You're right NaturalViolence. It's about time I filled out my profile. I've been here almost two years.
I haven't used the new computer with the X3440 for a while because I did finally overclock my E8400. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I'm at 3.6Ghz and the temperature stays at 49-50C during prime95. Mario Kart is fullspeed everywhere in single player and in the 50's in two player. I'd like to go to 4.0Ghz but I'd have to run my 800Mhz ram at 890Mhz. Is that a horrible idea?
About the X3440, I don't know why it wasn't faster than the stock clocked E8400. Everything was configured identically. When I first got it, I just swapped in my GPU and harddrive from the E8400 machine to test it. When Dolphin wasn't faster I assumed that something was having trouble adapting to the new system, so I got a spare drive, installed Debian again, and compiled the same Dolphin version (3.0-639). Everything was the same. 5-10 fewer fps than the older computer. The Poweredge T110 has no audio output device and I did compile Dolphin with audio output. I would expect running without sound to be faster, but thats the only difference I can think of.
So the T110 has no sound card, and it takes forever to boot because of a remote access setup timeout I haven't figured out how to disable. Getting a new board with sound that will let me overclock doesn't sound bad at all. It's an 1156 socket. Any recommendations?
Quote:I'd like to go to 4.0Ghz but I'd have to run my 800Mhz ram at 890Mhz. Is that a horrible idea?
If it's good ram and you bump up the latencies and voltage a bit you should be ok. Just make sure to test the hell out of it to make sure it's stable.
Quote:I would expect running without sound to be faster, but thats the only difference I can think of.
Well it's still running "with sound" it just isn't sending it anywhere.
Quote:Getting a new board with sound that will let me overclock doesn't sound bad at all. It's an 1156 socket. Any recommendations?
Not really. LGA1156 board are becoming hard to come by. And not all of them support xeon cpus so make sure to check.
Frankly if I were you I would just wait and upgrade to ivy bridge or haswell sometime in the future.
It's good to hear that 4.0Ghz isn't out of the question with the memory I have. I haven't done too much overclocking before, so I'll probably read a bit more before I try it.
Quote: Frankly if I were you I would just wait and upgrade to ivy bridge or haswell sometime in the future.
I know. I wish I could afford to spend a few hundred bucks more on a newer cpu right now. The thing is, I can't really use the Dell server as my main computer until it has sound. It only has PCIE slots so I can't just stick my old sound blaster in it like I had originally planned. I'm already looking at $50 for a PCIE sound card, so I was thinking why not spend $85 and get this board so I can overclock?
http://www.buy.com/prod/asus-p7p55d-inte...=220689095
It says here that it will work with the xeon.
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?4...x-and-xeon
I read the manual and the board looks pretty nice. Do you think it will give me any trouble with the xeon?
Is your current memory in the server unbuffered, ECC, or registered?
Keep in mind that consumer desktop motherboards like the one you listed only support unbuffered memory.
Also remember to buy a decent LGA1156 cooler.
What power supply is it using?
Are you using the GTX 550 TI in it?
Quote: I'm already looking at $50 for a PCIE sound card, so I was thinking why not spend $85 and get this board so I can overclock?
Asus Xonar DGX might be a good choice for that price range.
Yeah, things always seem to cost more than you expect them to. I had considered most of those issues. I wasn't planning to use the ECC ram that's in the Dell. I have 4 2GB sticks of Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24 memory. I'll use the Corsair 750W PSU from the E8400 machine. The Dell came with a 350W. I'll use the 550Ti and put my 8400GS back in the E8400. What I hadn't considered was the cooler. The Dell has a pretty big heatsink on it but the mounting bracket looks different than the ones I've seen online. It has screws instead of those 1/4 turn fasteners. Maybe they're 1/4 turn screws, but I might need a cooler too. I guess if I'm going to overclock, I'll need one at some point anyway, but I was hoping to use the stock cooler for a while first. The thing that worries me most is the motherboard not being compatible with the X3440. I've read that it might be detected as an i7, but still work. Hopefully the newest bios will see it as an X3440.
So here's the whole build:
Xeon X3440 + Hyper 212 or similar cooler
Asus P7P55D motherboard
8GB Corsair Dominator memory@1600Mhz 8-8-8-24
GTX550Ti
Corsair 750W PSU
Is this something you would have put together a few years ago?
