ES CPUs in Servers...

phill9800

phill9800

phill9800

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Joined
14 Dec 2004
Posts
939
Location
Bridgwater, Somerset
Hi everyone :)

From a change of career, nearly 2 years ago, I've had given to me some servers from work. These were due to go to recycling but I've been able to get them home instead (with proper permission I will be clear on that!!)

I've been able to upgrade the X58 based servers to hex cores without too much effort, I've got now some X79 and X99 based servers as well, which I'd love to get working with crunching away.. These aren't run 24/7 since the power costs would literally cripple me lol :)

I was looking at a few X99 based CPUs so Haswell and Broadwell based and found a few ES CPUs that offered not so much the clock speed as you'd guess but a much better core count than I currently have. Both of the servers I do have, are Dell R730's, which have a quad core CPU in there which I found out was a 135w CPU.....
As I'm sure many of you are aware, Crunching is a bit like Mining.. You do things efficiently rather than everything running at 120%...

I was therefore just wondering if anyone had had any experience with ES CPUs in servers and whether or not, they functioned without any hassles at all. I obviously need stability with the crunching for cancer and such like with the world grid.... I've been looking at these Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4 ES as I found them rather cheap...

Has anyone any advice at all about these ES CPUs and if they'd function in the servers ok?

Many thanks in advance :)
 
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You're mentioning reliability and ES chips.

They're cheap because they're illegal (intel property) and nothing is guaranteed about them. They could simply be slower or could have parts disabled or not be supported on X motherboard on account of not being final products.
 
I was half expecting that to be honest but sadly I can't seem to find anything around the 8C or higher for less than more than silly money... I know Ryzen would be a much cheaper way of doing things but with the servers being there, I'd like to use them to the best of my ability and theirs really..

Looks like I'm going to have to dig and see if I can find some proper Xeon's as I'm sure it'll be worth it... Now what to try and go for I guess.....
 
I wouldn't buy without checking someone has had success with the specific chip in the specific motherboard.
Have used a couple x79 and a 1151 Skylake ES, and not had any reliability issues (that were apparent to me anyway). The 1151 only works on an ancient BIOS in specific boards though.
 
I think I might even try and drop back to a V3 CPU if I can find the right CPUs for the right price. I definitely can't afford £500 a CPU for the amount of work/time it will be used. I'd like to kit out 2 servers, each with 2 CPUs so I'd like something that's affordable for what I'd like to do with it and hopefully all 4 would come within £500.. That might be doable (but not right now lol)

I'm hoping for a minimum of 8C 16T CPUs if possible... Time will tell...
 
phill9800 said:
Hi everyone :)

From a change of career, nearly 2 years ago, I've had given to me some servers from work. These were due to go to recycling but I've been able to get them home instead (with proper permission I will be clear on that!!)

I've been able to upgrade the X58 based servers to hex cores without too much effort, I've got now some X79 and X99 based servers as well, which I'd love to get working with crunching away.. These aren't run 24/7 since the power costs would literally cripple me lol :)

I was looking at a few X99 based CPUs so Haswell and Broadwell based and found a few ES CPUs that offered not so much the clock speed as you'd guess but a much better core count than I currently have. Both of the servers I do have, are Dell R730's, which have a quad core CPU in there which I found out was a 135w CPU.....
As I'm sure many of you are aware, Crunching is a bit like Mining.. You do things efficiently rather than everything running at 120%...

I was therefore just wondering if anyone had had any experience with ES CPUs in servers and whether or not, they functioned without any hassles at all. I obviously need stability with the crunching for cancer and such like with the world grid.... I've been looking at these Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4 ES as I found them rather cheap...

Has anyone any advice at all about these ES CPUs and if they'd function in the servers ok?

Many thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

Dell didn’t produce x99 based servers, x99 is the HEDT chipset, C612 was the server chipset equivalent for LGA 2011-3 or type R sockets, and no, an ES chip will not work in Dell/HP enterprise class hardware, they lack the microcode, an x99 board usually will, as will some Supermicro boards, but not Dell. As to ES and QS chips in general, legality aside - they belong to intel, you are in effect buying stolen goods - stability comes down to the stepping, some have known issues, some QS stepping went on to be the same as retail, either way they aren’t suitable for your intended use.

You’d likely do more good flogging the servers and donating the proceeds to charity than spending several hundred pounds on CPU’s to crunch for cancer, you can make an ongoing donation to cover the power costs you save.
 
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Kind of the same thing but I see your point :) The two R730's I have use the 2011-3 socket, to which I've been having a bit of a search around to find some low powered CPUs for a start and then a look around of what else I could look for. The X99 MSI board I have currently with my 5960X will also be considered for a Xeon as well since I can use that for backups rather than my Z77 + 2600k.. Another day for discussing that though :)

I've hit the ES thing in the head a reply or two above, so the ES I'm going to avoid and I'll stick with some retail models instead :)

I've found these Xeon E5-2630L V3 which look like they can be had for fairly cheap and being only 55w CPUs, pretty power efficient as well :)

I guess it's a choice thing with how you would like to donate towards cancer whether it be your CPU or cold cash. I have solar panels so costs for power isn't such an issue considering I turn them off when the sun dies out :) Early days yet but the servers will also come in helpful for further learning in my IT career as well as storage for what I have on my Synology box that I'd like to get backed up as well.. I do however, have some servers I'm looking to actually donate to people who wish to crunch for cancer but that's another story altogether :)

I'll possibly put up a build log when I can get something sorted out and the hardware bought I hope to buy :)
 
Solar + used for other stuff changes the efficiency argument somewhat, also being in a more solar friendly part of the country helps (I have family in Taunton). 2630L V3 is generally an inexpensive CPU, but it packs a reasonable punch (used to run one on my x99 set-up). I’d suggest looking into benchmarks for different CPU’s and working out if cores or clock speeds are more important. Also if this is WCG that you’re on about doing, it can use GPU’s too, which for some workloads are many, many times more efficient - it may be worth looking into.

