2696 v2 for $16.50. 2697 v2 for $25 or less

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

BackupProphet

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2014
1,215
786
113
Stavanger, Norway
intellistream.ai
Unless you need full control over BIOS or you want a rack mount server I think the unequivocal best deal on a v3/v4 “motherboard” is to just buy a complete HP z440/640/840…you can buy a whole computer for less than the cost of a supermicro X10 motherboard.

I tend to agree that LGA3647 (skylake/cascade lake) is a more long-term buy than a v3/v4 platform and if you’re looking for cheap LGA3647 I’d again point to HP workstations; the HP Z6 is a fabulously good deal.
Excellent advice, though it seems you miss IPMI and also need a dedicated video card?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

zachj

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
215
133
43
Ipmi can be solved for with pikvm if it’s a requirement, though it certainly does raise the total cost of entry.

I believe HP still allows headless operation if you change a hidden BIOS setting. It was possible in the z420/620/820…
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
483
294
63
NH, USA
... I believe HP still allows headless operation if you change a hidden BIOS setting. It was possible in the z420/620/820…
It's even better on the z[468]40 and z[468]G4!! Any/all BIOS twiddling can be done right from the command line, even re-flashing. Info and pointers here [Link]. Also gives access to a lot of additional settings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir and nexox

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,304
559
113
50
Lenovo D30 Dual 2011 v2 cpu for $250: Lenovo ThinkStation D30 E5-2650v2 2.6GHz 16GB DDR3 240GB SSD 1TB HDD WIN10PRO | eBay

For anyone interested in a cheap dual 2011 v2 experience. This comes with a 1100W gold+ psu . I also like the fact that lenovo uses nearly all generic components so it's very easy to upgrade and repair unlike HP Z820 as well as being a lot cheaper. The Z820 are still selling for well over $500
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir and nexox

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,612
1,695
113
50
HSV and SFO
Excellent advice, though it seems you miss IPMI and also need a dedicated video card?
You will miss IPMI unless you do have some sort of kvm and you will need a video card since the xeon or motherboard doesn't have one integrated.
Ipmi can be solved for with pikvm if it’s a requirement, though it certainly does raise the total cost of entry.

I believe HP still allows headless operation if you change a hidden BIOS setting. It was possible in the z420/620/820…
On my z420, z200, and z600 the option wasn't hidden since I was able to set them up to boot headless very easily. I don't know if they've changed that in future models.

Also of particular note on the z420--with a v1 e5-2630L, you can stuff in 256GB of LRDIMMs (possibly even more since I haven't tried 64GB LRDIMMs yet).
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,612
1,695
113
50
HSV and SFO
Lenovo D30 Dual 2011 v2 cpu for $250: Lenovo ThinkStation D30 E5-2650v2 2.6GHz 16GB DDR3 240GB SSD 1TB HDD WIN10PRO | eBay

For anyone interested in a cheap dual 2011 v2 experience. This comes with a 1100W gold+ psu . I also like the fact that lenovo uses nearly all generic components so it's very easy to upgrade and repair unlike HP Z820 as well as being a lot cheaper. The Z820 are still selling for well over $500
Nice! And it appears that those will take up to 512GB of ram too:
 

Filez

Active Member
Feb 18, 2019
114
95
28
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,304
559
113
50
anybody knows if I can mix 32GB and 64GB LRDIMMs?
I would imagine as long as you keep everything LRdimm, you should be able to..

So for the asus Z9pe and the lenovo D30, i am wondering if they would support 64GB LRDIMM unofficially. Officially it only says 32GB and up to 512GB total. But i am wondering if that's only because the manual was written when only 32GB LRDIMM was available. Thinking about getting 16X of those 64GB ones to test out... lol...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir and nexox

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,612
1,695
113
50
HSV and SFO
I would imagine as long as you keep everything LRdimm, you should be able to..

So for the asus Z9pe and the lenovo D30, i am wondering if they would support 64GB LRDIMM unofficially. Officially it only says 32GB and up to 512GB total. But i am wondering if that's only because the manual was written when only 32GB LRDIMM was available. Thinking about getting 16X of those 64GB ones to test out... lol...
My same thoughts on my z420 that currently has 256GB via 32GB modules...
 

UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
483
294
63
NH, USA
Broadwell CPU's are also 2-3 times faster when it comes to OpenSSL performance, this is especially measurable when you have Nginx as a file mirror.

I still have V2 running, they are excellent for ZFS, NFS and Java applications. But they will all soon get replaced by Epyc Rome.
Maybe you are not using RaidZn on ZFS? Because I'd expect the lack of AVX2 instructions on v2 to result in about a 25-40% (CPU) performance penalty for RaidZn, relative to v4. No?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,304
559
113
50
Just bought some 12 core v4 CPUs for $5 each, this deal isn't very good.
You talking aboute5-2650 v4? true that you can have them for $5 each. But they are not for 2011 MB and would require a newer MB. The deal i am listing is only good for people that already have 2011 or x79 MB and want to max out their potential. Other than that, i don't really recommend it.

Even as a secondary pc or server, it's kinda up in the air with regard to the cost. The problem is that even though the ram and cpu for 2011 is dirt cheap, the MB is not. And of course you are pretty much limited in performance to these cpus. can't go any faster..
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

zachj

Active Member
Apr 17, 2019
215
133
43
For me the z420 wouldn’t do headless without a Windows command line tool to set a hidden setting in bios; that setting wasn’t visible in the bios setup menu. That was many years ago though so maybe HP finally added it?

I don’t think the z820 is worth it and really I never have; the price premium it commands is nuts. Unless you need more than 8 DIMMs in a single machine I think the z420 was always the sweet spot…the z620 was pretty affordable too but if you want a second processor I think getting 2x z420s was a better deal.

these days I think the x20 models are too old to justify spending money on. I got rid of all mine because they started acting weird.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,612
1,695
113
50
HSV and SFO
For me the z420 wouldn’t do headless without a Windows command line tool to set a hidden setting in bios; that setting wasn’t visible in the bios setup menu. That was many years ago though so maybe HP finally added it?

I don’t think the z820 is worth it and really I never have; the price premium it commands is nuts. Unless you need more than 8 DIMMs in a single machine I think the z420 was always the sweet spot…the z620 was pretty affordable too but if you want a second processor I think getting 2x z420s was a better deal.

these days I think the x20 models are too old to justify spending money on. I got rid of all mine because they started acting weird.
Interesting. I'm not sure as I never updated my bios but the option was there because I can't recall needing to connect a monitor or keyboard to it in years now.

The 8xx series was always not only expensive but very proprietary. What's great about the z420 was that everything was very close to industry standard so it wasn't too hard to build upon the platform.

I don't know what they go for these days, but the z420 will always be a unique value to me with its huge case, 10 built in sata ports, and 256GB ram capability.
 

Sean Ho

seanho.com
Nov 19, 2019
832
388
63
Vancouver, BC
seanho.com
You talking aboute5-2650 v4? true that you can have them for $5 each. But they are not for 2011 MB and would require a newer MB. The deal i am listing is only good for people that already have 2011 or x79 MB and want to max out their potential. Other than that, i don't really recommend it.

Even as a secondary pc or server, it's kinda up in the air with regard to the cost. The problem is that even though the ram and cpu for 2011 is dirt cheap, the MB is not. And of course you are pretty much limited in performance to these cpus. can't go any faster..
To clarify terminology, both E5 v1/v2 and E5 v3/v4 use LGA2011, but they are not pin-compatible. So the former is usually referred to as 2011-0, and the latter as 2011-3. Coolers are compatible. And of course 2011-3 is usually paired with DDR4.
 

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
3,551
1,507
113
70

SnJ9MX

Active Member
Jul 18, 2019
148
96
28
RAM is only like 10% difference, theyre both still around $1 per GB.

And my chassis + motherboard was $200
Even less, 32GB 2400 sticks are $25 each. I'm about to buy 4 to go with the $20 2690v4 I bought last week.

I have got a v4 platform down to 44W also. These can be decently low power.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir