Dual socket vs Single socket workstation Motherboards

[OCD-FREAK]

hello everyone,

 

iam currently lost on which motherboard type i need to choose for a serious workstation build. ***please no "these are old platform and not worth it ....." **** 

 

first option :

 

motherboard : Gigabyte dual socket motherboard (Socket 1366)

two Intel Xeon X5690 CPUs 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb Graphics card 

 

second option:

 

motherboard gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R 

One Intel Xeon w3690 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb graphics card 

 

which do you think is the best for workstation purposes which includes : 

app development with music development opened at the same time, also alot of 3D modelling and alot of simulation and virtual machines (including massive amounts of programming and hundreds of opened chrome tabs) . iam not intending to do any gaming on it as i game on PS4 and Xbox one. 

 

also why are dual socket motherboards created and for what purposes people buy them instead of single socket motherboard of the same socket type ? for example the mac pros?

 

Please consider reading this topic carefully and elaborate as much as you can in your answers.

 

Many thanks  

  

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, OCD-FREAK said:

hello everyone,

 

iam currently lost on which motherboard type i need to choose for a serious workstation build. ***please no "these are old platform and not worth it ....." **** 

 

first option :

 

motherboard : Gigabyte dual socket motherboard (Socket 1366)

two Intel Xeon w3690 CPUs 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb Graphics card 

 

second option:

 

motherboard gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R 

One Intel Xeon w3690 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb graphics card 

 

which do you think is the best for workstation purposes which includes : 

app development with music development opened at the same time, also alot of 3D modelling and alot of simulation and virtual machines (including massive amounts of programming and hundreds of opened chrome tabs) . iam not intending to do any gaming on it as i game on PS4 and Xbox one. 

 

also why are dual socket motherboards created and for what purposes people buy them instead of single socket motherboard of the same socket type ? for example the mac pros?

 

Please consider reading this topic carefully and elaborate as much as you can in your answers.

 

Many thanks  

  

Bear in mind the OS you will be using. Certain OSes have limitations on how many CPUs they will see...

[RollinLower]

well, the dual socket motherboards are for when you need more cores/threads than a single CPU of that gen can provide. 

personally, i would look into getting a socket 2011 board with maybe a Xeon E5-2660/2670. you can get those 3Ghz 8-core chips as low as 80 bucks nowadays, and the boards themselves really arn't as expensive as they used to be.

before i blew a cap on my board i used to run a X79 board with a 2670 myself, and i probably would have kept using it for a few more years if the board hadn't died

[COUPER MILLAR]

how much are you planning on paying for the cpu's and motherboards. Im currently looking at setting up a home server with first gen e5 cpus and super micro motherboards. From what i saw on ebay the prices are comparable to what you are looking at but with a much better price to performance. 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

i think dual socket and quad socket were mostly designed for efficiency rather then just pure power,  however ppl used them for pure power too

 

just dont forget ur electricity bill if u go dual socket :v ( atleast here its expensive )

 

other then workstation loads i dont think ul benefit from dual socket, but if u do alot of editing n stuff   why not, id take the dual socket lol

[OCD-FREAK]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Bear in mind the OS you will be using. Certain OSes have limitations on how many CPUs they will see...

i will be using Linux and Mac osx mavericks (dual booting). windows is not gonna be installed 

[OCD-FREAK]

4 minutes ago, COUPER MILLAR said:

how much are you planning on paying for the cpu's and motherboards. Im currently looking at setting up a home server with first gen e5 cpus and super micro motherboards. From what i saw on ebay the prices are comparable to what you are looking at but with a much better price to performance. 

i already have all the components, just the CPUs and a dual socket motherboard i need to buy ,if i decide to go after a dual socket motherboard if get more opinions from this topic

[Electronics Wizardy]

just saying w cpu's are single socket and won't work on dual socket boards.

