Dual 2600 v1/v2 workstation — still worth building?

[voxadam]

I've been thinking about replacing my aging Ivy Bridge based workstation with something a little more powerful yet fairly cheap. Currently I'm running an i5-3570 (Ivy Bridge) with 32 gigs and a dual Samsung 850 SSDs. These days it doesn't cost much to build a dual 2600 v1/v2 system. With twin 2650 or 2660 processors it's possible to throw something together for between, say, $380 and $450 not including storage or GPU. Would such an upgrade be worth it?

As for my use case, I run Linux with a few VMs but I also spend a fair amount of time running Altium in a Windows VM. Ideally, I'd also like to figure out a way to run Autodesk Inventor in a VM with GPU passthrough (or other solution) but, if I have to, I'm willing to dual boot for the times that I have to do mechanical work.

So, is it worth spending a few hundred dollars to get 16 cores (32 threads) with 64 gigs (or more) of memory or would I be better off waiting until building an LGA2011v3 system with DDR4 is within my price range?

 

[cheezehead]

Another possible route would be something around a Ryzen 7 for the extra threading capabilities.

 

[Aestr]

The V1 system is still great value and worth considering. You'll also be able to pick up v2 CPUs when they hit the market eventually. V3/4 prices aren't likely to see a massive price drop until we see a mass corporate exodus like we did with the V1's which isn't likely for several years.


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[TType85]

Actually V3 prices if we use the 3-4 year corporate cycle for servers and datacenters will be dropping soon by later of this year or even by next year. V4 will be some-time away as it's mostly ES that are prevalent on the market. There are also good quantities of E5-2683 V3 available along with a few others which indicate that V3 drops are coming soon.

Even if the V3 prices start dropping soon, DDR4 ram is still expensive compared to the older DDR3. I am going to be building a "for the hell of it" v1/v2 2011 system soon. I am just trying to decide between E5-2690 V1 or E5-2670/80 V2. These processors still perform decently with the right workloads. The problem I noticed is a lot of people buying dual systems with lower frequency chips being upset when their I5 system out performs it on some tasks.

With the OP running Linux with windows VM's, wanting to possibly do passthrough I would advise against Ryzen for the moment until the IOMMU and Linux stuff is sorted out better. I think the ASRock Taichi board is supposed to be okay but I still see reports of issues in Linux. I am going to be building a Threadripper system but I am going to wait and see how it handles the same issues before I plunk down the cash.

 

[Marsh]

Even if the V3 prices start dropping soon, DDR4 ram is still expensive compared to the older DDR3.

Last year, I stockpile $8 each 8gb DDR3 ram, compare to $30-$45 each 8gb DR4 ram.

This is Aug 2017, I am seeing DDR4 ram price has gone up very slightly compare to 6 months ago but double the price of last year.
Not seeing any price relief anytime soon. So are the price of SSD.

 

[Jeggs101]

Yea DDR3 is the reason these are still good.

I know you're not going to like my recommendation here, but if you can get a deal on E5-2660 or 2670 V2's or that class, I think it's a slam dunk. Here's a E5-2660 V2 Intel Xeon SR1AB E5-2660 v2 2.20GHZ 10Core 8 GT/s 25MB Socket 2011 Processor CPU | eBay

Another method on getting a deal is to look for a pair and bid like this one Matched Pair Intel Xeon E5-2680 v2 2.80GHz 25MB 8GT/s SR1A6 LGA2011 Processors | eBay

Like someone else posted, Ryzen 7 is a great value as well except that RAM costs more. Pay more for RAM, pay less in electricity. You'd also need higher capacity DIMMs

Threadripper looks good too but I'd pass on the 12C and just get the 16C. At $1000 + a 400 mobo and needing to add 4 DIMMs, that's a huge investment. Threadripper to me is like a dual E5 V2 system with higher clocks less memory bandwidth and in one socket with expensive mobos. $1400 for 16 cores is only useful if you're ok with small memory capacity and need the frequency.

