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Bargain dual socket workstation

The Ran

The processors themselves aren't locked, I've heard of people overclocking them pretty far (I think it's CPU Boss that lists overclocks on air and water). Perhaps it's only the X series that are unlocked, like the K series i5s and i7s. I do believe you can overclock in the SR-2's BIOS, and as Xeons are the only CPUs that support multiple CPUs it would make sense that you could overclock them.

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The processors themselves aren't locked, I've heard of people overclocking them pretty far (I think it's CPU Boss that lists overclocks on air and water). Perhaps it's only the X series that are unlocked, like the K series i5s and i7s. I do believe you can overclock in the SR-2's BIOS, and as Xeons are the only CPUs that support multiple CPUs it would make sense that you could overclock them.

LGA 1366 Xeons are unlocked, yes. You can only OC them in SR-2s or X58 motherboards

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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Aren't all 1366 boards X58? I've never really understood what the difference is between the X58 chipset and the 5520 chipset used by my board and the SR-2, but I'm guessing the 5520 is a subset of X58 and not a replacement of it.

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Aren't all 1366 boards X58? I've never really understood what the difference is between the X58 chipset and the 5520 chipset used by my board and the SR-2, but I'm guessing the 5520 is a subset of X58 and not a replacement of it.

The X58 is basically the Z97 of back then, and 5520 is the server class, so basically H97. You can't OC on them, and they have lower quality power delivery and what not

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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A lot of the Wikipedia articles don't really clarify stuff, for example the X58 page doesn't list 5500 or 5520 as alternatives and the LGA 1366 page only mentions X58, however I found the page "Intel 5 Series" that lists all three. So, if the SR-2 is 5520 how does it manage to overclock? Is it just changing the FSB or can't it change the multiplier as well?

=

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A lot of the Wikipedia articles don't really clarify stuff, for example the X58 page doesn't list 5500 or 5520 as alternatives and the LGA 1366 page only mentions X58, however I found the page "Intel 5 Series" that lists all three. So, if the SR-2 is 5520 how does it manage to overclock? Is it just changing the FSB or can't it change the multiplier as well?

=

I'm pretty sure it's down to the bios. All chipsets can handle overclocking, theoretically, but some are made for it an some aren't. EVGA just built an overclocking board on the 5520 chipset and put their own OC capable bios in it.

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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I'm quite sure that it's the bios stopping you. I too tried SETFSB and I had the perfect match, even down to the PLS chip which is what makes overclocking possible.

 

However, in practice as soon as I went up 3mhz on the bus the rig would just lock up.

 

As for the Xeons? they are locked. Multiplier is fully locked on those Xeons, it was only the 980x and similar that had unlocked multi and they were only single QPI so you could not run and overclock two of them sadly.

 

Most OEM type rigs and boards are derped in the bios to prevent any overclocking.

Area 51 2014. Intel 5820k@ 4.4ghz. MSI X99.16gb Quad channel ram. AMD Fury X.Asus RAIDR.OCZ ARC 480gb SSD. Velociraptor 600gb. 2tb WD.

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Should be all done tomorrow.

10953955_10152590341531820_3278934834456

 

This will be my 6th loop now (if you count adding or changing components in a loop), no leaks yet so hopefully this isn't the first.

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Couldn't be bothered to bust out the DSLR for a single photo, also it's easier and quicker to upload from my phone.

 

1. 7950 and 2500k using a Swiftech H220

2. 290 and 2500k using H220

3. 290 and 2500k using separate pump

4. New case, just 290 in the loop

5. 290 and X5560s added as well as a new rad

6. Adding second 290

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And it's done.

IMG_1744_zpsbxf6ust8.jpg

 

"Beauty" shot

IMG_1745_zpsuiaaeohu.jpg

 

So, I think that's most of my original plans done now, it's progressed a lot quicker than I thought it would. Not sure what will be coming next, I would like to sort out the SATA III thing but it's not a huge deal, I'll pick up another SSD at some point to stick my games on, and I think one or two of my 4GB sticks are faulty so I'll have to test that at some point.

 

I also added up the rough cost and it came to approximately £1500, around £400 of which is the watercooling. Might try pricing up a similarly performing build using new parts to compare it to.

 

May be of interest to some, these are the Firestrike results as the build progressed.

-Single 290 with 15% OC 

-One watercooled 290 and one air cooled, the latter of which was thermally throttled during the majority of the run, both stock

-Both cards watercooled and stock speeds

firestrikeupdate_zpskodn6jkb.png

-

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I always get a good laugh from this because you use the red sleeved cables in a build where you won't even see them. Did you just have them lying around?

