For Xeon - any decent P45 motherboard and DDR3.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-11-20, 23:18:

For Xeon - any decent P45 motherboard and DDR3.

I didnt know ddr3 ran with LGA 771/775. i think the cpu i wanna use is a 771 cpu and i dont really wanna mod it for 775. but, Ive seen some on ebay already modded too, so idk

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-20, 23:25:

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-11-20, 23:18:

For Xeon - any decent P45 motherboard and DDR3.

I didnt know ddr3 ran with LGA 771/775. i think the cpu i wanna use is a 771 cpu and i dont really wanna mod it for 775. but, Ive seen some on ebay already modded too, so idk

There are some 771 motherboards. However, I don't think these work with ordinary DDR2 RAM. You either need registered DDR2 or even FBDIMM. The latter is pin-incompatible with ordinary or registered DDR2 so be sure to check the memory type carefully.

At one point I got myself such a platform but was not able to get it booting. Maybe the board was faulty, but it could also be related to cooling.

From what I read 771 cooling is very different than others and involves something on the PC case. In the end I gave up and got myself a 1366 platform instead. 1366 platform is much easier to set up.

NOTE: There are several 771 CPU models with FSB1600. If your chipset can handle such FSB these may also be good options for 775-modded use cases.

LSS10999 wrote on 2022-11-21, 00:34:

There are some 771 motherboards. However, I don't think these work with ordinary DDR2 RAM. You either need registered DDR2 or ev […]
Show full quote

There are some 771 motherboards. However, I don't think these work with ordinary DDR2 RAM. You either need registered DDR2 or even FBDIMM. The latter is pin-incompatible with ordinary or registered DDR2 so be sure to check the memory type carefully.

At one point I got myself such a platform but was not able to get it booting. Maybe the board was faulty, but it could also be related to cooling.

From what I read 771 cooling is very different than others and involves something on the PC case. In the end I gave up and got myself a 1366 platform instead. 1366 platform is much easier to set up.

NOTE: There are several 771 CPU models with FSB1600. If your chipset can handle such FSB these may also be good options for 775-modded use cases.

oh, gotcha. I thought about using a Core 2 Extreme 9770 cpu for 775, but looking on ebay theyre running north of $300 which is insane... upon further research, i found the Xeon was about 4% slower than the Core2 Extreme according to Userbenchmark, but could be gotten for around $50.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

red-ray wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:33:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:39:

red-ray wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:33:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

The two QX9775 CPUs alone are eye wateringly expensive let alone finding a fully functional Skulltrail board, I sometimes see complete Skulltrail kits on the bay but they nearly always have at least one thing dead on the motherboard. (usually being either one of the ram slots is damaged not working or its one of the sata/usb ports)

One day I will have a Skulltrail setup, 775/771 is my jam and I already have a suitably large case for it.

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 00:59:

LSS10999 wrote on 2022-11-21, 00:34:

There are some 771 motherboards. However, I don't think these work with ordinary DDR2 RAM. You either need registered DDR2 or ev […]
Show full quote

There are some 771 motherboards. However, I don't think these work with ordinary DDR2 RAM. You either need registered DDR2 or even FBDIMM. The latter is pin-incompatible with ordinary or registered DDR2 so be sure to check the memory type carefully.

At one point I got myself such a platform but was not able to get it booting. Maybe the board was faulty, but it could also be related to cooling.

From what I read 771 cooling is very different than others and involves something on the PC case. In the end I gave up and got myself a 1366 platform instead. 1366 platform is much easier to set up.

NOTE: There are several 771 CPU models with FSB1600. If your chipset can handle such FSB these may also be good options for 775-modded use cases.

oh, gotcha. I thought about using a Core 2 Extreme 9770 cpu for 775, but looking on ebay theyre running north of $300 which is insane... upon further research, i found the Xeon was about 4% slower than the Core2 Extreme according to Userbenchmark, but could be gotten for around $50.

771 Xeon CPUs will nearly always require modding to get working on 775 boards and X48/X38 are a no go for modded 5XXX Xeons as neither chipset will work with CPUs that have the SMP option. If you do want to go the modded route then grab a P45 board, one of the top end Gigabyte P45t series boards would be perfect and you can find modded bios files for them easy enough, the T in the name means it'll work with DDR3 memory which should be cheaper to get than DDR2 and is capable of taking advantage of that 1600 FSB if you want to overclock.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:48:

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:39:

red-ray wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:33:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

The two QX9775 CPUs alone are eye wateringly expensive let alone finding a fully functional Skulltrail board, I sometimes see complete Skulltrail kits on the bay but they nearly always have at least one thing dead on the motherboard. (usually being either one of the ram slots is damaged not working or its one of the sata/usb ports)

One day I will have a Skulltrail setup, 775/771 is my jam and I already have a suitably large case for it.