If you did want an off the wall option: Intel Xeon E5 2695 v3 ES QFGH 2.1GHz 35MB 14Core 28Threads 145W 22nm LGA2011 CPU | eBay

14 cores, bite the DDR4 bullet but get to use a single socket board. Intel Xeon E5 2695 v3 ES QFGH 2.1GHz 35MB 14Core 28Threads 145W 22nm LGA2011 CPU | eBay Less clocks and cores than threadripper but you'd be able to use more RAM and get a board cheaper. Without RAM this is a $300 option.

Final --- really --- if you just want to run more VMs getting a low power or low core V3 CPU and mobo is cheap. Run a server plus what you've go now.

 

[Klee]

Well a dual E5-2680 would be a great workstation still, the 2680's are almost about the same price as the 2670's now.

 

[voxadam]

I appreciate all the thoughts.

DDR3 is probably the biggest single reason that I've been thinking about going the dual E5-26xx over Ryzen or new Xeons; it's just hard to pass up 64 or 128 gigs for $200 or $400, respectively.

The power issue is a fair point and while I know I should probably be more concerned about it I only pay US$0.10032 per kWh.

As for Threadripper, even ignoring the cost of DDR4 memory I'm hesitant for the IOMMU issues that @TType85 pointed out.

 

[cheezehead]

I appreciate all the thoughts.

DDR3 is probably the biggest single reason that I've been thinking about going the dual E5-26xx over Ryzen or new Xeons; it's just hard to pass up 64 or 128 gigs for $200 or $400, respectively.

The power issue is a fair point and while I know I should probably be more concerned about it I only pay US$0.10032 per kWh...

Those are the same reasons why I stayed in the E5 v1/v2 route. When power is really cheap per kWh, more power efficient only matters when you have too much heat or need the lower power to reduce UPS load (better runtime).

As a compromise to reduce power/heat, the v1 E5-2648L's can be picked up for $30 or less these days...all depends if more threads or faster clocks are needed.

 

[voxadam]

At risk of heading off-topic, is it possible to run E5-4600 series processors designed for quad socket use on a dual socket motherboard? I ask because I just noticed that while a E5-2670 will currently set you back about $129[1] you can pick up the very similarly speced[2] E5-4640 for only $88.[3]

[1] CM8062101082713 INTEL XEON E5-2670 8 CORE 2.60GHz 20M 8GT/s 115W PROCESSOR | eBay
[2] Intel® Product Specification Comparison
[3] SR0QT INTEL XEON E5-4640 2.40GHz 20M 8 CORES 8 GT/s 95W PROCESSOR | eBay

 

[voxadam]

I ran across this post from a few years back asking about E5-4600 processors and @Patrick doesn't shoot down the idea which makes me think that the idea of 4P enabled Xeons are at least plausible.

It would appear that there are 2P motherboards that support E5-4600 processors (example)

It's probably firmware dependent (whitelists/blacklists).

 

[nthu9280]

I ran across this post from a few years back asking about E5-4600 processors and @Patrick doesn't shoot down the idea which makes me think that the idea of 4P enabled Xeons are at least plausible.

It would appear that there are 2P motherboards that support E5-4600 processors (example)

It's probably firmware dependent (whitelists/blacklists).

I have 2 x E5-4650 V3 QS on X10DRI.

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[BLinux]

Does anyone have confirmation that E5-4600 v2 CPUs can work in dual socket supermicro X9 motherboards?

 

[Nizmo]

Dual E5-4648 v3 works with Gigabyte R280 / G250

Wont work on my Gigabyte MD70

 

[nthu9280]

Does anyone have confirmation that E5-4600 v2 CPUs can work in dual socket supermicro X9 motherboards?

Have not tried the E5-46xx V1/V2 procs but I think they should work. They have been relatively expensive to try out.


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