Building an Affordable 16-Core, 32-Thread Xeon Monster PC

[Squid Surprise]

All I know is I have tried this build with three brand new motherboards and keep getting a "b9" code and no POST when I take all the RAM out, but one, I can get the machine to POST. I have cycled through each stick and am able to get POST. I place a stick in the second slot and can POST. Third slot POST. Fourth slot and I am back to getting the "b9" code. I have spent countless hours working with ASRock support in trying to get it running and even when I shipped the boards back they found no defects in the board and were able to get it running with same CPU's and a different set of RAM. They even tested the third board in-house before sending it to me. Still, I am getting the "b9". I have swapped the CPU's and even tried it with just one of the CPU's loaded at a time. The E5's both work. So, tell me why I am not able to get this working? It would be nice if Mr. Steve Walton was reachable via in site messaging, but I have found no way to contact him directly through the website. I will be happy to rescind my comment if anyone can explain to me what I am doing wrong when I have every single same part he specs out and the only variable not working is the RAM? Until then I don't believe those test were actually run with the G.SKILL RAM.

OK... I see you're frustrated... even if it turns out he wasn't using G.Skill RAM (but why would he lie?!?!?!), it's still a bit of a leap to assume he was being paid off by them...

Just because you can't get something to work doesn't mean you get to accuse the person of being, effectively, bribed! He does have a profile on this forum - did you try posting on his profile page?

 

[acronis]

Guys I did build the machine with same configuration but it throws error 53 (even if memory installed or not). Any one faced similar issue?

 

[ankoron]

Guys I did build the machine with same configuration but it throws error 53 (even if memory installed or not). Any one faced similar issue?

It could be a faulty or not properly mounted RAM. It could even be a faulty RAM slot on the motherboard. Try mounting one stick at a time on different slots and see what happens.
Also try searching youtube for bios settings. I found this video extremely useful for setting up the bios with ashrock EP2C602-4L/D16, RAM settings included: "w w w.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rxg84vVGw".
In any case, I think it is much safer to use ECC RAM with server motherboards, they are dirt cheap on ebay if you go with DDR 1333 Mhz. You can even easily overclock up to 1866 Mhz but I wouldn't bother, on an intel platform you aren't going to notice a difference between 1333 and 1866Mhz.

 

[Steve]

Originally released in 2012 for a whopping $1,550, the Xeon E5-2670 is attracting tons of interest among PC enthusiasts. This four-year old CPU delivers 8-cores clocked at 2.6GHz with a 3.3GHz turbo frequency and a large 20MB L3 cache. Though it was intended for use with the C600 series chipset, it's also compatible with X79 desktop motherboards, and as such supports quad-channel DDR3 memory.

You're probably wondering at this point, why we are talking about an old, expensive server-grade processor? Well, late last year thousands of these processors hit the secondhand market as previous-gen servers from Facebook and others were decommissioned by used equipment recyclers. With so many processors in play and little demand for them, prices have plummeted to less than $100. Moreover, the Xeon E5-2670 supports symmetric multiprocessing, meaning you can buy two Xeon E5-2670 to create an insanely affordable 16-core/32-thread beast.

That's exactly what we set out to do. Paired with a dual-socket Asrock EP2C602 motherboard and 64GB of DDR3 memory, the core components of our system came in at ~$800, which is less than you'd pay for a single octa-core i7-5960X.

Read the complete review.

 

[Kenrick]

Alright perfect timing for my heater project this winter!

 

[Nobina]

Would DirectX 12 improve performance of this thing due to better core/thread usage? Would like to see it, also Vulkan too.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

I bought my 6950x powered computer from Hewlett Packard.

Just order it with the bare minimum and add your own components.

I added my own memory to 32GB and my Titan X 12GB.

added my 2TB Samsung EVO SSD after cloning it using AOMEI Backupper and was good to go.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I love how this was posted as throwback Thursday despite it still receiving fairly regular commentary.... let's hope we keep getting more updates

 

[fktech]

Can I win this?

 

[ankoron]

Can I win this?

Yeah, if you play your cards right. Your motherboard card, that is.

 

[ankoron]

I just spent all summer researching hardware and have been trying to put this build together and keep having issues. This is the first time EVER to try and build a computer from scratch. I am intending to use it as a render farm node. The first time around I had an issue with the ASRock EP2C612D16C-4L second CPU socket not detecting the Xeon. Still not detecting Xeon in second socket. So processors are fine. Eventually returned the board for refund. Now I have purchased the ASRock EP2C602 and I can't even get the POST to run. Bought a new MB battery and reset the CMOS with the ME recovery jumper. Now ASRock support is saying my RAM, the same exact G.SKILL Ripjaws Z series in your article, is gaming RAM and has not been validated for that board. I'm at a loss here and am hoping someone can help me out. Please.

