Dual LGA 1366 Xeon "upgrade" - 12 core

[crosstiger]

 

 

So here we are... before we go into any details let me talk a bit why I'm doing this.

 

Backstory

So, earlier this year my boss told me to clean our storage room at work. It was pretty messy so I started with the big junk - old servers and pcs. Most of the stuff was either broker or so old that it would not be worth playing around with it. However, there was one server that was still running, but was no longer in use. A Fujitsu Primergy tx300 s6. The server was used for archive, but we transferred the data to a different host long time ago. Apparently we just forgot to turn the server off *derp*. My boss told me to throw the server away, but I was like "nah man, I'll take this one home". Why? Well because it is a pretty decent machine. The server was rocking a Xeon E5645, 6 core cpu with ht, 8 GB of DDR3 ECC memory and a dual socket mainboard. But the best thing - I got it for free ^-^

 

Long story short; when I was at home and started playing around with the server, the mainboard broke for some reason. I'm not exactly sure what killed it, either the dust, or because some of the pins of the second cpu socket were bent, or maybe I wasn't careful enough. At the end of the day, anytime you try to turn on the system, the PSU shuts down and there is a smell of burned electronic parts coming from the front panel connector. So I ditched the system and kept the CPU, ram and some other stuff.  

 

Fast forward...

 

Now that I'm left with a working CPU and ram I decided around one month ago, that I give this little project of mine a second chance. I searched through Ebay for a replacement mainboard. It took me quite some time to find a good one, because most of them are either stupid expensive or have a crappy layout. Some don’t have a PCIe connector, others only x4 and so on ... After a while I found a mainboard that was "perfect". An ASUS Z8NA-D6 for 80 €.

 

The Plan

Initially I thought I would use this system for testing and stuff. But I could actually replace my current I7 2600, if the single core performance would be good enough to keep my 780 TI fed. I'm pretty sure it won’t bottleneck my GPU. If that's the case and the multicore performance is amazing too, I will do the swap.

But first we need to shop for more parts

 

2nd CPU - Delivered

Xeon DP E5645 (used)

45 € Ebay

 

Mainboard - Delivered

ASUS Z8NA-D6 (used)

80 € Ebay

 

CPU Cooler - Delivered

2x be quiet! Pure Rock (new)

It took me quite some time to find the right cooler, because most of the 1366 mainboards all have a fixed back plate. So I looked for a cooler that doesn't require a back plate. My brother gave me a hint that the LGA 2011-3 has the same "problem". So I looked for a cooler that could mount on 2011-3 sockets without a back plate and just hope that it will fit.

57 € Mindfactory

 

USB 3.0 Card - Delivered

DeLock USB 3.0 Card (new)

35 € Mindfactory

 

While I wait for the components I'm going to test the mainboard. I have everything that I need.

Pictures

First time that the packet is actually damaged ...

Spoiler

 

 

But everything seems all right ...

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

For testing the mainboard, I used the one Xeon that I already have, a single 4 GB DDR3 ECC stick, a heatsink that was used in the old Fujitsu server and an unknown PSU that should not explode And no, it doesn’t have any of that 80+ rating crap ... /s

First boot ... here wo go ...

The moment when you wait for the monitor to turn on ... so intense
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, crosstiger said:

The moment when you wait for the monitor to turn on ... so intense

I have a system that takes over a minute(timed it) to show anything on the screen. It also runs the fans at full speed.

[crosstiger]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I have a system that takes over a minute(timed it) to show anything on the screen. It also runs the fans at full speed.

What is it doing? Cooking tea?

[Guest]

Love these types of builds. Followed.

[matexoza]

i build systems like this all the time they perform very well

[crosstiger]

While waiting for the parts to arrive, I did some testing to verify that everything is working fine.

 

I booted Ubuntu since I could not find a hard drive to use.
 

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Everything seems to work pretty fine.

 

 

While I was searching for a hard drive to use, I came across some other things to use. For example an old Nvidia 9500 GT. I also found an old hard drive, which was dirtier than some of my jokes ...

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Ubuntu did not want to boot with the 9500 GT. So I installed Windows ...

 

A quick cinebench run

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Multicore: 587

Singlecore: 87

 

A bit slower than my I7 2600 (666 / 134)

 

 

[1234vietnam]

Watercool it! (With a custom loop)

[3NMa]

Seems like it's going well and that it's not going to be THAT expensive. I have personally thought of doing one like this for a time now, and it's now clearing up a bit, I've found a seller etc.

