E5-24XX processors?

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TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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I can't seem to find a whole lot about the LGA 1356 / E5-24xx processors but these seem to be a good deal right now if you can find them.

I was able to get Intel Xeon E5 2450L 8 Core 1 8GHz 20M 8 00GT s SR0LH 70W LGA 1356 CPU Processor | eBay for a best offer of $199, I picked up another one cheap too.

I also got one the $99 version of this board:
Tyan S7045GM4NR Intel Xeon Dual LGA 1356 Server Motherboard New | eBay

The only real down sides I can see compared to a E5-2620 setup is
  • A Single QPI link,
  • A little slower speed (1.8 vs 2.0)
  • Fewer PCIe lanes (24 vs 30)
  • Less Memory bandwidth
but it has
  • 8 cores vs 6
  • 70W TDP vs 95W TDP
ARK | Compare Intel Products

I am looking at $500 for 16 cores (2 CPU + Mobo) vs almost $900 for 12 cores on the E5-2620
in contrast 12 cores of a X56xx runs about $300

Is anyone else running these?
 

chinesestunna

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Jan 23, 2015
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I can't seem to find a whole lot about the LGA 1356 / E5-24xx processors but these seem to be a good deal right now if you can find them.

I was able to get Intel Xeon E5 2450L 8 Core 1 8GHz 20M 8 00GT s SR0LH 70W LGA 1356 CPU Processor | eBay for a best offer of $199, I picked up another one cheap too.

I also got one the $99 version of this board:
Tyan S7045GM4NR Intel Xeon Dual LGA 1356 Server Motherboard New | eBay

The only real down sides I can see compared to a E5-2620 setup is
  • A Single QPI link,
  • A little slower speed (1.8 vs 2.0)
  • Fewer PCIe lanes (24 vs 30)
  • Less Memory bandwidth
but it has
  • 8 cores vs 6
  • 70W TDP vs 95W TDP
ARK | Compare Intel Products

I am looking at $500 for 16 cores (2 CPU + Mobo) vs almost $900 for 12 cores on the E5-2620
in contrast 12 cores of a X56xx runs about $300

Is anyone else running these?
I was looking at the exact same board (then someone bought it ;) hmm...) and it's a killer deal for the features offered, what's interesting is the picture shows one of the SAS versions of the board as you can see 2x SFF-8087 ports on the bottom vs. the 1x of S7045GM4NR. Curious if you got the better version.
One difference vs. E5-26xx Xeons is also that 26XX series supports quad channel RAM vs. triple channel for 24XX.
My challenge with this setup is still CPUs are really expensive compared to the 5600 xeons flooding the market, for price of $199 you can easily afford 2x 5630 and maybe even 5640 on a good day + board
 

TType85

Active Member
Dec 22, 2014
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Garden Grove, CA
I was looking at the exact same board (then someone bought it ;) hmm...) and it's a killer deal for the features offered, what's interesting is the picture shows one of the SAS versions of the board as you can see 2x SFF-8087 ports on the bottom vs. the 1x of S7045GM4NR. Curious if you got the better version.
One difference vs. E5-26xx Xeons is also that 26XX series supports quad channel RAM vs. triple channel for 24XX.
My challenge with this setup is still CPUs are really expensive compared to the 5600 xeons flooding the market, for price of $199 you can easily afford 2x 5630 and maybe even 5640 on a good day + board
I should have the board early next week. From what I can tell from the manual only one of the two SFF ports is active.
 

chinesestunna

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Jan 23, 2015
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I should have the board early next week. From what I can tell from the manual only one of the two SFF ports is active.
Right, forgot about that the ports might not be active, I was skeptical that a pro eBay seller would be making that mistake

Also note the board is max 95W TDP for CPUs so some chips might be excluded for upgrade/expand down the road
 

Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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Right, forgot about that the ports might not be active, I was skeptical that a pro eBay seller would be making that mistake

Also note the board is max 95W TDP for CPUs so some chips might be excluded for upgrade/expand down the road
1356 is dead, there is no upgrade path past ivy.
95w is also the max for that platform... no E5-24xx v1 or v2 exceeds 95w.
 

chinesestunna

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Jan 23, 2015
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1356 is dead, there is no upgrade path past ivy.
95w is also the max for that platform... no E5-24xx v1 or v2 exceeds 95w.
True, same with 2011 v1-2 I'm guessing since v3 is out with DD4? I'm curious if Intel will release Haswell for 2011 as desktop parts does have DD3 versions
 

Patriot

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True, same with 2011 v1-2 I'm guessing since v3 is out with DD4? I'm curious if Intel will release Haswell for 2011 as desktop parts does have DD3 versions
No there are 2011-3 boards with ddr3 for those ddr3 haswell-e chips. There will be no haswell-e on 2011.
And 1356 is dead in a different way than 2011. It was a failed experiment... there is no successor socket/lga.

