A couple days ago, while trying to render a very detailed 3D scene, my computer did what I never expected it to do, the CPU and memory maxed out for 15 minutes. I had my i7-4770k overclocked to 4.3GHz, so I immediately fired up the Asus AI Suit to see my CPU cores hitting 127 Deg. fahrenheit, and climbing. And of course seeing that my fans where not maxed I immediately pushed the turbo button on all of them. After it completed, my next thought was its time to upgrade. Now, at first I was looking at the i7-6900k at $1050, plus the new motherboard $300+, and at least 32Gb of DDR4 RAM at $200+. So yea big dollars, and I am inclined to get the most for my money. While looking at the socket 2011 motherboards (for the i7-6900k) I spotted the ASUS Z10PE-D16 WS at $486, its's bit more expensive that the other motherboards, but then I looked at the Xeon processors, and the Xeon E5-2690 Sandy Bridge-EP 2.9GHz goes for $412. That is an 8 core CPU that can be overclocked to 3.8 GHz, where as the i7-6900k only overclocks to 3.7GHz. So for $824 I can get 16 cores that can run at 3.8GHz. So, while the ECC memory may be a bit more ($500+), I get a ton more performance for just a bit more money. So at the moment I am thinking this is the way to go.
Now the problem is that it has been quite a few years since I last looked at server related hardware, and even then it wasn't that much different than PC hardware. So I have a few questions that will hopefully help me finalize everything.
First is memory. I looked up the Asus Qualified Vendor List (QVL) and it seems most of the memory on that list is no longer available. I am guessing that the manufactures no longer make them. Am I safe in assuming that any reputable brand of ECC memory would work. I assume that non-ECC memory does not work, but I thought I should ask as Newegg doesn't say ECC in the Spec's.
Second, power supply. The system I currently have has a Corsair HX850 power supply, it does come with 2 4+4(8 pins) CPU plugs. The Xeon E5-2690 each use 135W. For the video card I am still debating between a Geforce GTX 1080's or a Quadro. And the only other items that may have some bearing on the power consumption would be drives, so a couple hard drives (M.2 and SSD) and a DVD drive. Best I can tell I shouldn't need more power, but I though I need to double check on this as most the builds, I saw, had 1200W power supplies.
Next is the CPU. The Sandy Bridge line is a few generations old, but the newer Haswell is only a 2.6 (OC 3.4), and at more than double the price ($966). And I can't even find a Skylake or Kaby Lake version. I am just wanting to make sure I am getting the most bang for my buck. It almost doesn't make sense to have what looks to be the better CPU priced so much lower that its newer replacement. I am missing something here?
Last, is regarding the motherboard. My current Asus motherboard has software that makes overclocking real easy, and in years past I have done the overclocking in the bios, but I like easy, so I am just wondering if this motherboard includes the overclocking software like other Asus motherboards. Also I noticed this motherboard has been around for well over 2 years, Is Asus going to ship any kind of an updated board, especially with the new Kaby Lake CPU's. I would hate to buy this and see its replacement a couple months down the road.
Of course any suggestions or pitfalls I should look out for are welcome as well.
