How bad is this $5000 PC from 10 years ago?

[nicklmg]

 

Buy Intel workstation parts on Amazon: https://lmg.gg/8KV3R

[kelvinhall05]

I was kinda hoping for X58

[Schnoz]

Can it run Minecraft?

[Overl0rd]

Overl0rd from the forum here  thanks for the shout out at the beginning @LinusTech, I’m happy to have been of assistance  Awesome that this obscure platform is getting some love again!

A couple of points I would like to mention: 

 

-While the QX9775 CPUs are the most awesome way to go on this platform. It will work just fine with regular 771 Xeons and back then a TON of people went that route. The board will also work just fine with a single CPU. Especially the CPUs with a 1333MHz FSB have great OC headroom (as 5400 chipset runs out at around 430MHz bus speed) and could potentially reach beyond 4GHz. Overclocking the QX9775s is rather straightforward, mine do 4GHz at 1.41V. Just make sure to have proper cooling on not just the CPUs, but also active cooling on the north bridge and the FBDIMMs; those will get up to around 90C.

 

-Despite the fact that the drivers of the Nforce 100 chips are troublesome in Windows 10, SLI should work fine using PCIe 2 and 4 (I have tested this personally). The problems are less under Windows 7, but still present.

 

-16GB of RAM is definitely supported out of box. I personally run 4x4GB 667MHz overclocked to 800MHz. To do this you do have to have the latest BIOS version, as more memory config options were only added later on.

For those interested in some comparative testing and further information, on my Youtube channel (Dellchannel21) I have a lot of videos covering this platform in detail.

In short; it still holds up reasonably well in gaming considering the age of the microarchitecture and having that extra CPU now definitely make a difference. It of course won’t be a valid option for a 144Hz setup, but in somewhat older titles it is playable. Crysis 3 was the best example of the extra cores really kicking in. This was tested with a GTX 1060 6GB in 2018.

SKULLTRAIL GAMING - How does Intel's $4000 Overclockable Dual Socket system perform?

 

For how it compares to under synthetic benchmarks; here I clocked both QX9775s to 4.2GHz with 16GB 800MHz CL5 memory and it was still really impressive. Beating the 5GHz FX 9590 Bulldozer and coming very close to the stock Skylake 6700K.

OVERCLOCKING SKULLTRAIL - Dual QX9775 over 4GHz

 

For how the latest and greatest games do, well… you can actually sort of play Battlefield V 64 player and I’m extremely impressed that was possible.

 

[emosun]

my main rig runs a motherboard from 2009 and is a dual 1366 socket with two x5679's and its still very useable today so much so that i havent upgraded to something newer yet becuase the cost would be very high to actually exceed the machine speed significantly

[kelvinhall05]

7 minutes ago, emosun said:

my main rig runs a motherboard from 2009 and is a dual 1366 socket with two x5679's and its still very useable today so much so that i havent upgraded to something newer yet becuase the cost would be very high to actually exceed the machine speed significantly

Yeah even my single X5650 at a modest clock speed is a good mid-range CPU today, and is phenomenal when you consider the CPU, motherboard, and RAM only cost $120.

[agent_x007]

Things to add :
1) RTX Titan needed (Titan XP is too old ;D)
2) NVMe (use those PCI-e slots properly !)
^software like DUET or Clover should be enough to make it bootable on this
[Optane standalone ]
3) Won't overheating chipset/NV bridges cause throttling ?
4) Driver overhead test : RTX vs. RDNA  (which gets more "necked"/can sqeeze more)
5) 16GB RAM or bust (DO NOT run/test it with again 8GB).
6) Bandwidth and Latency test on RAM (FSB is worse, but by how much)
7) GPU usage on 4k and Ultra settings
8 ) Compatibility with Windows based OC/Tweak programs :
https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/MemSet.shtml https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/ https://setfsb.en.lo4d.com/windows
PS. Old QVL lists get outdated the moment platform goes on sale (I used 16GB of DDR3 on Rampage Extreme fine*).
*only Double Sided 4GB memory modules are supported.

[samcool55]

Give this to Anthony, I'm sure he will manage to do some whacky stuff with it.

[ACatWithThumbs]

I'm curious how the performance would be if it was paired with a 2009 GPU like a GTX295/GTX285.
 

