Help on a new ivy-E build!

[Skrips]

OK, here it goes:

I am going to put together a new Ivy Bridge-E build. Now, I know Ivy-E is not so well liked, but that aside, I need cores, and I cannot wait for Haswel-E, though I would really rather not have to dump $4k+ into an Ivy-E build. But whatever. Here is the parts list I am thinking of, and I will have some specific questions at the end.

CPU: Ivy-E 4960X
MoBo: Asus Rampage IV Gene mATX
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8GB) (CMD32GX3M4A1866C9)
Cooling: Corsair H100i
GPU: EVGA Titan Superclocked
Case: Corsair 350D
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB
HDD: WD Black 2TB (x2)
PSU: Corsair AX860 / SeaSonic 1000W Platinum

Ok, so what do you guys think? Any major holes in the build / mistakes I have not considered? is there better RAM? Better SSD? Anyone know of any major problems with any of this hardware that would make me want to swap something out for a different part?

And the big question: Will an 860W PSU be enough? I know the Titans can eat 430W+ under load. And I know at stock I am looking at around 130W for the CPU, and even a mild overclock will bring me up to 200W no problem. That's 630W out of 860W gone right there. This is what I have been assuming for power consumption;

GPU: 430W
CPU: 200W
Misc: 110W
Total: 740W

Am I correct in that assumption? Or is 860W just NOT enough, at which point I am going to want to get the SeaSonic PSU?

Any insight would be MUCH appreciated! It has been a long time since I have built a SFF machine, and I have forgotten what it is like to have to worry about size / heat / power consumption, and I just don't want to blow a wad of cash on something that won't work, when it could be easily avoided.

Thanks in advance!

--Skrips

[tool_462]

860w is plenty.

I would never spend the money on a Titan personally, just get a good GTX 780 and overclock. Easy way to save $300.

Evo is probably the best SSD option right now, very fast overall and Samsung has (probably the best) great track record with SSD reliability and firmware updates.

[Skrips]

860w is plenty.

I would never spend the money on a Titan personally, just get a good GTX 780 and overclock. Easy way to save $300.

Evo is probably the best SSD option right now, very fast overall and Samsung has (probably the best) great track record with SSD reliability and firmware updates.

Hmm, I was hoping 860 would be enough. And I thought it would be, but I just didn't have all the info for this gen and exactly how much power the misc components would draw. Thanks for the heads up!

As for the Titan, I need it for the vRAM. I do a pretty heavy workload of CG work, and I need it for the texture space (6GB is godlike for texture painting). The reason I don't get a pro series card is that this is a bit of a compromise. Its the same reason I am going Ivy-E instead of Xeon based. I need a machine that has the cores / power to do a professional CG workload, but I also need a machine that will run games / work well with UDK. As it stands, I am trying to get an indie iOS game put together, and I just didn't want to mess with potential incompatibilities with the graphics APIs I have to deal with.

Then there is the cost. I simply cannot afford a K5000 plus a dual Xeon workstation plus a machine for gaming. So this is, from one point of view, an uber gaming machine, and from a different point of view, a mini and semi-pro workstation. Its the best compromise I could come up with given the budget I am working on.

Anyway, thanks for the help on the PSU, I will definitely take that into consideration.

--Skrips

[tool_462]

Fair enough, you are one of the few that Titan is actually worth the premium for!

Only pulling 429 watts for total system in the Anand review:



That is with a 3960X @ 4.3GHz

[Leeghoofd]

Switch the 4960X with a 4930K, buy a Corsair AX1200i PSU and swap the Titan with a GTX780... you save money and get a better balanced price/ratio build...

[Skrips]

Switch the 4960X with a 4930K, buy a Corsair AX1200i PSU and swap the Titan with a GTX780... you save money and get a better balanced price/ratio build...

Ummm, why in the world would I need a 1200W PSU? I would not think that it would be needed in an mATX workstation.

Amrite?

--Skrips

[Leeghoofd]

Imagine ever updating to a 2nd GPU. I just use high end PSUs all the time and the Corsair AX series has been proven all over. But indeed you can go for a 1000W model too if that suits your build better... I would not run my daily PSUs at eg 80% of their capacity all the time... my PCs are on 24/7 folding doing whatever they need to do...

Questions for you:

Why do you need a 4960X iso a 4930K, maybe for the 3 extra MB of cache ? You pay a big premium for that, they both willl OC to 4500 dead easy
Why the Titan card, why not opt as suggested before to pick a GTX780 with an improved PCB. The performance is pretty close

By changing these two options you save loads of cash and the performance is alike... just my 2 cents

[[XC] Oj101]

Y U NO READ?