Here's something else I was thinking about. Since the X3440@2.5Ghz gives me about the same performance in Dolphin as the E8400@3.0Ghz, can I assume that the performance per clock of the X3440 = 1.2 times that of the E8400? Or, if I can get the X3440 up to 3.6Ghz, will it be 20% faster than the E8400@3.6Ghz? That would be a lot of fun.
To be fair ECC ram should work in a non-ecc motherboard.
So wait was the 8400GS in the 110T before? Because if so that's why it was running slower. An 8400GS is not fast enough for dolphin.
Quote:What I hadn't considered was the cooler. The Dell has a pretty big heatsink on it but the mounting bracket looks different than the ones I've seen online. It has screws instead of those 1/4 turn fasteners. Maybe they're 1/4 turn screws, but I might need a cooler too. I guess if I'm going to overclock, I'll need one at some point anyway, but I was hoping to use the stock cooler for a while first.
Wasn't the whole point of the new motherboard to allow you to OC (which you can't do without a good cooler)?
Quote: I've read that it might be detected as an i7, but still work.
Why is that a bad thing? You're not going to be using any xeon specific features anyways.
Quote:Is this something you would have put together a few years ago?
Except for the xeon sure.
Quote:Here's something else I was thinking about. Since the X3440@2.5Ghz gives me about the same performance in Dolphin as the E8400@3.0Ghz,
I thought you said it was slower.
Quote: can I assume that the performance per clock of the X3440 = 1.2 times that of the E8400?
Depends on the game, settings, revision, OS, GPU, and drivers. It should be roughly in the neighborhood of 1.15-1.25.
Quote: Or, if I can get the X3440 up to 3.6Ghz, will it be 20% faster than the E8400@3.6Ghz? That would be a lot of fun.
Nobody can say for sure. Performance doesn't always scale linearly with clock rate. I would expect it to be closer to 25% faster since the xeon should scale better at higher clock rates.
Quote: So wait was the 8400GS in the 110T before? Because if so that's why it
was running slower. An 8400GS is not fast enough for dolphin.
Oh no. It was just my old GPU. I would put it in the old computer after removing the 550Ti so I could still use it if I wanted to. It wasn't much fun at all trying to play Dolphin with that GPU.
Quote: Wasn't the whole point of the new motherboard to allow you to OC (which you can't do without a good cooler)?
Yes, overclocking and sound, but the E8400@3.6Ghz is at 50c with the stock cooler while running prime95, so I was hoping the X3440 would be able to go a little higher with its stock cooler too. I will take your advice and get a cooler though. I've seen a few people on the forum mention the Hyper 212, so that's my plan at the moment.
Quote: Is this something you would have put together a few years ago?
Except for the xeon sure.
What are the disadvantages of the xeon compared to a Lynnfield i7?
Quote:
I thought you said it was slower.
It is, but only by a few FPS. I was just trying to imagine how it would perform at the same clock.
Quote:What are the disadvantages of the xeon compared to a Lynnfield i7?
Assuming they have the same specs, not much.
Your xeon supports a few extra x86 extensions which are pretty useless, mostly related to virtualization. It's also clocked a bit lower than an i7 would be.
Well, I went ahead and and ordered the board. Thanks so much for your input. You know, I just read that conversation you had with the autistic guy on your website, and I was really impressed. I want to let you know how much I appreciate the help you give me and everyone else on the forum. Anyway, I'll post again to let you know how the new build turns out.
The board arrived, and it detected the X3440 without even updating the bios. It's working pretty well, but I didn't get much of an increase in Dolphin performance compared to the E8400. I overclocked the X3440 to 3.6Ghz and if it's going any faster than the E8400@3.6Ghz, I can't tell. I got a used arctic freezer 7 and it keeps the temperature around 50c while running dolphin. Prime95 on all 4 cores gets it hotter though, like 70c. The ram is awfully close to the cpu cooler, and I had to slide the fan bracket upwards to clear it. Hopefully when I get a thinner fan that can blow on the entire cooler, the temperature will come down a bit. Right now the fan sticks up above it. Overclocking this new cpu is completely different than the old one, so perhaps I'm not doing something right, but it seems that the performance per core is the same for both cpus. Not that I'm complaining about that, because now I have twice as many cores. I can record dolphin without any slowdown, and do all sorts of things I couldn't do before. The one thing I will complain about is that the built in Realtek ethernet needs firmware to work, which is difficult to download without an ethernet controller. It has to be loaded every time it boots too, and that adds a few seconds. I'll just put in a pci ethernet card and turn that thing off though. I think this thing will keep me happy for a while.