For those despairing of getting an e5-2696 sr1xk

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squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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Well a quick look on taobao, shows there seem to be still a lot out there in the wild...for sensible prices around 4.5-5.5 rmb...or usd 7-800 for the yanquis out there...

E5 2696 V3 正式版 2.3睿频3.8G 18/36 秒2699V3 2686V4 2676现货-淘宝网

Note I've always ebayed (got my 3 e5-2696 v3's there) so not an experienced taobaoer exactly..but wow if had the cash, very tempting! Still trying to figure out how to avoid the taobao agent fee thing...have tried communicating directly using google translate, but no luck so far.

Of course the sr1xk at least for me, remains the most 'desirable' cpu, for the c1/oem status (not b1/b2 etc, although my previous sandy bridge dirt cheap e5 v1's b0 did just fine! But weell..there's that microcode hack thing over in anandtech...unlock all-core turbo...etc..which stopped at e5 v4...so truly drool-worthy! All-core turbo at 3.1-3.2 ghz on all 2x18 cores if you have the cooling! Cinebench r15 of 5200+ points for a dual system!

The new platinum things..meh! So eye-wateringly expensive, and no point with more cores unless doing virtualization or pure rendering..windows STILL doesn't support more than 64 threads..so find myself turning of cores here...(if I hadn't bricked my bios..another story!)...

Edit for the 3d folks out there, well VRay, Max, Maya are very happy with more than 64 threads. For the vid editors out there..not so much (but we knew that from Puget systems anyway). Still a boost from 2.7-2.8 to 3.1 means a pretty big reduction in render times on Premiere or Resolve over (say 2x 16 cores/32 threads to stay under windows limits)..and yes could go over to linux...I guess...for the fabulous gaming experience...etc...and drivers..

Happy taobaoing shoppers!
 
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DavidRa

Infrastructure Architect
Aug 3, 2015
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So eye-wateringly expensive, and no point with more cores unless doing virtualization or pure rendering..windows STILL doesn't support more than 64 threads..so find myself turning of cores here...(if I hadn't bricked my bios..another story!)...
Um ... Windows Task Manager Showing 256 Cores! – Geeks3D disagrees for at least a decade.

Unless you mean the basic 32-bit client versions (Win7/8/10) - 64 bit Workstation SKUs are more than 64 threads.

It's not even a process limitation - this article is from 2009.
 

squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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Well apps/programs are not (as far as i know!)...that's still a huge problem. There's a difference between task manager showing 256 cores, ditto cinebench, and programs actually utilizing those cores. If you try premiere, Resolve or a whole lot of creative type programs, once you have more than 64 threads, utilization drops to 50%....thus those of us doing creative stuff turn off cores in Bios to maintain 100% utilization.

Look a little tired here, after bricking my mobo bios, but other forum members can chime in, or you can look it up googling windows 64 thread limit, NUMA, windows processor groups etc...don't take my word for it! Remember talking about windows 10 professional (tried the insider workstation beta until it bricked all pc's! never again!), not the server version. Srry should have mentioned that at the start.

Linux as far as I know, doesn't have those limits..but have always been a windows person. Not a sys admin or techie, more a creative...and those rendering times etc with 4k and now soon 8k video really tax systems to the limit. Especially once you add stabilization to the mix. I'm not even going to mention render times for 3d and ray-tracing!

In any case mentioned this.."Edit for the 3d folks out there, well VRay, Max, Maya are very happy with more than 64 threads. For the vid editors out there..not so much (but we knew that from Puget systems anyway). "

Pays to read the thread before shooting from the hip buddy! But we are getting sidetracked...this thread is about great deals for forum members with 2x xeon systems who are getting stymied by the stupid ebay prices (1500 usd+!) for the sr1xk chips. Weell..they're still out there, just need to figure out the taobao thing!

Sorry all for cranky posting, 50 cmos resets and disassembly of system does that to you! Well now we know asrock rack and asus are just as flaky..time to move to supermicro?
 
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squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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Yes me too..prices are very very much better than ebay..but we have to cut out the taobao agents somehow...
 

CrazyDave

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Feb 10, 2017
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I am planning to order 2. What motherboard should i get for this which supports the all core turbo for both the processors? Also recommended coolers?
 

WScott66

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Nov 11, 2013
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Has anyone ordered from this site?
Was the product as expected?
How can I order in the USA?
 

RobSam

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May 2, 2018
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As a Chinese who has been shopping Taobao for more than 10 years. I would suggest be cautious about this seller, because the he has very few feedback. And Taobao is know for all kinds of fake goods.

As for the shipping, most seller on Taobao will not and don’t know how to ship to USA directly. So you will need a freight forwarder. On Taobao, you can find many forwarders. Taobao also has official forwarding service.
 

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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@squidman so this happened by a YouTuber called ServeTheHomeVideo

Here's one at 224 threads

And at 254 threads @Patrick this one was hard to find since it's at the end of the video at like 2:10
 
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squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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Crazy Dave,

The ebayer I ordered off of is probably out, and most ebayers are now asking 15-1700 usd each, which is a bit exhorbitant..I would seriously try the Taobao route, much cheaper even with agent fees.

I WAS really happy with the asrock rack ep2c612 WS, and it also has the easiest moddable bios for the unlocking microcode hack (which I haven't tried). Seeing as my mobo is now dead in the water and won't post as of a couple of days ago..well not so sure I can recommend that board anymore. It has a few other negatives as well..only 9 sata ports, no nvme, etc. Hoping new bios chips will fix it. ASRock Rack EU support has been really good, sending a new bios chip 2 days after my email (sent directly to them, bypassing the online support request system). 3 year warranty on the board as well if you can find one. For my monies though, would go back to asus (or supermicro if not doing the microcode hack).

