Having worked for more years than I can remember as a consultant I have lived on my laptop, everything I do is on the laptop including all of the development. My current, and have to say the best one ever owned, is a Lenovo T61p. The plus points it has a proper caddy so I run two drives internally (VMs on one, OS on the other) and all of the drivers just seem to work. I’ve upgraded the drives a few times to squeeze in some more space (now with 500GB available) and for speed 7200K disks, I plan to upgrade the main drive to use SSD so that I can keep the old friend going a little while longer.
Many of you are likely in the same place and are thinking, heck that seems like a reasonable bit of kit, what’s the problem?
The problem is the laptop is OK for single machine development, as in it’s usable but nothing lightening. I could, as some have done, pave the way and go Windows 2008 server native to do my development but then I loose all the nice things like just closing the lid and it going to sleep. But the biggest problem is that I want to do my development right! I want to get my Continuous Integration running, be able to test in a scaled out environment and also be able to play with all the new software that is being released. Sadly my laptop is not really going to cut the mustard here.
I was encouraged by the rig that Andrew Connell put together and this really fitted the bill for what I wanted – I knew this was not going to be cheap, but these are the tools of my trade. I wouldn’t expect the local mechanic to be using 99p spanners from the market, they buy the tools that are right for the job.
Decision #1
At the time the new i7core processors where starting to hit the shelves, would it be possible to get a ‘workstation’ setup with dual processors using this new chip architecture? The answer was you could, you would be bleeding edge and you would pay through the nose. So the hard choice was made to stick with the tried and tested XEON proc’s.
Decision #2
I wanted to do a custom build, I spent ages looking at the components, deciding what case, proc speeds, heat sinks etc. The problem I had was in the UK I could not source all of these components from a single supplier. Why a single supplier you ask? Well in the UK to make it easier for small businesses you have the option to us register for flat rate VAT scheme, this means calculating the VAT payment based on sales rather than reclaim for everything. Generally it works well, the problem is that for larger capital purchases the flat rate doesn’t work. To support this if a single purchase is above a set amount (£2000) then you can claim the VAT back in addition, the problem is that it has to be on a single invoice. So if I purchased the components from the various suppliers I was looking at an added cost of 17.5% – a not insignificant amount.
The Rig
Being a fan of Lenovo since owning my T61p I decided to give their D10 workstation a go. I had read some good reviews and it was designed with one of my biggest criteria in mind, not sounding like an aeroplane in my office.
Problem #1
I put together my original spec and placed the order with Dabs.com for the D10, an additional processor, RAM upgrade and some additional drives. I waited, and waited eventually I received an email from Dabs saying this product was discontinued! I knew this was not the case so I went to the go direct and ordered from the Lenovo site and purchased the main rig (with all the lovely 4 year next day onsite warranty) and then upgraded this where the cost for the components was cheaper sourced elsewhere.
Note: About 1 week after buying mine they announced the D20, If I were buying today this is what I would get. The problem was I wouldn’t be able to get a D20 for 3-4 months in the UK, so this was not an option.
The Rig Continued
I did manage to get a good deal on the kit, making use of an autocad discount code so was not overly concerned about the D20 release. Working the numbers carefully I got a the following kit from Lenovo to start my build
- D10 Workstation
- Single Xeon 2.5GHz processor (dual capable board)
- 18GB RAM (2GB with the machine, + 4×4GB additional chips)
- 250GB 7200disk
The big seller for the D10 was the onboard SAS and SATA RAID with the SATA supporting RAID 10
The following additional items were purchased independently from Scan
- 4 x Western Digital Cavier Black drivers
- 1 x Xeon E5420P Quad Core Proc
- 2 x Thermalright HR-01X with 120mm fan and fixings
I also ordered a pair of LG 20” widescreen monitors from PCWorld Business, was trying to justify 24” but my room is just not that big 
. The monitors had good reviews, support portrait mode and were surprisingly cheap.
