is the SR2 worth it

M

mashtub651

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Messages
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im considering buying an SR2 i already have 2 e5620's running on a workstation board but CES is right around the corner and am wondering should i just save for the new sandy bridge or bulldozer stuff
 
That's a hard question to answer. What are you going to use it for?
 
mashtub651 said:
im considering buying an SR2 i already have 2 e5620's running on a workstation board but CES is right around the corner and am wondering should i just save for the new sandy bridge or bulldozer stuff
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what does CES have to do with anything? if your talking about SB those are the low end chips being released an sr2 rig will still dominate those in F@H. Keep in mind you still have to get the 2600k to even do bigadv folding.
 
The multi-socket Sandy Bridge platform won't be released until around Q4 of 2011. The upcoming release is the mid-range single-socket platform, which does not compete with dual-socket LGA1366 setups. If you need or want a dual-CPU platform, LGA1366 is still the way to go, and if you want the ability to overclock, the SR-2 is the only option.
 
ok yea the workstation is mainly for folding running win7 will be ordering one today and what are good cooling options for those xeons would like air but have no problem going with a water loop
 
If you can get a good return for your workstation board, it might be worth the upgrade providing you'll be folding 24/7, and providing your processors will clock a lot higher than stock, which is the main appeal of the SR-2. What is your current board, BTW?
 
On my SR-2 with 32nm Westmeres, I run Cogage True Spirits and I'm OC'd to a little over 3.8 GHz. I run in the high 50's at the moment although I do have pretty extreme air cooling inside the case as well. Plenty of others use these coolers as well with great success.

rhinn7.jpg
 
I'd say at least a 1/3 of the SR2's here run Cogage TS's (mine included)
 
my current board is the Asus Z8NA D6C was bought to get a dual xeon virtualization server but started folding on it and moved the virtualization to another machine
 
As was mentioned, the True Spirit's work well. I have a pair of H50's with just the stock fan. CPU temps don't break 55c at 3650MHz/1.25v (I have the 100% fan speed threshold at 65c). My system is not in a case so of course that will have an affect on temps.
 
TS guy also [waves]
Just ordered 2 more sets of fan clips from SVC to run push/pull, actually (figured why not), but they do a great job running in single fan config.
re: SB...Zero82z is probably right there....SB won't have a DP board for awhile, and since several R&D guys from EVGA's motherboard team have left EVGA in favor of Sapphire, there's no telling whether there will be a SB SR-2-type board from EVGA.

In any event, "is it worth it?" hell yeah it's worth it, the SR-2 is a beast. :D The only PITA is figuring out a house to put it in; obviously running on a box or a DIY bench is a possibility if you don't want to mod a 700/800D, buy a MM SR-2 tray, or pay out the ass for a Lian Li PC-V2120.
 
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One really nice thing about the Cogage True Spirits is that they will screw down to the existing Xeon backplates already mounted to the SR-2. This eliminates a few steps in the assembly process. I believe all the Noctua tower coolers do as well. CM's don't, or at least the ones I have seen don't. You can still use them, but you will need to remove the Xeon backplates.

Is an SR-2 worth it? That is a tough question. They are fun to play with, until they stop being fun when you realize you have spent 8 hours to try to gain 1 more MHz on bclk to no avail. Ask Tobit right now and he will say definately, mainly because he has had a lot of success overclocking. Ask FLECOM and you will probably get another story due to the problems he has had. As Zero said, you do not have other options if you want to overclock a dual Xeon machine. You already have the chips. Will your memory let you run much higher? Do you have enough head room with your PSU (you'll probably pull 500+ W before you finish)? Do you have room in your existing case for one of these, or is a case important to you? These are the kind of thinks you need to ask. $600 is steep.

My personal opinion right now is that for lower end chips (quads and hexes), they are. For higher end chips, not as much. MIBW will probably disagree, which is fine. In your case...probably.
 
Do you guys run 2 SMP clients on the SR2? I was looking at the PPD bonus calculator, and halving the TPF does not double the PPD,
It seems to me that having 2/3 separate boards with 6/4 core CPUs would be just as effective, and easier to house, and you can turn just one of them off, and maybe easier to overclock.