1356 was supposed to be the lower power platform, hence 95w max... but it was also limited in v1 to 2.3ghz octo. The high price without the performance kinda made it a doomed platform.
 

Hank C

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Jun 16, 2014
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i have several of the 1356 platform. I have not finished up building quad node from intel. I got E5-2428L v2 for $400 several months ago.
 

TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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1366, 1356 and regular 2011 are all dead ends now when it comes to upgrades.

The 1.8ghz low power octocores can be purchased pretty cheap no (Did a BO of $199). For a home lab they are probably plenty.

On the desktop the i7-58xx chips are all DD4 AFAIK (I have a 5820K in my desktop).
 

TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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Funny part is as I am in the process of building a 4x X5650 1u supermicro twin server and now i'm going to sell it off since I found this one.
 

chinesestunna

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Jan 23, 2015
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1366, 1356 and regular 2011 are all dead ends now when it comes to upgrades.

The 1.8ghz low power octocores can be purchased pretty cheap no (Did a BO of $199). For a home lab they are probably plenty.

On the desktop the i7-58xx chips are all DD4 AFAIK (I have a 5820K in my desktop).
Curious if anyone has experience with ES chips. They seem to have a fairly sizable discount in some cases and while I know it's not production silicon in the truest sense, has anyone used them before? Any particular pros/cons?
 

TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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Personally I have shy'd away from the ES chips as while they could work there is no guarantee that all the features would be there and working. Some people run them and love them.
 

Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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Curious if anyone has experience with ES chips. They seem to have a fairly sizable discount in some cases and while I know it's not production silicon in the truest sense, has anyone used them before? Any particular pros/cons?
Pro's
cheap
May perform identically to retail parts, potentially higher turbo states

Con's
Officially Intel's property
May not be production silicon
Certain SB-E stepping did not have Vt-d working, then again the first retail stepping didn't either.
Motherboard may not accept chip if early stepping.
 

chinesestunna

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Jan 23, 2015
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Pro's
cheap
May perform identically to retail parts, potentially higher turbo states

Con's
Officially Intel's property
May not be production silicon
Certain SB-E stepping did not have Vt-d working, then again the first retail stepping didn't either.
Motherboard may not accept chip if early stepping.
So basically roll the dice as usual and YMMV, thanks! Regarding SB-E and VT-d, I noticed that as well for the -K unlocked chips but it seems with IB -K chips has VT-d added back. I'm kind of disappointed with the direction Intel has been going with some of these chips and they're really taking away things that doesn't affect their sales as folks buying -K units are paying a premium for the unlocked multiplier anyways
 

Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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So basically roll the dice as usual and YMMV, thanks! Regarding SB-E and VT-d, I noticed that as well for the -K unlocked chips but it seems with IB -K chips has VT-d added back. I'm kind of disappointed with the direction Intel has been going with some of these chips and they're really taking away things that doesn't affect their sales as folks buying -K units are paying a premium for the unlocked multiplier anyways
Just do your research. It is easy to find out what stepping something is. CPU-World: Microprocessor news, benchmarks, information and pictures
 

Patriot

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Apr 18, 2011
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Yea I've been relying mostly on Intel Ark but CPU world seems so much more extensive, many models, even production ones seems to be missing from Ark which is disappointing
I find Intel Ark to be wrong from time to time. They also do not list the oem only models that you can find on ebay.
 

TType85

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Dec 22, 2014
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I got the dual E5-2450L (70W) system up and running. Quick initial test on Cinebench R15 gives me a 1352 multi-core rating, 80 for single core. The dual X5650 (95W) listed in the benchmark is 1297 and 93.