The additional kit from Scan arrived first, followed by the additional memory, I was counting down the days for the workstation. Finally I had an excuse to convert the spare room into a spare room/office
It arrived
Lenovo Delivered
First thoughts, this really is going to be a DOA, I like to treat my machines with a little bit of respect, it looked like the couriers had used this for target practice! A few photos later just in case I needed to send it back and I had the rig out. One thing to remember with these Workstations, they are significantly bigger than a standard desktop or tower.
Lenovo Size
Shown here with my 15” T61p laptop you get a sense of the size.
First Impressions
The D10 is really well put together, hit had survived the crash testing by the couriers and everything was all still connected and working. This bodes well for the build quality of the machine.
When I first turned on the machine it sounded like a 747 was spinning up ready for take off.. thankfully after a few seconds the fans all slowed down to a give a near silent machine
Once I proved the machine was working and had it booted up into the shipped software I was ready to start customising. I decided to get the base OS replaced before doing any hardware updates, my Virtualisation of choice was Hyper V so I started with the latest Windows 2008 release, I decided not to go R2 beta as I wasn’t planning to refresh the base OS anytime soon. My long term plan was to have the OS on a RAID 0 SSD setup, for now it would just run on the shipped drive.
Inside the rig is fairly spacious and it is really well put together. No need for screwdrivers for adding disks and the ductings allows the air to flow where it’s needed. There is a lot of fans in the box but it really does not make much noise at all, in fact the loudest part if the noise from the hard disks.
Inside the Thinkstation
I really like the memory configuration with the rear fan pulling all of the air over the RAM to keep it cool. I see that Andrew Connell was having issues on his rig and had to install memory cooling.
Memory Ducting
Internal Temps
The OS install Part 1 & 2
First install of Windows 2008 went very smoothly, the software went on really quickly and I had a base setup working with. Next lets get some ram and hard disks into this baby and see how it flies.
Added the 4 x 1TB drives, these are SATA drives and were configured very easily using the built in configuration to provide a single 2 TB RAID 10 configuration. RAID 1 is used for resiliance, every thing is copied to both drives, RAID 0 is for performance where the information is written across the drives giving you much better I/O. Doing this in a RAID 10 gives you the best of both worlds.
More Info on Raid configurations
I moved the OS drive over to the SAS controller which also support SATA drives as I had now used up all of the ports on the SATA controller (one was still used for the DVD).
Rebooting the machine and nothing, it was unable to recognize the boot drive on the SAS controller 
. I tried various configurations, boot options and changes all to no avail. Eventually I decided that i would do another install, this time using the RAID 10 configuration for booting as well. (Looking back this is probably the right thing to do as I now have resilience for the OS as well).
OS installation Part 2 when smoothly and it was amazing how much quicker the install was now it was writing to the stripped and mirrored drives – ‘I’m going to like this’
Disk Config
Here you can see the basic disk configuration, 226GB for the OS and 1.6TB for the virtual machines. I also used the 250GB drive as a file share for ISOs and software.
Hyper-V and Graphics Drivers
Still running on one monitor I setup Hyper-V and installed my first VM, WOW = this thing flies, why oh why have I waited so long to get something like this and move away from the about bearable performance from my laptop.
Time came to get my dual display hooked up and working, i added the additional monitor – the NVidia Quadro FX1700 shipped with the box supports 2 direct connections and I think can support upto four monitors. I added two in and looked for config options. Sadly the currently installed SVGA driver that ships with Windows 2008 can’t support external monitors, or dual monitors or anything other than a very very simple single monitor with limited resolution options. A quick dig into the drivers on lenovo and I was installing the 64bit Vista XP driver, install went well everything seemed to be working fine.
Note: I’m not planning to do any video editing or normal day to day stuff on here, this is really a dev rig. My laptop is still my main day to day machine/
I fired up the VM and connected, there was a noticeable delay – it was only a few seconds but compared to the lightening speed before this seemed odd. On researching this more I found that this is a known issues (but not an issue Microsoft have as at today anything planned to resolve). I switched back to SVGA and lightening fast, NVidia and a delay in connecting, the thing to note is the delay is only really when connecting via the Hyper V manager, if you remote desktop to the VM then it works just fine.