SR2
expensive board
2x CPUs, price varies but i dont see the ES on ebay any more.
if you use a case, expensive.
ram, you can probably get away with less, but its very cheap now.
only 1 power supply, HDD.

2x LGA 1366 with hex core
i7 970/980, not cheap, but there have been deals around.
2 boards cheaper than SR2
2 power supplies
2 hard drives
exta network connection, takes up more space, probably uses a bit more power
can use more GPUs with the right board
more network cables and mess

3x i7 875k, I have one at the same speed as my i7 970, and it is doing almost exactly 2/3 the production.
boards even cheaper
CPUs much cheaper, can substitute for even cheaper ones without much loss. will also be obsolete the soonest.
very easy to cool
takes even more space
3 power supplies, but can be lower wattage/cheaper
3 hard drives, <500GB are like random office supplies to us right:)
even more network cables and mess.

Those with a load of SR2s obviously use them to save a lot of space and hassle, but for someone who is thinking of 1 SR2, there are options which might be easier to buy since you dont have to pay all at once.
 
DeFex said:
Do you guys run 2 SMP clients on the SR2? I was looking at the PPD bonus calculator, and halving the TPF does not double the PPD,
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Actually, halving the TPF more than doubles the PPD. Recheck your calculations ;).
 
30:00 TPF = 78084.31 points / 37,480.47 PPD
15:00 TPF = 110427.9 points / 103,010.78 PPD

Plus you use less electricity!!
 
doh i am stupid i forgot to take in to account that it takes 2 days to get those points, not 1 :)

I guess i am off to search for "a nice pair" (of xeons)
anyone seen any about for a decent price?
 
i took the plunge and bought one off newegg now considering pulling the 5620s or getting 5640s
 
musky said:
One really nice thing about the Cogage True Spirits is that they will screw down to the existing Xeon backplates already mounted to the SR-2. This eliminates a few steps in the assembly process. I believe all the Noctua tower coolers do as well. CM's don't, or at least the ones I have seen don't. You can still use them, but you will need to remove the Xeon backplates.

Is an SR-2 worth it? That is a tough question. They are fun to play with, until they stop being fun when you realize you have spent 8 hours to try to gain 1 more MHz on bclk to no avail. Ask Tobit right now and he will say definately, mainly because he has had a lot of success overclocking. Ask FLECOM and you will probably get another story due to the problems he has had. As Zero said, you do not have other options if you want to overclock a dual Xeon machine. You already have the chips. Will your memory let you run much higher? Do you have enough head room with your PSU (you'll probably pull 500+ W before you finish)? Do you have room in your existing case for one of these, or is a case important to you? These are the kind of thinks you need to ask. $600 is steep.

My personal opinion right now is that for lower end chips (quads and hexes), they are. For higher end chips, not as much. MIBW will probably disagree, which is fine. In your case...probably.
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My Noctuas NH-D14 - awesome as they are - do require replacing backplates. No biggie if you have the hex key and know about it in advance. (unlike my first build!)

As to higher chips and SR2s being worth it? I love my x5680s, a lot of fun to play with with a huge multiplier range, but they are totally not worth it, and I am glad I did not pay a premium for them. If you are looking at retail prices, I would take the cheaper x5650 everyday over the L5640s.

But given 10e's recent 48 core build (current champ by a few percent), and bulldozer coming out - you would have to look very hard at AMD again. SR2s are a lot of fiddling, and are super picky about ram. FAH is already faster on the 48 slow cores, so it looks like the upcoming 64 core AMD option could be a big winner. I hope there is not a long window of misery where the 32bit FAH could be a dud on 64 cores until they make it 64bit/NUMA aware... but if AMD 48 core wins now with 32 bit NUMA unaware FAH....

So I am happy with my SR2s, but it is as Musky said a bit of a quest for adventure.
 
APOLLO said:
Why would you want to sell it and how much?
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There are some things that I could use some extra coin for. (House addition one of them)

I was thinking $1350 is a fair price for the rig. Minus hdd and shipped in con USA.
 
may i be worthy said:
As to higher chips and SR2s being worth it? I love my x5680s, a lot of fun to play with with a huge multiplier range, but they are totally not worth it, and I am glad I did not pay a premium for them. If you are looking at retail prices, I would take the cheaper x5650 everyday over the L5640s.
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What's the price comparison between the two? Many people purchased their L-series processors for under $400 each and haven't seen anything comparable from retail hex-cores yet.

