ES Xeon Discussion

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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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I ve always wonder why there are so many es qs cpu around.. I thought you only do a limited run of samples of prototypes to test out before the production. . You dont see like a bucket load of prototype aircrafts... granted aircraft a lot more expensive to build
 

TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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I ve always wonder why there are so many es qs cpu around.. I thought you only do a limited run of samples of prototypes to test out before the production. . You dont see like a bucket load of prototype aircrafts... granted aircraft a lot more expensive to build
There are a lot of review samples that are sent out. If you ever watch any of the youtube tech channels they a lot of the time do not have retail chips on the new stuff. I also doubt when a company is making server hardware they only get a couple chips to test with from intel.
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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but how can company making server hardware be testing on these cpus that are significantly different from the retail esp with the earlier ES steppings?
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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The qty of ES and QS that are produced don’t surprise me at all, I get them at work to test with, what surprises me is how so many don’t end up in the crusher after use ! I know there is almost no chance I can keep anything that’s loaned for testing and subject to NDA.

Intel could easily tell who was provided what chips and make like hard for that company that did not dispose as instructed but I assume they really don’t care or that’s exactly what they would have done.
 

Bart

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Oct 23, 2017
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I'm an average PC user/enthusiast. I do some gaming, watch movies or surf internet. I have some money saved so I'd like to treat myself with a new PC. For almost the same price I can have:

- Asus Z10PE-D16 WS + 2x E5-2667 V3 ES QEYA
- Gigabyte X399 AORUS GAMING 7 + 1x Ryzen Threadripper 1920X

What would you guys choose?
 

Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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E5-2667 V3 ES QEYA
At this late stage of ES CPU game, I question the value and saving of buying early ES version QEXX CPU.
Just too much risk for the inflated prices of early ES chips.
QS or production chip for today's v3 or v4 build.
 
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krista

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Dec 22, 2015
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I'm an average PC user/enthusiast. I do some gaming, watch movies or surf internet. I have some money saved so I'd like to treat myself with a new PC. For almost the same price I can have:

- Asus Z10PE-D16 WS + 2x E5-2667 V3 ES QEYA
- Gigabyte X399 AORUS GAMING 7 + 1x Ryzen Threadripper 1920X

What would you guys choose?

If you are indeed an average/enthusiast user who mainly surfs, watches movies, and occasionally games, don't get either of your selections. In your situation, both will be a pain in the ass for negative benefit.

In the case of the ES QEYA chips, they're alpha/pre beta, so are probably not that stable and definitely have bugs and compatibility issues...not to mention, you'll need 8 sticks of ram to do it right, you'll probably have BIOS issues, as you'll need a specific version to run pre beta chips, and none of your applications actually can take advantage of having a pair of NUMA nodes...in fact, it'll probably make things worse. the QEYA only run at 2.9GHz, aren't overclockable, and require ECC ram that runs at a maximum of 2133.


The 1920x is most of a kilobuck, the motherboard will run you another $400, plus you'll need 4 sticks of *fast* memory...and fast means *expensive*, as threadripper is internally divided into NUMA nodes interconnected at the speed of your ram...and threadripper excels at nothing you claim you want to do.


For your uses, get a hotrod, not a tank, and go with an Intel i7-8700k (6 cores, 12 threads, 3.7GHz base, turbosmto 4.7GHz, and is overclockable) at $360...or the i5-8600 (6c6t, 3.6-4.3GHz, overclockable) for a hundred dollars less.

Add a motherboard like an Asrock Taichi z370 for $220 (z370 mbs range from about $120 on up to $300+, but unless you're trying to set OC records, don't bother with anything much more than around $230.)

Then bust your nut and scratch your itch to spend $$$ by purchasing a fancy schmancy gtx 1080ti and a fast NVME drive like a Samsung 960 pro (or a pair), 32-64GB of decently fast memory (don't go much faster than ddr4-3200 or 3500, as the added expense is nowhere near worth the little bit of extra performance, unless you're trying to set OC records) and a solid PSU.

Spend a bit of extra dosh and get a *nice* PSU, as it'll likely follow you between builds. I'm a fan of the Corsair Axi series with a 10 year warranty, although they can be a bit pricey. Expect to spend $100-$200, and get something quite a bit overpowered, like 850w-ish, and aim for Energy Star Gold rating or better. The reasons for overpowered PSUs are that because they're not being stressed much, they provide *very* stable and *very* clean power as a function of not loading them near capacity, and as a bonus, if you plan it right, it can run silently without the fan even turning over.


A good heatsink by Noctua, or a Corsair AIO liquid cooler (h100 or h115) and a well reviewed case will round out your build.


This is a *great* pc for gaming, nearly the best, and it'll rock any browsing or movie watching task you'll do, including 4k UHD blu-ray (with the right drive) which neither of your two selections will do. It'll be much easier to build, less of a pain in the ass to configure, and will likely have less strange incompatibilities and slowdowns. Plus, you can overclock a bit nice and easy if you just a bit more performance to tide you over. Lastly, it will whup up on anything you throw at it that doesn't need a bazillion threads, and do *quite* well on things that do (as the clock and ipc are much higher).
 

Klee

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Jun 2, 2016
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I have been running two E5-2667 V3 ES QEYA cpu's for about 8 or 9 months in my main pc, mining AND using it at the same time. They have been %100 solid with zero issues.

Now of course i'm not running them in a mission critical situation but for a desktop that can take anything you throw at it I highly recommend them if the price is right.

They are in a AsrockRack EP2C612 WS motherboard which I also highly recommend and it has zero issues with ES cpu's.

It is not the best for gaming if your looking for the absolute highest frame rate , yes I have a GTX 1080Ti, but it will run World Of Tanks and GTA 5 at 1440p just fine.
 

