Here We Go Again: 40-Thread Xeon PC for less than a Broadwell-E Core i7

[alexnode]

Would an ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard work for this build?

Yes

 

[Yarrow]

Very Cool build tho I would stay away from ES processors. I have stuck with my old LGA1366 boards installing a Xeon 5675 and a Xeon 5679. I really like the Xeon 5675 it has future proofed my existing motherboards for another year at the least when my core i7 950 was beginning to show its age.

 

[namesrejected]

Yes

Awesome! Need a kidney? I will sell you one ! My left one, it makes stones.

 

[gazmatic]

I built a new compact PC based on a Xeon processor. No problems yet

 

[Steve]

The premise of this article seems to be 'building a latest gen server results in greater performance and energy efficiency than four generations ago'. Well, no kidding...

So I have a few things I'd like to point out. Firstly, you're using standard memory in a server platform. That might make sense if all you're trying to do is run software that happens to love multithreaded operation but the accuracy of output doesn't matter too much. Like in a game. But for a machine crunching numbers that have to be accurate, you need ECC memory. RDIMMS are also preferable, but ECC is the minimum standard here.

So you're being a bit disingenuous with your comparison between the v1 Vs v4 architecture costs, when DDR3 ECC RDIMMS on the v1 can be picked up for under $15 USD per 8gb, while DDR4 RDIMMS are what, five times that?

While I'm also glad your ES chips are doing well, this is nothing but a home tinkering solution - you would never run any business processes on a machine built like that. You could, however, on the v1 architecture - it may be old, but it will still be rock solid reliable, as well as costing a fraction of the dodgy v4 build.

So those reading this who have built or are thinking of building a v1 system, what they've done here does not diminish such systems in the least - the v1 E5 Xeon system is still far and away better value for money $/clock or $/work unit, with the added bonus that it will actually be reliable - I wouldn't run anything I gave a $#@& about on ES chips and non ECC memory...

In short, you seem to have completely missed the premise of this article. How is this a comparison between the v1 and v4 Xeons when the E5-2670's weren't mentioned once in the conclusion. That seems odd to me :S To me it reads like we are providing an alternative to the uber expensive 6950X.

 

[rolandxeon]

Very inspiring article, but I'm left with a big question:

Most cool dual-XEON boards (e.g. SuperMicro X10D) but also your AsRock Rack EP2C612D16 seem not to support UDIMMs in their specification. How can I be sure that this combinations works? Is it a special combination of CPU (E5 v4) + Intel C612 + Bios? What Do I need to know to know?

Thanks

 

[kacedaniels]

Steven, thanks for putting in the time and effort in creating this article. I found it entertaining and informative as I did your previous 32-thread build article. At this rate, I will be expecting a 48-thread build piece from you in early November!!

My only problem with what you wrote was basically the same concern I posted (https://www.techspot.com/community/search/38328512/) about your previous mentioned article.. lack of NEW motherboard availability. Perhaps the EP2C612D16-2L2T was available when you were writing your article but a Google cache of the Newegg product page for that motherboard for Aug 8, 2016 15:24:31 GMT shows it was out of stock the day you posted your article.. and has stayed OOS during the past four days. Asrock Rack was nice enough to provide you one but I doubt it will provide one for the rest of us to "test"!! Just wondering if you could provide one or two alternative Dual Socket LGA 2011 R3 Intel C612 motherboards.

One motherboard that Newegg does have currently in stock that seems very close to what you used is the ASRock EP2C612D16C-4L. It is over $200 cheaper than the one you used and adds the M.2 option you wished your board had. The main items it does seem to sacrifice are E5-4600 CPU support, NVDIMM support, one less PCIe 3.0 x 8 slot, and no 10G base-T. But just about everything else about this board (SSI EEB, dual socket LGA 2011 R3, Intel C612, 16 DIMM slots) seems identical to the board you used. Any thoughts on this or any other motherboard that could be used as a substitute for yours would be appreciated. Also, any suggestions on a case that can fit a SSI-EEB mobo would be great.

Thanks again and can't wait for your next installment this fall!! ;-)

 

[Crunch]

Loved this and the 32-thread article. Keep them coming.

 

[makosblade]

Did the Xeon's used here have SR2R7 stepping? Ebay appears to only have QHVK E5 2630 V4s now

 

[ruthan]

I first review with Sandy bridge Xeon were also gaming benchmarks, here im missing them..

 

[Ragilsp]

Thanks a lot for this and 32-thread article.
someday I want to build one.

I like some comments on 32-thread about Pinnacle.
For some point, I agree with 'him' (the one who argue with Steve techspot), because my dad experience it too.
Lag encoding, lag rendering, etc.

But something interesting here, we're using Pinnacle 14 in windows XP pro 32-bit, core 2 duo E4600, 2 GB ram DDR2. It was okay for rendering and encoding. But when I upgrade it to windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, its performance drops 50-80% slower
Because of this, we upgrade our rig to I5 4600 haswell, 8 GB ram DDR3, SSD 128 GB, with same windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and Pinnacle 14. And its performance is exactly the same like when I use core 2 duo rig with windows XP pro 32-bit (maybe a little 5% better because of Haswell)

Some other day I install Pinnacle 17 on my haswell, and I get performance much worse than Pinnacle 14 with core 2 duo rig windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

My conclusion, Pinnacle will be better on whatever windows 32 bit, although I'm too lazy to downgrade it.

