TalkChess.com

First, may I introduce myself to this learned and distinguished forum? I am a research engineer with limited brains but still more limited money to spend on my hobby of Chess and Go.

So to my question. For chess research and other, gp uses, I am now ready to spend $8k on a Windows PC, now. I plan (all parts are shipping already):

2 x E5-2687W Intel Sandy Bridge Xeon S2011 CPUs. 8 Real Cores per CPU. Here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xeo ... ,3149.html is the review. It will run all 16 cores at 3.4GHz in turbo mode, even before overclocking. Today many top engines are not so good above 4 cores, but soon this can change.

64Gb Corsair PC3-12800 (1.6GHz) DDR3 Quad Channel RAM (4 x 16Gb). This gives 4Gb per real core. Ideal?

SuperMicro X9DAi motherboard with SATA III 6Gb/s, PCI-E 3.0. Here http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... /X9DAi.cfm are the specification.

SSD HDD for fast EGTB access, capacity to be researched but I think 0.3Tb is enough, I can move needed EGTBs from main HDD as needed. Big SSD/array are still too expensive.

Top-end air-cooling. Or?

Rest can be obvious, Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate (8 will be bad, microsoft alternation good-bad-good-bad-), very fine 0.9kW modular PSU, some cr-p graphics card for kids, 3Gb 120Hz Barracuda HDD...

I would like commentaries, critiques and recommendations. E5-2687W looks like the real winner, but you may have more information? AMD quad CPU each 4/6-core? What chess and overclock speeds can I expect? Is there a better mobo for overclocking? Is RAM chosen a bottleneck? Other understanding error by me? Anyone else already got similar system? I can see one kburcham was considering this: http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41204. A Sedat Canbaz benchmark yet? Help!

TU, friends.......

Wrong mother board SR-X is what you want by EVGA

NJDenson wrote:Wrong mother board SR-X is what you want by EVGA

TU, I had looked at the EVGA Classified SR-X motherboard, but I had not noticed it has now been released. Specs are here http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... SE-W888-KR and discussion here http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Classi ... 14928.html

Is your recommendation because of overclock support?

If u want to b a maniac try here: http://www.pugetsystems.com/configliquid.php

ur talking 16 m talking 64 for a starter

this Co. smokes ...

This page is now obsolete, but it is fun if you do not know.


http://computerschess.blogspot.com.es/

Kingghidorah wrote:http://www.pugetsystems.com/configliquid.php
ur talking 16 m talking 64 for a starter

TU for link, I can read there the options
4 x AMD Opteron 6276 (2.3GHz) 16 CORE 115W [add $4244.93]
2 x Intel Xeon E5-2687W (3.1GHz) EIGHT CORE 150W [add $4271.10]

The price is same, 64 AMD cores @2.3GHz and 16 Intel cores @3.4GHz in Turbo mode. There is an even still faster Opteron, 6282 SE 2.6GHz, price an extra $1k for 4 CPUs.

But which is faster for chess, 64 AMD or 16 Intel? I cannot find any Opteron chess benchmarks, even for much older CPU versions. Scaling gets very bad as core count increases. It can be, for identical CPUs, 64 core is only 1.6-1.8 times faster than 16 core, so higher Intel clock rate and better architecture of Xeon means that Intel is faster for Houdinimark.

Dragulic wrote:

Kingghidorah wrote:http://www.pugetsystems.com/configliquid.php
ur talking 16 m talking 64 for a starter

TU for link, I can read there the options
4 x AMD Opteron 6276 (2.3GHz) 16 CORE 115W [add $4244.93]
2 x Intel Xeon E5-2687W (3.1GHz) EIGHT CORE 150W [add $4271.10]

The price is same, 64 AMD cores @2.3GHz and 16 Intel cores @3.4GHz in Turbo mode. There is an even still faster Opteron, 6282 SE 2.6GHz, price an extra $1k for 4 CPUs.

But which is faster for chess, 64 AMD or 16 Intel? I cannot find any Opteron chess benchmarks, even for much older CPU versions. Scaling gets very bad as core count increases. It can be, for identical CPUs, 64 core is only 1.6-1.8 times faster than 16 core, so higher Intel clock rate and better architecture of Xeon means that Intel is faster for Houdinimark.

Hi,

Intel is much faster than AMD on every Fritz Mark I have read + the fact Windows is designed for Intel and not optimized for AMD (even with last patches that add 5% to AMD).

AMD is waiting for Windows 8 .....

Still AMD have some great overcloaking fans but if you are not....

Best regards,

Gab

do not buy yet.

None of this new stuff is as fast as my 2x5680's o/c to 4.2 on SR2 motherboard.
You cannot O/C these cpu's.
I am waiting for Ivy Bridge,end of year and hope intel will allow O/C with those cpu's.
Do not even think about AMD it's crap for chess even 64 core.

gleperlier wrote:Intel is much faster than AMD on every Fritz Mark I have read

Agree. Furthermore, the Opteron 62xx series, codename BULLDOZER, is giving poor benchmarks e.g. on Sjeng test. My guess can be that the 16 Intel cores will be faster at chess then the 64 AMD cores, even if one gave each AMD core same RAM as each Intel core.

NATIONAL12 wrote:You cannot O/C these cpu's.

Is the o/c control not in the EVGA SR-X motherboard?? I think you are correct and EVGA etc are laughing because 5% overclock is not overclock! I read the E5-2687W is both multiplier and strap locked! This is BAD news!

I repeat,You cannot overclock these cpu's.
The multiplier is locked.
Check yourself with Intel.