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I had the first set left over from an old build where the colour made more sense, as the cables Seasonic supplied weren't long enough (I guess they assume no one uses top mounted PSUs any more) I figured I'd use them. Had to order another set for the second card so it made sense to at least make them match even if they don't match anything else.

 

newnewguts_zpsaib0qxvy.jpg

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You're a madman!

 

...

 

I love it!

 

 

Also I found the theme to this build

 

 

If you want to join a really cool Discord chatroom with some great guys here from LTT and outside this community then PM me!

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EVGA SR-X

 

Really a shame intel got rid of unlocked xeons. LGA 1366 was a great generation for overclockers

 

 

LGA 1366 Xeons are unlocked, yes. You can only OC them in SR-2s or X58 motherboards

 

 

Aren't all 1366 boards X58? I've never really understood what the difference is between the X58 chipset and the 5520 chipset used by my board and the SR-2, but I'm guessing the 5520 is a subset of X58 and not a replacement of it.

 

Since I have an SR-2 ( :wub:): The Xeons are all locked (i.e. you cannot increase the

multiplier. However, what you could do back then (i.e. on LGA1366) was increase the

base clock (a bit like the front side bus in the older days), if your motherboard

supported it, and that would result in a higher clock for your CPU with the same

multiplier.

This was true not only for Xeons but also for single-socket consumer CPUs which had

a locked multiplier. As ALXAndy said, only 980X and a few other CPUs had unlocked

multipliers back then. But you could still overclock something like the i7 970 by

increasing base clock.

The SR-2 was/is unique because it supports raising the base clock on a dual socket

board, which allowed you to overclock dual-socket compatible Xeons. Other vendors

like Tyan, Supermicro and Asus did not have this functionality on their dual-socket

1366 boards.

The 5520 and 5500 chipsets were chipsets for dual-socket boards, X58 was single-socket

only. I'm sure there are a few more differences, but that's the major one if I recall

correctly.

With the switch to LGA2011 and LGA1155 there were some significant changes in how

everything worked, which meant that raising the base clock will lead to major

instabilities across your entire system after only a few MHz, which is why you can

only significantly overclock via multiplier, and so overclocking locked-multi Xeons

was no longer a feasible proposition sadly.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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 -snipping all that useful info-

Learn something new everyday.

That explains why people say overclockable xeons a lot, as opposed to unlocked.

 

I wasn't into tech back when LGA1366 was around, so i had no idea.

Thanks mountain man

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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Learn something new everyday.

That explains why people say overclockable xeons a lot, as opposed to unlocked.

 

I wasn't into tech back when LGA1366 was around, so i had no idea.

Thanks mountain man

Happy to be of service, and damn, you make me feel old (well, I built my first PC in the

glorious era of Athlon supremacy around the turn of the millennium, so I'm probably at least

old-ish :D ).

In any case, LGA1366 was a great time to be into computers indeed, and I'm sure I'll be

hanging on to my SR-2 for quite a while yet.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Alpenwasser, as you're pretty knowledgeable when it comes to this class of computer I'm wondering if you could help with a question I've had for ages and can't even find anyone else asking on the internet never mind answering. Does the CPU's maximum RAM capacity double when using two CPUs? I'm not concerned about ECC and obviously wouldn't be able to use 288GB as the board is limited to 192GB, but what about using 96GB of non-ECC (or just more than 48GB really)?

 

I'm not sure if the 48GB limit is a motherboard or a CPU one as it seems to be common among all 1366 configurations. If it was CPU based it would make sense to me if it would double with two.

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Alpenwasser, as you're pretty knowledgeable when it comes to this class of computer I'm wondering if you could help with a question I've had for ages and can't even find anyone else asking on the internet never mind answering. Does the CPU's maximum RAM capacity double when using two CPUs? I'm not concerned about ECC and obviously wouldn't be able to use 288GB as the board is limited to 192GB, but what about using 96GB of non-ECC (or just more than 48GB really)?

 

I'm not sure if the 48GB limit is a motherboard or a CPU one as it seems to be common among all 1366 configurations. If it was CPU based it would make sense to me if it would double with two.

It ought to be 48, because X58 boards were maxed out at 24...although 48gb worked just fine in them.

You ought to be fine using more, 48 gb is what the controller is rated for, not what it's capable of

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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