• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Need suggestions on dual socket mobo.

V

Vilandra

Member
Without going into a long story, im looking to either build a new system myself, or just have a local PC shop build one for me. I do a lot of 3D animation, compositing, and rendering, so im looking at going with a Dual Xeon Quad-Core system. 4 to 8 Gigs RAM (maybe DDR 667-800Mhz), GeForce 8800GT, and I already have a dual layer 16x DVD writer, and 2 older ATA hard drives.

This is the first time ive had to look into a dual socket board, and im not sure what to look for. Its my understanding that xeon's are for server boards, and since im going with a dual socket, I have to look for a case that will fit.

So as of now, im stuck on mobo and case, and not sure how to proceed. Anyone have any suggestions? All I know is that it has to be a LGA771 because the chips im looking at are the 54xx series, and last time I checked, those required LGA771.

The local PC shop was telling me about the Antec triton 550 case which comes with a 550w PSU, but after reading online reviews, apparently this case does not work with dual socket boards.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I'm NOT a she or a her!

I've used quite a few tyan boards in the past and can highly recommend them!
For your use I would recommend the Intel 5400 chipset, from there it's just about the features you need. I know newegg stocks the Tyan S5396A2NFR that is about the least expensive dual 771 workstation board I know of, they may even have some open box ones that usually get quite a big markdown on them
 
Thanks for the info. Ive been looking over the boards at newegg, and was surprised to see some of them going for $500 to $600. I was under the impression one would set me back for maybe $250 or less.

Thanks for the link, and the help. Now I just need to find a nice case and a PSU.
 
Sorry for the mixup, it's because of Vilandra's name, I thought he was a she too, but he isn't 😛

Anyways, he also needs to know what kind of cases support a motherboard like that ?
 
I found a couple of "server" cases at newegg, but im uncertain as to whether its for a dual socket xeon board. The local PC shop here in town gave me a quote on a Antec Titan 550 for $250, but the reviews showed dual sockets wont fit, so now im back to looking for one again. I suppose I should ask this in the "case and cooling" forum.
 
Yeah, all the different fora aren't always easy to work with, but 'usually' posting on the right forum does get you the best answers, coz most people only tend to hang out on a few fora, and they are usually pretty knowledgable about the forums maintopic.
 
First, I would recommend taking the question over to 2cpu.com. That site is all about SMP and the goodness thereof. Additionally, you will find the for sale threads full of great deals for used and new hardware.

Although you may be tempted to hop into a dual processor system, most dual processor systems require ECC DDR(x) or FB-DIMMs. Neither of which are cheap. Most workstation boards will support more RAM though - desktop boards seem to top out at 4 GB, whereas servers and workstations typically support 16GB and up. This would probably be far more important than having more than 4 cores (heck, 2 would likely suffice for rendering).

There have been some "hybrid" boards that have met varying levels of success over the years. Most recent one that comes to mind is the Asus dual FX system (I don't recall the model off-hand as it has never itnerested me). It did accept standard DDR2, but it's really a niche item and required dual FX processors. I'm not sure there are any recent Intel ventures into the dual 775 world.

I myself run dual processor sytems ("old" by today's standards) that certainly keep me happy enough. If you can find a 775 board that supports the latest quad core processors AND a whole bunch of RAM (8 GB+) but with just one socket, that would definitely prove a good value over a dual Xeon or Opteron setup as those prices go up quickly. Of course, with workstaion/server boards, you do usually get some PCI-X slots at 133 MHz for a nice RAID card. But there are also SAS controllers that are PCI-e. Of course, SAS drives do get pricey too...

Good luck,
EH
 
Yeah, I actually looked at those kind of parts, but I am basing my chioce of parts off of benchmarking results for Cinebench 10. Since I use Cinema 4D as my main 3D app, (which is made by the same company who makes cinebench), all of the benchmarking results ive seen show the dual xeons taking the lead by a huge leap. And since I dont have a renderfarm, im trying to get as much as I can for rendering power without paying an arm and a leg.

