Making this system more....gonzo, advice perhaps?

[Radium_Angel]

Preface: I'm not much of a gamer, Minecraft being the most demanding, so bear that in mind.

I started with a Dell Precision T5610 as a sort of stop-gap system until things stabilized, but grew to really like it. Along came a T7610 system for free, so doing a bit of research, realized it would be even better, so I want to present you my current system as it is, and will ask for advice on how to make it more gonzo after the specs:

 

Dell Precision T7610

CPU: 2x Xeon E5-2642 v2 CPUS (12c/24t total https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/xeon/e5-processors/e5-2643-v2.html)

RAM: 32GB Registered ECC DDR3 ram in Quad channel (system maxes out at 512GB)

GPU: AMD Radeon Pro Wx 7100 8GB.

Multi-card reader

DVD-RW

Boot Drive: M.2 256GB SATA SSD in a 5x PCIe card (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WDM3H9Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Data Drive: 2TB Seagate 7200RPM SATA HDD

Backup Drive: 4TB Seagate 7200RPM SAS HDD

Steam Drive: 512GB M.2 nVME in a PCIe adapter card

Extra Data Drive: 4TB Seagate 7200RPM SAS HDD

RAW Files (I'm a photographer) Drive: M.2 256GB SATA SSD in same 5x PCIe card

Movie Drive: 512GB SATA SSD

 

Generic Wi-Fi PCIe card

PCI (yes) FireWire card (because the slot was available and I had the card laying about)

 

Anyway, Since I don't really game all that much, the Ivy-Bridge era Xeons are just fine, great even for the few games that I do play (Heck, Destiny2 runs great with all settings maxed) but I'd like to throw more money at the system, because why not?

Yes, the Ivy Bridge systems are obsolete for gaming, but as a workstation it's just fine (PhotoShop, LightRoom, etc.) so:

 

What do I upgrade?

 

 

 

[PhoenixFire22588]

What.... does it mean to "gonzo" a build....?

[8tg]

Spec wise not much.

If you don’t need more actual performance out of the system, invest in creature comforts. Get some nice cpu coolers and a gpu cooler. Start replacing fans with better ones, not really much else to do with that system besides reducing temperatures and noise.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, PhoenixFire22588 said:

What.... does it mean to "gonzo" a build....?

Overkill.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, 8tg said:

nice cpu coolers

I had considered these:

 

But I can't find any reviews on cooling efficiency. Plus they are hard to come by and around 200$ US each....

3 minutes ago, 8tg said:

gpu cooler

This is what I'm mainly interested in. Again, had considered some kind of AIO cooler for it, but space is an issue on the Precision case, so I may not have any room for it. I am completely open to ideas for a GPU cooling system becasue my WX 7100 does run cool at idle (48C) but will easily hit 90+ even under light loads, despite a custom fan curve. 

[jaslion]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

I had considered these:

 

But I can't find any reviews on cooling efficiency. Plus they are hard to come by and around 200$ US each....

This is what I'm mainly interested in. Again, had considered some kind of AIO cooler for it, but space is an issue on the Precision case, so I may not have any room for it. I am completely open to ideas for a GPU cooling system becasue my WX 7100 does run cool at idle (48C) but will easily hit 90+ even under light loads, despite a custom fan curve. 

Are those the watercooler tiny cpu coolers? If so they are not better just kinda pointless really.

[8tg]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

I had considered these:

 

But I can't find any reviews on cooling efficiency. Plus they are hard to come by and around 200$ US each....

This is what I'm mainly interested in. Again, had considered some kind of AIO cooler for it, but space is an issue on the Precision case, so I may not have any room for it. I am completely open to ideas for a GPU cooling system becasue my WX 7100 does run cool at idle (48C) but will easily hit 90+ even under light loads, despite a custom fan curve. 

Those are fun for the sake of being memes, and if that’s what you want to try, go for it. From an actual performance standpoint it’s worse than the average 120mm AIO, which is nearly useless in a system with 95W+ processors anyway.

Get something big and silent, like a pair of BeQuiet dark rocks, or if they won’t fit honestly two shadow rocks of any variety should.

For the gpu the most universal option is the Arctic accellero IV, I’ve yet to find something it won’t screw onto 

It brought my Tesla c2050 from 105c load down to 75c load while being nearly silent at the same time

[Windows7ge]

E5-2690v1? Same boost clock but two more cores.

