Multitool.org Forum
+-

Hello Lurker! Remove this ad and much more by logging in.


Dual Xenon 5650 Dell R510 Desktop for $400? 6x2x2= 24 practical cores!

00 Offline papercut

  • No Life Club
  • ******
    • Posts: 1,252
This is probably the wrong forum for this, but I know there are some system admins/service techs on this forum so what the hey.  After not being so interested in hardware for a couple of years, I have now found that there are great deals of a couple year old high end computer gear. While looking at some overclocking threads, some guy had gotten his Xenon 5650 up to 4.3 or 4.6 gig, which is pretty impressive as it is a hyperthreaded hexcore chip (12 practical cores!).  This got me looking at this cpu which led me down a rabbit hole into an area with cheap possibilities but a lot of unknown as well.

It seems to me (and I could be very wrong) that one could build a pretty crazy 12 core, 24 processes computer on the cheap with some "like new" server parts.  The mother board being a Dell R510 (which is a 2U server board).  This is a dual processor board suited for the Xenon 5650 (12MB L3 cache!), and it is pretty cheap on flea bay.  Looking around, it seems the following parts would be the bare necessity (all parts new or "like new, unused":

2x Xenon 5650 (chip only), 2x ~$65 = $130
2x Dell Heat 5650 heat sinks, 2x ~$50 = $100
Dell R510 Mobo: ~$40
Dell R510 DVDR Drive: ~$20
Guaranteed compatible memory, 2x4G, 2x $33= $66, you could go real crazy with ram
HD: what you got
GPU: PCIe of some sort, this one I am not sure about
Case: What you got.  Will this work in an ATX case?
Power supply: 500W? Must it be a proprietary Dell PSU?
Fans? Need a case fan with 2 big heat sinks from the Xenons
Cables?

Is this reasonably possible?  It seems a very cheap way to get some crazy computing power.  If the Mobo could be overclocked it would be even crazier, unfortunately the OC-able dual xenon board are in the $300-400 zone.

Cheers!
Lurking with a large collection of sharp knives!


00 Offline papercut

  • No Life Club
  • ******
    • Posts: 1,252
Seems like you can shave $70 off the heatsink estimate I made:

http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/day-e-a-p-10161.html

Much cheaper now!
Lurking with a large collection of sharp knives!


fr Offline Whoey

  • Administrator
  • *
  • Zombie Apprentice
  • *
    • Posts: 12,842
  • I am geek, hear me code
While it might be possible to home a server motherboard in a full tower, you may not have all the same support points, but... most cases are very flexible. I re-allocated an old 1U server to a standard tower in the past (in fact, I still have the 1U case in my storage closet) Also it should be pretty easy to throw on standard/cheap aftermarket cooling as it won't need to conform to the limited space it had in the 2U server.

Might be a worthy experiment, but I don't really have spare money to give it a go. As it is my quad q9300 is doing just fine for now...
The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.


00 Offline papercut

  • No Life Club
  • ******
    • Posts: 1,252
Thanks for the heads up. After reviewing the following a bit, it looks like this could work:

http://server.ru/html/products/dell/servers/rack/dell-poweredge-r510/guide/install.htm#wp1360245

The main concern now would be if the power supply pins are proprietary. More research!
Lurking with a large collection of sharp knives!


00 Offline papercut

  • No Life Club
  • ******
    • Posts: 1,252
It looks like Dell has a proprietary power supply with a special plug and pin arrangement.  Some folks seemed to have grocked it, but it is a huge kluge and requires some ee as well as soldering skills.  Neither of which I have.

Now time to see if the HP equivalent has the same issue. Maybe that can be a possible solution.

Cheers!
Lurking with a large collection of sharp knives!


fr Offline Whoey

  • Administrator
  • *
  • Zombie Apprentice
  • *
    • Posts: 12,842
  • I am geek, hear me code
my server buddy says that thing is a noisy pig of a power supply...
The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.


 

Donations

Operational Funds

Help us keep the Unworkable working!
Donate with PayPal!
June Goal: $300.00
Due Date: Jun 30
Total Receipts: $149.46
PayPal Fees: $8.74
Net Balance: $140.72
Below Goal: $159.28
Site Currency: USD
47% 
June Donations

Community Links


Powered by EzPortal