Choice for a dual-CPU workstation motherboard

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Terencechan

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Oct 18, 2013
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Hello!
I am deciding to build a dual-CPU workstation to replace my X58 based single CPU PC.
I have looked up the internet and found some brands that may suit my needs. They include AsusTek, EVGA, Gigabyte, Intel and Supermicro.
However, I found that both Intel and Supermicro did not offer boards that support SLI nor CF, which I needed for my 2 GTX680s.
Therefore, my only choice will be these:
- Asus Z9PE-D8 WS: http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/Z9PED8_WS/
- EVGA SR-X: http://www.evga.com/articles/00668/
- Gigabyte GA-7PESH3: http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4468#ov

As I have searched about the Asus one, it was said that the Bios was really broken and it cannot boot with 6xx GF cards. The EVGA one is also a super-expensive one that will not suit in my case as I am not using it for some serious OCing. Therefore, my only option is the Gigabyte one.
However, according to the official B2B website of Gigabyte, the board support only Windows Vista, not Windows 7 nor 8, strangely.

I really don't know what to choose now......
Can someone help me in making the decision???

Thanks!
 
Solution
rishiswaz
Are you going to be doing some kind of content creation? If so to start as single quadro or FirePro card might be better suited to your needs, check out workstation cards. Also for content creation you don't want to use SLI drivers, it is there and much better than crossfire but still I would not trust it for any type of actual work. Consumer cards focus on high performance but low precision because in a game the pixels are constantly refreshed and if something goes wrong in displaying the frame like artifacts or a messed up pixel, it is refreshed in the next frame. If you are doing renders and something goes wrong you have that error in the render unless you start the render again. That is where the slightly lower performance but very...
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rishiswaz

rishiswaz

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Mar 10, 2012
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Are you going to be doing some kind of content creation? If so to start as single quadro or FirePro card might be better suited to your needs, check out workstation cards. Also for content creation you don't want to use SLI drivers, it is there and much better than crossfire but still I would not trust it for any type of actual work. Consumer cards focus on high performance but low precision because in a game the pixels are constantly refreshed and if something goes wrong in displaying the frame like artifacts or a messed up pixel, it is refreshed in the next frame. If you are doing renders and something goes wrong you have that error in the render unless you start the render again. That is where the slightly lower performance but very high precision workstation cards come into play. And for motherboards if you absolutely are set on SLI GTX 680s EVGA is your best option, for a workstation you want a solid warranty if in case anything goes wrong because downtime can be expensive.
 
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Terencechan

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Oct 18, 2013
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Thanks for your reply.

I have considered the EVGA option. However, this motherboard is way too expensive for me and the most of the advanced functions are useless for 2 Xeon CPUs. I don't think it worth the price. Moreover, the RAM allocation is very weird on this mobo as CPU1 can only accept 4 slots while CPU2 have 8 slots.
Are there any other options other than EVGA??

Thanks!

 
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KRice

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Jul 18, 2014
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I've recently built a workstation using the Asus Z9PE-D8 WS with dual Intel Xeon E5-2630 v2 CPU's, dual NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti GPU's in SLI mode, and 64GB Registered ECC memory. Primarily using this with Autodesk 3ds Max with V-ray for 3ds Max for producing high-end architecture and interior renderings. Made sure to use the latest motherboard BIOS and latest drivers for all hardware as of the date of this post. Everything is functioning as expected and performing extremely well.
 
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LJHTomH

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Jul 24, 2014
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KRice.. Your build sounds very interesting to me as I'm consdiering the very same Mobo/CPU config. My interset lies in Adobe CC Suite and Solidworks. Would it be be a big ask for you to share your componet list please ? Also what OS are you using [mine would be W7 Pro 64bit]. Did you have any issues with the Mobo Bios set-up.

Kindest Regards,

LJ
 
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Carlos Celdir

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