Random Parts-Bin Build Q's!

SH4RKY

SH4RKY

SH4RKY

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b'ham
The recent Division beta fell a little short in graphical terms on my PC, which spiked my tweaking itch again. Issue is, these days I have very little funds (baby + house etc lol)!
So to scratch that itch and also increase PC performance a little I’ve embarked on bit of a random parts-bin build!

My current rig is a Core 2 Quad Q4950, 8GB ram, HD6950 and main monitor is a 27" at 1440p.
I have managed to pick up a Dell T1600 workstation for 20 quid. Its spec is a Xeon E3-1270 (sandybridge 1155), 16GB ECC RAM, ATI v4800 Firepro.
I also have a warranty replacement BeQuiet 650w Dark power PSU. A friend is giving me a Win7 OEM code. And I have a 240gb Sandisk SSD I bought a while back for not very much.

So, my idea was to grab a Mobo, plug in the Xeon, Ram, SSD and use the 650w PSU. Due to 1440p I think I’ll probably have to look at trying to pick up a 2nd hand R9 290 / GTX780 for as cheap as possible.
Selling the dell bits and other bits and bobs from my old rig should hopefully fund the build for very little as all I really have to cover costs for is the newer GPU and Mobo.

Other thought was just to stick a new GPU in the T1600 with the upgraded PSU. I was just thinking of getting a replacement Mobo due to limited customisation options of the Dell BIOS.


Questions!!

Recommendations for 1155 boards? These aren't current so may have to hunt something down from classifieds or wherever.

Ram is 4 x 4gb so will need a mobo with 4 slots.

Is there a mobo that will support ivybridge upgrade? I may be able to grab another workstation with a slightly upgraded chip in the future.

Oh, forgot to say, the PC is in another room. So I need to be able to turn it on remotely using keyboard/mouse input. Another reason to get a different MOBO. Couldn’t see that option in the Dell BIOS.


So apart from MOBO recommendations, is there anything else I may have missed??


Thanks!
Ian
 
Hmm, Was struggling to find a LGA 1155 Mobo with 4 ram slots that's still for available sale... found PCPARTs picker and one of the options is 'supports ECC'. If i tick that, basically all the mobos disappear.

Anyone know if ECC RAM is not compatible with 'normal' MOBOs??

EDIT: apparently not. normal desktop mobos arent compatible with ECC. Will have to check the Dell ram to confirm what it is.

EDIT 2: Luckily, the ram in the dell is non ECC!!
 
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Update:

Also.... managed to wedge my GPU into the Dell Mobo last night.

Wanted to test if the CPU in the old PC was bottlenecking the GPU at all. Interesting results, the GPU performance was actually lower!

The Dell is running windows 10 now and has a different HDD and Ram configuration, but still, was surprised to see the lower GPU results.... Not sure why. Perhaps stock dell motherboard performance??? Ruling out Win10 due to benchmarks coming back the same before and after.

Firepro before win 10: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11014570
Firepro after win 10: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11014382

Old with 6950: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10979588
Dell with 6950: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/11014570
(similar GPU performance drop using newer 3DMark too)

Anyone have any ideas?
 
The FirePros are designed for rendering and computation power over frame rate, hence the low score.

That first link "FirePro before Win 10" is actually linking to a 6950 bench result!

That Xeon is giving you a bit more power as it's a faster processor. Keep the 6950 in there and get rid of the FirePro.
 
Opps, sorry didn't fully explain my self there.

The firepro was mentioned just as a check to see if the performance had changed due to the windows 10 upgrade. it hasn't (cant find the link, but its the same).


The other readings are related to swapping my 6950 from its current set up running with a q9450 to the Xeon still in the Dell mobo.
The 6950 GPU score has dropped when its in the Dell mobo with the Xeon. I just thought this was odd, would expect it to be the same if the old CPU wasnt throttling it.

I need to check what speed the PCIe slot is in the dell. I checked the Overclocking of the card and it all seemed to be in order and matched with the old pc too.
 
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