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28 cores Dual socket build (Project Boobs) (Completed)

alucasa said:
Can't pay that much for 3D Max. Besides, I am too used to Blender. And, in my opinion, CPU rendering is better, due to flexibility of RAM.

I am not sure what you mean by blender is bogging down the system? It's rendering which is probably one of the most processor intensive work. Of course, it will slow down any system if using all resources. Having more threads gives me options to divert some threads for my own use during a render.
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Fair enough.

What I mean is letting the CUDA GPU do the rendering while freeing up most of the CPU to do other things.
Basically get yourself some more CUDA cores. 1280 CUDA cores isn't much for rendering. Even an older 780 Ti has 2880 CUDA. A Titan black has 2880 CUDA cores and 6GB of VRAM. And both are cheap.
 
Killerdroid said:
Fair enough.

What I mean is letting the CUDA GPU do the rendering while freeing up most of the CPU to do other things.
Basically get yourself some more CUDA cores. 1280 CUDA cores isn't much for rendering. Even an older 780 Ti has 2880 CUDA. A Titan black has 2880 CUDA cores and 6GB of VRAM. And both are cheap.
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Oh, I tried that on letting CUDA do the work and use the CPU.

Here is a major issue with CUDA rendering. CUDA rendering does not have an option to use less cores. It's all or nothing. When you use GPU to render, the screen lags badly. Doesn't matter CPU is free or not, the screen lags since GPU is fully loaded.

CPU rendering isn't like that. Out of 28 threads, I tell Blender to use 24 threads and I can even game with GPU free.
 
I suggest dual GPU's as any app using Nvidia's CUDA will utilise both GPU's (Non SLI)

With Iray I tried 2 GPU's + CPU. I found eliminating the CPU made the render faster at times. Depending on the scene complexity that is.
I've rarely have any screen lag.
 
alucasa said:
Finally (for real), I hope the standoffs on the NZXT case are removeable. I have conflicting reports on this.
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They are removable, as they supply an extra stand off in the box in case you decide not to go with the standard ATX Motherboard set up.
 
Last night, I went to a local CanadaComputers store which is 30 minutes away from my home. So, it'd make an hour trip. I didn't want to spend an hour on the trip but decided that I had to see the case with my own eyes.

The NZXT case I ordered does come with unremoveable standoffs on regular ATX holes. What is interesting is that older stocks seems to have removeable standoffs and newer shipments seem to have integrated.

In the end, I bought Fractal Define C window version. The case is actually not that big compared to my current case. it's about 2 inches taller but also about 1 inches shorter in depth due to not having any 5.25 inch bays.

I am going to miss the front USB ports and SD card reader. Guess I will need to buy a hub.

So, that's it. Case is done and settled. Thank God.

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Is the Motherboard going to fit? :confused:
I know the Asus board says form factor ATX, but I would expect it to be E-ATX
 
Caring1 said:
Is the Motherboard going to fit? :confused:
I know the Asus board says form factor ATX, but I would expect it to be E-ATX
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I once had a dual socket mATX rig. Oh, yes, it will fit. :)

Dual socket ATX is limited to 4 RAM banks per CPU though due to motherboard real estate. E-ATX can go up to 8+ ranks per CPU.

As long as you don't use stupidly large CPU heatsinks, it will work.
 
Just waiting at the moment. Due to Easter weekend which starts on this Friday, I will be making the orders for Supermicro motherboard, a PSU, 2 heatsinks, and 2 sticks of RAM on next Monday (17th).

Those eat up my entire budget for April unfortunately and I will need to wait until May 15th before buying additional RAMs and few drives.

Meanwhile, let me show you the plastic standoffs. They are meant for various situations, one of which is my case where motherboard screw holes do not line up with standard ATX holes. E-ATX motherboards also sometimes don't follow the exact standard and you use these more than you expect to during rackmount assemblies.

What they do is that they prevent motherboards from being bent and touch metal plate, preventing possible shorts.
They are most helpful when installing RAMs. Some rackmount cases do come with a thick layer of plastic sheet on motherboard area though.

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Following parts were ordered today.

I expect the RAM to arrive late, so I will make mobo order around that time. They are coming from Ohio.

1. Hynix HMA41GR7MFR4N 8gb ECC buffered 2133 x 2. These RAMs are on QVL list and therefore the safest to use on the supermicro motherboard. These also happen to be the cheapest. ETA is 2 weeks for these. So, each CPU will have only 8gb RAM. I know that sucks, but my budget is already over-stretched at this point.

2. EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B1 - This PSU has dual CPU power cables.https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00K85X23O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3. ARCTIC Freezer i11 x2. These are the cheapest and smallest CPU heatinks that handle E5-2683v3 under 70c. I will change one of them with H55 in May.

