dual cpu help?

[m4tch3dplaya]

Very new to the xeon duual cpu world and had a few questions. Lets start off with the fact that I do not need a dual cpu set up at all... i ran a pc with a i5 2500k absoultely fine for 3 years. i now have a 4790k oced to 4.7 ghz. THE ONLY REASON FOR THIS FOR MY E-PEEN. lol im actually serious, i have a graphics project going right now so i figured id bust out, the other post is here http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2924504/barnaculeus-set-killer-long-post.html . I have plans on either a dual titan or a quad 980ti, i figured what either one i get, the quad core is gonna need a upgrade, i was looking at a ASUS Z10PE-D16 then i found out that i cant use i7's which kinda sucks. im curious is it worth dealing with the hastle? If this setup isnt at least on bar with a $700+ i7, im not gonna bother. remember for those who say i dont need the titans, my plan is on 3, 34 inch ultrawide 1440p either lg's or dells. I WILL play on ultra... no questions asked. if the 3 ultrawides arent a possibility due to size, it will be 3 4k screens. thanks for the help!

 

[SBennett13]

....uh....ask them?

 

[m4tch3dplaya]

....uh....ask them?

sorry lol i just wanted to get to the full screen page editor.

 

[joex444]

Keep in mind the only CPUs that can run in SMP as dual socket configuration are the Xeon E5-2xxx chips, 4xxx chips, and 8xxx chips (these can run in 2-way, 4-way, and 8-way SMP respectively). You cannot run a Core i7 with another, though they will physically fit. You cannot run a Xeon E5-1xxx chip with another, as those are for 1-CPU systems. You should also be looking at the E5 v3 chips, not the v2 ones. Actually, here's a link to the ARK page: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/78583/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-v3-Family#@All

With that out of the way, you can go with dual Xeon E5-2620 v3, each of which is a 6C/12T 2.4GHz part so you'd have 12C/24T @ 2.4GHz. No overclocking on these parts, that's what you'd get. Those are ~$420/each. For ~$440/each you can get dual Xeon E5-2623 v3 which would offer you 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz total (they're quad core CPUs). Keep in mind an i7-5960X is an 8C/16T 3.0GHz chip so this configuration is sort of equivalent to a 5960X while the previous one is not since it has more cores but at a slower clock rate. Which one would be better depends entirely on your workload.

Other interesting choices are:

At $420/each: dual E5-2620 v3 for 12C/24T @ 2.4GHz [28.8] [$29]
At $440/each: dual E5-2623 v3 for 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz [24] [$37]
At $670/each: dual E5-2630 v3 for 16C/32T @ 2.4GHz [38.4] [$34]
At $1160/each: dual E5-2650 v3 for 20C/40T @ 2.3GHz [46] [$50]
At $2000/each: dual E5-2667 v3 for 16C/32T @ 3.2GHz [51.2] [$78]
At $2150/each: dual E5-2687W v3 for 20C/40T @ 3.1GHz [62] [$70]
At $2700/each: dual E5-2697 v3 for 28C/56T @ 2.6GHz [72.8] [$74]

Where the first number in brackets I've added to mean the product of cores and speed (admittedly a crude metric for performance as cores don't scale linearly). The next bracket is the total cost per unit in the first bracket, so you see that higher performance makes each and every clock cycle cost more to obtain. Your best value is the dual E5-2620 v3 however let's not forget the 5960X as a single CPU, which at $1000 would look like this:

At $1000: single 5960X for 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz [24] [$41]

However, if you can drop the motherboard back down from a $490 dual CPU board to a more manageable $240 X99 board then your total cost is altered such that it's like getting the dual CPU board with a 5960X priced at $750 meaning the two numbers in square brackets would now be [24] [$31].

Personally I like the idea of toying around with multi CPU setups, but I honestly think an overclocked 5960X is your best bang for the buck option. The only things I see that would be likely to outperform a stock 5960X are the dual E5-2630 v3 and above setups which is a $490 board + $1200 in CPUs versus $240 board + $1000 CPU.