[Falconevo]

2 hours ago, nicklmg said:

 

Buy Intel workstation parts on Amazon: https://lmg.gg/8KV3R

Anyone able to clear something up?  I sent Linus this exact board, 2x QX9775 CPU's and some FB-Dimms from the UK @LinusTech



Is this my board being used here as the box looks like the one I sent across or is this @Overl0rd's equipment?  Trying to figure out what has gone on here?  Top job for Overlord if he did send another board, cpu's etc but I don't get where the board and equipment I sent has gone....?

Anyone from Linus Media Group able to clarify whats going on here?  Just wanna know if the stuff I sent was working etc

[Overl0rd]

4 minutes ago, Falconevo said:

Anyone able to clear something up?  I sent Linus this exact board, 2x QX9775 CPU's and some FB-Dimms from the UK.
Is this my board being used here as the box looks like the one I sent across or is this @Overl0rd's equipment?  Trying to figure out what has gone on here?  Top job for Overlord if he did send another board, cpu's etc but I don't get where the board and equipment I sent has gone....?

Anyone from Linus Media Group able to clarify whats going on here?

I haven't sent him my boards. If you sent him your stuff (top job for doing so by the way!) it should certainly be yours.

[Skeeter]

"a platform this old!"

 

I only retired my LGA775 system about 2 months ago...

[SPARTAN VI]

Good thing Linus caught that he forgot to plug the south bridge HSF fan back in...! That could have been a real blood blath. (Kappa)

[Falconevo]

21 minutes ago, Overl0rd said:

I haven't sent him my boards. If you sent him your stuff (top job for doing so by the way!) it should certainly be yours.

Ah cool, genuinely confused at the start of the video  then i was like.. pretty sure that's the box etc I sent over.. took me about 2 weeks to find the door hanger and all the docs for it so glad it saw some screen time.

 

I'd love to see it overclocked and pushed to it's absolute limits, the SkullTrail was a bit of a difficult beast to overclock with as not much documentation existed around the board.  I reset the BIOS before sending it and just verified it would boot with the QX9775's as it was running 4.4Ghz daily OC's back in the day on both chips and ran stable for everything outside of Intel's own CPU burn test (used to just lock up on dual socket due to some timing issue that would throw up 'hardware failure' on an Intel version of a blue screen of death).  Maybe LN2 and push for some world records ;)?  I believe the board and 9775's reached over 6Ghz at one point?   If it makes good content for the community just detonate the board with LN2 and massive OC's 

 

The system was still pretty strong in gaming, I also have a EVGA SR-2 & dual x5690's but the board some soldering after it got dropped during a house move  If I can get that working, may send it across too as that was the SkullTrail's replacement back in the day.

[Overl0rd]

1 minute ago, Falconevo said:

Ah cool, genuinely confused at the start of the video  then i was like.. pretty sure that's the box etc I sent over.. took me about 2 weeks to find the door hanger and all the docs for it so glad it saw some screen time.

 

I'd love to see it overclocked and pushed to it's absolute limits, the SkullTrail was a bit of a difficult beast to overclock with as not much documentation existed around the board.  I reset the BIOS before sending it and just verified it would boot with the QX9775's as it was running 4.4Ghz daily OC's back in the day on both chips and ran stable for everything outside of Intel's own CPU burn test (used to just lock up on dual socket due to some timing issue that would throw up 'hardware failure' on an Intel version of a blue screen of death).  Maybe LN2 and push for some world records ;)?  I believe the board and 9775's reached over 6Ghz at one point?   If it makes good content for the community just detonate the board with LN2 and massive OC's 

 

The system was still pretty strong in gaming, I also have a EVGA SR-2 & dual x5690's but the board some soldering after it got dropped during a house move  If I can get that working, may send it across too as that was the SkullTrail's replacement back in the day.

Awesome, yes Skulltrail needs some OC for sure. 4.4GHz is a lot for those chips, what voltage were you running? On air I've had mine at 4.2GHz with 1.42V and that was pretty toasty already.. These did indeed got near 6GHz on LN2 https://hwbot.org/submission/703152_delex_cpu_frequency_2x_core_2_extreme_qx9775_5586_mhz super awesome stuff, but I wouldn't recommend it with boards this age now  I believe Intel showcased them at 5GHz at some piont as well.

 

Oof sorry to hear about your SR-2, they are very fragile for sure.... 

