The Scottish Boinc Team

Original title was "CPU Cooler for Xeon X5570 2.93GHz" but switched topics below

What air cooler would be enough if crunching with duel Xeon X5570 CPUs? They have a TDP of 95W, that's average load. Must be packaged in a case, but would be one with plenty of air flow.

http://ark.intel.com/products/37111/Int ... -Intel-QPI

What are the xeons installed in? My xeons are installed in HP workstations which have specific coolers for them ( as well as memory fans and a HDD fan ).

Nothing. I'm just browsing CPUs on Ebay and trying to put together a parts list to see what a duel CPU system would cost. CPUs, mobo, case all separate items. Have to buy coolers for them.

If it's just a board then it should be socket LGA1366 so you would need something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835203002
here's a huge selection http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/intel-so ... olers.html
I'm sure you can find more. Personally I like cool master coolers, have quite a few of them and generally they work well and far better / quieter than stock intels.

They don't appear to tell you how much heat they'll disspate. What about this one? Again, I just want to make sure it's enough to keep them cool while running wide open and I want to be confidant it's the right cooler and not have to mess around with trial and error to keep temps acceptable.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103099

Just shopping to what's possible.

The one you linked says max TDP of 180W so that should be fine for the numbers you quoted.
I'm not an expert on coolers but I think it's safe to say it's an area where bigger is going to be better, can never have a chip too cool!

I'm now intrigued to see what kind of monster you are going to create

Not likely I'll pull the trigger. I just shop around every now and then to cost out a system. Today I saw an auction for 2 Xeon CPUs with buy-it-now price of $63 (US). Got me interested thinking about a 16 core 2.9 GHz system. I have an i3/4core/3.4 Ghz system with 8GB ram that I started thinking about gutting. Found a duel socket (EATX) mobo for a little over $110, CPU coolers $90, $75 for another 8GB RAM and $100 for Win 8.1 Pro. Eh, have to think about it...

I have that cooler for an i7 which runs far hotter than the xeons. Would in fact be overkill. My dual xeon E5450 run stock HP coolers with no issues.

BTW, I'm just trying to regain core power because my co-workers have slowly backed out of allowing me to run boinc on their systems. Down to one co-worker with 4 core/1.8 Ghz Xeon and would love to eliminate that one too.

Not going with a duel CPU rig. Requires a case which supports an extended ATX board and I don't have one, plus you have to have a PSU which can power 2 of the 8 pin EPS power plugs. Too much money for everything. Going a different direction...

Decent Xeon processors are relatively cheap though and I haven't give up. A 12 thread Xeon X5670 cpu which benchmarks around 8272 (i7 3770K benchmarks at 9600) can be snagged for $115 all day. After searching Ebay a bit, looking for other motherboards which will support the LGA 1366 Xeon processors (there's not many), I see that there's loads of Dell T3500 systems for sale which all have mobos to support up to a X5670.

Going to try to win an auction on a T3500 w/8-12GB RAM and Win 7 OS is possible. Will load linux if not. If I can get one for less than $200, then I'll buy a Xeon X5670 to put in it. That or make a cheap offer on a T3500 that has a X5670 installed, but may need more RAM.

(I had the wrong benchmark. Still a good cpu)

What am I missing about this used rack server? It's a duel CPU Xeon X5570 (16 threads total) with 32 GB RAM. No HD, but I think it just needs a 2.5" hot swap SAS drive and drive caddy. Currently only $205 (which includes shipping). 300GB drive for $90 and can load Linux. What am I missing here? The RAM alone is probably worth over $200.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge- ... 3f45902b42

As far as I can see from a quick look. No os installed. No SAS drives included. No CD/DVD ROM installed. Unless you have access to a server which you can install Linux to the drive before swapping to your system then you will have to install Linux over a network.

I let the R710 server go. Went for almost $300. Too large and too many unknowns.

But the more I look the more interesting it gets. There are HP Z600 workstations which all seem to have duel CPU sockets which support up to the X5650 and X5670 CPUs. Will wait it out and look for a bargain.

My server knowledge is almost nil but I did have a quick Google, reconditioned R710s are for sale for almost $2k think it still needed an OS but.....
The only thing I can say is that the older the server the less power efficient it will be and in sure you'll know that some of them can be noisy!

We use Z600's at work and they are very nice machines. You might like this: http://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/hp-z600-configure/

Prices are a bit higher for hardware in the UK. I did pick up a used Dell T3500 Xeon X5570 (2.93Ghz/8 threads) w/8GB RAM for $160 delivered. Can be snagged for a little less if patient. Not my strongest attribute. Currently running an unregistered Win 7 64 Pro install. Trying to decide if it's worth another $36 for a Win 7 Pro COA or just install Ubuntu. Here's how it's doing in the POGS challenge http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/results. ... tid=308258. Not bad for the money. Cheap hardware is out there folks.

Less than an hour left on a used Dell Z600 with 2 Xeon X5650 (24 threads) and 12GB RAM. Nice cruncher....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Z600-WORKS ... 1532339748

Geez...import and postage from US horrible though.