Help with pairing a Xeon CPU on a dual socket board

[elvaquero]

Hola amigos

I just got me a sweet deal on a Lenovo D20 workstation and started thinking about adding a second X5675 in there. My question is - should I worry about CPU variations?

My understanding is that X5675 comes only in two s-specs - SLBYL and Q4SF (engineering sample) - http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLBYL.html

Does this mean that just about any and every SLBYL X5675 will play nicely together with my existing CPU?

Thanks!

 

[kanewolf]

It would be unlikely (not impossible) to get an engineering sample any more. Since you will be buying a used CPU I would believe you should get a regular part number. A second X5675 you buy should cooperate with your existing one. Remember those CPUs are triple channel RAM. You want your DIMMs in multiples of 6 (if you are filling the second socket).

 

[elvaquero]

Multiples of 6? What do you mean?

 

[kanewolf]

Each CPU wants triple channel RAM (three DIMMs) for optimum performance. If you fill both sockets, the best performance will be obtained by having DIMMs in multiples of 6 (assuming you want equal distribution of RAM local to each processor).

 

[elvaquero]

OK, thanks!