 

[Falconevo]

Just now, Overl0rd said:

Awesome, yes Skulltrail needs some OC for sure. 4.4GHz is a lot for those chips, what voltage were you running? On air I've had mine at 4.2GHz with 1.42V and that was pretty toasty already.. These did indeed got near 6GHz on LN2 https://hwbot.org/submission/703152_delex_cpu_frequency_2x_core_2_extreme_qx9775_5586_mhz super awesome stuff, but I wouldn't recommend it with boards this age now  I believe Intel showcased them at 5GHz at some piont as well.

 

Oof sorry to hear about your SR-2, they are very fragile for sure.... 

 

If memory serves it was able to run 1.38 volts to get 4.4 stable (silicon lottery?) I did have an excel document full of configuration settings used for each step of the way but I genuinely can't seem to locate it on any old hdd  

I had a lot of problems with memory compatibility, I ended up with some Kingston 800Mhz FB-DIMMS KTA-MP800K2 and had to lax off the timings to keep things stable due to the FSB bump.  I also had a corsair active memory cooler on the top as the memory modules run HOT.

 

The whole system ran hot and the power draw was colossal but it was a really fun system to build, I've always been an enthusiast for dual socket builds as I have always worked primarily with server hardware with dual and quad socket mainboards.   Speaking of such, I do have a pair of X5492's which OC'd really well, I think they surpassed the QX9775's with similar voltage, I still have those knocking around in the basement if they are of any interest to you?  Got a load of old hardware like that just sat in the basement doing nothing.

[Overl0rd]

16 minutes ago, Falconevo said:

If memory serves it was able to run 1.38 volts to get 4.4 stable (silicon lottery?) I did have an excel document full of configuration settings used for each step of the way but I genuinely can't seem to locate it on any old hdd  

I had a lot of problems with memory compatibility, I ended up with some Kingston 800Mhz FB-DIMMS KTA-MP800K2 and had to lax off the timings to keep things stable due to the FSB bump.  I also had a corsair active memory cooler on the top as the memory modules run HOT.

 

The whole system ran hot and the power draw was colossal but it was a really fun system to build, I've always been an enthusiast for dual socket builds as I have always worked primarily with server hardware with dual and quad socket mainboards.   Speaking of such, I do have a pair of X5492's which OC'd really well, I think they surpassed the QX9775's with similar voltage, I still have those knocking around in the basement if they are of any interest to you?  Got a load of old hardware like that just sat in the basement doing nothing.

1.38V would be amazing for that frequency! If you do find that HDD I'd love to know.

 

I'm always interested in old OC stuff, send me a message!

[GodAtum]

Surely a modern Titan isnt supported on PCIe only PCIe 3??

[Jorno]

The Sata I interface killed the performance on photoshop/premiere.

can't you use one of the PCI-E slots for storage?

[Computernaut]

2 hours ago, Skeeter said:

"a platform this old!"

 

I only retired my LGA775 system about 2 months ago...

I'm still on LGA 775!

[Computernaut]

This is a lot like his $150 Motherboard+RAM+CPU(s) video.

If you get a dell 690 board and put in 16GB RAM, 2 Xeon X5450s, and a decent graphics card, you have yourself and not-terrible gaming computer.

[Bitter]

So I'm curious what the system is drawing at full prime95 small fft abuse? I saw 300W mentioned for total system power, that's actually not terrible but that was at what CPU %?

[Lathlaer]

4 hours ago, Overl0rd said:

I haven't sent him my boards

Then it's a really weird beginning because everyone and their mother will think that it's you who sent him that mobo.

[IsaacG]

I am building a very similar system right now with a Dell Precision T7400 motherboard, and it supports up to 32gb of ram, or 64 if you use memory risers, and 5400 series processors. That might solve the issue with the ram bottleneck, but I doubt it supports overclocking. You might want to look into VERY high end workstation motherboards or server motherboards from that era if you want to get more memory, though I bet they will come with their own set of challenges.

 

[Luscious]

This was definitely a cool system, but if you really want to go back in time you should try and get your hands on an Abit BP6 and some Celerons. Those dual socket systems were where it all began. I remember having to track down a copy of Windows NT because Win95/98 didn't support dual CPU LOL

 

Going back to this build, 8 cores is definitely a sweet spot. I'm still running a 5960X and that's a 5 year old product. The thing is that even for it being five years old it STILL doesn't feel slow and can handle anything I throw at it. Since I have no need to upgrade it now or even next year I am wondering if 5 years down the road when it becomes 10 years old it will still be able to work well enough. I'm thinking yes.

 

Speaking of dual sockets. where are the EPYC dual socket systems? Why isn't AMD pushing those in the GPU server market where all those PCI express lanes could be put to use?