Just sent back my single Opteron rig. I figure I can use the oh say....$550 bux I spent on it to grab a Dual Xeon rig. Thinkin about a 2.8 to OC to 3 and up. You guys know any good ram and mobo to grab? Also, should I wait till summer to see whats going on with the future of Xeons? I dont want to get stuck with a dead mobo if Intel decides to change the pin configuration on the Xeons in about 3 months.
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XEON Creamynessssss
- Thread starter 2phastPRO
- Start date
I don't know. IMHO Intel likes changing the pin configuration on their server-class boards more than not... Hence I perfer the Athlon series, because the CPUs all use Socket A.
So far, though, I hvaen't heard of any plans on changing the pin config on Xeon CPU's. They've remained the same since the PIII Xeons...
Know what ram would be great for it? I plan on making it my main entertainment/workhorse center. I'll be runnin a dual monitor setup (9800 pro/TV tuner....might switch the 9800 with a fireGL, dont know) 3D modeling, map modding, sound encoding, watching TV (girlfriend cant be bored m8!) some light hosting and of course GAMES!
GotNoRice
[H]F Junkie
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Originally posted by m³ñ
I don't know. IMHO Intel likes changing the pin configuration on their server-class boards more than not... Hence I perfer the Athlon series, because the CPUs all use Socket A.
Yeah, 100% socket A...
...except for socket 754, 939, and 940.
Xeons will keep their socket for at least one more generation (the 800fsb xeons) but after that it's anyone's guess. We know that the P4's are going to Socket 775 within the next months.
The Xeon architecture will be going to 800MHz FSB some time this year, is my guess. Also, the Prescott core will have a Xeon variant, but I'm not sure if that will appear with the new FSB or later. Those are the two biggest changes planned for Intel's SMP offerings in the near future.
Has anyone heard if the Prescott based Xeons will be moving to a different socket? I'm thinking of "upgrading" my dual Barton 3200+ rig to a dual 1MB Xeon, but don't know if I should wait for the new Prescott Xeons to be released first. I have a feeling that Intel will change something and make my upgrade path limited.
Has anyone heard if the Prescott based Xeons will be moving to a different socket? I'm thinking of "upgrading" my dual Barton 3200+ rig to a dual 1MB Xeon, but don't know if I should wait for the new Prescott Xeons to be released first. I have a feeling that Intel will change something and make my upgrade path limited.
If Intel is smart they're already in the process of validating and taping out a Nocona (Xeon version of Prescott) with at least an 800MHz FSB and 2MB L3 cache. I'll take two please However, I wouldn't expect to be able to buy one of these until mid-summer. Stuff like this always comes later rather than sooner. Until then the Opteron will unfortunately steal a lot of the Xeon's thunder.
However, I wouldn't expect to be able to buy one of these until mid-summer. Stuff like this always comes later rather than sooner. Until then the Opteron will unfortunately steal a lot of the Xeon's thunder.I'm sure Intel will offer a Prescott based Xeon in a 533 and possibly a 400 MHz package. They offer most of the current parts still in a 400MHz, plus they have a 533MHz low-end Prescott and Intel is usually very good about keeping compatibility where they can. They only reason they changed from 603>604 was to make sure no one jammed a 533MHz part in an old board.
[H]awaiianOC
n00b
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I have a feeling the 800mhz fsb Xeons might possibly be migrated to a slightly different socket such as a 605 pin set just like the change from 603->604. If the future is a big deal to you, you may want to put off your purchase til the beginning of the next product cycle seeing as the current generation is getting old. That's not to say you won't have upgrade options. A motherboard to look at might be the Asus PC-DL which is based on the Canterwood chipset which MAY allow for 800mhz Xeon use. The other workstation type motherboard that I'd recommend would be the Iwill DPI-533 which allows for pretty good overclocking. If you want to save money, I'd say go for the PC-DL with Crucial memory because your overclocking options are limited. The DPI-533 might come out comparable with slower CPUs but faster memory such as Corsair because of its overclockability.
spikegifted
Gawd
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The 800MHz-FSB-with-Socket605 theory makes complete sense... This, however, will leave room for 'lazy' overclockers like me to simply drop a S604 533MHz FSB part into a S605 and possibly drop the multiplier a notch to get an overclock or higher memory bandwith.
I can't really agree with you assessment of the Asus PC-DL Deluxe board. The i875PE hack for Xeon may be capable of doing 800MHz FSB, but not the way Asus has implemented it. There is an excellent thread over at 2CPU.com forums where the potential to achieve 800MHz FSB was given a bit of talk. However, one of the posts suggested that Asus has (or hasn't) done something which basically makes the board unable to achieve that kind of FSB with stability...
In terms of difference between the PC-DL Deluxe and the DPI533 series, personally, I don't think there is much between the two of them. Ok, I don't have the PC-DL Deluxe and I've a couple of DPI533 (so I guess you can call me bias). However, I think the memory controllers in the E7505 and the i875PE are comparable in performance and latency, except the i875PE controller can handle faster RAM. On the other hand, I'm not sure what kind of performance impact there is when running memory asynchronous to the FSB in a Xeon system. We've previous seen impact on Athlon and P4 rigs with asynchronous set, so I guess it is a safe assumption that there will be some impact on the Xeon platforms also.