Mike said:
Hi,
As you guessed from the title, I'm looking for a dual socket mobo for
2 off quad-core Core2 Extreme CPUs and I wondered if anyone here has
any recommendations ?
Thanks,
Mike
My guess would be you'd end up with a server motherboard.
Many of those use FBDIMMs. (See tyan.com or supermicro.com
for some examples.) Some of the other desktop motherboard
makers, also make the odd server motherboard, but perhaps
less visible marketing wise).
The socket on the dual server board is LGA771. At least some
families of Xeon processors, are Core2 processors at heart,
and that is what you can get as your processor.
To compare the X6800 desktop processor, to a Xeon, there are the spec.org
benchmarks. These two machines are single socket, and both processors are
dual core.
Dell Precision 390 (Intel X6800, 2.93 GHz) Config 2 1 2 1 17.8 18.5
Dell Precision 690 (Intel Xeon 5160, 3.00 GHz) Config 2 1 2 1 17.5 18.1
To tell the players apart, there is an overview here. Like finding
a comfortable pair of shoes, this will help guide you to the
correct set of processor model numbers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon
The Mac Pro is an example of a dual socket Xeon "desktop". It
is available now with two quad core Xeon processors (Clovertown).
This machine takes FBDIMMs instead of unbuffered DDR2, like on
a desktop.
http://www.apple.com/macpro/
The chipset on boards like that, tends to be the 5000 series.
They have two independent interfaces to the two sockets, so
a shared bus does not cause signal integrity issues. That is
how the FSB can be raised to FSB1333, whereas the shared bus
concept resulted in lesser numbers.
http://www.techreport.com/etc/2006q2/woodcrest/index.x?pg=1
There are four channels of FBDIMMs. Some server boards have
a large number of DIMM sockets, and there are still only
the four channels in that case. FBDIMMs "daisy chain", meaning
if you want to use eight DIMMs, the first four on each channel
has less latency than the second four. FBDIMMs have a transmit
and receive bus, so full duplex communication is used to
advantage on them. FBDIMMs also run "hot as blazes", but this
is being addressed as newer controller chips for the FBDIMMs
are developed.
Your build is bound to be a learning experience
The Intel pricelist is here, so you can check to see if you are
missing any possible option. Note that the X5365 is not listed
in here, and is only shipping to select customers (like perhaps
Apple).
http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/processor_price_list.pdf
A dual X5365 is reviewed here. And you don't need a 1000W
power supply, unless you have ambitious plans for graphics
cards as well.
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_quad-core_xeon_5365_v8/
Have fun,
Paul
