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New Folding/Workstation CPU

N

NinjaPenguin

n00b
Joined
Sep 21, 2012
Messages
25
I'm looking to upgrade my CPU/Motherboard for some serious folding and work(maybe some games too). I need something that can handle compiles of large programs/kernels for work with Linux and Android. I also plan to do some indie game development work with it. When I'm not doing that, I'd like it to be a folding powerhouse. I'd like for this build to last and remain up to date for at least 3 years. I'd also prefer not to exceed $1000 by that much(I know it will by some). I've been considering Sandy Bridge-E, Dual Xeons, and Dual Opterons. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
Please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!" so that we can help you better.
 
Sorry, I thought I got most of them in there.

1. Programming/Dev work, some minor Photoshop(GIMP), Folding, Media Server, Gaming(not much)

2. Roughly $1000. A little more is okay.

3. US, NJ

4. CPU(s) and motherboard

5. 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600, Radeon HD 7970, Crucial M4 64gb(just for the OS), Ultra X3 1600w, Mountain Mods Extended Ascension, other HDDs totalling 2.75TB

6. I would, but I prefer not to go that far. I will not use liquid.

7. Not that it matters here, but 24" at 1920x1200

8. At least 2 PCI Express gen2 or gen3 X16, some USB 3.0, some SATA 6bg/s

9. I only run Linux.
 
Moved to Distributed Computing Subforum. Folding is apparently their thing here :D
 
I think you should look for some Xeon hexes on Ebay and grab a reconditioned SR-2. That would fold nicely and work great for your programming and photoshop needs.
 
1366 is still a pretty powerful setup. It folds very well. Your budget isn't enough for a 2p 2011 setup and the SR-2 rig will out fold a single SB-E. If you were willing to make the budget about $1200 you could go 4p AMD octo rig. That would rock folding, but wouldn't be as good for gaming as the SR-2.
 
I just checked eBay, and couldn't find pair of hex Xeons for less than 2k. 1200 for AMD is okay too, but again, I can't seem to find any that cheap. How would a single SB-E be compared? According to Passmark, it seems to hold its own against most low end 2P 2011 rigs.
 
Search ebay for L5640. They run about 375 each and not overclocked run at 2.8Ghz if they arent gimped.

Overclocked to 3.6 easily on a SR-2

AMD side, look for 6172's, they run about 350 each
 
An SB-E would fit into your budget with no problem. As you can see by my sig it's what I run. You can find affordable Xeons on eBay if you are willing to go with non-retail. If you want to stick to retail stuff I'd go SB-E.
 
The L5640's look good, but there are only ES models within my price range, and I don't want to go down that road. The 6174 looks like a great deal, but would that handle gaming or any single threaded applications well? The 3930k is looking like the best value. How does it contend with those dual CPU rigs in terms of PPD? Compile times?
 
The 6174s will suck for gaming to be honest with you. So far as the 3930K goes it can only do SMP when it folds, but it will compile very well if you OC it.
 
Ok. It sounds like the 3930k is probably best. The SMP only thing is kind of disappointing. I was digging around and saw the Opteron 6234. How would two of them compare?
 
DooKey said:
The 6174s will suck for gaming to be honest with you. So far as the 3930K goes it can only do SMP when it folds, but it will compile very well if you OC it.
Click to expand...

copy that... real shitty... coming from the guy running a dodeca ES at 3ghz...
bf3 is ok...everything else....not so much.

I am switching over to a 2011 octo ES as soon as I get the cooling solution worked out...
 
So then would I be right to say that the 3930k is the only workable option for what I want under around $2000?
 
NinjaPenguin said:
So then would I be right to say that the 3930k is the only workable option for what I want under around $2000?
Click to expand...

or used sr2 box...
That or try to part a 2p 2011 system together off ebay...gonna cost $1k just for the pair of chips though. (if you are lucky)...
 
For under 2k, you can get a dual LGA 2011 setup, E5-2630s and a board are definitely less then that. E5-2630s turbo up to 2.8, that should be fine for gaming. You can save a bunch by going with E5-2620s but they only turbo up to 2.5. Of course you can always hit ebay and see what deals you can find, just be warned that the extra spicy E5s don't always like running in pairs. Not that I would condone ever paying for one.
 
With a budget of 1k, the best all rounded machine would be a single proc 3930k with a GTX 660.

