Supermicro/Xeon for a Desktop Workstation?

[Roman]

The Ivy Xeons have 20 lanes which the X9SAE utilizes. You can have 4/8/8 or 4/16/-. This is no longer the case with Broadwell.

 

[Ericloewe]

The Ivy Xeons have 20 lanes which the X9SAE utilizes. You can have 4/8/8 or 4/16/-. This is no longer the case with Broadwell.

Not exactly.

All LGA115x CPUs have 16 PCI-e lanes (2.0 until Sandy Bridge, 3.0 Since Iv Bridge). The corresponding PCH adds PCI-e 2.0 x8 connectivity (shared with SATA/USB 3.0 on Lynx Point).

Edit: Corrected PCH lanes.

 

[Roman]

No, the CPU provides the 20 PCIe ports. The PCH provides 8 PCIe ports.

 

[Ericloewe]

No, the CPU provides the 20 PCIe ports. The PCH provides 8 PCIe ports.

View attachment 5503

That table is outdated and doesn't apply to Haswell:

http://ark.intel.com/products/75052/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1220-v3-8M-Cache-3_10-GHz

The PCHs do have more connectivity, but it's partially shared with USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0.
Lynx point has 10 "ports", up to two may be SATA 3.0 and another two USB 3.0, PCI-e gets what's left (up to 8), plus a number of fixed function ports.

I find it weird that the Xeons had more PCI-e connectivity back in the Sandy Bridge days. I guess they must've reused some pins to widen the bus to the PCH since then...

 

[Roman]

I referred to Ivy Bridge. The X9SAE has C206 chipset like the Fujitsu.

 

[ewhac]

How interesting that the issue of PCIe lanes should come up. I knew that PCIe was a form of switched network fabric (as opposed to legacy PCI which was a true bus), but it never before occurred to me to consider how many "ports" the fabric supported, and where they were coming from. My first hint this could be an issue came from (surprise!) the Supermicro site which very helpfully lists all the various PCIe lane allocations available on each motherboard.

What's less clear is where the PCIe lanes are coming from. Some come from the CPU (some Xeons sport 40 lanes), and some come from the PCH, and it's not always clear how these are parceled out. This quasi-dynamic re-jiggering of PCIe lanes also makes me question the value of SLI graphics, particularly on consumer boards which seem to have in the neighborhood of 30-ish lanes, if you're lucky. "Congratulations! You now have quad-SLI running! However, instead of one PCIe x16 slot, you now have four PCIe x4 slots. Feel the trade-off!!"

So, nataurally, in the event I go crazy and attempt SLI with the graphics cards, I'd like to have two PCIe x16 slots available (future upgradability, don'cha know). What should I be looking at to best understand the total PCIe picture on a given motherboard?

 

[Roman]

What's less clear is where the PCIe lanes are coming from. Some come from the CPU (some Xeons sport 40 lanes), and some come from the PCH, and it's not always clear how these are parceled out.

Supermicro labels this.

So, nataurally, in the event I go crazy and attempt SLI with the graphics cards, I'd like to have two PCIe x16 slots available

Go with 2011 boards. This is where people use quad graphics usually.

 

[ewhac]

Supermicro labels this.

ZOMG, that's wonderful!

Not a fan of American Megatrends BIOSes, though. They were a source of no end of headaches back in the late 1990's. Have they improved since then?

 

[Roman]

Have they improved since then?

Should. This also UEFI now.

 

[Apollo]

Not sure if gong SLI is the way to go.
You would normally spend twice as much for a set of cards which will consume twice as much. 6 months to a year after that you will get better hardware anyway, most likely single card too.
You can go for broke and buy the fanciest hardware you can buy and be happy for the following few years, and yet 4K display are barely out the next trends target 5K and higher.
The more money you will spend on a system the longer you want that system to last, unless you have money to burn.
Or you can be more conservative and reasonable today and upgrade more regularly.

My 0.02 cents

 

[jgreco]

What you really want to do is just buy a cheaper PC and play the greatest games from 10 years ago. I remember Quake III Arena required a pretty hefty box and graphics when it came out but it runs pretty well on my laptop with Intel graphics.

 

[Roman]

You would normally spend twice as much for a set of cards which will consume twice as much. 6 months to a year after that you will get better hardware anyway, most likely single card too.

Like the new Quadro release. Twice as much performance and memory.

 

[anodos]

What you really want to do is just buy a cheaper PC and play the greatest games from 10 years ago. I remember Quake III Arena required a pretty hefty box and graphics when it came out but it runs pretty well on my laptop with Intel graphics.

Or from 20 years ago. Can you believe that System Shock turned 20 this year? Man, I feel old. Still an awesome game.

 

[jgreco]

I have a roughtote full of 90's era PC games. Funny is that some of them will even still install. ;-)

 

[anodos]

I have a roughtote full of 90's era PC games. Funny is that some of them will even still install. ;-)

Backwards compatibility - the Jeckyll and Hyde of Windows. Sometimes it's lovely and sometimes it's the thing that makes you start cursing and jabbing needles into a voodoo doll of Bill Gates.

Well, actually backwards compatibility is pretty much the bane of everyone. :)

 

[jgreco]

They make voodoo dolls of Bill Gates? Damn, I miss out on all the cool stuff.

 

[anodos]

They make voodoo dolls of Bill Gates? Damn, I miss out on all the cool stuff.

For reference: https://www.etsy.com/listing/7128646/bill-gates-voodoo-doll

Too bad the store appears to be closed. Such a delightful concept. I'd love to have one of Larry Ellison as well.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'd love to have one of Larry Ellison as well.

They were all sold to employees of companies assimilated by Oracle.

The use of "assimilated" is not random.

 

[jgreco]

You have just received a moderator's warning for using the letters a-s-s in a message referring to Oracle's CEO.

 

[anodos]

You have just received a moderator's warning for using the letters a-s-s in a message referring to Oracle's CEO.

??? I didn't think statements of fact were worth warnings. It's more like saying "the sky is blue". :)