dual xeon cpu build on budget

talha5541

Commendable
Aug 4, 2016
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hello guys i am a noob and this is my first thread here :)
i wanted to build a dual xeon workstation and have two options and many questions . either
dual x5650 with supermicro x8dt3
or dual e5-2670 and maybe a t5610 motherboard or any other.(more expensive)
the issue here is that the lga2011 c602 mobo are bloody expensive for some reason so is there any cheaper alternatives ? also if i will get the x5650 is because of its oc capabilities ,so is it possible to oc with that mobo (x8dt3f)?
Any suggestions , tips are more than welcomed :)
 


talha5541,

The economical method to have a dual Xeon workstation is to buy a used workstation either already having one or two of the intended processors or by buying a low specification system and upgrading. When buying and upgrading by adding the processors, the CPU's are heavily depreciated. That is to say, if you bought a used workstation already having a pair of E5-2670's, the cost will be greater than buying a system with a single E5-1620 and upgrading.

I would encourage you to use Xeon E5-2600 series as the single-thread performance is so much better than Xeon X5600 for the same clock speed. The X5650 has a Passmark single thread rating of 1234 while the Xeon E5-2670 mark is 1617. this is important in tasks like 3D modeling and of course having 8-cores is more useful in CPU rendering than 6-cores. An E5-2670 costs $70-$100 US or £40-60 in the UK and a Xeon X5650 is £40-50, so the cost is surprisingly similar at the moment, thanks to so many of this series on the market when changed form massive servers like Google and Facebook..

As an example, my current project is a rendering system to replace a Dell Precision T5500:

HP z620: > $270_ 7.7.16

HP z620 (Originall) Xeon E5-1620 4-core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (1X 8GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500GB + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2408 / CPU= 8361 / 2D= 846 / 3D = 1613 / Mem =1584 / Disk = 574 ] 7.13.16

Purchased:

2X Xeon E5-2690: $152 and $154 (single thread rating = 1888)
CPU riser board: $150
32GB (4X8 DDR3-1600 ECC) $165
Set complete plastic case parts: $56

The set of case plastic is to replace those on the system, damage being the reason the z620 was so inexpensive. The Quadro K2200 (4GB),will come from the T5500 and the Intel 730 480GB, WD Black 1TB from my main system, an HP z420 which is replaced by a Samsung M.2 SM951 AHCI and Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB. Value of the used parts is about $400

TOTAL = about $1,350

Plus, I can sell the E5-1620 and Firepro V5900 for about $75 each, so the net cost could be able $1,200. I hope to sell the Precision for about $100-200 less than that amount so the upgrade is not terribly expensive overall.

Results so far:

HP z620 (Revision 2) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 40GB (4X 8GB +4X 2GB DDR3-1600) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / Seagate Barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500GB + WD 500GB / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >
[ Passmark System Rating= 2468 / CPU= 20083 / 2D= 731 / 3D = 3535/ Mem =2278 / Disk = 541 ] 8.1.16

With updated BIOS:

[ Passmark System Rating= 2589 / CPU= 19671 / 2D= 728 / 3D = 3542/ Mem =2397 / Disk = 587 ] 8.2.16

The last system sold on Ebahhh US with a pair of E5-2690's, 64GB of RAM, a Quadro 5000, and ordinary mech'l HDD's cost $3,699. As my system has a faster GPU than a Quadro 5000, there is demonstrable savings in this method. In terms of cost / performance, it's impossible to improve by building from separate components.

There are of course a number of options for the basic platform: Dell T7600 and HP z620 would be my recommendations, but in all cases, buying a complete system is going to be a faster, less expensive project than building from individual parts. If I had loaded programs I could have used the the z620 two hours after opening the box - although the elderly disks are just terrible) and upgraded gradually as I found good bargains on the parts.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)




 
thnx for the fast reply first of all 😀
yeah u r right upgrading a workstation seems to be more reasonable than building a new one . however , unfortunatly i cant buy one as i dont have any resale that i know of in my area (istanbul) and the price of shipping a pre built workstation would be massive. i also seem to be leaning more toward the e5 series but the only reason that i am considering the x5650 is that there motherboards are sort of cheap as well as i read somewhere that they can be overclocked to 4.0ghz . If buying a prebuilt workstation is not a possible option which mobos would u recommend for the e5 ?
 


talha5541,

There are a limited number of motherboards that can overclock a Xeon X5600 series CPU and given that the native clock speed is 2.66 / 3.06GHz, the speeds are impressive:

Passmark Baselines: "Xeon X5460" / Date & Sorting: "Sort by Speed Descending"

4501 Mhz on Gigabyte X58A-OC
4479 > ASUS Sabertooth X58
4441 > Gigabyte X58A
4400 > ASUS Sabertooth X58
4397 > ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution

The ASUS Sabertooth and P6T6 seem to be prominent in the high speed results.

The top base clock speed shown for the Supermicro X8DT3 is 3067

If this were for gaming, the X5650 is probably the better choice as the E5-2670 has a locked multiplier. It's possible I think in some cases to push the voltage, (Supermicro X9SRA X9DR3-F, ASUS Z9PAD8 and D16) but the highest base speed is going to be 3.3GHz. However, as this is for workstation use and overclocking is not desirable, those motherboards are excellent choices. I would lean quite strongly towards Supermicro X9 as they are workstation and server specialists- good features and extremely stable. Supermicro resellers in Turkey:

http://www.supermicro.com/wheretobuy/europe.cfm?rgn=130

If you can send a link to parts sources there, a budget, and the use = programs and type of work, it would be possible to give a larger range of suggestions. The low prices of used Xeon E5-2600's first series is too good to pass up which is why I'm upgrading an HP z620. I'm a big fan of LGA 1366 and have two X5600 systems: Dell Precision T3500 and T5500 but the Xeon E5-2600 are fantastic- much better single-thread performance at the same clock speed, and greater memory bandwidth. The two E5-2690's in the z620 that cost $310, originally cost $4,100. The E5-2670 cost $1550 each- now $70 in the US. And a reminder: the X5650 has a Passmark single thread rating of 1234 and the E5-2670 = 1617.

Cheers,

BambiBoom







 


Hello,

What is your budget ? and forget old xeon cpu they are very slow by today standard .. meaning , if you get a new one cpu core i7/xeon it will be faster than older dual xeon X series ...

Tell me your budget .
 
i will either get an overclocked dual x5650 or dual e5=2760 so if there wont be any good slightly cheap mobo for oc the x5650 i will go with a supermicro/asus/asrock mobo with dual lga2011 c602. is there any suggestions about overclocking dual x5650 regrading the motherboard ?
 


For those that may stumble upon this in the future, the above is a false statement. I have personally done the following.

X5660 @ 4.4GHz on all cores. (Limited multiplier)
X5680 @ 4.3GHz on all cores (Limited multiplier)
E5-1650 @4.4GHz on all cores. (unlocked multiplier)
E5-1650 V2 @ 4.3GHz on all cores. (unlocked multiplier)
W3680 @ 4.1GHz on all cores. (unlocked multiplier) This was done on an HP Z400 with Throttle Stop, all the others were done through BIOS.