New build critique dual 5520 Xeon's

[Markfw]

OK, so far, here is what I have
2 x 5520 Xeon 2.26 ghz cpu w/HT
Thermaltake Utltra 120Extreme CPU coolers (x2)
SuperMicro MBD-X8DAL-i-O motherboard
2 x GTX 470 MSI video cards
CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W PSU
4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (8 gig total)

and crap HD and dvd (this is a crunching machine for F@H)

So what did I forget ? and suggestions ?

 

[Sp12]

OK, so far, here is what I have
2 x 5520 Xeon 2.26 ghz cpu w/HT
SuperMicro MBD-X8DAL-i-O motherboard
2 x GTX 470 MSI video cards
CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W PSU
4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (8 gig total)

and crap HD and dvd (this is a crunching machine for F@H)

So what did I forget ? and suggestions ?

I had my suspicions. I'm no expert, but it seems fine.

 

[Knavish]

If you're running Win 7 or linux, then scrap the DVD. You can install OS from a USB stick!

 

[Blain]

OK, so far, here is what I have
2 x 5520 Xeon 2.26 ghz cpu w/HT
Thermaltake Utltra 120Extreme CPU coolers (x2)
SuperMicro MBD-X8DAL-i-O motherboard
2 x GTX 470 MSI video cards
CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W PSU
4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (8 gig total)

and crap HD and dvd (this is a crunching machine for F@H)

So what did I forget ? and suggestions ?

* If I were going for that server MB, I would take advantage of the chipset features and use ECC memory.
* The 1200W PS is a little overkill, but I can only assume that's what you intend, based on your component picks.

 

[Googer]

OK, so far, here is what I have
2 x 5520 Xeon 2.26 ghz cpu w/HT
Thermaltake Utltra 120Extreme CPU coolers (x2)
SuperMicro MBD-X8DAL-i-O motherboard
2 x GTX 470 MSI video cards
CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W PSU
4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (8 gig total)

and crap HD and dvd (this is a crunching machine for F@H)

So what did I forget ? and suggestions ?

Why XEON? Why not a single socket motherboard and wait for OCTO-CORE?

Supermicro can make some very difficult motherboards to work with. They often require a special Supermicro Chasis and Supermicro PSU (or is that Tyan). Which leads me in to the PSU. PC Power and Cooling makes (or used to make?) Supermicro approved PSU and PC Power and Cooling PSU's are far more robust and provide much cleaner power than just about anything else on the market. If this is a server you are building then reliability from a brand with a good reputation in the server PSU business is going to have to be a high priority.

Personally, I like this motherboard better. It appears to be far more useful and usable. This CPU seems to be a better buy and it's higher wattage will possibly translate in to a more efficiant system (psus work best at (50% load).


EDIT:
I see it's for FAH, the EVGA XEON motherboard will allow you to run multiple GPU clients along with your CPU clients.

 

[Googer]

For FAH, I'd be more inclined to recommend A six core AMD AM3 system with ATi GPUs. I think you'll get more GFLOPS per dollar. Plus a lower energy bill.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103849
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128442

 

[Blain]

PC Power and Cooling makes (or used to make?) Supermicro approved PSU and PC Power and Cooling PSU's are far more robust and provide much cleaner power than just about anything else on the market. If this is a server you are building then reliability from a brand with a good reputation in the server PSU business is going to have to be a high priority.

OCZ bought PC Power & Cooling a few years back.
Is there any current (post-2008), testing that indicate PC Power & Cooling power supplies produce "cleaner power" than other high-end PS?

This recent TechReport PS review, while not including a PC Power & Cooling PC, does indicate that Corsair sells some high quality units.
They do include a Seasonic PS, which I understand has built power supplies for PC Power & Cooling.

 

[Googer]

OCZ bought PC Power & Cooling a few years back.
Is there any current (post-2008), testing that indicate PC Power & Cooling power supplies produce "cleaner power" than other high-end PS?