THG did a 5960X overclocking review and found 4.4-4.6GHz is typical. At that point the numbers in square brackets change to [35.2] [$28], so you'd end up needing at least 16 physical cores if not 20 or 28 to outperform it, and that's assuming that whatever workload it's being given can handle cores past the 8th in an efficient way.

 

[m4tch3dplaya]

Keep in mind the only CPUs that can run in SMP as dual socket configuration are the Xeon E5-2xxx chips, 4xxx chips, and 8xxx chips (these can run in 2-way, 4-way, and 8-way SMP respectively). You cannot run a Core i7 with another, though they will physically fit. You cannot run a Xeon E5-1xxx chip with another, as those are for 1-CPU systems. You should also be looking at the E5 v3 chips, not the v2 ones. Actually, here's a link to the ARK page: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/78583/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-v3-Family#@All

With that out of the way, you can go with dual Xeon E5-2620 v3, each of which is a 6C/12T 2.4GHz part so you'd have 12C/24T @ 2.4GHz. No overclocking on these parts, that's what you'd get. Those are ~$420/each. For ~$440/each you can get dual Xeon E5-2623 v3 which would offer you 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz total (they're quad core CPUs). Keep in mind an i7-5960X is an 8C/16T 3.0GHz chip so this configuration is sort of equivalent to a 5960X while the previous one is not since it has more cores but at a slower clock rate. Which one would be better depends entirely on your workload.

Other interesting choices are:

At $420/each: dual E5-2620 v3 for 12C/24T @ 2.4GHz [28.8] [$29]
At $440/each: dual E5-2623 v3 for 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz [24] [$37]
At $670/each: dual E5-2630 v3 for 16C/32T @ 2.4GHz [38.4] [$34]
At $1160/each: dual E5-2650 v3 for 20C/40T @ 2.3GHz [46] [$50]
At $2000/each: dual E5-2667 v3 for 16C/32T @ 3.2GHz [51.2] [$78]
At $2150/each: dual E5-2687W v3 for 20C/40T @ 3.1GHz [62] [$70]
At $2700/each: dual E5-2697 v3 for 28C/56T @ 2.6GHz [72.8] [$74]

Where the first number in brackets I've added to mean the product of cores and speed (admittedly a crude metric for performance as cores don't scale linearly). The next bracket is the total cost per unit in the first bracket, so you see that higher performance makes each and every clock cycle cost more to obtain. Your best value is the dual E5-2620 v3 however let's not forget the 5960X as a single CPU, which at $1000 would look like this:

At $1000: single 5960X for 8C/16T @ 3.0GHz [24] [$41]

However, if you can drop the motherboard back down from a $490 dual CPU board to a more manageable $240 X99 board then your total cost is altered such that it's like getting the dual CPU board with a 5960X priced at $750 meaning the two numbers in square brackets would now be [24] [$31].

Personally I like the idea of toying around with multi CPU setups, but I honestly think an overclocked 5960X is your best bang for the buck option. The only things I see that would be likely to outperform a stock 5960X are the dual E5-2630 v3 and above setups which is a $490 board + $1200 in CPUs versus $240 board + $1000 CPU.

THG did a 5960X overclocking review and found 4.4-4.6GHz is typical. At that point the numbers in square brackets change to [35.2] [$28], so you'd end up needing at least 16 physical cores if not 20 or 28 to outperform it, and that's assuming that whatever workload it's being given can handle cores past the 8th in an efficient way.

Thank you for simplifying this, i knew about the overclocking with Xeons however what else do I need to worry about with dual cpu besides just the phsyical concept. Theres no special windows exceptions or any bios swaps? if I were to go with the dual cpu itd be plug and play, no extra hasles? your number is close besides the cheaper motherboard and the fact that id need to buy ram. I planned on the ram to be phenominal, somewhere in the 64 to 128gb range for each cpu. i had dreams of running a dual pc, thru vmware and have my triple ultrawide with the sli'd titans and toss like 2 750 ti's in there and run a 4k with hackintosh on a close by monitor, and a hmdi cable thru the wall and hook it up to my main tv. What do you think would be more practical? dual xeons or the 5960x? altho 1 pc wouldnt be utilizing all 8 or 16 cores, some way or another, theyd be used.