So far, this whole system (dual xeon E5420's, 4 to 8 Gigs RAM, mobo, case, psu, GeForce 8800GT) is running about $1800 if I build it myself. I already have a DVD writer, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Compare that to a prebuilt Boxx workstation with the same specs going for $3,000. Although they offer a 3 year warranty on everything.
 
Originally posted by: Vilandra
Yeah, I actually looked at those kind of parts, but I am basing my chioce of parts off of benchmarking results for Cinebench 10. Since I use Cinema 4D as my main 3D app, (which is made by the same company who makes cinebench), all of the benchmarking results ive seen show the dual xeons taking the lead by a huge leap. And since I dont have a renderfarm, im trying to get as much as I can for rendering power without paying an arm and a leg.

So far, this whole system (dual xeon E5420's, 4 to 8 Gigs RAM, mobo, case, psu, GeForce 8800GT) is running about $1800 if I build it myself. I already have a DVD writer, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Compare that to a prebuilt Boxx workstation with the same specs going for $3,000. Although they offer a 3 year warranty on everything.
Click to expand...

this is where I recently ran into troubly attempting to justify my upcoming workstation build. My budget is slightly higher($10K) and I need some higher end components but, the warranty and service contracts on things like the Dell(god I hate having to say that) workstations are making it increasingly hard to justify. I'm probably going to end up going pre-built.
 
That said, head over to 2cpu and hit up the for sale section. There are actually a few resellers who sell their demo equipment for a steal. Otherwise, that is really the best place that I have found to pick up server/workstation parts. My failure rate is still 0% from all things purchased there.

EH
 
Don't look for a server case. Look for a full size tower that supports your mobo layout. Like is it E-ATX or ATX or what? My dual CPU setup is a ATX board so I am running just a Thermaltake Armor series case.

For a mobo I would also recommend Tyan or Supermicro. Read the specs very carefully on what you are ordering. most of the dual CPU boards don't have full x16 PCIE slots or at least what I've run into.

Also check the open box specials at Newegg, I got my board from there for more than half off and everything came in it.
 
Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Sorry for the mixup, it's because of Vilandra's name, I thought he was a she too, but he isn't 😛

Anyways, he also needs to know what kind of cases support a motherboard like that ?
Click to expand...

But, I'm a freaking dragon.




EDIT: sorry, that was a NEF but, it was marc's fault.
 
Yeah, I really wasnt looking for a "server" case, as in a rack mount or one of those cases that resembles a cabinet. I was looking for more of a traditional desktop style case, but with the ability to hold e-atx boards, and at least have a couple of external USB, firewire, and audio I/O connections.

I'll head over to 2cpu.com and check out them out. Thanks
 
Originally posted by: Vilandra
Yeah, I really wasnt looking for a "server" case, as in a rack mount or one of those cases that resembles a cabinet. I was looking for more of a traditional desktop style case, but with the ability to hold e-atx boards, and at least have a couple of external USB, firewire, and audio I/O connections.

I'll head over to 2cpu.com and check out them out. Thanks
Click to expand...

Most CEB mobos will fit in a full tower ATX case. The mobos use ATX standards except they are up to an inch longer and wider (12? X 10.5?).

They also use ATX specs for the I/O and slots ...

Here is 30 pages worth of Compact Electronics Bay specs (pdf)
 

when i got a dual socket 604 Tyan, i ended up getting the EATX
case from Computer Geeks in San Diego. it was a 4U case.

i guess now it's a space heater that can run Folding@Home.
 
Originally posted by: Vilandra
Yeah, I really wasnt looking for a "server" case, as in a rack mount or one of those cases that resembles a cabinet. I was looking for more of a traditional desktop style case, but with the ability to hold e-atx boards, and at least have a couple of external USB, firewire, and audio I/O connections.

