E5-2678v3 - $90

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andrewbedia

Active Member
Jan 11, 2013
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I'm using a 2U active dynatron something or other and tops out at like 75C running cinebench r15 sitting on an open air bench (potentially better with airflow from a midplane).

As a follow up, yes, you can flash it over ipmi. It doesn't seem to care about accepting hacked bios or genuine bios. Yes, you can insert the DXE into the firmware image. I've got it where I don't need anything on a special EFI partition to have it load correctly.
 

frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
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The chips were created for customers during the DDR4 shortage. Generally the hybrid design has poorer performance than a specific variant.

DDR3 and DDR4 pins are different. How they connect to the socket and how they connect to the IMC are factors. ARK shows the socket pinout. Without access to the chip design or X-rays, we can only check experimentally.

I use this motherboard with DDR3:

View attachment 13999

There's a DDR4 version, X99-D8 :

View attachment 13998

If someone has it we can compare benchmarks.



Aside: when looking at Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) = Cost, Setup/Validation, Power => if going DDR4, modern chips have significant power savings and a smaller number of systems for the same work load.
So you're saying, clock for clock, say 2678 v3 vs 2680 v3, which have the same frequencies I believe, the 2678 v3 would actually perform worse than the 2680 v3 if both are using DDR4?
 

epicurean

Active Member
Sep 29, 2014
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Here's the discussion thread and point - motherboard link is still active. I'm using it as are a few others. $73.00 plus ship.

There are other boards Huananzhi X99 is one. They all seem derivative in design and its not clear which one is "the original".
Thanks. Seriously, a no name China brand X99 board will work?
 

adibe

New Member
Jun 1, 2019
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I'm using a 2673v3 in a Jingaha X99 1.0 mobo. Haven't tried the BIOS mod yet, looks like a windows only thing.

Currently using it as a general purpose virtualization box, including GPU passthrough.

My major annoyance is that ECC seems to be disabled, even in the hardware should support it. The lack of Bios updates does not really help with that.

Maybe consider one of the more supported boards, such as the Huananzhi Gaming X99-TF.

Here's a good response the Haswell compatible chinese boards. Google translate does a pretty good job.

 
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VMman

Active Member
Jun 26, 2013
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I'm using a 2U active dynatron something or other and tops out at like 75C running cinebench r15 sitting on an open air bench (potentially better with airflow from a midplane).

As a follow up, yes, you can flash it over ipmi. It doesn't seem to care about accepting hacked bios or genuine bios. Yes, you can insert the DXE into the firmware image. I've got it where I don't need anything on a special EFI partition to have it load correctly.
Thanks for the confirmation, I'm planning to try this on a dual socket X10 Supermicro with 2x 2678, I don't have a chip reader so I'm worried about bricking the BIOS. I'll admit that I've never tried to perform any custom BIOS edits before :oops: I've found this guide here which appears to be quite detailed, is there anything obvious that is missing that one should be aware of while attempting this?

Do the C3/C6 states need to be disabled for system stability as per the guide?

Xeon E5-2600 V3 Turbo Boost Unlock - Miyconst
 

Doppelbauer

New Member
Aug 8, 2016
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Thanks for the confirmation, I'm planning to try this on a dual socket X10 Supermicro with 2x 2678, I don't have a chip reader so I'm worried about bricking the BIOS. I'll admit that I've never tried to perform any custom BIOS edits before :oops: I've found this guide here which appears to be quite detailed, is there anything obvious that is missing that one should be aware of while attempting this?

Do the C3/C6 states need to be disabled for system stability as per the guide?

Xeon E5-2600 V3 Turbo Boost Unlock - Miyconst
Hi VMan
I just completed this unlock on my Supermicro X10DAX board using two E5 2683v3 (QS, stepping 2). It can be done pretty easy and reliably. Just consult my experience on Miyconst's page, I have been using the handle "Polar" there. As pointed out many times, your Xeon E5 v3 must have at least stepping 2 for this to work, and yes the C3/C6 (one was critical, C6 I guess) must be disabled for this to work. System drive must use the UEFI boot mode. Old installations can be converted using a tool from Microsoft. Get your bios file and the flashing script as a packet directly from Supermicro's page. Removing one line of respective microcode patch from the stock bios file is a matter of seconds using the indicated tool. Flashing the modified bios on these SM boards is dead simple, all you need is FAT-formatted drive to access the files you need. The drive has not even to be bootable, just press F11 for the boot options and jump right into the shell and access your drive with the files. "Injecting" the .efi into he bios did not work for me, I had to use "manual' mode. In the shell, I had to find a little workaround as the command to add a driver to the bios was not available (maybe there are more professional ways to do this part). Consult my experiences on Miyconstant's blog page. Removing .dll from the system was not necessary, as suggested by Miyconst's guide. Overall it was easy, the system is as stable as before the mod, performance in CPU heavy tasks is improved by about 15%. Good luck.
 
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VMman

Active Member
Jun 26, 2013
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Hi Doppelbauer,

Thanks for the follow up and tips, I have yet to try this on my own system however I will post my results once done.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
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I already got QS 2686 v3 and 2696 v3. otherwise i would've jumped on this....lol..
Does anyone know of a good bargain V4 cpu i can get right now? I have QHUZ ES v4 cpu but it's very limited features ;(
 

aloe

Member
Aug 17, 2019
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Has anyone tried the all core turbo mod on the 2678v3 on Linux? I'm going to go for it tomorrow, ~10% more speed with no additional heat or power consumption looks like a no brainer.
 

juddle14

Member
Oct 8, 2019
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For v4 CPUs 2680v4 and 2699v4 are good deals right now. Market pricing cut in half over the past 3-4 weeks.
 

EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2019
499
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wow... v4 cpu's had been holding up in price much higher than v3's... I wonder if somebody big started liquidating their servers?
 

foogitiff

Active Member
Jul 26, 2018
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For v4 CPUs 2680v4 and 2699v4 are good deals right now. Market pricing cut in half over the past 3-4 weeks.
I still see ~$320 for the 2680v4 and ~$1000 for the 2699v4. At these price, isn't it worth upgrading to Epyc?

I am currently using a 2673v3, but I would like a higher frequency.
 

EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2019
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yeah, I had unscientifically noticed that older xeons prices dropped off a cliff after they were... a lot... of years old. and it seemed like the v4 versions still had another year left until they hit the cliff.
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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yeah, I had unscientifically noticed that older xeons prices dropped off a cliff after they were... a lot... of years old. and it seemed like the v4 versions still had another year left until they hit the cliff.
Dual 2699 v4 production cpu. That's always have been my dream...lol. each cpu performance is the same as one TR 1950X. This is however tempered by the fact that one 7930X cpu is still significantly faster for less than the price of two 2699 v4 still. Unfortunately you are limited to udimm with TR
 
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frogtech

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Jan 4, 2016
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So, still wondering, is the performance of these chips mangled at all by the presence of the DDR3 IMC when using it in a conventional DDR4 system like a Dell M630?