Compatible mainboard for dual/quad core xeons?

[tingsern]

I use Supermicro X7DA8. System is about one year old now. Just upgraded the Xeons from dual core to quad core using 45nm lines. Very nice ... Casing is Supermicro's own as well. The power supply is a gem of fine engineering - duplicated power supply - 800 watts - only one is in use, the other one is for backup. Nice. Heat sinks are Intel's own - includes a fan on top of the heatsink.

[RandyD]

Anybody building an editing machine should pay attention to the bus speeds more than number of cores....Edius, like all other NLEs doesn't use 4 cores to the max as it is. They will be moving up to 1666mhz (I think they are out and will be in Macs soon)soon and that is where the next leap will take place. I also doubt you will see CPU clock speeds go up much either...that is why Pat's machine with the 3.0 clock speeds and 4 cores at 1333mhz is still close to the top of the heap....who wants more cores at lower clock speeds and same bandwidth that don't get used. If I am not mistaken Ashly Guy mave have done some real world editing testing and the higher clockspeed 2 cores did better than the lower 4 cores. From my experiance it seems that the RT jumps happen more with FSB jumps than anything else.

[The Dane]

Shueardm

When the system is running, with 6 hard drives in place, the monitor program from Supermicro, shows everything within limit. No drop in voltage.

The difference in power consumption, between the dualcore 5140 and the quadcore 5335 is 15W

My PC was build by a reputed firm, who deliver server solutions.
The Configuration and price was agreed, and they said it will work.
If I run short of power, it’s there problem.

[Bandman]

My system is listed at the bottom of the message. I do about 6 projects a year. For the most part, my system runs fine.

[shueardm]

"The Dane"

That's interetsing, I have the same chasis/power supply and I was doing some investigating RE: power requirements if I were to upgrade my dual core CPU's to Quad Core ones. After using a online PSU calculator it showed that I was good now but would be under-rated if i made my CPU's the quad core variety. Mind you I have 4 more hard drives than you which might need to be taken into account.
In any event, I am glad it's working for you but if i had built it now would have used the 800W PSU model.

[pjsssss]

Check out my specs. Awesome machine. This setup is about a year old and is still fairly cutting edge. It has lasted on the top tier much longer than any other machines that I have had

[The Dane]

My new system.
Has been running for two month, with no problems..

Chassis: SuperMicro CSE-743T-645 Black
http://www.supermicro.com/products/c...SC743T-645.cfm
Main board: SuperMicro X7DAL-E
http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...0X/X7DAL-E.cfm
CPU: 2 x Xeon E5335 Quad-core 2ghz
Ram: kingston 2GB 667MHZ ECC 2 x 1GB
Graphic: MSI NX 8800GTS 320MB RAM
Storage: 4 x 500GB seagate Barracuda ES SATA300 in a raid 10.
The solution gives 1TB workspace and a bullet-proof backup.
Two empty hot swap bays for external storing of projects.
The last two bay is non working, as the main board has only 6 SATA
EDIUS SP

[PetrS]

Are 2 x PCie slots enough for you? It seems you can only run 1 16x PCIe card, so the rest left are PCIX slots.

Yes, STORMDAVE,
it is enough for me. I need just two PCI-X 100MHz slots for Edius NX card and HD expansion card, one PXI-E slot for graphics. Maybe one PCI-E slot for 1394B card in nearest future, because I´m speculate about fantastic piece of external hardware - RME Fireface400. And this is all, S5000XVN is enough and with good price.

Petr.

[PetrS]

Thank you very much, SoundFreak.

My present mainboard is very old Intel 865PERL and is super stable too. So, HDV is here and my Edius NX for PCI-X need more powerful hardware. Now, after your´s good experiencis, I will buy S5000XVN SATA, with 6 SATAII ports. My present system work with two RAID (stripped) arrays. First RAID is for system an working on two 160GB WD disks. Second RAID is by added PCI RAID card and is for video data (two 400GB WD units). All work perfectly from first installation to today, over 5 years. And my new system will work with two RAID disk arrays again, S5000XVN SATA is perfect for it (I hope).

So thank you, your´s experiencis are very important for me.

Petr.

(Now Intel 865PERL, P4, 2G RAM, Edius NX PCI-X and Edius 4.54, Cinema4D R10.6...)

[Shakeel]

Anyone using Canopus/GVT hardware (NX, SP) with dual or even quad core xeons? What's the mainboard of choice? TIA

We are using Super Micro main board with dual xeon for our Canopus SP and till date it's working fine.

[SoundFreak]

Hallo friends,
have you experiencis with Intel Workstation Board S5000XVN?
It is server board for two Xeon 53xx processors and with Greencreek chipset...

Thank for reply...
Petr

I'm using the S5000XVN for a few months now and as with all my previous intel boards, very pleased with it's performance (super stable), still only using the NX card, not the HD expansion (later investment), and also a pair of lower end 5050 Xeon's as this is only a Hobby rig, and with One 16x and Two 4x PCIe slots (+Two PCIx) it has enough to play with.

Make sure to choose the correct version (last 3 characters) for your usage, the S5000 Series has many variants what "Slots" and "Sata" and "Raid "concerns.

Can't give you any info on the Quad Xeons yet, will only get them after 1 or 2 years when they are about to face out (cost effective) but I am prepaired with a 1010 Watt PSU.

edit : be-aware that if you want to run a specific kind of Raid on you Video drives there will be a price to pay for a "key" to unlock the raid, don't know how much it will cost. (i use the standard Sata II config, more than fast enough for DV footage)

[STORMDAVE]

Hallo friends,
have you experiencis with Intel Workstation Board S5000XVN?
It is server board for two Xeon 53xx processors and with Greencreek chipset...

Thank for reply...
Petr

Are 2 x PCie slots enough for you? It seems you can only run 1 16x PCIe card, so the rest left are PCIX slots.

[PetrS]

Intel Workstation Board S5000XVN

Hallo friends,
have you experiencis with Intel Workstation Board S5000XVN?
It is server board for two Xeon 53xx processors and with Greencreek chipset...

Thank for reply...
Petr

[GrassValley_BH]

The concept of "headroom" is best in designing machines.

You want to try to remain at 80% or lower of your maximum. That goes for storage, power, heat, everything.

Also be very careful these days. Just because it's a "600-watt" power supply doesn't mean it's necessarilly better than a "400-watt" power supply.

Just like clock speed is all relative, on power supplies, the amperage distribution across the different paths (rails) matters a lot. The total wattage might be 600 watts, but if it's mainly on the 3.3v and 5v rails, your 12v will be severely underpowered, meaning you won't be able to run a lot of hard drives or other power-hungry devices.

Especially nowadays where tolerances have been scaled back so much. You can no longer rely on the component manufacturer to have "overdesigned" products for you - you have to "overdesign" on your own. Don't expect a 2-cup measuring cup to hold anything more than 2 cups. Heck, you'll probably be lucky if it really does hold 2 cups, without you spilling all over the floor once you lift it!

[Ed122]

Chk out the PS

I've had this happen a few time with different computers- it is a typical way power supplies will fail-- today's systems put a lot of demands on the PS.-Ed