Dual Socket Xeon E5 V2 (Ivy Bridge-E) Workstation Build - Need Advice/Suggestions.

Nice thing about building your own is installing OEM windows. No bloated add on software from Dell or HP. Win7 pro OEM on my duallie xeon system runs flawlessly. Only software that goes on it is what I put on it.

Who uses an $84 license fee as justification for a proper workstation. Any workstation from a major vendor can be had with your choice of preload. Including no OS or a basic install with drivers and management utilities. The do not peddle their crapware onto a workstation, they save that crap for best buy.

Honestly,the OP should seriously look into getting a Supermicro Superworkstation barebone with a fantastic X9 series motherboard, San Ace redundant fans, 1400 watt platinum hot-swap redundant power supplies and fill it with as much CPU and memory as he can afford and a proper professional GPU certified to accelerate his applications (FirePRO / Quardo). Oh, and a warrantee.

Thinking you are going to be better of build a better workstation with any of the consumer stuff I have seen in this thread is funny. Corsair makes great cases and power supplies, and heck an Nvidia GTX 780 is a great gaming card, but save that stuff for a gaming rig, not to work with Maya.

Speaking from experience, when you push any hardware to its limits for days, weeks, or even months on end things are going to break. The first time you have to tear down that water loop, remove that heatsink, swap that motherboard or power supply your going realize that you should have bought the proper tool for the task. A tool free hot swap workstation with a couple of spare parts sitting on your shelf and an overnight parts replacement plan.

I have blown out dual xeon motherboards and been able to swap them out in 10 minutes. I have burned out power supplies and the redudant unit keep the station in production till I can pull the old dead one out and slide a new one in, takes about 10 sec. Hard drives and fans are even faster.

My first workstation was a custom build using what I thought where the best parts. It performed perfectly well, but it was not directly responsible for my wages. Once you realize that in this world time is money, your perspective will change.

Save the multiradiator loops for your gaming rig, where its function is not responbile for your rent.

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Originally Posted by OldChap

I don't do any of the things you do with your machine, I just crunch

You can save a bunch of $$$'s but there are some things to watch for. You want to get the C2 processors or failing that maybe C1 stepping for one simple reason. .. Companies like asus with their z9 pe8 board switch off the ability to run es cpus with the later bioses unless it is c2.


I'm running both the asus and a supermicro with the older C0 cpu's and although very cheap (I paid around $300 ea.) compared to C2 silicone the, rules are different quite often.

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I'm running a Z9pe-d8 with the latest bios and I'm using older b0 Xeons... Don't get C0 or C1 Xeons they broke virtualization with those. B0, b1, and C2 and higher stepping Xeons are the way to go.

safan, you made me check just exactly what it is I have.

3 of the 5 at least and probably all 5 are QA8X or QA8Z so that makes mine B0 but I am still concerned about updating Bios as I have heard that one cannot roll back on the asus z9.

Thanks for your info though, I will keep it in mind if I need to resolve issues later.