If I was looking for build a workstation I would try to bump up on the budget to start looking at dual procs, 1k is not enough.
 
So it's a rock and a hard place then. I have a 7970, so it'd just be the 3930k, but I do want it to be a real workstation that will be able to handle a serious load for some time. I'm okay with going a bit over the 1k, but 2 2630's looks to be totalling around $1900 with the board and coolers, not even counting potential extra RAM. Realistically, how would the 2620's be? How bad would the single threaded performance get?
 
NinjaPenguin said:
So it's a rock and a hard place then. I have a 7970, so it'd just be the 3930k, but I do want it to be a real workstation that will be able to handle a serious load for some time. I'm okay with going a bit over the 1k, but 2 2630's looks to be totalling around $1900 with the board and coolers, not even counting potential extra RAM. Realistically, how would the 2620's be? How bad would the single threaded performance get?
Click to expand...

So I was running a 4p of 2011 2.7ghz octos and that blew past my 4x dodecas @3ghz by about 15% before I figured out how to get turbo working...

The plus of intel is the single thread is quicker and the single thread turbo doesn't hurt ;) ...

but I would want to keep your clock close to 3ghz or alteast turbo past it...
 
So 3ghz is the golden number for turbo. That looks like it puts just about any Intel 2P setup out of the question. I know I asked about it before, but the Opteron 6234 has a 3ghz turbo. Would that work?
 
Patriot said:
The plus of intel is the single thread is quicker and the single thread turbo doesn't hurt ;) ...
Click to expand...

It took a long time for Intel to make that a reality. With the 56xx series, the threads only gave about a 30% increase over just the cores.
 
That's not a bad deal, but I need future proof. I've been doing some thinking, and doing this for around $1000 doesn't seem possible. If I were able to manage $2000, what would be best? The Opteron 6274 looks appealing.
 
NinjaPenguin said:
That's not a bad deal, but I need future proof. I've been doing some thinking, and doing this for around $1000 doesn't seem possible. If I were able to manage $2000, what would be best? The Opteron 6274 looks appealing.
Click to expand...

If you are going to game do not go with an AMD server setup at all. It's simple as that.
 
Or start with one 2650 or 2660 and buy another later, they have higher turbo clocks on the 8 core. Just make sure the board you get runs all the features you need with one processor installed, since your missing half of the PCIe lanes without the 2nd processor.
 
That really isn't an option because I'm probably not going to get that money any time in the next few years. That's kind of the point of this build. Right now I'm really just weighing the 3930k with the ASUS Rampage IV and an additional 16GB of ram and a OCZ Revodrive 3 240GB against the two 2630's on an SR-X. Realistically, aside from the obvious PPD gain from bigadv, is there a reason to go with the 2630's?
 
No, there really isn't, not with all the cores loaded, turbo won't be as high and you can run the 3930k above 4 GHz to make up for the missing cores. Wouldn't get a revodrive though, just run a pair of ssds in raid 0.
 
Okay. It just seems to make a lot more sense to go with the 3930k. It just took some doing to bust the whole "it needs to be two Xeons to be a workstation" thing. Just curious, why not the revodrive? On paper it seems awesome.
 
I believe it is because on some (well most) hardware, Revodrives run into some weird issues, that can be avoided by just running RAID 0, where you wont notice much/any performance difference.
 
So 2 120GB drives in RAID 0 it is then. I'm definitely going with the 3930k and doing a mild OC on air. Thank you all for your help and patience.
 
No problem, When you get it setup, if you need help getting anything folding setup just pop in with a thread for whatever issue and we will do what we can to help ya.
 
402blownstroker said:
Games seem to run fine with a set of 6128s, a 460 GTX, and web 2008 R2..... :confused:
Click to expand...

well... given the gtx 460 you are not running the latest on ultra...
a 7970 will be bottlenecked by that cpu setup...trust me.

My 7970 is quite bottlenecked by my dodeca at 3ghz...and its quicker than the 2 6128s were.
 
NinjaPenguin said:
So 2 120GB drives in RAID 0 it is then. I'm definitely going with the 3930k and doing a mild OC on air. Thank you all for your help and patience.
Click to expand...

I don't know what kind of case you'll be using, but a all-in-one water cooler like the corsair H-50 thru 100 is pretty affordable and can net you a bit of over clocking headroom.
 
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