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, 8tg said:

From an actual performance standpoint it’s worse than the average 120mm AIO, which is nearly useless in a system with 95W+ processors anyway.

Yeah, if they were 50$ each it'd be one thing, but at 400$ (total) that's a lot of cash for something that won't help.

The T5610 had pretty naff CPU cooling, but the T7610...it's pretty great actually (large case allowed for proper heatsinks) and even under articial load the CPUs won't break 75C and idle around 35C.

7 minutes ago, 8tg said:

BeQuiet dark rocks, or if they won’t fit honestly two shadow rocks

I'll look into those, thanks!

9 minutes ago, jaslion said:

watercooler tiny cpu coolers?

Yup, AIO units, fan underneath the radiator, blowing upward. Finding (and fitting!) a twin CPU AIO is practically impossible.

4 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

E5-2690v1? Same boost clock but two more cores.

I'll look into those, thanks!

[Windows7ge]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I'll look into those, thanks!

What speed is the RAM? What density per DIMM? 4GB?

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Yup, AIO units, fan underneath the radiator, blowing upward. Finding (and fitting!) a twin CPU AIO is practically impossible.

 

Funny thing is my hp z620 had one of each. The air cooler on the addin cpu card and the water on the normal cpu. Had to buy the air cooled version because it couldn't keep the e5 2697v2 cooled and well temps were better. Don't know how a z820 cooler ended up in a z620 but hey thats what you can get when buying used. Can say I was very dissapointed with a supposedly better cooler being worse.

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

What speed is the RAM? What density per DIMM? 4GB?

1333Mhz and 4GB ones, correct.

I just bought 32GB more, to fill all the slots (8 sticks of 4GB each)

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Funny thing is my hp z620 had one of each. The air cooler on the addin cpu card and the water on the normal cpu. Had to buy the air cooled version because it couldn't keep the e5 2697v2 cooled and well temps were better. Don't know how a z820 cooler ended up in a z620 but hey thats what you can get when buying used. Can say I was very dissapointed with a supposedly better cooler being worse.

That's kind of what I expected, from what little I know about water cooling, you need a large surface area to dissipate heat, and those CPU coolers look more like a neat gimmick than actual hardcore cooler.

 

Shame that...

[Radium_Angel]

21 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Arctic accellero IV

This thing?

 

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Accelero-Efficient-VRM-Cooling-DCACO-V800001-GBA01/dp/B00HHMJIIO

 

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

1333Mhz and 4GB ones, correct.

I just bought 32GB more, to fill all the slots (8 sticks of 4GB each)

I would have opted for denser modules and gone 1600MHz if possible. The sweet-spot price wise is usually 16GB per DIMM for RDIMM memory.

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I would have opted for denser modules and gone 1600MHz if possible. The sweet-spot price wise is usually 16GB per DIMM for RDIMM memory.

I don't think the system supports beyond 1333, at least not officially.

The 4GB modules are cheap cheap cheap.

16GB modules....less so, but I"ve only briefly looked into maxing the RAM (about 1,000$ to max it)

[Windows7ge]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I don't think the system supports beyond 1333, at least not officially.

The 4GB modules are cheap cheap cheap.

16GB modules....less so, but I"ve only briefly looked into maxing the RAM (about 1,000$ to max it)

From the T7610 spec sheet:

Quote

Quad channel; up to 256GB 1866MHz ECC RDIMM memory; 16 DIMM slots (8 per processor), (512GB coming soon)

So you should be able to do 1866MHz even but the E5-2690v1 maxes out at 1600MHz. 16GB DIMMs would give you 128GB total. Only 1/2 to 1/4th the maximum it can handle. Cost wise eBay can net you 8x16GB 1600MHz memory for as low as or around $200. For the full 512 (16x32GB) yeah you could easily exceed a grand.

[Radium_Angel]

10 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Cost wise eBay can net you 8x16GB 1600MHz memory for as low as or around $200

ECC registered?

[Windows7ge]

13 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

ECC registered?

Oops, turns out I'm an idiot. That was the price of a bid item...

 

You can buy them (ECC Registered) for $38 a stick. A bit over $300...sorry. Putts around a bit you might find a better deal.

 

Compatibility with your motherboard definitely isn't guaranteed though.