Buying an 8-way machine - need tips from PC hardware experts

[Martin Thoresen]

I'm thinking of building my own 8-way machine which will be used for chess and most likely other fun stuff.

I've selected these components:

Mainboard: Asus Dual Xeon Intel 5000V 2xGbLAN SATA Raid Retail 6xECC FDB DIMM, DSBV-D
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon DP Quad Core E5345 2,33 GHz 8MB LGA771 1333MHz passive heatsink
Videocard: Msi VGA-Card nVidia 8600GTS 256MB PCI-E 2xDVI TV-Out HDTV HDCP Heatpipe Retail
Case: Chieftec ATX / EATX Mini-Server WO / PSU 8x5.35" Black
Powersupply: Thermaltake 750W ToughPower ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V Active PFC

I'm also adding 4GB of buffered memory. Is the passive cooling enough for the Xeons or do I have to go for the active one? They are the same price as far as I know.

Does Intel have something new on the horizon later this year? Like faster Xeon's / new chipsets?

Also, is that powersupply noisy or more silent? Should I go for another brand?

If anyone have any tips/suggestions they are of course welcome.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

I do hope my close friend Majd Al-Ansari notice your post,he'll give you the maximum information you need for this topic....
Majd is an expert in building such monsters

[tjfroh]

Martin,

Go with thermoelectric refrigeration. Add plenty of large fans to move the air over the memory chips and the remainder of the motherboard chips. Two fans and the fan in the power supply should be sufficient.

TJ

PS Enjoy.

I'm thinking of building my own 8-way machine which will be used for chess and most likely other fun stuff.

I've selected these components:

Mainboard: Asus Dual Xeon Intel 5000V 2xGbLAN SATA Raid Retail 6xECC FDB DIMM, DSBV-D
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon DP Quad Core E5345 2,33 GHz 8MB LGA771 1333MHz passive heatsink
Videocard: Msi VGA-Card nVidia 8600GTS 256MB PCI-E 2xDVI TV-Out HDTV HDCP Heatpipe Retail
Case: Chieftec ATX / EATX Mini-Server WO / PSU 8x5.35" Black
Powersupply: Thermaltake 750W ToughPower ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V Active PFC

I'm also adding 4GB of buffered memory. Is the passive cooling enough for the Xeons or do I have to go for the active one? They are the same price as far as I know.

Does Intel have something new on the horizon later this year? Like faster Xeon's / new chipsets?

Also, is that powersupply noisy or more silent? Should I go for another brand?

If anyone have any tips/suggestions they are of course welcome.

[M ANSARI]

Yes the fastest Xeons for an 8 core are running at 3Ghz ... I know they are used in the latest Apple computers but am not sure if you can buy them off the shelf. Google "intel V8". I am not familiar with the Asus motherboard ... the 8 core build I have done were on a Tyan motherboard and a Supermicro motherboard. FBDIMMS are the only memory that would work with the mentioned Xeon setup ... the fastest memory being sold is 667Mhz memory but 800 Mhz memory is becoming visible. I plan to build an 8 core setup soon but I am waiting for Penryn ... they should be running at 3.33 Ghz which would make an awesome chess rig. The PS should be OK but personally I prefer the 850 watt Thermaltake. The passive CPU's should be OK but really they will be very happy with some fans to cool them a little (they do get very hot).

[Martin Thoresen]

Yes the fastest Xeons for an 8 core are running at 3Ghz ... I know they are used in the latest Apple computers but am not sure if you can buy them off the shelf. Google "intel V8". I am not familiar with the Asus motherboard ... the 8 core build I have done were on a Tyan motherboard and a Supermicro motherboard. FBDIMMS are the only memory that would work with the mentioned Xeon setup ... the fastest memory being sold is 667Mhz memory but 800 Mhz memory is becoming visible. I plan to build an 8 core setup soon but I am waiting for Penryn ... they should be running at 3.33 Ghz which would make an awesome chess rig. The PS should be OK but personally I prefer the 850 watt Thermaltake. The passive CPU's should be OK but really they will be very happy with some fans to cool them a little (they do get very hot).

Thanks for all your replies guys!

I guess all of those motherboards have the same chipset, either 5000V, 5000P or 5000X. The "V" is considerably cheaper and as far as I know "only" supports 32GB or RAM, not 64 as the other two does.

I assume by FB you mean Fully Buffered, that is what I was thinking of buying. Do I need them to be registered/ECC as well or is that not needed?

I just read about Penryn, seems that on the same GHz they provide about a 5-10% increased performance. Looks like it will be wise to wait for those chips. I'm not going to buy the top-end processors as they are very costly compared to the middle-end ones.

The reason I was thinking about the passive ones are because I'm going to put it near my living room and I don't want too much noise (obviously). The case won't be stuffed inside a small space so I hope it will be ok.

850 Watts instead of 750, well I can see why. I guess I have to decide about wether to buy a bigger one.

Thanks!

[M ANSARI]

If the only difference is the support of 64GB of RAM, then I can assure you that for chess you will not really need that. I really think that 4GB is more than enough. With Xeon or most server platforms ... FBDIMMS is a must ... FBDIMMS are registered so basically for Xeon's you will have to use registered memory. As usual the fastest chips demand very high rates as the people that buy them usually don't really care about the price ... so the best value would not be those chips.

It is probably a good idea to wait for Penryn ... that is what I am doing. But you have to understand that with hardware ... there is always something much better and faster just around the corner.