Building a "High" end PC (If it were 2012)

[ChrisLohr667]

So basically I just wanted to get a few opinions, and maybe just chat about what I am doing as of current. So basically, a long time ago (So it feels like) buying a brand new i5-3470 or an i7-3770 felt great, simply because you knew you had a top of the line consumer consumer chip that in your mind should last for the next handful of years to come, or even more. So recently I keep seeing SO many craigslist adds of people getting rid of their old gaming rigs which I assume are from that time period. Problem is, they was absurd amounts of money for them. I seen recently a rig that had an i5-3570k, 8Gb of HyperX RAM, a GTX 780, a 120Gb ssd, and some RGB lighting that I assume came with the case. This person wanted $1,200.00 for said PC with no OS installed. I literally couldn't believe what I was reading, so I did some more looking around. Majority of the listings that I found with similar specifications were at minimum $750 with a good ol' "price is firm" as a signature at the bottom. I decided to look at EBay, Mercari, etc for just used parts in that general era and low and behold, they are DIRT cheap. I mean, most of the chips are going for sub $40. I figured, myself being on a tight budget for so long and my current rig consisting of an A10 series chip with a GTX 1050, I went ahead and started purchasing used hardware to build a full system. The only thing I really need now is a GPU, which I am unsure on. I have found older used original Titan cards for decent prices ($150 and less) or I could go with something more modern like an RX 470 for $99 from Newegg and just forget the nostalgia as far as the GPU is concerned. What do you guys think? Would love to chat about it.  

[emosun]

46 minutes ago, ChrisLohr667 said:

craigslist adds of people getting rid of their old gaming rigs which I assume are from that time period. Problem is, they was absurd amounts of money for them

this is commonplace that gaming pcs cost about twice as much as they are worth on craigslist.

it's a craigslist problem

not an actual measure for what the machines are worth so throw any craigslist research you've done away.

[maxtch]

Since it is 2012 we are talking...

• CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1660v2 or Xeon E5-1680v2. E5-1660v2 is equivalent to i7-4960X and E5-1680v2 has two more cores. Those Xeon E5-1600’s are unlocked, and somehow very cheap.
• Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS, with Meltdown/Spectre and NVMe BIOS patch. This is going to be the most expensive part, as we need ECC memory and overclock support.
• RAM: 4x 8GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered DIMM. Those are surprisingly cheap on the used market, so if you have the budget go for 8 of them. This is also part of why I chose the WS board and the Xeon.
• Cooling: use a liquid cooler. The CPU will be clocked sky high.
• GPU: RX 580 or Vega 56. Let’s ride the crypto crash here.
• Storage: WD Black NVMe 512GB on adapter card + WD Red 4TB. The whole BIOS modding above allows the use of NVMe boot device.

[ChrisLohr667]

32 minutes ago, maxtch said:

Since it is 2012 we are talking...

• CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1660v2 or Xeon E5-1680v2. E5-1660v2 is equivalent to i7-4960X and E5-1680v2 has two more cores. Those Xeon E5-1600’s are unlocked, and somehow very cheap.
• Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS, with Meltdown/Spectre and NVMe BIOS patch. This is going to be the most expensive part, as we need ECC memory and overclock support.
• RAM: 4x 8GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered DIMM. Those are surprisingly cheap on the used market, so if you have the budget go for 8 of them. This is also part of why I chose the WS board and the Xeon.
• Cooling: use a liquid cooler. The CPU will be clocked sky high.
• GPU: RX 580 or Vega 56. Let’s ride the crypto crash here.
• Storage: WD Black NVMe 512GB on adapter card + WD Red 4TB. The whole BIOS modding above allows the use of NVMe boot device.

When I said "High" end I meant more in the consumer space than in the enthusiast or server markets. Something based off of the LGA 1155 socket, reason being primarily because the LGA 2011 socket motherboard are VERY expensive. Even more so than they were upon release. If they were still even MSRP, I'd definitely go that route because the CPUs are cheap now. I was originally going to try and go with an i7-3960x because I found quite a few for less than $75, and even them being as old as they are, still have pretty great performance. And looking at performance per dollar on something that is that cheap, but is 6 core 12 thread is astounding. But, I decided to go the i5 route because I found an i5-3570k for $15 that is actually working and survived a stress test, so I couldn't beat the opportunity. That not to say I wont update the rig over time, because I'm not sure if it will be my daily driver yet or not. 