 

Id go dual if its not much more. You can get a lot of ram in those can there much fan in some tasks above like 3d rendering and vms.

 

[TheGlenlivet]

You'll need a PSU with Dual 8 pin CPU power for the Dual socket board too.

[OCD-FREAK]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

just saying w cpu's are single socket and won't work on dual socket boards.

 

Id go dual if its not much more. You can get a lot of ram in those can there much fan in some tasks above like 3d rendering and vms.

 

yes, i now that W series are single core, seems like you didn't read my questions properly. i have two options , i either go with dual socket motherboard with X**** series Xeons or go with single socket motherboard with the W**** series 

[mariushm]

A single W3690 has about the same performance as a Ryzen 5 1500x  but has a 130w TDP while the Ryzen has a 65w TDP. You'll also get more performance due to being able to use RAM at higher frequency (you'll have to use registered or ecc ddr3 ram with that w3690)

 

So basically twice as power hungry, more heat, more noise from fan, same performance.

 

A single Ryzen 2700x has probably 90% the performance of a dual W3690 system... it's not just about raw number of cores and threads it's also about performance per core and 

 

Dual cpu ... you'd probably get as much performance as a Threadripper 1920x but you'd have 2 x 130w TDP  vs around 180w TDP for the Threadripper

You'll also waste more power on memory sticks, since each cpu will need its own sticks so your 48 GB will probably be 12 sticks of 4 GB or something like that... while with Threadripper you could use just 4 or 8 sticks of memory, cheaper and higher performance.

You'll also most likely have this as E-ATX so you'd need a better case, while you can get a regular ATX motherboard for Threadripper so you save money on case.

 

You can cool a new hardware with water cooling to have a silent system while this old hardware would be much harder to cool.

[OCD-FREAK]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

A single W3690 has about the same performance as a Ryzen 5 1500x  but has a 130w TDP while the Ryzen has a 65w TDP. You'll also get more performance due to being able to use RAM at higher frequency (you'll have to use registered or ecc ddr3 ram with that w3690)

 

So basically twice as power hungry, more heat, more noise from fan, same performance.

 

A single Ryzen 2700x has probably 90% the performance of a dual W3690 system... it's not just about raw number of cores and threads it's also about performance per core and 

 

Dual cpu ... you'd probably get as much performance as a Threadripper 1920x but you'd have 2 x 130w TDP  vs around 180w TDP for the Threadripper

You'll also waste more power on memory sticks, since each cpu will need its own sticks so your 48 GB will probably be 12 sticks of 4 GB or something like that... while with Threadripper you could use just 4 or 8 sticks of memory, cheaper and higher performance.

You'll also most likely have this as E-ATX so you'd need a better case, while you can get a regular ATX motherboard for Threadripper so you save money on case.

 

You can cool a new hardware with water cooling to have a silent system while this old hardware would be much harder to cool.

i designed my own case for such hardware, also as i mentioned many times, i dont want to buy new hardware i want to make the most out of what i have in this case the x58 platforms that iam planning to MAX out or the dual socket 13366 platform that i might buy according to what more answers i get from this thread. so please try to stay with what iam asking as i already know that "newer" systems are better, but i need to make use of what i already have.  

[mariushm]

8 minutes ago, OCD-FREAK said:

i designed my own case for such hardware, also as i mentioned many times, i dont want to buy new hardware i want to make the most out of what i have in this case the x58 platforms that iam planning to MAX out or the dual socket 13366 platform that i might buy according to what more answers i get from this thread. so please try to stay with what iam asking as i already know that "newer" systems are better, but i need to make use of what i already have.  

I read in one of your posts that you didn't buy the processor and the motherboard yet, so I gave you choices.

 

i also read this:

 

app development with music development opened at the same time, also alot of 3D modelling and alot of simulation and virtual machines (including massive amounts of programming and hundreds of opened chrome tabs) . iam not intending to do any gaming on it as i game on PS4 and Xbox one. 

