Intel s2600cp Dual Xeon 2670 3D / VFX Rendering Node

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

jdartnet

Member
Apr 7, 2016
36
13
8
42
West New York, NJ
www.jdart.net
Hello. I want to buy this kit (deal from Natex: dual 2670 - 128GB) to build a rendering workstation, but rendering in GPU mode (Octane, basically). The xeons will help my work with 3D (viewport and simulations + after effects) and I like the 6 (5+1) PCIe slots.

I already have a gtx 1080 + 1070 + 980ti and probably will upgrade all to 1080 as add a 4th one.

You guys seem to know how this kit works, so do you think it would be a good idea to buy to GPU rendering?

Cheers!
Hi,

The issue with this setup for your GPU requirements, is that 4 GPU will not work in this motherboard. If you look closely at the 8x PCI-e ports, only 2 (the blue ones) are open to allow a 16x card fit in there. The others are closed. My guess is the most high performance GPUs that will fit in this motherboard is 3.

As far as the the 2670 Xeons being good for viewport/simulations, I suggest a lower number of cores, with higher clock speed. As great as 16 cores/32 threads sound, I've found very few instances where I'm happy with the scaling. For After Effects comps, these would do well as long as you forgo multithreaded renders and send multiple single threaded batches. For this, I use RenderPal.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Hello. I want to buy this kit (deal from Natex: dual 2670 - 128GB) to build a rendering workstation, but rendering in GPU mode (Octane, basically). The xeons will help my work with 3D (viewport and simulations + after effects) and I like the 6 (5+1) PCIe slots.

I already have a gtx 1080 + 1070 + 980ti and probably will upgrade all to 1080 as add a 4th one.

You guys seem to know how this kit works, so do you think it would be a good idea to buy to GPU rendering?

Cheers!
There are only 2 slots that will supply 75W spec for gfx card. the physical long x16 slot at topmost is limited due to memory slots at the end and it's not x16 wired anyway. bios limited everything to pcie v2.0.

There is not enough space on the MB for the physical presence of 3 gpu anyway, let along 4th. No official SLI support.

if you want 4 SLI or gpu, you need something like this or a bigger board:

44 cores 512gb X10DRG-Q 4-way SLI

try looking up supermicro boards..
 
  • Like
Reactions: jdartnet

JCOecksler

New Member
Sep 20, 2016
3
1
3
41
There are only 2 slots that will supply 75W spec for gfx card. the physical long x16 slot at topmost is limited due to memory slots at the end and it's not x16 wired anyway. bios limited everything to pcie v2.0.

There is not enough space on the MB for the physical presence of 3 gpu anyway, let along 4th. No official SLI support.

if you want 4 SLI or gpu, you need something like this or a bigger board:

44 cores 512gb X10DRG-Q 4-way SLI

try looking up supermicro boards..
Thanks a lot! You guys are very quick to answer, holy cow!

Anyways, here is the Octane team reply for the PCIe issues:

PCIe is important for gaming, as transfer of data back and forth is constant and speed would matter in this case. This is not the case for rendering. PCIe will have a minor impact on time taken to load scene data onto the GPU., but plays no role in the rendering phase itself.

Once the scene data is on the GPU(s), the rendering speed is determined solely by the number of CUDA cores being used by Octane. In short, you will not need to worry about the the impact of PCIe on rendering speed.

An alternative is get a Asus motherboard (without the GPU and UBS 3.0 issues (as far as I read): ASUS Global

Thank you very much!
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Jd, how many kb and mouse do you see when you go to usb section of the bios? I see 2 kb 2 mice even though only got 1 kb and mouse... some1 was saying the other set is by ipmi? I had to disable allow wake from sleep for kb and mouse in windows and now it goes to sleep instantaneously. .. but sleep use 17w, too high :(
 
Last edited:

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Thanks a lot! You guys are very quick to answer, holy cow!

Anyways, here is the Octane team reply for the PCIe issues:

PCIe is important for gaming, as transfer of data back and forth is constant and speed would matter in this case. This is not the case for rendering. PCIe will have a minor impact on time taken to load scene data onto the GPU., but plays no role in the rendering phase itself.

Once the scene data is on the GPU(s), the rendering speed is determined solely by the number of CUDA cores being used by Octane. In short, you will not need to worry about the the impact of PCIe on rendering speed.

An alternative is get a Asus motherboard (without the GPU and UBS 3.0 issues (as far as I read): ASUS Global

Thank you very much!
Yeah that asus mb looks nice! Probably better for yr setup than the s2600
 

jdartnet

Member
Apr 7, 2016
36
13
8
42
West New York, NJ
www.jdart.net
Jd, how many kb and mouse do you see when you go to usb section of the bios? I see 2 kb 2 mice even though only got 1 kb and mouse... some1 was saying the other set is by impt ? I had to disable allow wake from sleep for kb and mouse in windows and now it goes to sleep instantaneously. .. but sleep use 17w, too high :(
This is interesting. To be honest, I'd have to check how many show up since I manage it without KB&M.