[maxtch]

1 hour ago, ChrisLohr667 said:

When I said "High" end I meant more in the consumer space than in the enthusiast or server markets. Something based off of the LGA 1155 socket, reason being primarily because the LGA 2011 socket motherboard are VERY expensive. Even more so than they were upon release. If they were still even MSRP, I'd definitely go that route because the CPUs are cheap now. I was originally going to try and go with an i7-3960x because I found quite a few for less than $75, and even them being as old as they are, still have pretty great performance. And looking at performance per dollar on something that is that cheap, but is 6 core 12 thread is astounding. But, I decided to go the i5 route because I found an i5-3570k for $15 that is actually working and survived a stress test, so I couldn't beat the opportunity. That not to say I wont update the rig over time, because I'm not sure if it will be my daily driver yet or not. 

I am using that unlocked Xeon as a cheaper surrogate of the HEDT i7-4960X. Also they support ECC, allowing you to dodge the DRAM price fixing bullet since companies are dumping those DDR3 ECC servers en made due to them being vulnerable to Meltdown/Spectre.

 

Also being HEDT equivalent you have 44 PCIe channels for modern amenities like dual GPU at full bandwidth or multiple NVMe drives. I have included the BIOS mod for that.

 

Here in Shanghai I can find X79 boards with ECC support for close to their MSRP too. Maybe you should put AliExpress into consideration, or if you can find a friend that reads Chinese, use Taobao.

[bimmerman]

Agree with @maxtch above. If you're looking at used parts, it's to your benefit to consider used HEDT of that era as well (i.e., X79 with the 1660/1680 Xeon, or X58 if you find a screaming deal). Reason being, these chips tend to overclock well, have double or triple the PCIe lanes of the non-HEDT systems, and tend to be a bit more long lived. As an example, X58 is only now becoming obsolete-- the extra PCIe connectivity, among other features (cheaaaaap 6 core OC monsters of cpus), has really helped the platform age well.

 

Most HEDT boards will work with the unlocked Xeon from that era, and those Xeons are effectively better binned i7 / i7-X processors.

 

You'll still spend more than on a non-HEDT system, but (IMO) it's likely worth it for the added longevity.

 

edit-- more a post for posterity than anything, since you've already bought parts?

[maxtch]

2 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Agree with @maxtch above. If you're looking at used parts, it's to your benefit to consider used HEDT of that era as well (i.e., X79 with the 1660/1680 Xeon, or X58 if you find a screaming deal). Reason being, these chips tend to overclock well, have double or triple the PCIe lanes of the non-HEDT systems, and tend to be a bit more long lived. As an example, X58 is only now becoming obsolete-- the extra PCIe connectivity, among other features (cheaaaaap 6 core OC monsters of cpus), has really helped the platform age well.

 

Most HEDT boards will work with the unlocked Xeon from that era, and those Xeons are effectively better binned i7 / i7-X processors.

 

You'll still spend more than on a non-HEDT system, but (IMO) it's likely worth it for the added longevity.

There are unlocked Xeons that are even better than contemporary HEDT's. E5-1680v2 is the only unlocked octa-core Ivy Bridge chip period. i7-4960X, the best Ivy Bridge HEDT, is equivalent only to E5-1660v2, not the top tier unlocked E5-1600v2.

[maxtch]

8 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Agree with @maxtch above. If you're looking at used parts, it's to your benefit to consider used HEDT of that era as well (i.e., X79 with the 1660/1680 Xeon, or X58 if you find a screaming deal). Reason being, these chips tend to overclock well, have double or triple the PCIe lanes of the non-HEDT systems, and tend to be a bit more long lived. As an example, X58 is only now becoming obsolete-- the extra PCIe connectivity, among other features (cheaaaaap 6 core OC monsters of cpus), has really helped the platform age well.

 

Most HEDT boards will work with the unlocked Xeon from that era, and those Xeons are effectively better binned i7 / i7-X processors.

 

You'll still spend more than on a non-HEDT system, but (IMO) it's likely worth it for the added longevity.

 

edit-- more a post for posterity than anything, since you've already bought parts?

Speaking of binning, isn’t Intel selling HEDT from failed Xeon chips?

[ChrisLohr667]

So, just as an update I have almost finished the full system build, the rest of the parts should be here today. I'm going to post pictures and full specifications list and what not in the next few hours.