I bet your first card, the "ASRock EP2C612D16C-4L" worked just fine. I have the exact same card and I think it is the best of the EP2C602 series. If I were you I'd get it back. You changed 3 motherboards assuming they are faulty but did you even consider returning the G.SKILL? You probably got a bad batch. From a simple search around the internet, you can tell that the MAIN reason the second Xeon on a dual CPU motherboard is not detected is due to bad/incompatible RAM. Return the G.SKILL and get a new one. Even better, get a refund if you can and buy ECC memory at 1333 MHZ, that is your safest bet really, you are building a server after all. Just make sure that the memory is new and unused. Micron has a really good reputation by the way, I'm using 128 GB of Micron ECC RAM on my ASRock EP2C612D16C-4L and everything runs smoothly. Cost me a lot less that 64 GB of G.SKILL too. There is even a video on youtube for setting up the bios : "w w w.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rxg84vVGw". And never rely on a single source to build a system, what worked for one person may not work for you, it is not the Bible.

 

[davidaguero]

The ARK intel page say that the xeon 2670 doesn't support 1866 memory, the fastest is 1600, so I can spend less in ram?

http://ark.intel.com/products/64595...E5-2670-20M-Cache-2_60-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI

 

[ankoron]

The ARK intel page say that the xeon 2670 doesn't support 1866 memory, the fastest is 1600, so I can spend less in ram?

http://ark.intel.com/products/64595...E5-2670-20M-Cache-2_60-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI

Funny how no-one spotted that before. Of course you can go for less and make sure it is ECC RAM if you don't wan't to risk running into problems.

 

[davidaguero]

Funny how no-one spotted that before. Of course you can go for less and make sure it is ECC RAM if you don't wan't to risk running into problems.

thanks for your reply, another thing I see is that this mother in the QVL memory compatibility doesn't say anything about g.skill:
http://asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EP2C602#Memory
so, a basic kingston DDR3 ECC at 1333 or 1600 will do the job for this rig, I want to build a render machines for 3d, I need all the cores I can get, so if I can use regular non ECC memory better for my money, I want 8x4gb for a total of 32gb of ram, this memory won't work?:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HyperX-Sava...DDR3-1600-PC3-12800-Desktop-Mem-/291286881100

 

[ankoron]

thanks for your reply, another thing I see is that this mother in the QVL memory compatibility doesn't say anything about g.skill:
http://asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EP2C602#Memory
so, a basic kingston DDR3 ECC at 1333 or 1600 will do the job for this rig, I want to build a render machines for 3d, I need all the cores I can get, so if I can use regular non ECC memory better for my money, I want 8x4gb for a total of 32gb of ram, this memory won't work?:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HyperX-Sava...DDR3-1600-PC3-12800-Desktop-Mem-/291286881100

Well, 32GB 4x8GB should work but the RAM in your link is only 8 GB, 2 chips of 4 GB, so it is not what you want.

Also if you want to utilize quad-channel keep in mind this, and I quote from another post:

“LGA-2011 is quad-channel platform, which in order to utilize, requires memory modules to be put into multiple of 4s, (4x8gb for example in case of i7), but for dual-socket, this doubles, since each CPU needs its own channels (but they do share the capacity). So to utilize quad-channel, in dual-socket Xeon build, you would need at least 8 memory modules (so for 64gb memory, it would be 8x 8gb sticks, for 32gb, 8x 4gb).”

What worked for me is this (if your budget allows it):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micron-64GB...-Server-Ram-/182205663065?hash=item2a6c4dc759

It is ECC by the way, I wouldn't risk non ECC on a server board. And MIcron has a really good reputation.
Since you will be using it for 3d, I would prefer 64 GB, but you can go for 32 GB.

By the way, I bought the exact same RAM for my Asrock EP2C602-4L/D16 and it worked flawlessly.

You can follow this video to set up the bios with ashrock, RAM settings included: "w w w.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rxg84vVGw".

 

[Popa2caps]

I have to ask, Was this test using Windows 10 64 bit? If it is windows 10, how did you go about downloading the updates, I seem to have 1 hardware issue with the SAS controller on my board.

The only thing I'm not using in this would be the power PSU,RAM, My RAM is ECC PC3L Samsung 1600, Any help with drivers?

 

[davidaguero]

I have to ask, Was this test using Windows 10 64 bit? If it is windows 10, how did you go about downloading the updates, I seem to have 1 hardware issue with the SAS controller on my board.

The only thing I'm not using in this would be the power PSU,RAM, My RAM is ECC PC3L Samsung 1600, Any help with drivers?

the mother in the post does't fully support windows 10, asrok rack don't have drivers for win 10

 

[davidaguero]

Well, 32GB 4x8GB should work but the RAM in your link is only 8 GB, 2 chips of 4 GB, so it is not what you want.

Also if you want to utilize quad-channel keep in mind this, and I quote from another post:

“LGA-2011 is quad-channel platform, which in order to utilize, requires memory modules to be put into multiple of 4s, (4x8gb for example in case of i7), but for dual-socket, this doubles, since each CPU needs its own channels (but they do share the capacity). So to utilize quad-channel, in dual-socket Xeon build, you would need at least 8 memory modules (so for 64gb memory, it would be 8x 8gb sticks, for 32gb, 8x 4gb).”