But given 10e's recent 48 core build (current champ by a few percent), and bulldozer coming out - you would have to look very hard at AMD again. SR2s are a lot of fiddling, and are super picky about ram. FAH is already faster on the 48 slow cores, so it looks like the upcoming 64 core AMD option could be a big winner.
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Um, big winner for who? That will be a very high end quad-socket server, the likes of which would cost a heavy chunk if built with new 16-core Bulldozer parts. I very much doubt AMD will let these processors go for under $1000 a pop at decent frequencies, probably a good deal more, and then you'll need four of them to achieve a full-fledged 64-core build. Is that what you're contemplating?! Gods, you really are dead cold serious about folding... :eek: :eek:

Kendrak said:
I was thinking $1350 is a fair price for the rig. Minus hdd and shipped in con USA.
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Bare board and processors?
 
What's the price comparison between the two? Many people purchased their L-series processors for under $400 each and haven't seen anything comparable from retail hex-cores yet.
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Yeah, I am talking ends of the earth, southern hemisphere brutal retail:

x5650 - $1150 AUD
L5640 - $1280 AUD

I don't see the benefit in paying more for something that will get you ~3.8Ghz vs less money for ~4.2Ghz

But get them for $400, and suddenly the Extra Spicy Fleabay L5640s were an awesome deal!

Um, big winner for who? That will be a very high end quad-socket server, the likes of which would cost a heavy chunk if built with new 16-core Bulldozer parts. I very much doubt AMD will let these processors go for under $1000 a pop at decent frequencies, probably a good deal more, and then you'll need four of them to achieve a full-fledged 64-core build. Is that what you're contemplating?! Gods, you really are dead cold serious about folding... :eek: :eek:
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Don't worry - my 3D software does not scale too well beyond ~32 threads right now, so I will not be going the AMD route for a while!

I meant winner in the absolute folding benchmark sense, not accounting for price necessarily. I know nothing about current AMD pricing/Bulldozer, but I gather 10e's current 48 core rig was comparable in cost to one of my SR2's - and I was presuming sometime next year AMD would have a cheaper bulldozer rig that could get you the 64 cores for ballpark same cost. We have only just begun to see what the 48+ core machines can do - current FAH is not well optimised yet.
 
may i be worthy said:
Yeah, I am talking ends of the earth, southern hemisphere brutal retail:

x5650 - $1150 AUD
L5640 - $1280 AUD

I don't see the benefit in paying more for something that will get you ~3.8Ghz vs less money for ~4.2Ghz

But get them for $400, and suddenly the Extra Spicy Fleabay L5640s were an awesome deal!
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I am talking more about getting up into the X5660s or better. You are paying for the higher multipiers, and you really don't need them with an SR-2. The highest practical multiplier for 200+ bclk is somewhere around 21-22, which makes the X5650 the best SR-2 chip to have. By that, i mean that you are not going to be able to run significantly faster with any higher-end chip. This is similar to the I7 920s, to use a single proc analogy. If you were overclocking on a good X58 board, there was realy no reason to buy a higher end I7 quad since your final overclock was going to be close to the same as what you would get out of a 920. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of data points for the Xeons because even the "bargain" X5650 is pushing $1000, which is beyond most budgets.

The "extra special" L5640s were a no brainer. They take full advantage of the SR-2's overclocking abilities, which allows you to take a 2.4GHz chip to 3.6GHz+ fairly easily.
 
@Musky - re x5660 and up - in complete agreement.

Possible and useful multiplier options:

x5650 - 22x, 20x, (no 21x)
x5660 - 23x, 21x, 20x, (no 22x - and really could use it)
x5680 - anything you need 20-26x, talk about overkill.

Kendrak said:
Mobo, non-es cpus, 1kw psu, RAM, and hsf. Like I said, rig minus the hdd.
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Hmmm, a 4th SR2 for a tempting price.... (kidding! - I really shouldn't... should I?:eek:)
 
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