Dual 1366 Xeon build

[RadeonHDx]

So I have my mind pretty much set on getting a dual Xeon E5645 build and was just hoping someone could help me out with picking a motherboard as many I have found are either expensive or don't support the 5600 series of Xeons.

The best I have found so far on eBay has been the Supermicro X8DTi coming in at $170 with shipping and the pesky import charges.

I am really struggling to find motherboards that support the 5520 chipset at a lower cost than the Supermicro one which is the only issue at the moment because the board is currently taking me just over the budget I had set myself.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252168250985?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

The E5645 is my second choice after the E5649's I was looking at were sold off. These chips require the 5520 chipset which is the reason I haven't been able to go for the cheaper Z800 HP dual socket boards of which I would need the 003 rev. for the 5645's to work.

Any help you guys can give at all would be greatly appreciated!

Joe

 

[AlienALX]

Why??

 

[RadeonHDx]

Why??

Why not? The performance is as good or better than even an i7 in multi threaded applications such as After Effects where I spend the majority of my time while I am using my computer. It also comes out to about £180 for the whole setup and shipping where as a 4690k and a cheap motherboard comes out to £250 for much less performance.
I also wanted a project to work on and this seemed like it would be fun.

Why not?

EDIT:

If you can find me more performance for cheaper then please, show me!

 

[jimma47]

Unfortunately because it's a superseded socket (by a few years as well) then you're going to be limited as to what's available. This puts the price up. Dual socket boards weren't overly common to start with.

Still not a bad project.

 

[AlienALX]

If you can find me more performance for cheaper then please, show me!

I paid £52 inc from Amazon for a Gigabyte X79 UD3. I then paid £100 for a 8 core 16t Ivy.

It uses 14w idle and 60w under full load.

The problem with these Xeons and especially the big heffa boards you need to run them in is power consumption. 1366 CPUs were pretty crazy.

You'll also need a huge PSU and there are about ten apps* that will use all of the cores. *(OK so I don't mean literally).

I just don't see the point in it but hey, that's only me.

 

[MrKambo]

Builds like this are ok when used as render farms and things like that, i cant imagine too many drivers and things being compatible when it comes to using it as a daily driver

But im interested to see where this goes

 

[barnsley]

I very much doubt you'll be able to do better as those CPUs are still used in some production environments. This means that spares are going to be relatively thin on the ground. There is bound to be a few 2U servers with a compatible motherboard, you'll just have to probably buy the whole thing as opposed to getting just the motherboard though.

 

[AlienALX]

If you could pick up the board cheaply then I would say go with it.

 

[BigDaddyKong]

It's funny, Linus posted a visit about reworking a dual socket board this morning. I was surprised it did not perform in productivity as well as I expected. Gaming was ok.

 

[RadeonHDx]

I paid £52 inc from Amazon for a Gigabyte X79 UD3. I then paid £100 for a 8 core 16t Ivy.

It uses 14w idle and 60w under full load.

The problem with these Xeons and especially the big heffa boards you need to run them in is power consumption. 1366 CPUs were pretty crazy.

You'll also need a huge PSU and there are about ten apps* that will use all of the cores. *(OK so I don't mean literally).

I just don't see the point in it but hey, that's only me.

TBH I hadn't really considered buying the newer i5/i7's used even though that's the only way I am getting the Xeons and board.

I have looked at the numbers for the specific combination of CPU's I am getting and the results are higher or the same as the 4790k in most tests I have seen.

As well as this it also give me a reason to get back into modding and get back up to date, and stay up to date, with everything happening in the tech world as I have been out the loop for some time

Builds like this are ok when used as render farms and things like that, i cant imagine too many drivers and things being compatible when it comes to using it as a daily driver

But im interested to see where this goes

Thank you man, will be ordering the parts tonight and will start the upgrade log as soon as I can.

I very much doubt you'll be able to do better as those CPUs are still used in some production environments. This means that spares are going to be relatively thin on the ground. There is bound to be a few 2U servers with a compatible motherboard, you'll just have to probably buy the whole thing as opposed to getting just the motherboard though.

It's funny, Linus posted a visit about reworking a dual socket board this morning. I was surprised it did not perform in productivity as well as I expected. Gaming was ok.

This was actually the reason I began looking into the dual Xeon boards after I saw the teaser post on instagram and later when he showed it on WAN Show.

I spent a while looking at the best quad cores with HT but in the end decided to get myself dual hex cores with HT so I would hopefully have a bit more rendering horsepower .

I think the response to this idea has been good and I'm sure with all the plans I have now that it will make for a very interesting project for both me and you.

Joe

EDIT:

No going back now! Sourced 2 newly listed 6C/12T E5649's at 2.53GHz base for the bargain price of £70 shipped from Aus for the pair and the Supermicro X8DTi for the not-so-bargain of £115.

And so the dual Xeon project begins! ETA on parts is 11-22 December. Will be making plans for the watercooling and case mods before that .

 

[sheroo]

I looked at a dual socket board a couple of years ago for folding. Just didn't have the funds at the time, & as mentioned they seems quite heavy on the juice.

Still, as a project looks interesting - keep them updates comin'

 

[shambles1980]

my dual xenon cpu server works fine as a server. but it needs a lot of cooling. the ram especially runs a lot hotter than you would expect when all the banks are fully populated.

 

[RadeonHDx]

I looked at a dual socket board a couple of years ago for folding. Just didn't have the funds at the time, & as mentioned they seems quite heavy on the juice.

Still, as a project looks interesting - keep them updates comin'

I just had a look and on the power calculator it estimated about 550w under full load with cap aging of 10% which is quite high, however my PSU is more than capable of that and the 2 CPU's will likely only ever be used at the same time when rendering leaving one idle while on the forum or playing basic games.

But thanks I'm really appreciating all of the helpful experiences and advice.

my dual xenon cpu server works fine as a server. but it needs a lot of cooling. the ram especially runs a lot hotter than you would expect when all the banks are fully populated.

I will probably only be using 3 of 6 channels per CPU due to the fact that I'm cheap :lol:. I will be watercooling both Xeons and hopefully the northbridge with custom made blocks, which is also because I'm cheap and have access to a mill .

I'll make a new post in build logs in a couple days when I have more things sorted out in regards to cooling and the mods etc.

 

[AlienALX]

That sounds very exciting