General X99 Xeon/i7 Discussion

[panther420]

Hi everyone!

 

This the X99 Xeon Master race, a resource for everyone with X99 systems using E5 series Xeons, or those looking to get an X99 system. I am calling this a subsection of the XCMR started by @Zando Bob, @WhisperingKnickers, @asand1, @Ground, and a few others specifically for X58. Their discussion can be found here as the General X58 Xeon/i7 discussion and I would highly recommend you check them out.

 

For this starting post, I will go into some details about how I got into X99 and the inspiration to create this post, who is welcome here (spoiler alert: pretty much everyone who is interested), and my take on why X99 may or may not be a good option for you. So, let's start!
 

Inspiration

So a few days ago, I set up my X99 PC as a secondary machine using an X99 deluxe and a Xeon I got off of ebay. I will include the full story in the spoiler below in case you are interested, but it is long, so you have been warned. Anyway, when I was setting it up, I noticed all kinds of quirks with X99 that made it very dissimilar and unique compared to other platforms that came before and after it (X58, X79, X299). The overclocking method was different, new technologies had been introduced, and some other stuff. I found this very complicated to wrap my head around, and researching it just made me more confused.

Spoiler

So a few months back, I was browsing eBay when I found a manufacturer refurbished, working X99 Deluxe/U3.1 by Asus for $120. I was really surprised to find a board like that for that cheap, especially considering it was on eBay, a place where sellers usually like to overcharge up the wazoo for their garbage, and a place where chinese knockoff brands are everywhere. So, after seeing that there were only a few left (like 2 by the time I hit "Buy it Now"), I gathered up some money and bought it "because I felt like it" and "because it was such a good deal" (I think I might have told myself I could flip it for more cash, yeah right). Now, admittedly, this was very stupid of me to do; I already had a Ryzen 5 PC, so I wasn't going to benefit a lot from this monster X99 board. I also did not have any type of LGA 2011-3 CPU to use in it, nor did I have a cooler to test it with.

 

Determined to use the board I just spent a $120 on, I literally went into Ebay and chose “Lowest Price” on the sort by drop-down menu, and picked the first ES Xeon on that list: the Xeon E5-2609 V3 for $60. This [CPU prices] is one of the shortcomings of X99 as a platform, but I’ll get to that later. This pointless little Xeon was 6-cores with no hyperthreading at 2 Ghz, but I just wanted something to test the board with. I got the hyper 212, which I regret now as I could have saved a little and gotten the slightly better Gammax 400 from DeepCool or a similar cooler (I think enermax had one in the H212 price range that was am4 and LGA 2011-3 compatible, a boon if I ever were to work with AM4 again.)
 

So I gathered the stuff I needed to test the board (having to take DDR4 out of my ryzen PC in order to test it), and low and behold, it worked with the Xeon! I installed Windows 10 on some old WD Blue hard drive, and never really worked with it since, only taking the components for testing out of their boxes if I really had to. For a while, I had no use for this board, which was unfortunate. But recently, I have been stuck living between two different apartments (complicated story for that), going back and forth every so often. I don’t have a very powerful laptop, so I had the idea to use my X99 Deluxe to create a secondary rig at the apartment where my Ryzen PC does not live, so that I could game and do some work while I was over there. I just set it up a few days ago, and I’m very happy with it.

But how does this relate to my inspiration for this post? Well, as I mentioned before, the General X58 Xeon discussion was my main inspiration for this. I saw the way people were discussing their Xeon overclocks and what methods they used to achieve it and I thought to myself - “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a community of experienced X99 Xeon overclockers that I could talk to?” So that’s exactly why I am trying to start, but instead of Xeon overclockers specifically, just anyone who wants to talk about X99/is interested in it.
 

Who is welcome here?

As I just said, my goal is for this to just be a resource for anyone who is interested in X99 and/or E5 xeons that work with it. You do not by any means have to own an X99 PC or a Xeon for it. I will, of course, as the title suggests, accept discussions about i7’s too, as I imagine the majority of those with X99 PC’s in the first place probably bought i7’s for it. Also, when I say X99, I am really referring to most LGA 2011-3 platforms, so C612 counts too.

 

Why X99?
Actually, X99 might not be the best option for most people. I would not recommend it as an alternative to X370 or Z370, rather as an alternative for X299 or X399, especially X299. At the moment, X99 is a good option for those looking for the quad-channel memory and increased PCI-e lanes that X299 offers, but don’t want to pay the premium Intel is setting for it. Newegg and other sites are clearing out inventory of a lot of X99 boards, and as a result, you can get them for the price of an-entry level Z370, like I did. These boards still have a lot of the features X299 boards have: NVMe m.2 support, USB 3.1. Gen2, and RGB on the second generation of X99 if that’s your thing. CPUs prices are decent, but there are no Xeons for insanely cheap like X58 and its famous X5650 for $20. You can, however, get a 14-core 2.2ghz ES E5-2695 V3 for $350 on ebay for example, not bad considering the cheapest X299 14-core costs about 4 times as much. So what’s bad about this? Well, the low clock speed of most X99 Xeons hinder it in single-threaded tasks compared to other platforms like Coffee Lake or Ryzen, making those a better option for the money. It also isn’t a very viable option for a used rig in the traditional sense, like X58 is, due to the higher cost of both the motherboard and CPU, and the increasing price of DDR4. But I still think there is something to be said about the insane multithreaded goodness that can be had for cheap compared to new offerings from Intel or AMD.

So that’s all I have for now. I hope everyone can find a use out of this discussion! Also, sorry for the long post. I just kind do that sometimes
 

 

[Damascus]

Actually have an x99 board in the mail, what Xeons are unlocked?

[panther420]

Just now, Damascus said:

Actually have an x99 board in the mail, what Xeons are unlocked?

All E5-16xx v3 or v4 series. This applies to all platforms that use E5 Xeons as well. 

 

Moreover, E5-1xxx series are intended for single socket workstations, explaining their multiplied unlocked-ness. The first digit of any E3, E5, or E7 chip indicates how many sockets the chip is intended for, and in turn, whether it is multiplier unlocked or not. See this article about Xeon naming schemes. It's very helpful.