You could try the Asus z10pe-d8 ws, although it may be more difficult to get the microcode hack working. Check the anandtech thread. Supermicro and Gigabyte boards may be more difficult to get the unlock working on.

Cooling..with the unlock (and remember going to draw a lot more power!) all in one coolers are probably the go if not using custom water loops. Using h80i's on my stock cpu's, and even under load they only get to around 50c. Benching my system with 1 gpu and lots and lots of hdd's only pulls around 600w from the wall..but if unlocking may want to allow for headroom. Have an old corsair ax1200 in mine to power all the hdd's.

Bear in mind, haven't tried the unlock, suggest you head over to the anandtech thread for advice, know there is at least one person who managed it with the asrock rack board and one with the asus ws board (and many with one cpu using the asrock taichi).

Food for thought: I managed to brick my bios just doing a firmware update of my HBA...so before attempting the microcode hack, I would seriously consider having a healthy supply of BIOS chips and a bios chip programmer on hand....;)
 
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squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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MiniKnight,

Cinebench, Vray, Vue, Max, Maya can use more than 64 threads. Ditto various front ends for handbrake. Resolve, Adobe suite can not. So for rendering 3d 2x18 core systems (or more with v4 xeons) makes a lot of sense. For rendering video, not so much..once you go over 64 threads, cpu utilization drops to between 40 and 60%..thus why a lot of people rendering video end up turning off cores. Adobe is still playing catch up. Adobe doesn't have network rendering either, otherwise you could try virtualizing...running many instances.
I did work out that some stabilization programs (e.g. Mercalli) let you open up multiple instances, so I've pegged my cpu's at 100% running 3-4 instances at once..huge time saver.

Here's an older article regarding windows processor groups..clearly software can be optimized to take advantage of more than 64 with win 10 x64, but developers are taking their time...

Windows Server with more than 64 Logical Processors

Or another pulled at random from the web:...well you iff you're into coding etc, depending on the application, you can get it to work..Running on Windows with more than 1 processor group · Issue #527 · axboe/fio

So essentially unless the developers have coded to spread the load across more than one processor group, you end up with about half utilization..which I've seen in most applications. I dunno if that helps? Thus turning off cores (which I do unless rendering 3d stuff) so that the total number of threads including hyper-threading is 64 or less insures near 100% utilization. Nothing new regarding Adobe in any case, Puget Systems must have dozens of articles on this subject.

I guess the take-away is that unless you're doing 3d rendering or using an app that is coded properly to spread the load over more than one processor group, you're better off with 2x16 or less core CPU's with higher ghz...or if video editing and rendering, probably even less cores but higher ghz...(of course why the all-core turbo unlock microcode hack is so desirable!)..

Of course, if it's just e-peen you're after..by all means 4x 8180 for cinebench world records..dunno if that's going to help much in workstation applications tho! Pretty sure those systems mentioned broke cinebench tho..more meant for virtualization or AI applications (although latter would be using something like 8+ hefty gpu's as well)...(later edit here: the exception would be 3d programs in linux, with say 4x8180's and no 64 thread per processor group limitation..of course you need to have deep deep pockets!..that would be like...uhm a 50-100k workstation! but this is servetheHOME)..

Frankly, for the monies, 2xe5-2696 v3 or 2xe5-2699vs with the microcode hack scoring around 5200 in cinebench..for a cost of around 3k usd for processors and 4-500 for the board (and too much for memory)..is pretty damn impressive compared with 2x8180 platinums and an asus sage for whatever it is...2x11k usd for cpu's, 600 for the board, or around 22700 usd, with a cinebench of around 6300 to 6500..not exactly the quantum leap...extremely poor value for money!

The v3's, are still extremely good value for money! n0taz`s Cinebench - R15 score: 5447 cb with a Xeon E5 2696 v3

Note I got around 4200-4400 on stock on my 2696's...happy enough with that, not going to mess around with the microcode unlock..

 
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squidman

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Just getting the last word in..Knight's landing has terrible x64 scores in windows apps, that's not really what it's meant for. I was actually hoping I could stick one in my pc as a coprocessor (holy cow! all those cores!), but of course they're very slow but efficient cores..so not really replacing rendering farms (I wish!). Bummer eh! Just imagine how many render nodes one of those could replace! But was not to be (sigh!)..was hoping for a while I could have my own Dreamworks renderfarm in my home office...;)
 

lni

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Aug 20, 2017
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Any one who has experience with taobao, prefer to share?
It all come down to whether you know the market/sellers.

I bought most of my home server stuff from taobao (2 x dual 2696v4, 1 x dual 2690v2), also 3 x 40GE mallanex cards, a 10g Huawei switch and almost a dozen SSDs (3 x 900P, 1 x 750, 4 x optane memory), never had any problem. I only buy from those top ranking sellers who have been in the business for long enough, e.g. for processors, I'd be buying my next upgrade from one of these two -

首页-深圳玩家国度-淘宝网
首页-北京嘉兴科技图形工作站服务器-淘宝网

and there are sellers that I try to avoid at any cost, e.g.

首页-老罗批发服务器CPU-淘宝网

RAM is a completely different story as there are lots of knock off rubbish there (recycled chips put onto a new PCB with faked label and brand). Don't buy any RAM unless you know/trust the seller.
 
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squidman

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Jul 8, 2017
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Thanks for the heads up! Much appreciated. Ram being what it is and usually having at least one bad stick per purchase bought retail for eye watering cost. Solved my boot problems tho..