Dual LGA 1366 CPUs

[SimmuSaab]

Hey everyone. I bought two old enterprise computers and they both have dual xeons processors. One of them is a go z800 with dual 6 core processors. I wanted to make it my daily but the part that's bothering me is that it is stuck on sata 2 speeds. Im looking around for options to get around that. Has anyone ever bought dual socket motherboards off of Ali express and had any luck. They come with nvme with is nice and I'm thinking about getting on of them to build on. If not is there any work around the sata 2 ports. Like a PCIe card for nvme or a PCIe card for sata 3? Also if I run two SSDs in raid will I get similar or better speeds? I know it's really not necessary but I'd like to build a really beefy system for cheap

[Fasauceome]

SATA 2 is only gonna affect bandwidth, but the snappy responsiveness of general computing is hardly an issue, not sure if that was your primary concern.

 

I'm pretty sure these old servers can indeed have NVMe added, if a high bandwidth secondary drive is important to you. Can't boot off PCIe but you can use it for fast storage.

[SimmuSaab]

7 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

SATA 2 is only gonna affect bandwidth, but the snappy responsiveness of general computing is hardly an issue, not sure if that was your primary concern.

 

I'm pretty sure these old servers can indeed have NVMe added, if a high bandwidth secondary drive is important to you. Can't boot off PCIe but you can use it for fast storage.

That is my main concern. I hate the fact that it's sata 2 and any ssd I put in will be bottlenecked. I wanted a nvme drive as a boot drive. I'm thinking about moving everything to a more modern case as I don't have any use for a crap ton of data drives and bays. Now I'm contemplating getting a new motherboard or not.

[Fasauceome]

10 minutes ago, SimmuSaab said:

That is my main concern. I hate the fact that it's sata 2 and any ssd I put in will be bottlenecked. I wanted a nvme drive as a boot drive. I'm thinking about moving everything to a more modern case as I don't have any use for a crap ton of data drives and bays. Now I'm contemplating getting a new motherboard or not.

I think you need to shift your priorities a bit.

 

SATA 2 doesn't make a modern SSD slow like a hard drive. An SSD will still be really fast, even with lower bandwidth it has really fast latency. My secondary rig is exactly what you're describing, dual 1366 CPUs. The SATA bandwidth is a non-factor.

 

Also, chasing an NVMe SSD as the boot drive isn't important. A SATA SSD is going to provide the exact same experience, especially for a rig like this. NVMe drives might become very beneficial in the future with direct storage but I don't believe that applies here. Or if it does become relevant, an NVMe drive as secondary storage will still deliver the benefit, so you can add one later.

[jaslion]

7 minutes ago, SimmuSaab said:

That is my main concern. I hate the fact that it's sata 2 and any ssd I put in will be bottlenecked. I wanted a nvme drive as a boot drive. I'm thinking about moving everything to a more modern case as I don't have any use for a crap ton of data drives and bays. Now I'm contemplating getting a new motherboard or not.

It's PROPRIETARY so no moving to other cases z series stuff from hp is a NIGHTMARE to do that with.

 

You cannot boot from a nvme drive in that system as that is not supported no matter what.

 

Also why the worry about sata 2 speeds? It's not a big deal really and will still be snappy.

 

You are choosing to use a over a decade old system as a daily driver so you'll have to accept the limitations that come with it and cannot expect it to be able to use all the modern stuff.

 

Do keep in mind that the cpu's of this time are by now very weak for what they are and I hope you aren't gaming on this as well they are no longer capable of holding 60fps in a lot of modern games.

 

Also in raw cpu power a first gen ryzen 1600 is double the power of a xeon x5650. So even a dual cpu machine is barely going to reach the performance of what is now a dirt cheap used cpu.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

I think you need to shift your priorities a bit.

 

SATA 2 doesn't make a modern SSD slow like a hard drive. An SSD will still be really fast, even with lower bandwidth it has really fast latency. My secondary rig is exactly what you're describing, dual 1366 CPUs. The SATA bandwidth is a non-factor.

 

Also, chasing an NVMe SSD as the boot drive isn't important. A SATA SSD is going to provide the exact same experience, especially for a rig like this. NVMe drives might become very beneficial in the future with direct storage but I don't believe that applies here. Or if it does become relevant, an NVMe drive as secondary storage will still deliver the benefit, so you can add one later.

You also have to be realistic that this is NOT a gaming machine anymore. First gen core series stuff is just not good enough any more at stock speeds. I know that well enough with a i7 920 that has to run at 4.2 ghz to keep a solid 60fps in modern games as at stock it simply could no longer do that and the z800 doesn't really support ocing.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

You also have to be realistic that this is NOT a gaming machine anymore. First gen core series stuff is just not good enough any more at stock speeds

Well, that really depends. My secondary rig is entirely a gaming PC, though it's not cranking high framerates in AAA titles. It's just barely good enough for everything below the most demanding titles from the last few years.

[SimmuSaab]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

You also have to be realistic that this is NOT a gaming machine anymore. First gen core series stuff is just not good enough any more at stock speeds. I know that well enough with a i7 920 that has to run at 4.2 ghz to keep a solid 60fps in modern games as at stock it simply could no longer do that and the z800 doesn't really support ocing.

Oh yeah I'm definately not gaming on this thing at all. And I'm harvesting the CPUs from the z800 and nothing else. I have another motherboard I'm going to stick them in. So I guess it's safe to say that sata 2 will be fine. Just looking to do school work on them. Which doesn't consist of much. I think the most I will be doing is running low powered VMs on them. Which I think it could handle

[SimmuSaab]

Just as a reference I got both computers for about 100 bucks total. With everything in it minus the storage. This is the board I am sticking the dual xeons in (Intel S5520HC E26045-457 MOTHERBOARD). Which already has 2 quad core CPUs in it. Is there anything I should watch out for when trying this out?

[Fasauceome]

23 minutes ago, SimmuSaab said:

Oh yeah I'm definately not gaming on this thing at all. And I'm harvesting the CPUs from the z800 and nothing else. I have another motherboard I'm going to stick them in. So I guess it's safe to say that sata 2 will be fine. Just looking to do school work on them. Which doesn't consist of much. I think the most I will be doing is running low powered VMs on them. Which I think it could handle

A different dual socket motherboard will be really expensive, even used. In fact it's usually the motherboard that sinks the cost on these old systems. I wouldn't recommend going dual CPU for these tasks, one 6 core CPU with hyperthreading is adequate. Less power draw, less fan noise, a bit more convenient.

[Donut Dan]

28 minutes ago, SimmuSaab said:

Just as a reference I got both computers for about 100 bucks total. With everything in it minus the storage. This is the board I am sticking the dual xeons in (Intel S5520HC E26045-457 MOTHERBOARD). Which already has 2 quad core CPUs in it. Is there anything I should watch out for when trying this out?

Sometimes these are good, if you can lift the ram and sell the computer again to regain some money. I was really lucky, I got my motherboard cheap from eBay, but it is sad that it needs a power adapter for the 24 pin. I don't know if a nicer motherboard makes for a computer that is still cheap, because if I had to pay much more, I probably would have looked for a Ryzen processor and really cheap AMD motherboard.