Dual Xeon Build?

[IAMSWIFT1]

Im Thinking About Getting A New Build,And I Recently Saw A Dual Xeon Build. Im Thinking About A Dual X5650 Build But I Can't Decide On A Motherboard,Case,And CPU Cooler.Any Help?

   

[brob]

How will the system be used?

[IAMSWIFT1]

How will the system be used?

Rendering Mainly,I Do Play Some Games,CSGO Mainly

[brob]

X5650 is old tech. Xeon E5 2600 V3 family is roughly equivalent. Do you have a budget?

[alpenwasser]

I have two LGA1366 dual-CPU Xeon builds, and am very happy with them. The CPUs can be had for

really good prices on eBay these days. However, finding a suitable motherboard for a decent

price might prove trickier. I have an EVGA SR-2 (as hard to find as a unicorn these days, and

about equally as expensive when you do find one ) and a Supermicro X8DT3-LN4F. Supermicro

boards can be found used on eBay for decent prices and in good condition sometimes, though

they seem to be rarer than they used to be. There are companies which specialise in selling

server pull components (so, when a large company upgrades an entire data center they throw

tons of CPUs, RAM and M/Bs onto eBay).

Tyan and Asus also make server 2CPU boards though, but they seem to be harder to find, especially

for reasonable prices.

But before we go further, budget would probably be good to know, and for example whether or

not you'd be willing/able to mod a case so that the M/B can fit, etc.

Cooling-wise you don't need anything too special, however be aware that the cooler mounts

on LGA1366 server boards are not quite the same as on consumer boards (they have an integrated

backplane like LGA2011).

In general, LGA1366 is a very awesome platform if you can find a good deal on the components.

You do lose some single-core performance, and power efficiency is not as good as in the newer

CPUs, but as long as you can throw something at it which is properly multi-threaded it can

still be a beast of a machine.

[IAMSWIFT1]

I have two LGA1366 dual-CPU Xeon builds, and am very happy with them. The CPUs can be had for

really good prices on eBay these days. However, finding a suitable motherboard for a decent

price might prove trickier. I have an EVGA SR-2 (as hard to find as a unicorn these days, and

about equally as expensive when you do find one ) and a Supermicro X8DT3-LN4F. Supermicro

boards can be found used on eBay for decent prices and in good condition sometimes, though

they seem to be rarer than they used to be. There are companies which specialise in selling

server pull components (so, when a large company upgrades an entire data center they throw

tons of CPUs, RAM and M/Bs onto eBay).

Tyan and Asus also make server 2CPU boards though, but they seem to be harder to find, especially

for reasonable prices.

But before we go further, budget would probably be good to know, and for example whether or

not you'd be willing/able to mod a case so that the M/B can fit, etc.

Cooling-wise you don't need anything too special, however be aware that the cooler mounts

on LGA1366 server boards are not quite the same as on consumer boards (they have an integrated

backplane like LGA2011).

In general, LGA1366 is a very awesome platform if you can find a good deal on the components.

You do lose some single-core performance, and power efficiency is not as good as in the newer

CPUs, but as long as you can throw something at it which is properly multi-threaded it can

still be a beast of a machine.

Budget Would Be $1000,I Have The GPU And PSU Already.Im Not Sure If I Would Be Able To Mod A Case So I Would Say No To Modding A Case,And Cooling Wise Could I Maybe Do A Custom Loop?I Doubt I Could But If I Can That Would Be Great

[alpenwasser]

Budget Would Be $1000,I Have The GPU And PSU Already.Im Not Sure If I Would Be Able To Mod A Case So I Would Say No To Modding A Case,And Cooling Wise Could I Maybe Do A Custom Loop?I Doubt I Could But If I Can That Would Be Great

I don't think a custom loop makes much sense. It would be very expensive, but you

won't be able to overclock the CPUs, so there isn't really much need for a lot of

cooling.

Be aware though that you can't do SLI/Crossfire on most Supermicro boards, in case

that's something you need.

Also, HDDs larger than 2 TB are usually not recognised by the chipsets on LGA1366

server motherboards, just FYI (3 TB drives only came to market after that).

I'll see if anything comes to mind case-wise tomorrow.

[IAMSWIFT1]

I don't think a custom loop makes much sense. It would be very expensive, but you

won't be able to overclock the CPUs, so there isn't really much need for a lot of

cooling.

Be aware though that you can't do SLI/Crossfire on most Supermicro boards, in case

that's something you need.

Also, HDDs larger than 2 TB are usually not recognised by the chipsets on LGA1366

server motherboards, just FYI (3 TB drives only came to market after that).

I'll see if anything comes to mind case-wise tomorrow.

I Have Heard Of Some BIOS's That Allow You To Overclock,I Doubt That Is True But It Might Be.Yea I Might As Well Go With Just Closed Loops To Save Money.I Do Know That XF,And SLI Do Not Work With Them.This Will Also Be Used For Virtual Machines And F@H

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

Just came across a guy on OCN putting an SR-2 into the Nanoxia Deep Silence 6.

Anand's review for it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7571/nanoxia-deep-silence-6-review

Since the SR-2 is bigger than most dual-socket boards, those should fit as well.

Aside from that, there are of course server cases like those made by Supermicro and

the likes. I used the predecessor of this case, cost me about 200 bucks back then,

not sure how expensive this one is or where you can get it though: http://www.in-win.com.tw/Server/zh/goods.php?act=view&id=IW-PV689

Then there are of course used server cases on eBay.

And of course Caselabs, but those are very expensive. Awesome, but expensive.

[IAMSWIFT1]

Just came across a guy on OCN putting an SR-2 into the Nanoxia Deep Silence 6.

Anand's review for it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7571/nanoxia-deep-silence-6-review

Since the SR-2 is bigger than most dual-socket boards, those should fit as well.

Aside from that, there are of course server cases like those made by Supermicro and

the likes. I used the predecessor of this case, cost me about 200 bucks back then,

not sure how expensive this one is or where you can get it though: http://www.in-win.com.tw/Server/zh/goods.php?act=view&id=IW-PV689

Then there are of course used server cases on eBay.

And of course Caselabs, but those are very expensive. Awesome, but expensive.

Thanks!