Is it too late to jump on the 2011 v1/v2 train?

MrGuvernment

MrGuvernment

Fully [H]
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
21,812
Hello all,

I need a beefier home lab, ESXi, nesting et cetera,

Reading the E5-2600 series 2011 socket CPU's seem to be where it has been at lately for a system.

I saw www.natex.us in another thread and saw some of their options, such as a dual 2011 with 128G of ram and the intel mobo.

Is this route still a good way to go, or is 2011 v1 /v2 route dying out for something else anytime soon anyone could see?

Seems v3 or higher are still costly for processors in the $200 range...

I was looking at this package:
http://www.natex.us/Intel-S2600CP2J-Motherboard-Kit-p/s2600cp-sr0h8-128gb-12800.htm

Rework Intel S2600CP2J Motherboard
  • Dual LGA2011
  • Intel C602 Chipset
  • 2x 6gbps SATA
  • 4x 3gbps SATA
  • 16 Slot Quad Channel
  • 8x PCIe Only
  • Dual RJ-45 1gbps one is also a BMC
  • Rework motherboard will flash green with BMC FW Sensor Fail if you update BIOS or swap CPU
2x E5-2670 SR0H8
  • Shouldn't be used for virtual machine applications that requuire PCIe passthrough.
  • 8 Cores
  • 16 Threads
  • 2.60GHz Frequency
  • 3.30GHz Max Turbo Frequesncy
  • 20MB SmartCache
  • 2 QPI Links
  • 15w TDP

128Gb (16 x 8GB 2RX4 PC3-12800R ECC Dimm)
Click to expand...

When they say "reworked" motherboard i presume they mean refurbished?

Do the E5-2670 have the Vd-t issue? I don't plan to do pass-through currently, but never know...

I have an X5650 @ 4.04Ghz for my desktop rig and often just set up one or 2 VM's with in vmware workstation as i have 32Gig but just run out of memory while using my rig for other stuff.

I reviewed Ebay and while i can find the CPU's and mobos cheap, trying to find 128G of ram for less than $200 seems impossible.

Note, i am in Canada, so things need to be able to ship here.

Input?
 
I picked up an Intel Xeon E5 1650 on eBay for $96 shipped about a month ago, those are excellent bang for buck, and mine does 4.8 GHz at 1.38v. I had an Intel DX79SI laying around that was free so I figured what the hell.

Granted, it looks like you want to assemble a multiprocessor system, and the 26xx chips are a bit more expensive. I think the best observation that I can offer here is that X79 motherboards are still crazy expensive for how old the platform is (and I'm willing to bet the C600 series chipset based board you'd need is even more expensive still).

The cost of DDR3 RAM not coming down much is another roadblock.

I've found X99 boards and DDR4 to be more reasonable in price as of late, so the server equivalents are likely in the same boat.
 
One other possibility is picking up a barebones dual CPU workstation on the cheap (eg. HP Z600, Z620, Z800, Precision T5500, etc.)

I managed to score two HP Z800s without CPUs (but otherwise loaded - 24GB ECC, both heatsinks, etc.) on the cheap (~$100 each).
Spent a few hundred and they're both humming along with 2x X5675s a piece ripping through encode jobs.
 
Royce.Arnold said:
I would avoid that particular link.

The SR0H8 are the older stepping and have some VT issue. I think it only affects hardware pass through.

You might have better luck with http://www.natex.us/Chenbro-Intel-S2600CP2J-p/rm13704package-128gb.htm

It's a later stepping and a few more items that could be discarded / sold / used. It's not a quiet system if you use it as is.
Click to expand...

Ya, i have a Chen case now i got, and even with the main 4 x80mm fans replaces with some Artic's, the fans on the redundant PSU is a little loud. I am planning to get a full tower that supports E-ATX or mod to fit the ugly off spring of E-ATX if needed and keep it as close to silent as possible. Thanks for confirming the VT issue, i wasnt sure which it was that had the issue.



Emission said:
I picked up an Intel Xeon E5 1650 on eBay for $96 shipped about a month ago, those are excellent bang for buck, and mine does 4.8 GHz at 1.38v. I had an Intel DX79SI laying around that was free so I figured what the hell.

Granted, it looks like you want to assemble a multiprocessor system, and the 26xx chips are a bit more expensive. I think the best observation that I can offer here is that X79 motherboards are still crazy expensive for how old the platform is (and I'm willing to bet the C600 series chipset based board you'd need is even more expensive still).

The cost of DDR3 RAM not coming down much is another roadblock.

I've found X99 boards and DDR4 to be more reasonable in price as of late, so the server equivalents are likely in the same boat.
Click to expand...

Good to know, i did notice the same thing, even 1366 boards are through the roof still, as i do have an X5650 spare lying around, so figure sell that off for a couple bucks and it put towards something else. it seems natex has the best ram price for 128G i have seen anywhere. Even used ram on Ebay DDR3 ECC goes for too much.

WhoBeDaPlaya said:
One other possibility is picking up a barebones dual CPU workstation on the cheap (eg. HP Z600, Z620, Z800, Precision T5500, etc.)

I managed to score two HP Z800s without CPUs (but otherwise loaded - 24GB ECC, both heatsinks, etc.) on the cheap (~$100 each).
Spent a few hundred and they're both humming along with 2x X5675s a piece ripping through encode jobs.
Click to expand...

I had thought of that is well, one issue is pure weight, being in Canada, not sure how much shipping might be to get an entire case and internals up here, the Dell T7600 has a nice case and saw some okay ones for sub $200, would just be adding more ram and the disks.

The main side for me is for work i need to work on some skill sets and i hate running out of resources, while my 32G, X5650 main rig has umf, i want more, i hate having to decide what VM's to run and when. This was my thought with the 2011 and 16 cores / 32 threads and 128G of memory is no more worries about resource usage.

With Intel noting the release of their new Xeon's , wonder if thay drop v3/4 at all?
|
https://www.servethehome.com/intel-releases-kaby-lake-xeon-mobile-intel-xeon-e3-1500-v6-family/
 
Last edited:
I think those would have to be V1 chips with SR0L1. Intel's ARK does not show any E5-2665 beyond the V1 chips.
 
Royce.Arnold said:
I think those would have to be V1 chips with SR0L1. Intel's ARK does not show any E5-2665 beyond the V1 chips.
Click to expand...

Appreciated, I could not find anything either as it being a v2 chip or stepping, C2 that did not have the Vt-* issues
 
I jumnped the train!

Natex dual E5-2670 kit with 128G of ram, start the build now, but still waiting on my case so just making sure it all works for now.
 
Yup.. if only I had a basement and good breaker box to add :D (renting a condo right now)

Hard to go wrong, this box should last a good while for me as a lab box to say the least.
 
I bought one of their 2670's and put it in a lenovo s30 workstation machine, works great. I believe the stepping they had when I bought it was the newest version of the chip. Dont remember off the top of my head.
 
2011 systems in general are still costly, but what you need dictates what you will spend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top