As for the Titan, I need it for the vRAM. I do a pretty heavy workload of CG work, and I need it for the texture space (6GB is godlike for texture painting). The reason I don't get a pro series card is that this is a bit of a compromise. Its the same reason I am going Ivy-E instead of Xeon based. I need a machine that has the cores / power to do a professional CG workload, but I also need a machine that will run games / work well with UDK. As it stands, I am trying to get an indie iOS game put together, and I just didn't want to mess with potential incompatibilities with the graphics APIs I have to deal with.

Then there is the cost. I simply cannot afford a K5000 plus a dual Xeon workstation plus a machine for gaming. So this is, from one point of view, an uber gaming machine, and from a different point of view, a mini and semi-pro workstation. Its the best compromise I could come up with given the budget I am working on.

[Leeghoofd]

oeps, nope didn't see that one Titan it is then :p

[Skrips]

oeps, nope didn't see that one Titan it is then :p

Haha, yup, that's about it! This is a compromise build, on a "budget". Though, its funny to call this a budget build when I priced it at $4100 total for everything on Newegg.

As for the CPU, the last time I spared no expense and built a top of the line box with everything, I got 6 years of use out of it. Yeah, I paid a pretty penny for it, but wow those machines have some lasting power. And since my workload is heavy on multiple threads, I figured why not spend for the little bit extra on the 4960x and hope I get a part than clocks nice?

As for adding another GPU, I honestly don't think that will ever happen. My workload does not need / benefit from an extra card (my rendering software is CPU driven, hence the importance on the CPU), and I do not particularly like SLI. I mean, I have used SLI in the past, and I found it to be irritating and clunky, and getting it to work in most things was a pain. Not to mention the cost, and the heat, and the power consumption...yeah, I would rather just build a single GPU setup with the best card I can afford, and call it a day. I just find you get a much more reliable and stable system.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback all, I appreciate the help!

Anything else anyone can think of? I am still concerned about the RAM I chose...wondering if there isn't a better kit from some one that has beeter timings at 1866...

--Skrips

[lutjens]

Pretty good build, except personally, I'd swap the i7-4960X for a Xeon E5-1650. You save nearly half the price of the CPU and give up nothing (except a bit higher idle power consumption) and will probably end up ahead performance-wise as the E5-1650 should out-overclock the i7-4960X. Use the savings to get a higher speed grade of Dominator Platinum.

[Skrips]

Pretty good build, except personally, I'd swap the i7-4960X for a Xeon E5-1650. You save nearly half the price of the CPU and give up nothing (except a bit higher idle power consumption) and will probably end up ahead performance-wise as the E5-1650 should out-overclock the i7-4960X. Use the savings to get a higher speed grade of Dominator Platinum.

Wouldn't I need a Xeon mobo and ecc ram to go with it?

--Skrips

[Nizzen]

Pretty good build, except personally, I'd swap the i7-4960X for a Xeon E5-1650. You save nearly half the price of the CPU and give up nothing (except a bit higher idle power consumption) and will probably end up ahead performance-wise as the E5-1650 should out-overclock the i7-4960X. Use the savings to get a higher speed grade of Dominator Platinum.

Overclock E5-1650?

[NKrader]

why the corsair 860 or the seasonic 1kw?

why not the seasonic plat 860?

[Evantaur]

Pretty good build, except personally, I'd swap the i7-4960X for a Xeon E5-1650. You save nearly half the price of the CPU and give up nothing (except a bit higher idle power consumption) and will probably end up ahead performance-wise as the E5-1650 should out-overclock the i7-4960X. Use the savings to get a higher speed grade of Dominator Platinum.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/295...n_E5-1650.html

so...nope nope nope nope nope...

[Cookiesowns]

If you're doing lots of CG work, I assume you'll need a decent scratch disk.

Get rid of that TLC SSD and get yourself a Samsung 840 pro, or Neutron GTX. Both very reliable drives, and even more consistent when over provisioned.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/295...n_E5-1650.html

so...nope nope nope nope nope...

By E5-1650, he probabbly means E5-1650V2, however he would need an Asus WS board to support it properly, and there is no WS board that is M-ATX.

[lutjens]

Wouldn't I need a Xeon mobo and ecc ram to go with it?

--Skrips

You simply need to ensure that the motherboard you plan to use will support it...and the Rampage IV Gene does. ECC ram isn't a requirement and unbuffered RAM can be used instead. The Xeon E5 will permit the use of ECC in the future if so desired and officially supports memory sizes greater than 64GB.

