Need a workstation motherboard recommendation. Maybe Asus P8C WS?

[mgt5323]

I'm considering an Asus P8C WS. It will be used for software development in C++. Are there other motherboards I should look at? My needs:

• It needs to be Windows 8 certified
• I need TPM support
• I need very fast single-threaded performance
• I prefer ECC RAM, will probably get 16 GB
• I don't need dual-CPUs
• I need at least one high-end video card for GPGPU work, maybe 2 cards
• Bonus points for utilities built into the BIOS to do cool things such as securely erase a HDD
• I might go with liquid cooling to keep the noise down. Shouldn't affect motherboard decision, but I thought I'd mention it.

Recommendations?

 

[PsiStar]

In a work station you do not need ECC RAM. Makes no difference. But what ever floats your boat.
I cannot fathom a reason to be concerned about TPM support either ... also a sort of a meh.
A GPGPU actually has nothing to do with video on the screen. It is for massively parallelized code for number crunching. Are you writing code for number crunching?? Then you would want the CUDA Toolkit etal.

Without knowing what application are you are developing towards but how you have said what you have said, I would suggest an inexpensive Dell desktop or a $400 notebook.

 

[mgt5323]

Thanks for your reply. I definitely need the requirements I listed, I just saved space and did not explain why. Since you're curious, I need TPM because my corporate IT policy won't let me on the network without it.

Yes, I know what GPGPU computing is. I'm writing applications which use it.

A $400 notebook won't have a discrete GPU or very fast CPU clockspeeds. I also need a motherboard, not a notebook, since I already have a case, PS, drives, etc.

 

[PsiStar]

Unusual corporate IT that allows one to build their own machine. Dell has GPGPU capable workstations pretty ready to go w/o fartin' around with construction.

I stumbled over the "... high-end video card for GPGPU work, maybe 2 cards". Nvidia Tesla GPGPUs require 1 CPU socket per card just for PCIe channel capacity. So 2 GPGPUs == 2 CPU sockets (dual-CPUs). Is this what you intend?

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

I have the P8C WS paired with a Xeon E3 1275 V2 (which btw has great single threaded performance) and 16gb unbuffered ECC memory, and it is working great. I am using the system to run molecular reaction simulations in Gaussian and it is about 3x faster than our 7 year old dual socket machines. One word of advice though, do not install any of the drivers/utilities that come from the CD. They are pretty glitchy. Get the latest from Asus website, and also update the bios asap in case you don't have the latest. It fixes a lot of stability issues. Other than that, great board, that has some neat WS features, although I don't really use all of them

 

[Vic Vega]

TPM is needed for Bitlocker with Windows 7/8. Yes, you can disable this requirement via GPO but it's not recommended and most corporate networks who require encryption will NOT disable it; therefore TPM is needed.

TPM is also needed to get on some corporate networks as in the OPs case.

IT and developers using their own systems is nothing new. A standard user probably not. I am a systems engineer and do a lion-share of my work on the "workstation" in my signature. I work for a large corporation (100,000 employees).

As for ECC that is the OP's requirement and you don't know what he will be doing, it very well may be required. Don't simply dismiss something when you don't understand the intention.

 

[PsiStar]

yadda yadda yadda
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Don't simply dismiss something when you don't understand the intention.

Because we do not know OP's understanding and I am interested in helping, I am trying to prod OP into offering a little more information. Although I do not care to know details of why. He wants what he wants. He already explained the necessity for TPM. Your comments are a double post.

To me, fast single threaded performance seem opposite GPGPU work which is inherently highly parallelized. CrossFireX GPUs are not considered GPGPU high performance computing. Careful use of terms is important.

I also have an interest. Per my signature I am running last gen CPUs & Teslas. I have 2 identical systems. It is important that I keep up to speed with the latest. The K20X might be in my future. Although cooling it in a workstation will require some thought, but that might be helped along as a water cooling solution is already available.

My applications are single & multi-threaded on the host CPU and when appropriate, a portion runs on the GPGPU. The applications are double precision. So, no, an equivalent "video card" is not equivalent.

Last, I am skeptical of Socket 1155 being capable due to the number of PCIe channels required by the Teslas. I have not recently investigated the capabilities of Socket 1155 systems nor K20X requirements, but past experience suggests a m/b with Socket 2011. I don't have time at the moment to dig this out as the specs take some time to understand.

 

[Vic Vega]

yada yada yada

It is obvious you just enjoy hearing yourself talk. This thread is about you.

 

[tweakboy]

:thumbsdown:

 

[pcunite]

To help you narrow things down a bit, Asus Workstation series or Supermicro boards. If you really need an ECC setup, I'd lean towards Supermicro.