I am very sure if windows 10 have 32 bit version, it would be better for Pinnacle and maybe for some similar video editing software. And I can't imagine if this combine with dual Xeon

I hope this help.
Sorry for my bad English

 

[Squid Surprise]

Thanks a lot for this and 32-thread article.
someday I want to build one.

I like some comments on 32-thread about Pinnacle.
For some point, I agree with 'him' (the one who argue with Steve techspot), because my dad experience it too.
Lag encoding, lag rendering, etc.

But something interesting here, we're using Pinnacle 14 in windows XP pro 32-bit, core 2 duo E4600, 2 GB ram DDR2. It was okay for rendering and encoding. But when I upgrade it to windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, its performance drops 50-80% slower
Because of this, we upgrade our rig to I5 4600 haswell, 8 GB ram DDR3, SSD 128 GB, with same windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and Pinnacle 14. And its performance is exactly the same like when I use core 2 duo rig with windows XP pro 32-bit (maybe a little 5% better because of Haswell)

Some other day I install Pinnacle 17 on my haswell, and I get performance much worse than Pinnacle 14 with core 2 duo rig windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

My conclusion, Pinnacle will be better on whatever windows 32 bit, although I'm too lazy to downgrade it.

I am very sure if windows 10 have 32 bit version, it would be better for Pinnacle and maybe for some similar video editing software. And I can't imagine if this combine with dual Xeon

I hope this help.
Sorry for my bad English

Conclusion - Pinnacle sucks.... Get another program that is decent...

 

[Janaka]

Any other good motherboards suggestions for this build ? That would help most of us. Thanks for the great article.

 

[Skjetne]

Hey Steven,

This sounds like a fun project.

I just got a Asus z10pe-D8 WS for 200$ brand new, so will try this out.

One question though - which eBay seller did you buy from?

 

[Skjetne]

Did the Xeon's used here have SR2R7 stepping? Ebay appears to only have QHVK E5 2630 V4s now

Seems like it. I find anyone with sr2r7 stepping for anywhere near 200usd. Why is that..

 

[PeterCC]

Please add "SR2R7" to your eBay link or people will accidentally buy the wrong stepping.

Would this rig do well with x265 4K encoding and crypto-currency/Monero mining?

 

[PeterCC]

Especially since the recommended used CPU in the article is now up to nearly $600 on ebay

 

[Wendy Oltman]

Can you use a dual-socket compatible processor on a single-socket motherboard?

 

[PeterCC]

This CPU can be purchased NEW for $644.00 right now with a little searching. 'only slightly higher than current Used/ES prices.

 

[Cthulion]

What is your photoshop custom workload?

 

[MrScotte]

Great Article. Thanks for sharing.

I built a Dual Xeon E5-2620 v3 on a Z10PE-D8 WS board and would welcome some Performance Tweaking suggestions for the group.

1) I use a 3D Architectural Design work on a program that uses all the CPU threading I have a available so, I was thinking of maybe upgrading to a higher core count CPU pair. Thoughtss?
2) I have 32GB of 2133 ECC RAM onboard. Is there any performance benefit to increasing to more RAM and if so, how much more?

Thanks,

 

[MrScotte]

Following up to our popular 32-thread Xeon PC feature, we've been in the hunt for affordable Xeon processors based on the Haswell-EP or perhaps even Broadwell-EP architectures -- it certainly seemed mere wishful thinking that we would come across a relatively inexpensive Broadwell-EP Xeon.

Our search put us on the trail of Intel's Xeon E5 2630 v4, a 10-core Broadwell-EP part that runs at a base clock of 2.2GHz but can boost up to 3.1GHz depending on the workload.

Typically, you'd spend something like $700 for this processor -- substantially more than the $70 we paid for each of our E5-2670 v1 processors -- however, it's possible to purchase the E5-2630 v4 for as little as $200 on eBay. The only catch is that they are engineering samples (ES), not retail chips.

Read the complete feature.

Are the "ES" bad chips? I'm doing 3D rendering and not scientific computations.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Are the "ES" bad chips? I'm doing 3D rendering and not scientific computations.

Doesn't the ES stand for "Engineering Sample"? Basically the same as an application in Beta, may not be completely finished?

 

[ankoron]

The premise actually was building a "monster" PC for NON server users that would compare to the 5960 and the newer 6xxx extreme processors using older server parts. Instead of paying $1000 for the 5960, you pay substantially less for the server parts.

This is why you don't see ECC RAM as you wouldn't need that in a typical 5960 build...

Unfortunately non-ECC RAM with dual-xeon is a hit and miss issue for some, as you can tell from the previous 32-Thread Xeon article. If you don't want any surprises, ECC is the way to go.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Unfortunately non-ECC RAM with dual-xeon is a hit and miss issue for some, as you can tell from the previous 32-Thread Xeon article. If you don't want any surprises, ECC is the way to go.

Not really... you can always return it if it doesn't work until you get working RAM...