I'll head over to 2cpu.com and check out them out. Thanks
Click to expand...

Cooler Master stacker, any of them, will hold EATX as will a lot of FULL tower cases built by the higher end manufacturers like silverstone, antec and Lian Li. How many optical and hard drives are you going to have and what's the load time % going to be like?
 
Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
Cooler Master stacker, any of them, will hold EATX as will a lot of FULL tower cases built by the higher end manufacturers like silverstone, antec and Lian Li. How many optical and hard drives are you going to have and what's the load time % going to be like?
Click to expand...

As of now, ill have a 16 dual layer DVD writer, and ive got 2 older ATA hard drives that I wont to reuse if possible. I'll probably add a small SATA drive as well.

When you say "load time percentage", do you mean what kind of time will the CPU's be under a load? If thats what you're asking, its hard to say at the moment, but I do know that there will probably be nights that I let it render (overnight). My assumption is that both quad-cores will be under a load for that, although ive never seen a CPU usage meter with dual quad-cores rendering.

 
Hey guys, im stumped on something regarding a couple of mobo's im looking at....

The video card im looking at purchasing is the XFX GeForce 8800GT. It says that it is a PCI Express 2.0 x16 card, however the mobo I was looking at only has PCI-Express x16. Im assuming I need to find a board with PCI_Express 2.0 x16 right? Is there even a difference? So far I havent seen any dual socket 771 board with a PCI_E 2.0 x16 slot.

Thanks
 
Originally posted by: Vilandra
Hey guys, im stumped on something regarding a couple of mobo's im looking at....

The video card im looking at purchasing is the XFX GeForce 8800GT. It says that it is a PCI Express 2.0 x16 card, however the mobo I was looking at only has PCI-Express x16. Im assuming I need to find a board with PCI_Express 2.0 x16 right? Is there even a difference? So far I havent seen any dual socket 771 board with a PCI_E 2.0 x16 slot.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You won't find a dual 771 board with pci-e 2.0 but, on the right side it's really un-necessary for any of the current gen cards.

Originally posted by: Vilandra
As of now, ill have a 16 dual layer DVD writer, and ive got 2 older ATA hard drives that I wont to reuse if possible. I'll probably add a small SATA drive as well.

When you say "load time percentage", do you mean what kind of time will the CPU's be under a load? If thats what you're asking, its hard to say at the moment, but I do know that there will probably be nights that I let it render (overnight). My assumption is that both quad-cores will be under a load for that, although ive never seen a CPU usage meter with dual quad-cores rendering.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I meant. Honestly just head over to newegg and do a power search for anything that will hold e-atx boards and just see what you like. There are a lot of them out there nowadays. Just make sure you keep motherboard layout in mind. A lot of server/workstation boards will put both 771 sockets right at the front edge of the board so you want to make very sure there is enough clearance in teh top right corner of the motherboard area.
 
What derwen was trying to say is, that although a 8800gt is a pci-e 2.0 card, it's also backwards compatible with pci-e 1.0 slots. PCI-e 2.0 can handle higher bandwiths, but videocards aren't even using all the bandwith provided by pci-e 1.0 16x slots, so in the end you can stick a 8800gt in a pci-e 1.0 slot just fine, and you won't notice a difference with a pci-e 2.0 slot.
 
Ok. I understand now.

When it comes to mobo's, is there a particular brand that I should avoid? Ive been checking out the Tyan boards over at newegg, but also saw some SuperMicro, Asus, etc.
 
I recommend for a dual socket motherboard is the supermicro X7DB8 motherboard, it comes with the intel 5000P chipset. support quad cores and the new 45nm quadcores
 
At $520, that supermicro mobo might be out of my price range. As of now, for a dual xeon E5420, 4 gigs ram, geforce 8800GT, case, psu and a tyan mobo, the price was coming out around $1600 to $1800. That supermicro board just hit the $2k mark. I'll put it on my list of motherboard to look over, but it is a hefty price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top