Yes, I was disappointed by the sleep, as well. Although not surprised since it's sleeping 2 procs and several sticks of ram. Usually I keep it off, unless I'm using it to render projects.
 

JCOecksler

New Member
Sep 20, 2016
3
1
3
41
Hi,

The issue with this setup for your GPU requirements, is that 4 GPU will not work in this motherboard. If you look closely at the 8x PCI-e ports, only 2 (the blue ones) are open to allow a 16x card fit in there. The others are closed. My guess is the most high performance GPUs that will fit in this motherboard is 3.

As far as the the 2670 Xeons being good for viewport/simulations, I suggest a lower number of cores, with higher clock speed. As great as 16 cores/32 threads sound, I've found very few instances where I'm happy with the scaling. For After Effects comps, these would do well as long as you forgo multithreaded renders and send multiple single threaded batches. For this, I use RenderPal.
Absurdly fast response, thanks!

So, this motherboard is useless to me. Moving on.
But the dual xeon 2670 always looked very good for viewport/simulations, at least to Cinema 4D with a multicpu score over 2000. I thought to get a single CPU (lower TDP and etc) but good ones are over US$ 1k (like the 6900k or 6950x).

As for today, I have a 3770k - asus p8z77pro - 16gb rig without overlock because it messes with the 3 GPUs.

And now I dont know what to do again...
 
  • Like
Reactions: wildpig1234

jdartnet

Member
Apr 7, 2016
36
13
8
42
West New York, NJ
www.jdart.net
Absurdly fast response, thanks!

So, this motherboard is useless to me. Moving on.
But the dual xeon 2670 always looked very good for viewport/simulations, at least to Cinema 4D with a multicpu score over 2000. I thought to get a single CPU (lower TDP and etc) but good ones are over US$ 1k (like the 6900k or 6950x).

As for today, I have a 3770k - asus p8z77pro - 16gb rig without overlock because it messes with the 3 GPUs.

And now I dont know what to do again...
Yes, I completely understand your dilemma. I ran into the same issue when I building this one for a similar use.

Here's a thought to bring it all back to reality: For the money, I can't think of any other build that will bring you this level of computing. That being said, the goal becomes to maximize what can be done with this motherboard + cpu combo. The great thing in your case is that you can send both CPU based renders (AFX) as well as GPU based, so it's a pretty incredible machine...for the price!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JCOecksler

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Well let me know what you see... I m happy that it finally go into sleep instantaneously despite the 17w usage.. maybe I can find a way to disable the xtra kb and mouse set in ipmi? But then you cant do remote management I suppose... so far its running win 10 ent like a champ... no messy win10 issues like some of the asrock boards...
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Absurdly fast response, thanks!

So, this motherboard is useless to me. Moving on.
But the dual xeon 2670 always looked very good for viewport/simulations, at least to Cinema 4D with a multicpu score over 2000. I thought to get a single CPU (lower TDP and etc) but good ones are over US$ 1k (like the 6900k or 6950x).

As for today, I have a 3770k - asus p8z77pro - 16gb rig without overlock because it messes with the 3 GPUs.

And now I dont know what to do again...
Spend a lilttle xtra and get asus board.. I think you will be happy with it... dual e5 2670 is nearly as fast as the ultra expensive 6950x and is still cheaper even with that asus mb.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JCOecksler

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
New updates and things learned along the way:

  • Sleep is prevented by the presence of the built in video.
    • As far as I can tell, the only way around this is to install a video card in order to disable the on board video.
    • To complicate things further, the only way to disable the onboard video (with a video card installed) was to install the video card in the lower PCIe 16x slot. Check out the photo below to see what I mean

you can actually have the onboard video as your primary video inside windows and still get sleep. but you have to install the windows driver for the matrox g200 gfx chipset:

Download Onboard video driver
 

jasonwhey

New Member
Dec 5, 2016
2
0
1
43
you can actually have the onboard video as your primary video inside windows and still get sleep. but you have to install the windows driver for the matrox g200 gfx chipset:

Download Onboard video driver
With this driver, I have no problem to put the pc to sleep, but fail to wake it up. The screen simply freezes there after 3 long beep. After been forced shut off by long holding the power button, the PC start up normal.

BTW, how do you disable the on board video? I had a graphic card installed on the #2 blue pci-e slot, also had the driver installed in windows 10. Should I simply turn off the on board video in bios? Since there is no option to select the pci-e graphic card as primary display adapter, i am really afraid to lose all the display if the system refuse to use the pci-e graphic card after the on board video been disabled. There was no display if the monitor was hooked up to the pci-e graphic card even the dual display option was selected in the bios.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
With this driver, I have no problem to put the pc to sleep, but fail to wake it up. The screen simply freezes there after 3 long beep. After been forced shut off by long holding the power button, the PC start up normal.