4. USB hub since I will be losing front panel USB / SD card access. I use those frequently.
 
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I want that screw kit box! Right now all I have is a scavenged collection of nuts and screws from old builds :D

Great case choice, Fractal Defines are really nice to build with!
 
As things stand -

1. PSU, Heatsinks, and USB Hub will arrive on Friday 21st according to Amazon. I used free shipping which is why they are taking their sweet time packing things.

2. RAM sticks are a bit of mystery. I gave 2 weeks of ETA at maximum. Coming from Ohio though, I think it will arrive by end of 21st.

3. Newegg had a weekend sale for a supermicro mobo I had in my wishlist. I saved 20 bucks from it. So, instead of 419 CAD, I paid 399 CAD. Add in 13% tax plus shipping, I paid 460 CAD total. Model is MBD-X10DAL-I-O. I will likely have to update BIOS to get this working. I may have to purchase a 4gb ECC RAM as well just to boot into BIOS. We will see.
The motherboard will arrive the earliest on 18th.

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alucasa said:
I once had a dual socket mATX rig. Oh, yes, it will fit. :)

Dual socket ATX is limited to 4 RAM banks per CPU though due to motherboard real estate. E-ATX can go up to 8+ ranks per CPU.

As long as you don't use stupidly large CPU heatsinks, it will work.
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Dual socket mATX thats amazing I didn't know something like that existed. :D
And I've been meaning to ask you this a long time, what's up with your Avatar ?
 
Build process phase 1.

Aw, hell. It was close. The mobo is wider than normal and it barely fit. Just few more mm wider, it wouldn't have fit. Close call.

Anyway, I installed 1st CPU and 1st RAM into CPU1 socket and #1 RAM socket and inspected motherboard holes to determine which aren't going to be aligned.

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Good news: Only 2 holes won't align. In some cases, 3 or 4 holes won't align and that sometimes just doesn't give enough tightening when installed vertically.

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However, the plastic standoff I was going to use is too tall. Therefore, I decided to use another dud standoff that matches height.

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This will prevent motherboard from touching the case and will also prevent bending when installing RAMs and whatnot. I am just glad that it's only 2 holes. The mobo will be installed securely.

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And, again, it was a tight fit.
 
Build process phase 2

So, stuff arrived. With this, the system has just enough stuff to boot and use. I will buy more RAM next month. My biggest concern right now is that whether the system boots at all.

And before I move the 2nd CPU from my main rig and commit, I want to test the whole thing.

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See the CPU 2 socket? That's what I needed from a PSU.



I gave some moments of thoughts on how to place CPU heatinks. I will play with them more later.

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Well, I don't have bad news. The rig boots and installed Windows 10 in 5 or so minutes.

While the motherboard BIOS is not up to date, it is recent enough. I won't bother with updating BIOS.
I will install Blender and put it to a render test for few hours. If it passes, I will relocate my main rig into this thing.

My slight concern is CPU heatsink. It's going to be pretty tight no matter how I place it. I might need to get rid of CPU fan for 2nd heatsink.
 
Narrow coolers designed for Xeons would fit, most after market coolers are too wide.
 
Build process phase 3 (Final)

Render went well. Temp stayed at maximum 70c. So, I decided to move the 2nd CPU to the rig along with my HDDs.

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Since I can't use M.2 here, I am using an oldie 840 Evo 128gb. 850 Evo 256gb for apps and 1TB HDD for backups.

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Heatsinks were tight fit and do fit in the end. I do think I will get a H55 for the right CPU to free up some space.

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You know, even a server mobo has BIOS flash utility now. Wowza.


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Power consumption / Temp / Future plans

So, the rig is built and seems to be stable as rock which is good news. The last thing I want is needing to RMA stuff.

First of all, power consumption.

130w at idle. 320 at full CPU load. GPU wasn't used. With GPU, I am looking at maybe 450w at total. But with this many threads, I won't generally be needing to use CUDA.

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Cinebench R15 score. It is lower than I expected. I expected 3400+. Maybe I will let Windows 10 do its own thing for a day or two before doing the bench again.

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Temp... Now, this is very interesting. At max load, temp is hanging around 50 ~ 55c. With one CPU / one heatsink, the temp was 70c. I think the two CPU fans working so close to each other is working wonders here.

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Future plans

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Now, above is my previous rig which now lacks a CPU. But I won't be ebaying those. I will be looking at E5 v4 CPUs in a year or two and this platform will let me test CPUs before making any pledge.

This spare 2011-3 rig will also encourage me to buy some ES CPUs. I haven't been buying cheap ES CPUs because I had no spare platform to test them with.

My immediate future plan is buying more RAM sticks and the rig is a little loud for my taste, so I will be looking at replacing the case fans. The CPU fan is quiet. I know that for sure. I've been using this specific model for a long time.
 
Is overclocking an option in setups like this ?
 
Dats purdy.
 
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