This recent TechReport PS review, while not including a PC Power & Cooling PC, does indicate that Corsair sells some high quality units.
They do include a Seasonic PS, which I understand has built power supplies for PC Power & Cooling.

Yeah, I just noticed they killed off those awesome Turbo Cool PSUs. Claims of cleaner power were true when they still made the TURBO COOL under ocz. Those newer ones seem to contradict the old PC Power philosophy of the evil bottom mounted fans. OCz has broken their promises of not messing with what made PC Power and Cooling great. I'm glad I picked up a 1kw-SR while I still had the chance.

As for post-merger review, Anandtech did some of their own reviews on the Turbo-Cool and found by a large margin they had the lowest ripple of anything tested.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2433/2

 

[Blain]

As for post-merger review, Anandtech did some of their own reviews on the Turbo-Cool and found by a large margin they had the lowest ripple of anything tested.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2433/2

OCZ bought PC Power & Cooling in May of 2007.
Any comparative reviews more current than February of 2008?

 

[Googer]

OCZ bought PC Power & Cooling in May of 2007.
Any comparative reviews more current than February of 2008?

This is the only newer article.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2713

 

[Googer]

If you've ever owned a Mercedes then you can appreciate the build quality of a vintage PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool. Since they no longer make them, you always have the ebay option if picking one up. Something tells me things from people will start saying "they dont make 'em like they used to".

"The Best or Nothing" Period.

 

[Blain]

I own a PC Power & Cooling PS and I'm quite happy with it.
I'm just saying that since the buyout, their quality may not be what it once was. Or on the flip side, other manufacturers may have increased the quality level of their products.
That's why I asked for more current comparative (side by side), reviews.

"The Best" can't be determined in a vacuum.

 

[Googer]

I own a PC Power & Cooling PS and I'm quite happy with it.
I'm just saying that since the buyout, their quality may not be what it once was. Or on the flip side, other manufacturers may have increased the quality level of their products.
That's why I asked for more current comparative (side by side), reviews.

"The Best" can't be determined in a vacuum.

The OCz merger reminds me of the Dark Days of the Chrysler-Benz buyout when MB's overall quality and reliability dropped to the point where they no longer won any JD Power Awards. Lets hope that PC Power will one day break away from OCz; but that doesn't seem too likely.

 

[Googer]

If all you want is high performance F@H, then I'd suggest buying a ton of older 20gb PS3, a used Gateway FPD2185* and a Component/Composite Video Swtich. They all can be had for about $100 or less on ebay.
http://video-games.shop.ebay.com/Sy...gb+ps3&_catref=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282


*FPD-2185 sells for under $80 on ebay, has component, DVI (eh-hem HDMI via adapter), composite, and S-Video Inputs and Faroudja DCD-i scaling and de-interlacing which make it perfect for switching between between various PS3's in your F@H farm.

 

[Meghan54]

If you want a Turbo-Cool 860W or 1200W, just find a Win-Tact 860 or 1200. Those units were the off-the-shelf units PCP&C had their Turbo Cool name put on by Win-Tact, the OEM for the Turbo Cool line.

Silencers were originally built by Sparkle then Seasonic, which is why Silencers built in the last 5 years or so of PCP&C's existence mirrored Seasonic top end platforms.

As for "the best around" as for ripple/noise, etc., while PCP&C had their units produced with extremely low ripple/noise specs, ripple/noise as the primary metric for consideration in purchasing a power supply is, in my opinion, incorrectly placed.

Voltage regulation, at least for me, tops ripple/noise generation in consideration of buying a power supply.

You have to consider......holding a high output +12V power supply to 1-2% variance in voltage regulation is tougher than bringing down ripple/noise to sub-30mV levels.

You also have to consider that the ATX spec for ripple/noise is 120mV on the 12V rail, and all computer parts built are designed with that spec in mind, meaning the parts can tolerate that amount of ripple/noise and still work properly. And while it's nice to claim to have the lowest ripple/noise (something PCP&C had a claim to 10 years ago but isn't even in the running these days compared to the new units out from Enermax, Seasonic, CWT, etc.), the real world effects of 25mV of ripple vs. 40mV of ripple is non-existent. It's more an academic exercise, or a bragging right. In the end, having a unit that produces 1/4 of ripple spec vs. a unit that produces 1/3 of spec in ripple won't gain you anything except bragging rights and marketing points.

Oh, and that review you linked to Googer that had AT claiming PCP&C's Turbo Cool had the lowest ripple/noise they'd ever tested holds little weight.....where are the ripple/noise traces? That claim of 2.8mV of ripple at full load is just ludicrous and unbelievable to say the least. No other power supply, from PCP&C or anyone else, has such low ripple. Methinks a misplaced decimal point is the culprit....and was supposed to be 28mV, not 2.8mV. Otherwise, why not show the tracing from the oscilloscope and prove it? And to have 4% voltage regulation on the minor rails at max load is not outstanding.....more pedestrian and mediocre and bested by cheap units like from Cooler Master and a host of other power supplies.

Anandtech has never been viewed as the be-all and end-all of power supply testing......there are much more trusted and believable testing sites on the web for power supplies and their testing......JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware Secrets, among others.

 

[aigomorla]

Why XEON? Why not a single socket motherboard and wait for OCTO-CORE?

Because he can goto a decacore system later on with 2 gulftowns?

For FAH, I'd be more inclined to recommend A six core AMD AM3 system with ATi GPUs. I think you'll get more GFLOPS per dollar. Plus a lower energy bill.

yeah but his intel nvidia system will slaughter a ati/amd system in F@H points any given day of the week/month/year

do you have an anti intel policy?
Mark wants the top dog for what he can buy.

Are you gonna tell me a AMD is faster in folding and crunching?
:whiste:

only if u bring out the 48p magony will i agree with ya.

 

[Googer]

Because he can goto a decacore system later on with 2 gulftowns?




yeah but his intel nvidia system will slaughter a ati/amd system in F@H points any given day of the week/month/year

do you have an anti intel policy?
Mark wants the top dog for what he can buy.

Are you gonna tell me a AMD is faster in folding and crunching?
:whiste:

only if u bring out the 48p magony will i agree with ya.

I'm not anti-Intel and I'm typing this message on my P4 that's connected to an Intel motherboard. I also own many other Intel produtcs in my box of computer parts. My favorite NICs also happen to be made by Intel. It's just that for the money, AMD is the better value and the performance with what I have proposed will likely be much greater vs what the opening post has proposed he build for him self. It's also a better value too.

2.26GHz Intel chips are far slower than 3.4GHz AMD. If this were an Intel Chip over 3GHz, it might be a different story.

As for the GPU, the first non-3d APPs for a GPU as well as the first F@H GPU client were both written to be run on an ATi GPU client.

 

[Markfw]

I got the E5520's for a steal, somebody ripped the IHS off, and I got them so cheap, its ridiculous...

So the build has to be around that, and the motherboard was open box for $200, $100 off, so thats done also.

As for the GPU's, I already have them, and they wipe the floor with AMD/ATI in F@H points/$$

 

[Googer]

I got the E5520's for a steal, somebody ripped the IHS off, and I got them so cheap, its ridiculous...

So the build has to be around that, and the motherboard was open box for $200, $100 off, so thats done also.

As for the GPU's, I already have them, and they wipe the floor with AMD/ATI in F@H points/$$

What OS do you plan on using?
If your going Windows then you'll need either ultimate or professionsal any other version wont support a dual socket motherboard.

Other than the fact that XEONS require Registered ECC ram and it doesn't appear that you picked Registerd ECC. The only other things you may want to do is pick up a cheap OpenCL capable GPU and be ready to fold.

 

[Blain]

I'm running a Xeon with unbuffered non-ECC memory.
His MB supports Non-ECC unbuffered, Unbuffered ECC and Registered ECC memory.
Like I said in my first post, I'd run unbuffered ECC in that particular rig.