Also side note on the donation side of things, set some simple rules, eg it’s not a donation, it’s a long term loan with an agreement the servers are either returned when no longer used/no longer economical to run for the purpose, or or more likely sold and the proceeds donated to charity afterwards etc. I once did something similar for what I believed was a good cause and was slightly peed off when 6 months later someone flogged off a seriously nice bit of kit, to the extent that I got a third party to buy it and then approached the seller directly afterwards, but that’s another story.
 
QS CPU’s, the last ES release before OEM would be a much safer bet.

I’m in a similar boat myself and closing in on a 2650L v4 QS from China.

I’ve been looking at the v3’s but this 14c v4 variant seems to hit the sweet spot between efficiency and core count.
 
Oh the solar is a big help for the type of work I do at home, because the amount of juice a few PC's I have use is a little scary at times :) My slightly older kit obviously isn't so efficient and when you see 420w at the wall being taken for just stock settings, it's can get expensive when you have 8 to 10 PC's on. Thankfully, they don't all use that amount of power! :)

I've been having a look around for some slightly older CPUs as well and found some E5-2658 V2's for a silly price (or what I thought was silly) I grabbed them and I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform :) Being V2's I'm sure they aren't going to be ground breaking compared to some of the newer Ryzen CPUs (more on my to buy list or wish list at this point!) but since I have a few servers at home, I'd like to get them up and running doing something that's hopefully going to help someone else or even me later on in life :)

I'm looking to do a donation through Overclockers forums, so I'm going to have to check with the mod's how that might work and go from there. I don't want to cause any problems, just hopefully get some help from a few people and share some hardware in the process :)

I've been looking at some of the CPUs for the V3/V4 and they are both very scary prices...
I'd love to get some higher core counted CPUs, quad cores isn't so great for what I'm trying to get... :)
 
phill9800 said:
Oh the solar is a big help for the type of work I do at home, because the amount of juice a few PC's I have use is a little scary at times :) My slightly older kit obviously isn't so efficient and when you see 420w at the wall being taken for just stock settings, it's can get expensive when you have 8 to 10 PC's on. Thankfully, they don't all use that amount of power! :)

I've been having a look around for some slightly older CPUs as well and found some E5-2658 V2's for a silly price (or what I thought was silly) I grabbed them and I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform :) Being V2's I'm sure they aren't going to be ground breaking compared to some of the newer Ryzen CPUs (more on my to buy list or wish list at this point!) but since I have a few servers at home, I'd like to get them up and running doing something that's hopefully going to help someone else or even me later on in life :)

I'm looking to do a donation through Overclockers forums, so I'm going to have to check with the mod's how that might work and go from there. I don't want to cause any problems, just hopefully get some help from a few people and share some hardware in the process :)

I've been looking at some of the CPUs for the V3/V4 and they are both very scary prices...
I'd love to get some higher core counted CPUs, quad cores isn't so great for what I'm trying to get... :)
Click to expand...

Many things can be virtualised, especially for learning/lab work and the power savings are potentially huge - a few low end VM's or things like Plex with minimal transcoding can happily share CPU time with other things, i'd imagine docker supports your chosen project? I know you're discussed a range of chipsets/sockets, but you do know V1 and V2 are a different socket to V3 and V4? LGA 2011 and LGA 2011-3 respectively.

Donation wise have a look at the forum FAQ/ask a mod, depending on what you actually want, I may be interested as I have room in the rack and the power bill is long past the point of an extra 100w being noticed.
 
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I do/can use VM's, normal VMWare if I'm honest as it's what we have at work, so I've been trying to learn from it.

The reason for the core counts and the Xeon's and servers are the World Grid :) I only really use the PCs I have whenever the sun is out so I try not to run much over night.. I really couldn't afford the electric bill if everything was running, that would put me in an early grave!!

Yep, understand completely about the different CPU version releases :) I've a few versions of Xeon based servers, so I'm trying to make the best of all of them if I can :) Currently I have a few more servers than I require, 13 if I'm completely honest. I would like to donate some to a few people and get them onboard with the World Grid :) More on that later, I'll see if I can reach out to a mod first, I don't wish to be doing anything against the rules :)

My 22U rack is kinda of full, but hopefully a give away might sort that out :) I'm unsure tho how much interest a X58 based server would be to most people...
 
I got a nice fat twin processor 24 thread xeon HP from ebay for next to nowt, got over a 100Gig of ram in it at the moment, the raid controller(s) are giving me the hump at the moment though.
Big bargains out there if you can deal with the power and noise.
 
I've 6 of those currently lol :) Mostly Dell kit but everything works as far as I know without any issues :) I could post up a pic if needed, I could always start another thread as well I don't mind :)
 
Decided and was able to grab some (I think) fairly decent priced V2 CPUs for my X79/Socket R server just waiting for another heatsink to turn up for it but both CPUs tested and working fine :)

Now I just need to find something for my two R730's......
 
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