[Discussion] Just Bought ASUS C621e SAGE Motherboard for $25 and now I am confused

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bagus

New Member
Jun 19, 2020
15
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3
Austin, TX
www.bagus.my.id
Dear community,

I am planning to build a new workstation PC for my research in Grad School and looking for TRX40 or X570 motherboard (I have not yet decided between two). Since my budget is tight, I am trying to look used peripheral on eBay when suddenly one of the listings draws my attention.

7hj1ybpv0t551.png

An ASUS C621e SAGE motherboard in open box condition was offered for sale for just around $25. I read the description thoroughly and looked at the seller's reputation. Concluded nothing wrong with them, I decided to try my luck and bought this board anyway. I did not expect anything from the seller since I thought it was probably a scam or they would only send an empty box.

The item has just arrived yesterday. I was surprised to find out that it is the real motherboard. It arrived in a brown ASUS box with the retail box inside.
onsalkm72t551.jpg

I am more than excited! It seems that the board is never used, but the box has been opened. The only thing that is missing is the I/O shield. I know that the Xeon CPU is pretty expensive (Skylake-EP or CascadeLake-EP). If I continue to build with this platform, I plan to find cheaper ES or QS Xeon CPU (it may need custom BIOS).

s7u883xa3t551.jpg

What do you think guys?
Should I proceed with this platform?
Or just sell this motherboard at slightly below retail price and find a good deal on the TRX40 / X570 platform?

Let me know what is your opinion!

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Bagus
 

68k-dude

Member
Jan 2, 2020
50
18
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Hello @bagus o/

That's a great board for a great price Envious.

If it were my board I'd probably keep it and find components for it. You could add to it over a period to drip feed performance into the system.

I tend to build more out of interest and fun and this potential build is getting me excited even though it isn't mine.


Anyway, have fun \o/

-68k
 
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bagus

New Member
Jun 19, 2020
15
2
3
Austin, TX
www.bagus.my.id
If i got that board for $25, I'd keep it and run with it. That's Awesome you got it. Now just hope it works. I think I recall seeing a couple of Xeons for around 400 each - QS.

Maybe this: INTEL XEON QS GOLD 5119T/gold 5120 CPU1.90GHZ 19.25MB L3 CACHE 85W SR3MN 14C | eBay
Hi Kneelbeforezod,

You are right, I need to test it out first to make sure it is working. Maybe, in the meantime I will buy the cheapest Xeon and a stick of RDIMM to see it is working properly before buying more hardware. I will try more research into cheap Xeon CPUs and cheap RDIMM this weekend.

Thanks for your answer.
 

bagus

New Member
Jun 19, 2020
15
2
3
Austin, TX
www.bagus.my.id
Hello @bagus o/

That's a great board for a great price Envious.

If it were my board I'd probably keep it and find components for it. You could add to it over a period to drip feed performance into the system.

I tend to build more out of interest and fun and this potential build is getting me excited even though it isn't mine.


Anyway, have fun \o/

-68k
Hi 68k-dude,
Yes, I have that plan as well. I think, at first I will just populate single socket with an adequate number of DIMMs.
Since most of my research is using GPUs instead of CPU, I think I will not spend more in CPUs.
In the future, if I need more CPU power, I may add the second one.

One question though, will it work if both of the CPUs are different (e.g., Xeon Gold with Xeon Platinum)?
The same question goes to the Memory. Is it fine to have a different type of memory for each CPU? Since I will populate the second socket later in the future, I am afraid I will not be able to find matching CPU/memory.

Thanks for your answer.
 

Kneelbeforezod

Active Member
Sep 4, 2015
529
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You will need CPUs of the Same Type Such as 8180 or 8280 or 8260 for example - the same applies for Gold. You can mix retail steppings with QS I know - i have done this with Xeons just not Skylake or Cascade Lake. I stay away from ES. With 1 CPU you will not have all your PCI slots available. But you can at least test the board. I'd get the fastest ram the board supports.
 

68k-dude

Member
Jan 2, 2020
50
18
8
Hi @bagus ,

You will have to chose one cpu now and try to match that exact one later.

I really wish you could mix and match CPUs in a Heterogeneous system. I've been desperate for this to come to PCs for years.

Imagine having a blisteringly fast 8 core CPU with a high core count CPU in the same system.

With the turbo mode on modern CPUs you can kind of get something akin to this. Turbo the first core or two with a lightly threaded workload then back off the frequency as more and more cores are needed. I'm talking about something more impressive than this.

The problem comes from the "poor" Scheduling in windows. The OS would have to be aware of this split performance and manage the workloads to make best use of the CPU ecosystem.

I built a 4 CPU IBM X3850 X5 Quad E7-4870 a good few years ago and ran it as a workstation. I was getting really random multithreaded performance for a time. Windows 10 just didn't really know what to do with the CPUs. Windows 10 Pro Workstation can use all 40 cores and 80 threads much better today than it could even 3 years ago.

With Intel supposedly (rumoured) making a big little CPU architecture in the future, things like mixed CPUs becomes a reasonable possibility.

Microsoft will be getting it ready now I'm sure of it.


Have fun

-68k