http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
It's a luxury, and all about want. ...and I really WANT this.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
There are certain lines of work where this type of power is a requirement to complete your objectives in a reasonable amount of time, so yes, there are people with a "need" for something like this.

That said, those people are probably going to buy a Dell (like I did) or HP workstation, making this board somewhat of an odd-ball piece.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
1. you cannot overclock a typical server motherboard. There is no potential to overclock in the BIOS. You cannot add custom heatsinks because they use xeon brackets. This motherboard not only comes with x58 lga1366 brackets, but has full overclock capabilities for an extreme user. This alone is worth the $200 extra because i can save more than $1000 overclocking the processors instead of buying higher clocked ones.

2. Most server motherboards have limited features. a typical server motherboard will have only a handful of USB ports, an ethernet jack, serial/parallel jack, ps2, and maybe an audio out. This comes with everything. USB 3.0, sata 6gb/s, esata, dual gigabit, high def audio, etc. Not only that, but it comes with 7 PCIE-x16 ports.

3. A lot of them arent really that good quality and dont typically use high end components. They are also plagued with lots of problems. this EVGA motherboard has a great PWM, uses high quality parts like 100% solid state capacitors, etc. So far i have had no issues with this motherboard.

For an Enthusiant whos jsut gonna play games on this thing, it may not be worth the price. But for anyone whos doing any sort of professional work, this thing is worth every penny. ]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
My modest 2 and a half year old $4000 rig destroys things people buy even today.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
At first I thought it said 4GBs of RAM.... then I re-read and saw 48.... wtf!? Do want...]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
Can we stop using the word "enthusiasts" for people who seat at home and play video games all day long.]]>Aug 5th 2010 11:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 11:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 11:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 11:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 11:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
Thanks for the input, but have they solved the performance issues that plagues the Mac Pro? I know the overclocking makes a huge difference, but what about the memory limitations?

The real question for enthusiasts is do you really gain more from two individual quads over a top of the line six-core single processor?

In the past, the single faster processor dominated.]]>Aug 5th 2010 12:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
(whatever floats your boat i guess....but dropping an extra 1000 to score 100 more points on some pointless test doesn't make sense to me)

That said, if you have the money, and it makes you happy, why not?]]>Aug 5th 2010 12:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
I don't need it, but Daddy Like. Daddy Like, a lot!
This has to be one of the sweetest COTS motherboards I have seen outside of some of the Sun/Oracle pieces. ]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
I need this in my life...stat.]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
It has 7 physical PCI-E 16x slots, but a max of 36 lanes due to the 5520 chipset.

]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 3:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/i ned pci for my soundcard (creative x-fi) my wireless adapter, and other things.
the only pci e device i have is my video card thats stil kicking ass on my core2 4ghz. no thanks.
if i had thousands of dollars maybe.]]>Aug 5th 2010 4:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
*raises hand* One please.]]>Aug 5th 2010 7:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 7:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
Sure, my office will sound like a jet engine testing facility, but at least my renders will be lightning quick.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
But will they REALLY? What are the benchmarks of this versus an equivalent cost overclocked six core system and GPU rendering in GPU accelerated 64bit CS5?

For example, on my systems when I jumped from 4GB to 8GB of RAM, I was not able to sustain as high an overclock.

Even if this does overclock then for example, are you going to be able to get as stable and high an OC as on a single processor? Don't you run into lowest-common-denominator and heat issues? And the extra savings can be applied to the system elsewhere (faster SSDs or GPU).

More is not always better.]]>Aug 5th 2010 12:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
That is the point after all, if I have $X budget, no matter how high or low that is, whats the fastest system for the vast majority of my intended work load.]]>Aug 5th 2010 12:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
Every bench mark ive seen a single i7 PC or iMac beats a dual core Xeon Mac Pro. ]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 2:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/forget water cooling just dunk it in a bigger fish tank with mineral oil than this one
http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php]]>Aug 5th 2010 4:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
The Nehalem-series Xeons are virtually the same as the i7 series CPUs. The biggest difference is the Xeon supports ECC memory. There may be some other differences like QPI speeds, too, but overall they're not that different.

To put it one way, there isn't anything in an i7 that isn't in a Xeon, but there are things in a Xeon that aren't in the i7.

If you're comparing an i7 to a Harpertown Xeon, then you'll most definitely find a difference.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.pugetsystems.com/aquarium-computer.php]]>Aug 7th 2010 5:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
we have a couple boxes in my office that run high frequency structural simulator solutions as their sole purpose of being. One of them had a Thermaltake CL-W0042 liquid cooling setup which recently died. We put a Zalman CNPS9700LED in the rig to replace it and it's doing an OK job and isn't all that noisy.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
It will only recognize 4 PCI-E x16 slots maximum, or 6 PCI-E x8 + 1 PCI-E x16.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/It's a limitation of the chipset -- it cannot provide that many PCIe lanes at the same time.]]>Aug 5th 2010 11:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
>Nerdgasm<

]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
At least with the server board you can support ECC memory, IPMI, and the onboard NICs will be good (Intel) as opposed to the Realtek crap that they put on most consumer motherboards these days.]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/Aug 5th 2010 10:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
I get around 12.6ghz of power from my cores nothing has ever maxed it apart from doing a "thresh" test.

If you get this make sure you get a 2000w PSU!!! ofc ;-)]]>Aug 5th 2010 10:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/If you believe 2.6GHz*2=5.2GHz you fail at life.]]>Aug 5th 2010 11:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
I've you've ever worked with VMware products like ESX, they use a metric like that (adding up the CPU freqs) to measure how much capacity you have/using to run your VMs. I'm not saying it's right or accurate, I'm just pointing out that this seems to be a new kind of trend.]]>Aug 5th 2010 11:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/evgas-dual-cpu-classified-sr-2-motherboard-put-to-the-test-wor/
If you've never maxed out your CPU cycles, aren't you wasting money on all that compute power by definition?
]]>Aug 6th 2010 2:26PM