[Oranges]

I recently came upon the site "Liquid Nitrogen Overclocking," and they claim to be selling 2x E5 2687w''s @ 4GHz each.

How is this possible?

Good news regardless, this way the SR-X might have some potential for SB-EP.

http://www.liquidnitrogenoverclocking.com/monolith_iii.shtml

 

[shiftwig113]

BS until CPU-Z Validation says otherwise

 

[NateST]

Not to familiar with those processors, why is it unbelievable to obtain that OC?

 

[Alatar]

The SB-E xeons should NOT be able to OC like that since you can't raise the multi and the BCLK straps do not work either. Besides the score would seem to match the CPU config at stock afaik.

 

[jrule2]

These aren't the first E5 Xeons to hit 4Ghz. It's been done before if you search a few forums around the place.

But this is done with a bclk of 107mhz (a couple of people have hit this) and on a turbo clock (1-4 cores active) which gives the CPU a multiplier of 38.

 

[Ifkgtg]

Overclockable but only (example for the e5-2687w) @3.4 GHz, i see.

 

[QuEP]

I run a X5690 flat out for rendering purposes in a luggable Clevo X7200 system.
Runs on scary high temperatures 90-95° (TJ max = 101°), but with airco turned max it mantains that temperature even at 100 hour sessions.
Quoting on new project now, that would require 2000 hours of rendering on single X5690.
I'm seriously considering buying new watercooled system with dual Xeon E5-2687W processors.
I was hoping to overclock all 16 cores to 4 GHz (would still be 500 rendering hours).

DO I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY THAT ONLY 1 CORE OF EACH PROCESSOR CAN REACH 4 GHz ?
Could a Core i7-3960X be clocked higher on all cores simultaneously ?
But that i7 has only 6 cores, and on http://www.cpubenchmark.net/overclocked_cpus.html
the overclocked i7 shows the same score as a standard Xeon E5-2687W.
THAT WOULD MEAN THAT OVERCLOCKING AND WATERCOOLING OFFERS NO ADVANTAGE ON XEON's !?

 

[Alatar]

You cannot overclock SB-EP Xeons to 4ghz with all cores at 100% load. With all cores fully loaded the maximum increase will be a few % because the only thing you will be able to adjust is the BCLK. Higher multis will not work and the BCLK-straps will not work.

A highly overclocked 3930K/3960X will clearly beat a single E5-2687W (cinebench score for the i7 @ close to 5ghz is close to 15 and around 13 for the Xeon). But two E5-2687Ws of course will with no trouble beat the normal i7 setup at around 25.5 points or so.

 

[QuEP]

Ok thanks for the quick raection. But would it make sense to run two highly overclocked 3930K/3960X on all 12 cores simultaneously at 100% ?
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/multi_cpu.html does mention running two 3960X as nr 3 score.
Strange enough that shows a dual E5-2687W set up on 4 with almost same score.
What I don't understand is that a dual E5-2687W has more or less doubled its single score, but the dual 3960X comes in at 2.3 its single score.
Would the dual i7 be running overclocked on all 12 cores, while the E5 runs standard on all 16 cores ?
I guess why border voiding warranty when standard E5 can match overclocked i7 !?

 

[Alatar]

First of all I wouldn't trust passmark since the results there are taken from so many systems that they're not really reliable. The changes between different systems and the way they've been clocked, are used, cooled, what programs people are running, OSes, etc. make the scores somewhat bad. If we're talking about rendering I would mostly look at cinebench scores from different reviews to make comparisons.

Anyways, one thing you seem to miss is that you can't use more than a single 3930K/3960X in a single system. The consumer i7s only have one QPI link and thus do not work in multi CPU configurations. The Xeons will work in 2 CPU configurations since they have dual QPI links. Your options are basically a single i7, a single Xeon or dual Xeons.

So yes, if you wish to have the absolute best rendering performance and lowest render times the dual E5-2687W system is the best option by a really big margin. It will be expensive obviously but I'm assuming the budget would allow for that.

 

[QuEP]

Excellent info Alatar. Now I can clearly see that NOT being able to run dual i7's is the big difference !!
Also the cinebench as means to compare render times has been helpfull (although 10% lower as hoped).
Thanks to you I have found this review that clearly shows the differences under different uses and their benchmarks:
http://www.istorya.net/forums/computer-hardware/485176-intel-xeon-e5-2690-and-e5-2660-8-core-sandy-bridge-ep-review.html
Now it is a no brainer : for multicore rendering nothing beats a dual E5-2687W system , for single core 3D modelling, an overclocked i7 might safe you a few bucks. I need to be able to do both as fast as possible with one system: a dual E5-2687W will be ugly to get financed but will cut down a 2000 hour nightmare render project to a manegable 700 hours. I hope watercooling will quiet down the noise, increase lifetime an hopefully enables to run a single core modelling at 4GHz or slightly higher (a rebuilt on my X5690 still costs 5 to 15 minutes).
MANY THANKS FOR THE HELP, hard to get unbiased help on expensive systems.

 

[Phelan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuEP

Excellent info Alatar. Now I can clearly see that NOT being able to run dual i7's is the big difference !!
Also the cinebench as means to compare render times has been helpfull (although 10% lower as hoped).
Thanks to you I have found this review that clearly shows the differences under different uses and their benchmarks:
http://www.istorya.net/forums/computer-hardware/485176-intel-xeon-e5-2690-and-e5-2660-8-core-sandy-bridge-ep-review.html
Now it is a no brainer : for multicore rendering nothing beats a dual E5-2687W system , for single core 3D modelling, an overclocked i7 might safe you a few bucks. I need to be able to do both as fast as possible with one system: a dual E5-2687W will be ugly to get financed but will cut down a 2000 hour nightmare render project to a manegable 700 hours. I hope watercooling will quiet down the noise, increase lifetime an hopefully enables to run a single core modelling at 4GHz or slightly higher (a rebuilt on my X5690 still costs 5 to 15 minutes).
MANY THANKS FOR THE HELP, hard to get unbiased help on expensive systems.

Why not just get an EVGA SR-2 mobo and a second X5690? They can run tandem and you can watercool and OC them to 4+GHz...

 

[QuEP]

The X5690 i'm currently using in an oversized 17" laptop from Clevo (a 7.2 kg monster).
Absolutely no unused space left and already running scary hot.
I was barely able to fit an overly expensive nVidia Quadro 5010M in it. Expexted a lot of rendering power from its 167 or so scuda cores and 4 GB DDR 5 memory. Turned out to be wasted money. Very few rendering programs can utilise scuda cores (none of the better ones I know off).
Thanks for the idea though. A new rig with watercooled OC'ed dual X5690 might safe me some money !