BTW, how do you disable the on board video? I had a graphic card installed on the #2 blue pci-e slot, also had the driver installed in windows 10. Should I simply turn off the on board video in bios? Since there is no option to select the pci-e graphic card as primary display adapter, i am really afraid to lose all the display if the system refuse to use the pci-e graphic card after the on board video been disabled. There was no display if the monitor was hooked up to the pci-e graphic card even the dual display option was selected in the bios.
you should disable the onboard video in bios if you have an addon card. or at least turn off the dual boot in bios.

as far as sleep goes, did you select disable from wake up for all keyboards and mouse sets inside windows device manager? using the latest bios?

btw, you are using s2600cp2 mb right?
 

jasonwhey

New Member
Dec 5, 2016
2
0
1
43
you should disable the onboard video in bios if you have an addon card. or at least turn off the dual boot in bios.

as far as sleep goes, did you select disable from wake up for all keyboards and mouse sets inside windows device manager? using the latest bios?

btw, you are using s2600cp2 mb right?
Yes, I got the dual e5-2670/128g ram/s2600cp2j kit from Natex, a phanteks enthoo pro case, 850w corsair psu, Hyper 212 evo and a deepcool gammax 400 cooler. I use the bios version that jdartnet suggested in his earlier post.

Now the onboard video is disabled, mouse and keyboard are allowed to wake up the computer. I have to press the button to wake the computer, but the result is the same. The system just freezes there after 3 long beep.

It is not essential for me to use the sleep function, but it will be nice to get it work.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
Yes, I got the dual e5-2670/128g ram/s2600cp2j kit from Natex, a phanteks enthoo pro case, 850w corsair psu, Hyper 212 evo and a deepcool gammax 400 cooler. I use the bios version that jdartnet suggested in his earlier post.

Now the onboard video is disabled, mouse and keyboard are allowed to wake up the computer. I have to press the button to wake the computer, but the result is the same. The system just freezes there after 3 long beep.

It is not essential for me to use the sleep function, but it will be nice to get it work.
pressing the power button to awake is a normal thing for this MB.

you need to disable the mouse and keyboard allow to wake up inside windows. you have to do that for all sets of mouse and keyboards that you see inside windows. mouse and keyboard cannot be use to wake it up but by enabling allowing to wake up i was getting problem with the sleep. This problem went away after i disabled the allow wake up for all the mouse and keyboard i see inside device manager.
 

saulo brandao

New Member
Dec 26, 2016
1
0
1
37
My name is saulo brandão. Im a photographer and filmmaker from brazil.
I bought the natex kit with Dual 2670 xeon processors and the intel s2600cp2j and i found more than 200 pages on google about the problems i can have. Im lost.

Can you do a quick guide for me about what i need to know?
frequent problems?
wich firmware is the best?

Items i have
Intel S2600CP2J Motherboard Dual E5-2670 SR0KX 128Gb. PC3-12800R
Samsung evo 850 256gb
2x WD 4TB USB 3.0 HDs
Items to buy:
GPU (im thinking about de gtx1070)
Power supply (thinking about ax860i)
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
My name is saulo brandão. Im a photographer and filmmaker from brazil.
I bought the natex kit with Dual 2670 xeon processors and the intel s2600cp2j and i found more than 200 pages on google about the problems i can have. Im lost.

Can you do a quick guide for me about what i need to know?
frequent problems?
wich firmware is the best?

Items i have
Intel S2600CP2J Motherboard Dual E5-2670 SR0KX 128Gb. PC3-12800R
Samsung evo 850 256gb
2x WD 4TB USB 3.0 HDs
Items to buy:
GPU (im thinking about de gtx1070)
Power supply (thinking about ax860i)
Just start out by reading the posts in this forum section about people building their s2600 system. then put yours together and then post any specific question.

Upgrade to the latest firmware. make sure you correctly set up frusdr as part of the bios update (make sure to answer the questions correctly regarding the fan connection) so that you can have the correct fan control.

It's not that hard or different from any other ones you have put together. and i assume this is not the first system you put together.

There are certain recommended sound card and usb 3 cards to get if you want those. See my build post and others in this section
 

Alex G

New Member
May 3, 2017
2
0
1
38
Hey guys,
Thanks for the info so far, it has been super useful in my effort to build this exact system.
I've got the mobo
Intel S2600CP2J and the dual Xeons e5 2670. I know I'm kind of late in the game but whatever, I'll give it a shot since it will speed up my rendering work a lot!
My question is if there is a preference in the memory (RAM) manufacturer for this board. I found a document with validated, compatible RAM modules for the S2600CP family, but none seem to be available online. The closest I got was a 8x8gb kit from Samsung M393B1K70DH0
but the compatible part is M393B1K70DH2 - the last digit being different. It is 8x 8GB 64GB RDIMM ECC REG DDR3 1600MHz RAM advertised for HP Workstations.
Any advice on the matter would be great! I mean is it really a risk to get non validated RAM since they seem to be out of stock?
 

Alex G

New Member
May 3, 2017
2
0
1
38
I ordered the memory anyway, so if anybody is interested let me know and I'll post how it went.