Jointer

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Oct 27, 2016
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I am at similar state like Klee and can recommend what krista wrote.
My setup is 2x 2667 V4 and Asus Z10PE-D8 WS.
In some cases, my old 4470K is faster for games, even for normal use (and also boot speed). That is because of single core performance.
This might change with Threadripper.
I did not checked any tests but i do expect the 1950X to be at similar performance level like 2x 2667.
There are some games like Cities Skylines, where (only) when you have big city, the more threads make it run better.
Few games are able to use 32 threads, seems like the Division does use 16, so it does make a difference in load times, but not in actual gaming. :)
Both systems have Samsung 960 Pro, so i can compare (one with nVidia TXM and other with 2x TXP not in SLI).
I also had some issues, some quite problematic and it is currently my main PC.
I would recommend 1080 Ti and the fastest consumer class Intel CPU you can afford with it.

Like Klee, i now mine on it, work, game and run virtuals and usually at the same time.
For that, it is "all in one" compromise and does not excel in any of the thing in the previous sentence...
 

MrBabs

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Jun 20, 2017
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Most ES v3 came out of OEM servers during update to broadwell-EP v4 cpu.
They ran 2 years, so no one can expect how long they will live.
Haswell-EP processors are build for stable reliable servers.
IMHO: if u take a NEW motherboard, with good cooling new capacitors of course, these ES will live long.
The ES v3 currently on the market are not stressed intel lab samples, the X99/C612 platform exists since more than 2 years.
Because Intel can't inhibit sell/reselling of ES, they are
lower performance to not compete than OEM/retail.
When you say "... new capacitor of course... " you are talking about the processor capacitors or the MOBO ones?

I got an E5-2698 v3 OEM that is missing a ceramic capacitor (or resistor maybe?) that is not booting on my AsRock x99 extreme4.
Also got a couple ES that runs without a problem...
Have anyone soldered a capacitor back on a Xeon, and since I don´t have the cap how can I find out its ratings?
 

b3nno

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Jul 17, 2017
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Has anyone encountered PCPU lock on ESXi?


E5-2628L V4 ES QHZC. I have run into this several times, typically after 90%+ load for a week
I run ESXI on my Supermicro X10SRL-F and an E5 2650 V3 QEYN proc.
I ran into problems with the host freezing every week or so.
After I disabled C6 states in BIOS, it has been stable as a rock for several months.
I do not see any more power consumption or heat generated from this change either.

One would guess these C6 states would be a problem while idling, but wouldn't hurt to test it.
 
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rantonxl

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Nov 14, 2017
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Hello everyone,

I got Intel ES cpu - QFG4 and it is not starting on my Asrock X99 taichi motherboard, seller said that it was pulled from HP G8 server and that is all, google shows absolutelly no info about it. Does anyone knows what it is? Please dont ask me why I bought it :(


 

chbmb

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Dec 5, 2017
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Hi everyone, this has been a great thread to learn from and I'd like a quick sanity check please.

Have bought a Supermicro X10DRL-I and looking for a couple of CPUs to put in it. Use case is going to be my homeserver based on Unraid. (Haven't decided yet whether to go ESXI and run Unraid as a guest or just use the KVM hypervisor in Unraid) I want to be able to run virtual machines (at least one with vt-d and a passed through video card, posibly two) and the rest will likely be a variety of Linux distros.

Gaming isn't a priority for me to be honest, I might look at something like Factorio or Civilisation, but nothing requiring heavy duty work.

Been looking at this thread for a few days now and trying to get all this straight in my mind and think I've settled on a couple of E5 2630 V4 ES QK3G which if my understanding is correct is an ES2 with production stepping and should work for my intended use case?
 

sciff

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Mar 6, 2017
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chbmb, yes, they seem to have the final stepping 1, so they should work ok, I guess. Supermicro motherboards generally work well even with stepping 0 broadwell xeons, so I don't think you have something to worry about. Just make sure that the CPUs that you're buying don't have VMX disabled in them, since you're going to run virtual machines. There are CPU models that have this feature disabled, so make sure that you've got it right.

Guys, is there a probability that a pair of Production unit and Engineering sample E5-2696 v3 Xeons will not work together?




 
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chbmb

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Dec 5, 2017
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chbmb, yes, they seem to have the final stepping 1, so they should work ok, I guess. Supermicro motherboards generally work well even with stepping 0 broadwell xeons, so I don't think you have something to worry about. Just make sure that the CPUs that you're buying don't have VMX disabled in them, since you're going to run virtual machines. There are CPU models that have this feature disabled, so make sure that you've got it right.
Thanks mate, appreciate the second pair of eyes on it! Have checked and VMX is enabled so hopefully I'll be good.
 

Anarki

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Dec 6, 2017
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Hi all,

Just joined up to say a big thanks to all who have contributed to this topic. It has helped me in choosing components for my server upgrade.

I currently run a HP ML330 G6 which has been a rock solid workhorse for me over the years but its a tad too noisy and consumes quite a bit of power even at idle. So its time for it to be retired.

After reading this thread, in full, I've purchased a Supermicro X10SRM-F, Intel Xeon E5-2630L v4 QK3K, 32GB DDR4 EEC RDIMM, a 60GB M.2 SSD (ESXI boot drive) and a few more SSD's for a new RAID 10 array that I'm going to be using.

I currently run ESXI along with 4-5 VM's and I plan on visualizing my pfsense setup into my new server. This will mean passing through my 4 port Intel NIC directly to that VM, so VT-d better work on my chip!

Fingers crossed this system will be whisper quiet and consume a lot less power at idle (I'm hoping for around 60W idle)

Thanks again all.
 
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