[crosstiger]

21 hours ago, Prqnk3d said:

Watercool it! (With a custom loop)

That would be amazing, but I don't have the money for that - and I'm not a big fan of a scrap-loop since those perform not that great compared to modern air cooler and are a total mess

 

 

4 hours ago, MacHiver said:

Seems like it's going well and that it's not going to be THAT expensive. I have personally thought of doing one like this for a time now, and it's now clearing up a bit, I've found a seller etc.

If you find some good deals you could do it sub 550 $. For me, this project is going to cost ~ 250 € which is nice.

[3NMa]

1 hour ago, crosstiger said:

That would be amazing, but I don't have the money for that - and I'm not a big fan of a scrap-loop since those perform not that great compared to modern air cooler and are a total mess

 

 

If you find some good deals you could do it sub 550 $. For me, this project is going to cost ~ 250 € which is nice.

Yeah that's exactly what I mean

[crosstiger]

 

I got some sweet thing today in the mail. But these are no Christmas presents

This means I can finally add the second cpu!

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I tried to mount the cooler, but ... the screws don't fit the hole ... of course they don't ...

 

Well let's see if I can find some screws that fit. And yes, I did.
 

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I cut them to the right length, because they were twice as long

 

 

 

Looks like this could actualy work out.
 

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Yes, it's a realy close fit

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I put the left fan on the other side later ...

 

 

Time for some testing ...
 

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Both CPUs work

 

 

Look at them go!

 

 

Cinebench with dual Xeon E5645: 1161 !

 

 

[Astrotek]

Subbed - I'd love hear more about this long term, and see how it compares to your current i7 build. 

[crosstiger]

 

 

Putting everything together now.

 

Complete part list:

1 HGST Deskstar 5K4000  4TB, SATA 6Gb/s (HDS5C4040ALE630)
1 Seagate BarraCuda EcoGreen F3  1TB, 7200rpm, SATA 3Gb/s (ST1000DM005/HD103SJ)
1 Crucial MX100  256GB, SATA (CT256MX100SSD1)
1 Samsung SSD 840 Pro  128GB, SATA, retail (MZ-7PD128BW)
2 Intel Xeon DP E5645, 6x 2.40GHz, boxed (BX80614E5645)
1 Crucial Ballistix Sport DIMM Kit  16GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24 (BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00)
1 ASUS Xonar DG retail, PCI (90-YAA0K0-0UAN0BZ)
1 DeLOCK 7x USB 3.0, PCIe 2.0 x1 (89355)
1 Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 3GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort (3040)
1 ASUS Z8NA-D6 (90-MSVCI2-G0UAY00Z)
1 Inno3D HerculeZ X3 Ultra Kühler + iChill Backplate (C-HZX3U)
1 be quiet! Pure Rock (BK009)
1 Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Multicolor LED-Strip 2m RGB, LED-Streifen (PH-LEDKT_M2)
1 Phanteks Enthoo Luxe schwarz mit Sichtfenster (PH-ES614L_BK)
1 Corsair Professional Series  HX750i  750W ATX 2.4 (CP-9020072-EU)

 

I tried PCPartPicker but I already failed finding the cpu ...
 

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Temps are looking pretty good

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Around 70°C max one one core.

 

 

But ... now to the bad thing. Not everything that shines is gold ... or in this case performance.
 

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While this is nice

 

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This isn't ...

 

There is a major drop in performance in games.

 

This is what it looks like during bf 1

 

 

Around 50% usage on 6 cores.

 

And around 30% usage on 6 cores during Overwatch.

 

 

The 780 TI can keep a stable 70 FPS during Overwatch, but not in Battlefield or GTA V.

 

I have a hard time calling this a bottleneck since the CPU is not at 100% usage ... There is still some headroom left, but the 780 TI seems to be bored.

 

A Heaven-benchmark run looks like expected.

 

 

 

[AlienALX]

On 17/12/2016 at 6:28 PM, crosstiger said:

What is it doing? Cooking tea?

 

It's basically running tests on absolutely everything you have plugged into it, as well as itself. So all ram slots, both CPU sockets etc etc etc. It's to stop it booting when it shouldn't and causing a fire. This is why it usually runs the fans at 100% also. Nice little build, looks like you are having fun !

 

BTW the major drop in FPS is because of IPC. Sandy is miles ahead of Westmere EP dude. Also you are running very low clocks, so that will hurt as games only use four cores most of the time.

 

That is why I just replaced my 2.1ghz Ivy 8 core with a 3.1ghz Ivy 8 core. Seen a massive jump in FPS in gaming.

[crosstiger]

Yeah … I did expect a drop in performance, just not that big of a bottleneck. Looks like I completely forgot that Intel was once making actual improvements to the speed …

Anyway. I switched back to my i7 and am now looking forward to put the xeons inside a new case.