Cruncher Replacement Project

[cineon_lut]

Update: I've purchased the Dell Precision T5500 (Dual Quad Xeon, 6Gb Ram, 2x250Gb HD, 875W Silver PSU, Win7 Pro) here-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251445663395 Seller accepted best offer of $255
I also purchased two Xeon X5650 Hex-Core processors here-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131092988378 Seller accepted best offer of $245

I'll probably end up needing more memory (1Gb per core?) but $500 all in for a complete 24-Thread machine isn't bad! Should be up and running by 2/18, helping in the POGS challenge and keeping my guest bedroom warm.

Well done on getting those prices! Can't wait to see you spin those Xeons up! Wuprop loves machines like that too!

[Fire$torm]

SWEET!!!!!

[conf]

Funny, this is nearly exact the thing Im hunting for on ebay since 5 days.
The cpu is no big problem, but Im not so sure which MB Chipset supports a 5660 Xeon.
5520 or x58 and for 2 CPUs, one would run on a cheap asus board but 2 are only from
Supermicro so far and these cost about 500$ in Europe.
General question : you have 110 Volt but for mainboards its the same worldwide I presume, only the power supply varies. Right ?
Edit.:
one more question : does a motherboard for Xeon 5500 automatically fit for 5600 ?

[zombie67]

Memory: 1gb per thread at a minimum. 2gb per thread is better.

There are a number of project that 1gb per thread will not be enough.

[John P. Myers]

Funny, this is nearly exact the thing Im hunting for on ebay since 5 days.
The cpu is no big problem, but Im not so sure which MB Chipset supports a 5660 Xeon.
5520 or x58 and for 2 CPUs, one would run on a cheap asus board but 2 are only from
Supermicro so far and these cost about 500$ in Europe.
General question : you have 110 Volt but for mainboards its the same worldwide I presume, only the power supply varies. Right ?
Edit.:
one more question : does a motherboard for Xeon 5500 automatically fit for 5600 ?

All motherboards, chips, drives, graphics cards, etc. all use the same DC voltage regardless of which country you bought them in. All power supplies convert to 12v, 5v and 3.3v DC current. All power supplies will also work in any country. AC Voltage is detected automatically, then converted to the same DC voltage used by all motherboards. Edit: or sometimes there's a switch you have to manually flip to use the right voltage.

The X58 chipset is for desktop CPUs and some single-socket W35xx series Xeons. The 5520 chipset supports both 5500 and 5600 series Xeons. You can also look at the EVGA SR-2 motherboard, though it'll likely cost as much as FourOh paid for all his stuff

[FourOh]

Memory: 1gb per thread at a minimum. 2gb per thread is better.

There are a number of project that 1gb per thread will not be enough.

I took your advice and sprung for 24gb of DDR3 1333Mhz RAM - another $120. Can you identify the projects that may require 2gb per thread? If I run those, I can disable HT.

SO, all in for a dual-hex Xeon X5650, 24gb DDR3 memory, 2x 250gb HD, and some left over cpus and memory sticks was $620. BUT WAIT. This hunk of junk doesn't like to start up! When I hit the power button (that's the silver one on front) it shows an error code and power cycles on and off repeatedly until eventually (5-12 minutes) one of the starts will catch, it will POST and Windows starts. Once Win7 is running, it seems to be fine and stable - I've run POGS, Collatz, Milkyway and GPUGrid to test. However, when the need to restart comes around, as it does, this brutal cycle starts again. Seller has no solution, so RMA is in the works. Of course that means ol' Dave gets to pony up the 50 bucks to ship this beast back to Cali. Bummer dude.

Total cost: $670 (and counting)

[Slicker]

I took your advice and sprung for 24gb of DDR3 1333Mhz RAM - another $120. Can you identify the projects that may require 2gb per thread? If I run those, I can disable HT.

SO, all in for a dual-hex Xeon X5650, 24gb DDR3 memory, 2x 250gb HD, and some left over cpus and memory sticks was $620. BUT WAIT. This hunk of junk doesn't like to start up! When I hit the power button (that's the silver one on front) it shows an error code and power cycles on and off repeatedly until eventually (5-12 minutes) one of the starts will catch, it will POST and Windows starts. Once Win7 is running, it seems to be fine and stable - I've run POGS, Collatz, Milkyway and GPUGrid to test. However, when the need to restart comes around, as it does, this brutal cycle starts again. Seller has no solution, so RMA is in the works. Of course that means ol' Dave gets to pony up the 50 bucks to ship this beast back to Cali. Bummer dude.

Total cost: $670 (and counting)

I had an i7 box that did the same thing. It turned out to be a problem with the memory. The memory reported its settings but when the machine tried posting, it woudln't work so the MB would automatically change the settings and try again, and again, and again. When it finally booted, it was only recognizing half the RAM.

[FourOh]

I had an i7 box that did the same thing. It turned out to be a problem with the memory. The memory reported its settings but when the machine tried posting, it woudln't work so the MB would automatically change the settings and try again, and again, and again. When it finally booted, it was only recognizing half the RAM.

Thanks for the tip. This weekend I'll pull the 2nd CPU riser and try one stick of RAM in each socket and see if I can isolate the problem. It's probably a memory socket on the system board, because I replaced all the RAM and the problem persists.

[finalfugue]

Bummer, sorry about your rig issues. This thread inspired me to seek out my own X5650 T5500. I paid about what you're paying, but got it configured the way I wanted and "tested" from a fairly large refitter with a big B&M facility. I'm hoping their actual business presence and buyer protection means I don't have to knock on too much wood for what I get out of the box Tuesday.

Let us know how it works out. Hope it turns a corner soon so I can think positive about mine, then we can all be merrily crunching along.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

[FourOh]

I've had my T5500 workstation back from RMA for a few days and it is cranking out the credits! I have it driving a 7950 and 5850 right now, soon I will attempt to replace the 5850 with a GTX 580 that is in my other dedicated cruncher. Not sure if the 7950 & GTX 580 will play nice together on this platform; even if they do I'm not sure there is enough ventilation to keep both cards from cooking.

Running Collatz on both GPUs, it's producing at a rate of over 1 million a day plus 22 threads of CPU projects. It draws 585 Watts at the plug at full load, for about 1750 credits/day/watt.

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?p...50e2593f3de1dd
http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz...?hostid=141784