I’m not thrilled about the delay, but the value of the duel monitor and better resolution is more valuable to me. I had considered perhaps using VMWare workstation at one point but really wanted to get to know Hyper V so kept the VMWare for the laptop.
A few posts on the subject, I am hoping that Microsoft do solve this
Adding a second CPU
Now that my machine was running, VM installed and ready for some serious work I though it the right time to add the second processor and put in those nice Thermalright coolers.
A quick review of the Lenovo site and I had instructions, in fact a fairly simple process for installing the new CPU and adding the heat sinks. As you can see these heat sinks are beasts compared to the chip that they are there to cool.
Heat sink to processor
After some careful work removing the original heat sink, adding the new on, adding the additional CPU and it’s heat sink I marvelled at just how good it was to build you own rig.
Problem #2
Next step, lets get the cover on and give it a whirl. I had removed some of the internal air ducting as this didn’t fit with the heat sinks but I was more than annoyed to find that I couldn’t put the case back on!!! The case has a nice handle and a key lock that you can see from above, the result is that these monster heat sinks will not fit!. After a few choice swear words I decided to test it anyway, with the side off. I could look for smaller heat sinks later.
Problem #3
Started the machine and bang! The famous BSOD!
I knew this was something to do with the new CPU, but had to start investigating it to see what it was. Some more fiddling with the machine, removed the original CPU and heat sink started the machine and it booted up and worked fine. So there was nothing wrong with the CPU, was it to do with the motherboard?
A thing to note, taking CPUs and Heat sinks in and out of the workstation is not something I recommend, and ensure you have some spare heat paste as you will need it.
Time to turn to the internet, the benefit of buying a branded workstation was that it is easy to narrow down searches. I was lucky to find a whole support forum dedicated to the Lenovo Workstations and it was here I found the reason for my problem.
It appears that two Xeon E5420 processors are not always the same. They rely on both processors having the same stepping code and have a slightly different revision code SLBBR and SLANV. The problem is that there is no way through any of the suppliers I have seen to be able to order a specific processor revision.
I phoned Scan with my request and a desire to replace the chip, they were not willing to do this as I had obviously opened the box not expecting to have this problem. To be fair the stepping code is shown on the box. I asked the guy at Scan so can I order this particular stepping model to which he said no, sorry we don’t stock them as different items so all you can do is order it and if its the wrong one send it back.
At this point I’m really hitting a low point in my affections with my dev rig, realising I now have over £350 worth of upgrades that are worthless is not a way to make me happy.
Getting the 2nd CPU
I am not a big user of Ebay, but found that this was the only way I could get a CPU with the exact stepping code I wanted. I eventually got one for around £200, was able to install it and it worked first time. +1 for Ebay
I still have a few left over components I need to shift, including the Xeon Processor and some heat sinks. Time to get back and make use of Ebay again.
Living with my Dev Rig
I have found the snapshots and vm revision tree in Hyper V to be really cool and very very quick. It was a bit confusing at first understanding that you select a snapshot and choose apply to go to that. I have missed the idea of a Team in VMWare workstation and also the cloning of images using export/import is less intuitive.
I have recently ventured into using System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to see what value add this can give me. I know it’s targeted at bigger setups but I think this will be a great investment as I start to automate more of my development and test environments.
SCVMM does rely on AD so I am now in the strange position where my AD and SCVMM machines are running as Virtual Machines on my Dev Rig and the SCVMM is managing the Hyper-v as a perimeter setup which includes itself. I’m pretty sure this is not a Best Practice
Going forward I can actually see my Dev Rig taking on much more of a server role, in fact this is really where it is now with very little installed on the host OS.
What I do like is that I now have the power and storage to really start ramping up on all the new cool software that is coming down the line.
I did however notice that my dev rig has caught the attention of someone else in the family.
Someone else using my dev rig
At least he’s working on something important, School Project: The History of Chelsea Football Club.