Overclock E5-1650?

Yes. The E5-1650 and E5-1660 are fully unlocked processors. I've built a system for a friend based on the E5-1650 and my current system is based on the E5-1660. Both CPUs are fully unlocked, turbo multipliers and BCLK straps.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/295...n_E5-1650.html

so...nope nope nope nope nope...

They're wrong. Also, the Xeon E5-1650 and E5-1660 officially support PCI-E 3.0, resulting in no disadvantage when compared to the i7-4930K, and have the advantages of ECC support and support for large memory amounts.

By E5-1650, he probabbly means E5-1650V2, however he would need an Asus WS board to support it properly, and there is no WS board that is M-ATX.

I actually mean the SB-E version, which by all accounts of Ivy-E to date, will make the E5-1650 V1 the superior overclocker. It's basically an i7-3930K with official PCI-E 3.0 support, support for ECC memory and memory sizes greater than 64GB. I'm not sure if Intel has maintained the unlock on the V2 processors, but the V1 processors are indeed fully unlocked, multipliers and BCLK straps. While the ASUS WS boards do support the Xeon, the ROG boards do as well. Actually, prior to Sandy Bridge EP's introduction, one of the early shots of an E5-2600 eight core CPU were taken of it running in a Rampage IV Gene.

[[XC] Oj101]

Do you have anything to back up your words? What you're saying goes against every source I can find.

[lutjens]

Do you have anything to back up your words? What you're saying goes against every source I can find.

I don't say something like this unless I'm 100% sure I'm correct. I built the above-mentioned machines myself, first my friend's E5-1650, running on an Intel DX79SR and now my own E5-1660, running on my RIVE. I have no reason to lie about this or to put BS in my sig. I can certainly provide a screenshot if proof is required, but not for a few hours, as I'm not at home currently.

I know all about these "sources" (I came across them when I did research prior to buying the Xeons), but most of them are wrong and contain information that obviously didn't come from first hand experience, where mine is directly first hand.

[lutjens]

Found this online. Not mine, but it proves these chips are unlocked. I can post a pic of mine, proving that the chip works on the RIVE if required...

[lutjens]

And here's my CPU-Z...it will run faster, but I like to keep the voltage at a safe level for 24/7 operation...and a couple hundred extra MHz aren't worth damaging the chip over...

[Skrips]

Do you have anything to back up your words? What you're saying goes against every source I can find.

Same goes for me. This is contrary to everything I have ever read about the Xeon parts. Makes me wonder if the higher end Xeons are also unlocked. 3.4GHz 10 core V2 parts OCed might be interesting...

--Skrips

[lutjens]

Same goes for me. This is contrary to everything I have ever read about the Xeon parts. Makes me wonder if the higher end Xeons are also unlocked. 3.4GHz 10 core V2 parts OCed might be interesting...

--Skrips

Only the E5-1650 and E5-1660 have been verified as being fully unlocked. All other E5 Xeons are fully locked, especially the dual capable ones and those with greater than 6 cores. I wish those parts were unlocked and many people have been begging Intel to do so, but as of yet, they've never released any 8 core, 10 core or 12 core CPU that's been unlocked. If they ever do, I'll buy many of them...

[Cookiesowns]

I actually mean the SB-E version, which by all accounts of Ivy-E to date, will make the E5-1650 V1 the superior overclocker. It's basically an i7-3930K with official PCI-E 3.0 support, support for ECC memory and memory sizes greater than 64GB. I'm not sure if Intel has maintained the unlock on the V2 processors, but the V1 processors are indeed fully unlocked, multipliers and BCLK straps. While the ASUS WS boards do support the Xeon, the ROG boards do as well. Actually, prior to Sandy Bridge EP's introduction, one of the early shots of an E5-2600 eight core CPU were taken of it running in a Rampage IV Gene.

No, not even the Xeons have official PCI-E 3.0 support, it is in the same boat as any SB-E, also considering the E5-1xxx series is directly a derivative of SB-E, and not SB-EP. It can go "up" to pci-e 3.0, but as with my E5-2650, E5-2640, E5-2660, and E5-2670, they run much better with PCI-E 2.0 set instead of 3.0 with 3.0 raid cards.

[lutjens]

Xeon E5 has official PCI-E 3.0 support

http://ark.intel.com/products/64620/

Scroll down a bit, and look under "Expansion Options".


Unless Intel is wrong and you're right...


Also, Xeon E5-1600 is actually uses a Romley-EP based IMC.