Jump to content

Dual Xeon16x4 Workstation

Hello friends.

Can any of you fine folks with experience building workstations advise me on a motherboard capable of running at least four PCIE lanes each in a 16x configuration?

My technical knowledge only extends as far as standard desktop components and sadly a lot of them usually tend to have 16/0/0/0 or 8/8/0/0 PCIE configurations and such. I need at least a 16/16/16/16 configuration and the supporting processor(s) for this beautiful, beautiful machine.
As far as my research goes, I have here the, an ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS, intended to seat two of the Xeon-2620 v3 which should happily suit my needs although it's not too easy keeping up with the workstation scene.
Can I do better?

Dual CPU is not an  absolute requirement, but I mean COME ON! You know you want to see that build log! ;)

~D

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

You can get a 2011-V3 X4 MOBO.

Intel Core i7-6700K | Corsair H105 | Asus Z170I PRO GAMING | G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB | 950 PRO 512GB M.2

 

Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX OC | BitFenix Prodigy (Black/Red) | XFX PRO Black Edition 850W

 

 

My BuildPCPartPicker | CoC

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello friends.

Can any of you fine folks with experience building workstations advise me on a motherboard capable of running at least four PCIE lanes each in a 16x configuration?

My technical knowledge only extends as far as standard desktop components and sadly a lot of them usually tend to have 16/0/0/0 or 8/8/0/0 PCIE configurations and such. I need at least a 16/16/16/16 configuration and the supporting processor(s) for this beautiful, beautiful machine.

As far as my research goes, I have here the, an ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS, intended to seat two of the Xeon-2620 v3 which should happily suit my needs although it's not too easy keeping up with the workstation scene. Can I do better?

Dual CPU is not an  absolute requirement, but I mean COME ON! You know you want to see that build log! ;)

~D

You're going to need to go with dual CPU do actually have the lanes. Let me do some further looking for you. I've never needed to know about 16x(x4) so I'll take a look for you and find you a decent board. What's your overall budget? Are you planning to use Tesla's? Or something similar, hence the 16X requirement? or?

Please quote/tag ( Found by typing @DarrenP) In all posts directed at me. I do not check my current content. 


Intel Core i7-4790K - Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK - 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 1866Mhz - EVGA GTX 980 - 256GB MX100 - 2TB WD RED - 900D - H100I - Corsair HX1050 - DNS 320L 2x2TB Seagate Barracuda 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Asus X99 E-Ws has four 16x slots that run at 16x, and its single socket motherboard. What do you use this for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Plenty of quick replies I see!
The system is to be used for a very large scale permanent CCTV monitoring installation and will at first driving around Ten 1920x1080 displays with 32 or more linked feeds each which will over the next few years will advance very quickly. The intention is for the system to be future-proof in regards to the growth of the company.
If possible, one day these cards may each run 6 of their own displays independently. 4 is what I consider to be the minimum.

The video cards to be used are open to discussion but the general consensus is that a high VRAM usage will be required. The cards processors will rarely be at load, although on occasion, the system will be used to quickly render video feeds of CCTV evidence with a face blurring filter to comply with regulations preventing the faces of the public being shown if not required by any potential investigation, should that occur.

While high core count is not necessary due to software limitations, it is a preference providing it does not compromise other areas.

Here is the original markup from December 2014 when the system was first considered. A lot has changed in the world of tech since then so I was looking at revising it where possible. I can already see a couple of my own potential changes to be made when I amend the documentation. The GPU choices for a start, maximum display output per card is a priority.

 

Quantity Item 1 Installation Charge*
3 MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB-GDDR5* 3 (OR) MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB-GDDR5* (GTX 780?)
1 Antec High Current Pro 1300w Platinum
4 SanDisk Ultra II 120GB
1 Asus Z10PE-D8 WS
2 Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3
1 Lian-Li PC-343B Cube HPTX
2 TeamGroup Elite (4x4GB) DDR4 2400MHz
1 Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
1 DVD-RW Drive
1 Phanteks PH-TC14PE
2 Aerocool Shark Black 120mm
8 Aerocool Shark White 140mm
2 Alumino Fan Filter 120mm
8 Alumino Fan Filter 140mm
3 Akasa AK-CB001


It appears that spreadsheet paste didn't come out like I intended.

The parts where quoted by a tech company, seeing as i will be buying the parts from standard retailers for the cheapest price, I'll be a lot more spoiled for choice where things like cooling options are concerned, as opposed to the original author of the spreadsheet who had a limited catalog.

To reiterate. Display count is not the issue, That's covered by magic. I'm just looking for best price performance in this area. This motherboard is the only one I know will work unfortunately, I was hoping there would be more options.

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh of course, Budget! I'm slightly worried this will be the main constraint. £3000 is a reasonable spot, however the client, (my boss), wants that pushing as close as possible to £2000. This of course limits us to consumer grade GPUs but should a better system be required then we might have to make do spending more.

Taking into account taxes, that number is not much more in dollars. :/

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If possible, one day these cards may each run 6 of their own displays independently. 4 is what I consider to be the minimum.

 

 

You'll have some trouble here in that a GTX 970 through GTX 980Ti is only set up for 4 monitors max, as per nVidia's own documentation (check their multi monitor display).  For what you want, you're looking at the professional level of cards, FirePro or Quadro which is quite likely going to take a big chunk out of your budget.  

 

Although I wonder if you really need full 16x across all your cards.  We're looking at 1080p monitors and that really makes me wonder if the PCIe bus will be saturated or not.  Have your vendors done tests and explicitly proven you need all 16 lanes.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I would get an i7 5820k and 3 970s. 6 cores are enough.