 

so I figured maybe you want a more SILENT system, if you need music development. You won't get a silent system with 2 130w TDP cpus and their fans.

With that hardware you're also limited to 48 GB DDR3, while you can use 128 GB of memory with a Threadripper based system - you have 8 memory slots so you can start with 4 x 16 GB sticks and then add more sticks later.

lots of chrome tabs means lots of memory - being able to install more than 48 GB would be helpful.

[bimmerman]

Another point-- the W3690 will NOT work in a dual socket board. It will ONLY work in a single socket board.

 

The comparable X5690 will work in EITHER dual or single socket boards.

 

You do not have to run ECC memory with the X58 Xeons.

 

I agree with everyone else that the better option would be a X79 or X99 platform with a cheap Xeon.

[OCD-FREAK]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

I read in one of your posts that you didn't buy the processor and the motherboard yet, so I gave you choices.

 

i also read this:

 

app development with music development opened at the same time, also alot of 3D modelling and alot of simulation and virtual machines (including massive amounts of programming and hundreds of opened chrome tabs) . iam not intending to do any gaming on it as i game on PS4 and Xbox one. 

 

so I figured maybe you want a more SILENT system, if you need music development. You won't get a silent system with 2 130w TDP cpus and their fans.

With that hardware you're also limited to 48 GB DDR3, while you can use 128 GB of memory with a Threadripper based system - you have 8 memory slots so you can start with 4 x 16 GB sticks and then add more sticks later.

lots of chrome tabs means lots of memory - being able to install more than 48 GB would be helpful.

yes, regarding the cooling i will be using either liquid nitrogen based cooling or else i will use the 3 fan radiator water cooler i already have, noise is not an issue at all as i will be using high quality headphones when doing music production, but most of the time iam doing simulations - 3d modelling and design - programming and researching,

 

i really appreciate your informative suggestions about buying newer hardware but as i said i need to make the most out of what i have.  

[OCD-FREAK]

6 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Another point-- the W3690 will NOT work in a dual socket board. It will ONLY work in a single socket board.

 

The comparable X5690 will work in EITHER dual or single socket boards.

 

You do not have to run ECC memory with the X58 Xeons.

 

I agree with everyone else that the better option would be a X79 or X99 platform with a cheap Xeon.

please try to re-read what i am planning, i didn't mention that i will be using W3690 Xeon in dual socket motherboard but i clearly wrote each plan separately 

[bimmerman]

Just now, OCD-FREAK said:

please try to re-read what i am planning, i didn't mention that i will be using W3690 Xeon in dual socket motherboard but i clearly wrote each plan separately 

Uhhh....see your first post then. Bolded below for emphasis.

54 minutes ago, OCD-FREAK said:

hello everyone,

 

iam currently lost on which motherboard type i need to choose for a serious workstation build. ***please no "these are old platform and not worth it ....." **** 

 

first option :

 

motherboard : Gigabyte dual socket motherboard (Socket 1366)

two Intel Xeon w3690 CPUs 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb Graphics card 

 

second option:

 

motherboard gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R 

One Intel Xeon w3690 

48gb ram (XMS3)

Asus x580 - 8gb graphics card 

 

which do you think is the best for workstation purposes which includes : 

app development with music development opened at the same time, also alot of 3D modelling and alot of simulation and virtual machines (including massive amounts of programming and hundreds of opened chrome tabs) . iam not intending to do any gaming on it as i game on PS4 and Xbox one. 

 

also why are dual socket motherboards created and for what purposes people buy them instead of single socket motherboard of the same socket type ? for example the mac pros?

 

Please consider reading this topic carefully and elaborate as much as you can in your answers.

 

Many thanks  

  

 

[OCD-FREAK]

11 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Uhhh....see your first post then. Bolded below for emphasis.

 

Sh** my mistake, but yeah i meant to say * two Xeon X5690* sorry for the confusion