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Supermicro X9DAX-iF and Ivy Bridge xeons
I did a complete review of this board earlier this year with the top E5-2687W 8 core 32nm Sandy Bridge cpu's.
It is truly a beast. Rock solid stable with the SB xeons and overclockable on the BCLK to 106.25 with default voltage.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...65#post5192765
Now it's time to step that up a shade.
I managed to get ahold of two pairs of the new 22nm Ivy Bridge cpu's:
The 10 core mid range (2500/2900turbo) E5-2670 V2's and the top bin E5-2687W V2 8 cores.
I wasn't able (sniffle-sniffle) to get my grubby mitts on the top E5-2697 V2 12 core chips as evidently Intel is demanding your first born child before they even loan a pair out.
So lets take a short look at these bad boys and see what they are like in the real world.
First you need a baseline to compare these two sets of chips to and for that I used my Sandy Bridge E5-2687W's.
32nm, 3100/3400 on turbo and I was able to get it up to 3612MHz by bumping the BCLK to 106.25 which was the max I could get stable.
Also keep in mind that throughout this we are talking what was the max I was able to attain with all three pairs of chips to try and give a apples to apples comparision.
Now this wasn't a perfect comparision as the SB chips were a known daily used quantity for over a year while the new IB cpu's have been here a much shorter time using a beta bios to support them.
I've had the 10 core IB chips for app 8 weeks and the top 8 core IB chips for app 2 weeks so again, not a perfect comparision but enough to give me and you a good feel for what they are like.
I first stated out with the E5-2670 V2 IB chips.These are what I would call the "mid range" new 22nm IB 10 cores.
2500/2900 on turbo on all cores.
My first impressions are these are nice.
They run a solid 12C cooler than the 8 core E5-2687W Sandy Bridge chips I had been using and on this board would do a 105BCLK and give you 3047Mhz
on all cores loaded.
Attachment 131300
Electrical draw went from 420W with the SB xeons to 360W with these 10 cores.
Now we get to computational power.
These "mid range" 10 cores would almost dead equal the computational power of the previous generation Sandy Bridge 8 core cpu's in Cinebench 11.5( 27.07 vs 27.27)
but when I ran them on my DC app WCG I saw an increase of 120,000PPD using the SB xeons to over 140,000PPD..
Then I ran wPrime and saw what I expected.
32m wasn't quite as fast as the higher speed SB 8 cores( 3047 vs 3612) but the extra cores now started to show the increased capability:
SB numbers were 2.218s for 32m and 54.155s for 1024m
Attachment 131301
My overall impression on these 10 cores were they performed excellent and when you add in the increased performance and the reduced electrical draw they are a good upgrade that will pay off long term.
Now we get to the new top 8 core IB xeons: The E5-2687 V2's
Rated at 3400/3600 on all cores on turbo.
With some work I managed to get these up to 3871MHz using the 107BCLK setting in bios
but unlike the Sandy Bridge xeons I had to add some voltage to get them stable above 101 BCLK.
I found that an additional 300mv was the right number to add for these to get them stable.
Attachment 131302
Now at this speed and the additional voltage I was expecting them to be very hot but they stayed in the mid to high 60C range at 100% load in a 75F room.
Remember that the max I could get on the SB 8 cores at 3612MHz was 27.27? When I ran these at 3871MHz I got 29.85
Attachment 131303
Then I ran wPrime, best time yet on 1024m:
Attachment 131304
After working with the SB 8 cores for the last year and now these new IB chips and asking the question of "Which do i want to use for my daily driver?" I come away with the feeling that although the top E5-2687W V2 8 core IB chips
have more speed and are a little faster in single threaded apps the 10 core E5-2670 V2's are the better overall choice.
The reduced temps and the lighter electrical draw are the factors that make that decision an easy one to make.
Then kick in that the 10 cores are almost $550.00 each cheaper than the top 8 cores from the pricing I saw at newegg.
$1650 vs $2200 each..
Now my one regret is that I didn't get a chance to test the new 12 core IB xeons.
The top bin is called a E5-2697 V2 and rated at 2700/3000 on turbo all cores and that must be one impressive sucker at those speeds.
Tried to get a pair but I couldn't find any.
Maybe another day for those. :D