What worked for me is this (if your budget allows it):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micron-64GB...-Server-Ram-/182205663065?hash=item2a6c4dc759

It is ECC by the way, I wouldn't risk non ECC on a server board. And MIcron has a really good reputation.
Since you will be using it for 3d, I would prefer 64 GB, but you can go for 32 GB.

By the way, I bought the exact same RAM for my Asrock EP2C602-4L/D16 and it worked flawlessly.

You can follow this video to set up the bios with ashrock, RAM settings included: "w w w.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rxg84vVGw".

thank you for that link, the Price is great, on my link my intend was to purchased 8 modules of 4gb ram sticks, I wonder if 1333 vs 1600 memory will have a impact on loading times ( when I hit the render buttom and the ram loads all the geometry and textures for render)

 

[ankoron]

thank you for that link, the Price is great, on my link my intend was to purchased 8 modules of 4gb ram sticks, I wonder if 1333 vs 1600 memory will have a impact on loading times ( when I hit the render buttom and the ram loads all the geometry and textures for render)

I had the same concern (1333 vs 1600) before choosing RAM for my system as well and finally went for 1333. On intel platforms the difference is supposedly negligible, on AMD it is a bit more noticable. If you were to choose between DDR4 vs DDR3 then it would have an impact but DDR4 is not supported. DDR3 1333 vs 1600 is practically the same and not really worth the price difference. For speed, quantity is more important in your case, if you don't have enough memory you will end up using the swap file on your hard drive.

If you are using Vray + 3dsMax for rendering, make sure to set the desired memory amount under "Render Setup" / "Settings" /"Vray: System" / "dynamic memory limit". Vray doesn't recognize the system's memory automatically.

Again, go for ECC, is is the safest choice for system stability (otherwise you should check the motherboard's manufacturer site for compatibility) and always buy new RAM, never used.

 

[Popa2caps]

I had the same concern (1333 vs 1600) before choosing RAM for my system as well and finally went for 1333. On intel platforms the difference is supposedly negligible, on AMD it is a bit more noticable. If you were to choose between DDR4 vs DDR3 then it would have an impact but DD3 1333 vs 1600 is practically the same and not really worth the price difference. Quantity is more important, if you don't have enough memory you will end up using the swap file on your hard drive.

If you are using Vray + 3dsMax for rendering, make sure to set the desired memory amount under "Render Setup" / "Settings" /"Vray: System" / "dynamic memory limit". Vray doesn't recognize the system's memory automatically.

Again, go for ECC, is is the safest choice for system stability (otherwise you should check the motherboard's manufacturer site for compatibility) and always buy new RAM, never used.

Never buy used Bad Feedback, Very bad advise. Just got 2 E5-2560's and 64GB ECC Samsung for $150.00, Buy used, find the good sellers.Always!

 

[ankoron]

Never buy used Bad Feedback, Very bad advise. Just got 2 E5-2560's and 64GB ECC Samsung for $150.00, Buy used, find the good sellers.Always!

The thing is you can never be sure if you buy something used, even if you read good feedback. A used CPU is much safer to buy but RAM is much more prone to errors. At least, if you are going to buy used RAM, make sure it has a warranty.

 

[ankoron]

the mother in the post does't fully support windows 10, asrok rack don't have drivers for win 10

True, there is no official support for Windows 10 but it might work. This is interesting for future reference:

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-and-windows-10-no-more-random-crashes.11170/

 

[Sum Guy]

Do the coolers you use cover the cpu die completely?

I am looking for a decent cooler. I recently got a ThermalTake cooler, very similar to your nocturn. The ThermalTake claimed socket 2011 support, but about a 1/4 inch of my cpu's edges on 2 sides are exposed. My temps are ok, but I am very uncomfortable with my cpu not being completely covered. I want to overclock, but at 40c on idle I am certain its a bad idea.

If your cooler does indeed cover the chip completely, please link me it or at least state the exact model number in a reply.

Thanks.

 

[ankoron]

Do the coolers you use cover the cpu die completely?

I am looking for a decent cooler. I recently got a ThermalTake cooler, very similar to your nocturn. The ThermalTake claimed socket 2011 support, but about a 1/4 inch of my cpu's edges on 2 sides are exposed. My temps are ok, but I am very uncomfortable with my cpu not being completely covered. I want to overclock, but at 40c on idle I am certain its a bad idea.

If your cooler does indeed cover the chip completely, please link me it or at least state the exact model number in a reply.

Thanks.

If you want to overclock I think you chose the wrong CPU. But 40c is quite good actually. The highest operation temperature is around 80 °C.

 

[Sum Guy]

If you want to overclock I think you chose the wrong CPU. But 40c is quite good actually. The highest operation temperature is around 80 °C.

I never said what Cpu I was using. I am using a socket 2011 v3 chip. I am just looking for a decent cooler for this chip. I thought I got one, but I was wrong. 40c is at idle. Under load it about 55 to 65c At untouched clocks.

I just want to know if the cooler's base they used cover the die completely or not.