It would need to be Xeons, I'm not building a gaming Rig here but thanks for the considerations. That processor would not be compatable with 16/16/16/16

 

You'll have some trouble here in that a GTX 970 through GTX 980Ti is only set up for 4 monitors max, as per nVidia's own documentation (check their multi monitor display).  For what you want, you're looking at the professional level of cards, FirePro or Quadro which is quite likely going to take a big chunk out of your budget.  

 

Although I wonder if you really need full 16x across all your cards.  We're looking at 1080p monitors and that really makes me wonder if the PCIe bus will be saturated or not.  Have your vendors done tests and explicitly proven you need all 16 lanes.   

This is an entirely separate build to the 970SLI build in my signature, completely unrelated. ;)

EDIT: Oh I see you where talking to the other guy. :)

To your second paragraph, yes we are looking at 1080p displays, but we are also looking at about 20-30 of them within a few years.

The technical team that works for the ISP who will be working with me in this installation have assured me that they can have the system running the required displays providing the lanes each have a 16x width. That is of course why I need Xeons to do this.

I know what I need done can be done, I'm just looking for better cheaper options if possible. I know very little about these kinds of boards and processors. :(

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

AFAIK amd's max support on monitors is 6 on cards like the 295x2 or 7990. With that many displays i think you are going to have to get a professional firepro or quadro card, or even matrox, they often support many displays. Or one of those splitters, they are quite expensive aswell however. 

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 5800x3D | Scythe Fuma 2 | RX6600XT Red Devil | B550M Steel Legend | Fury Renegade 32GB 3600MTs | 980 Pro Gen4 - RAID0 - Kingston A400 480GB x2 RAID1 - Seagate Barracuda 1TB x2 | Fractal Design Integra M 650W | InWin 103 | Mic. - SM57 | Headphones - Sony MDR-1A | Keyboard - Roccat Vulcan 100 AIMO | Mouse - Steelseries Rival 310 | Monitor - Dell S3422DWG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

It would need to be Xeons, I'm not building a gaming Rig here but thanks for the considerations. That processor would not be compatable with 16/16/16/16

 

You could get a X99 E-WS, it has a plx chip that lets four of the pcie lanes run at full 16x. And if you don't need ecc ram its your cheapest option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If your boss has enough valuable stuff that it mandates something sitting there looking at 20 to 30 monitors, then he needs to pay more for his rig.  If his revenue stream is not such that he can spring for some pro grade cards, then maybe he has to settle for having a smaller monitor bank and flips between streams or something.  Or he needs to build computer now to drive one bank and then build a second rig in a few years when it comes time to expand.  For that many PCIe lanes you're going to have to pay the premium tax.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If your boss has enough valuable stuff that it mandates something sitting there looking at 20 to 30 monitors, then he needs to pay more for his rig.  If his revenue stream is not such that he can spring for some pro grade cards, then maybe he has to settle for having a smaller monitor bank and flips between streams or something.  Or he needs to build computer now to drive one bank and then build a second rig in a few years when it comes time to expand.  For that many PCIe lanes you're going to have to pay the premium tax.

Yes, if he does not go for this, we are probably looking at multiple builds and hooking the keyboards up together with Synergy or something. We are really looking at minimizing the points of failure though. Monitor banks are not expensive but Quadros are. Luckily I have people who have their own way of overcoming the display-count issue,

Sadly we cant have the feed switching. our clients pay for 24 hour coverage by the camera.

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, if he does not go for this, we are probably looking at multiple builds and hooking the keyboards up together with Synergy or something. We are really looking at minimizing the points of failure though. Monitor banks are not expensive but Quadros are. Luckily I have people who have their own way of overcoming the display-count issue,

Sadly we cant have the feed switching. our clients pay for 24 hour coverage by the camera.

If your clients pay for camera coverage, the company for sure needs to do better than a consumer grade GPU. A price tag of 2-3k is rather unrealistic because you need cards that even support that many monitors.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 5800x3D | Scythe Fuma 2 | RX6600XT Red Devil | B550M Steel Legend | Fury Renegade 32GB 3600MTs | 980 Pro Gen4 - RAID0 - Kingston A400 480GB x2 RAID1 - Seagate Barracuda 1TB x2 | Fractal Design Integra M 650W | InWin 103 | Mic. - SM57 | Headphones - Sony MDR-1A | Keyboard - Roccat Vulcan 100 AIMO | Mouse - Steelseries Rival 310 | Monitor - Dell S3422DWG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If your clients pay for camera coverage, the company for sure needs to do better than a consumer grade GPU. A price tag of 2-3k is rather unrealistic because you need cards that even support that many monitors.

We have the systems in place to handle all the displays and consumer grade cards are sufficient. We currently have 10 displays running 200+ feeds off of three Radeon HD5450's. Displays are not an issue, we will be upgrading to a system that will replace the existing infrastructure because this one is capping out.

That's why I came to ask if anyone knew of any better MB's or CPU configurations better than the Asus and 2630v3 mine, with 16x times four being the requirement.

"Monitor support" is not the issue, that is why I need PCIE 16x slots. ;)

But thanks for getting involved in the discussion. Maybe some negative feedback will push him into spending more.

No chance we can be paying the tens of thousands that a proprietary video wall specialist would charge though. We cannot afford that kind of kit.

Gaming with: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix OC SLI @1950mhz & r7 2700x@4.2ghz / GSkill 3466mhz CL14 (1440p165hz)
Loitering with: Galaxy S8+

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×