon X3230, 8GB, Quadro K600, 2X WD 320GB ,
T5400: 2X X5460, 16GB, Quadro FX 4800 2X WD RE4 500GB,
T5500: X5680, 24GB, Quadro K2200, Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 1TB
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