The only cases ive seen that go larger than EATX are like server chassis, and not desktop 🤣. It does look like a killer setup tho, maybe ill add it to my list for another time

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:51:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:48:

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:39:

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

The two QX9775 CPUs alone are eye wateringly expensive let alone finding a fully functional Skulltrail board, I sometimes see complete Skulltrail kits on the bay but they nearly always have at least one thing dead on the motherboard. (usually being either one of the ram slots is damaged not working or its one of the sata/usb ports)

One day I will have a Skulltrail setup, 775/771 is my jam and I already have a suitably large case for it.

The only cases ive seen that go larger than EATX are like server chassis, and not desktop 🤣. It does look like a killer setup tho, maybe ill add it to my list for another time

I have a case that can handle up to SSI-EEB boards, requires switching around the mounting stands and a few case configuration changes for the IO. It is a large heavy case that had to be shipped as a flat pack but its got some of the best airflow cooling of any case I have ever used and can fit multiple 420 rads in it.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-21, 02:01:

I have a case that can handle up to SSI-EEB boards, requires switching around the mounting stands and a few case configuration changes for the IO. It is a large heavy case that had to be shipped as a flat pack but its got some of the best airflow cooling of any case I have ever used and can fit multiple 420 rads in it.

thats awesome, whats the model so i can look one up? Ill bet it wasnt cheap 🤣

I believe that the quest for the ultimate socket 771 build is going with the Skulltrail platform which is insanely expensive.
I would go down the 775 road, specifically with the X48/X38/P45 chipset which are better than anything before them and supports all the late core 2 quad. Between X48 and X38 the only difference is the former supporting CPU's with FSB 1600mhz natively - that means QX9770 which is another sought after processor and usually that means $$$.
I personally would choose P45 because it is the best chipset for 775 and it is paired with ICH10R - yes it is right up there with X48 in terms of performance and splitting the pci express lanes form 16X to 8X+8X does not result in a performance penalty for any period correct graphic card. The best CPU would be a modded XEON which are plentiful and cheap, if you want to be 100% accurate Q9650 is slightly more expensive but still easy to find and easy to cool using any half decent cooler. Finding a good DDR3 board is goind to be a challenge but is a must because it can take 16gb of ram unlike DDR2 boards that max out at 8gb and if you want to overclock is much easier with DDR3.
An example for the best LGA 775 build would be something along the lines:
1. Q9650 or XEON
2. MSI P45D3 platinum
3. 16gb of DDR3
4. Radeon 4870/4890 *2 in crossfire.
5. SSD Intel X25 released in 2008 or current era SSD + HDD for storage.
6. cooler master 212 cooler or something similar.
7. modern PSU, new if possible because the build will require some serious power.
8. monitor with 1920*1200 resolution.

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:39:

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

The main cost would probably be a D5400XS motherboard, I was patent and in the end got a brand new boxed old stock one on 23-Feb-2021 for €186.00. It then comes down to which CPUs you get, I have 2 x X5460 which were not too expensive.

Size wise mine is in an old Dragon case

red-ray wrote on 2022-11-21, 08:44:

The main cost would probably be a D5400XS motherboard, I was patent and in the end got a brand new boxed old stock one on 23-Feb […]
Show full quote

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-21, 01:39:

that is awesome. unfortunately its expensive and a bit large 🤣.

The main cost would probably be a D5400XS motherboard, I was patent and in the end got a brand new boxed old stock one on 23-Feb-2021 for €186.00. It then comes down to which CPUs you get, I have 2 x X5460 which were not too expensive.

Size wise mine is in an old Dragon case

ill have to do a skulltrail build sometime at a later date, cause thats just cool. Ive always been fascinated with dual cpu systems, but can never afford them 🤣. here in the US, i see those skulltrail boards going for $300 or more.

nd22 wrote on 2022-11-21, 08:28:

I believe that the quest for the ultimate socket 771 build is going with the Skulltrail platform which is insanely expensive. I […]
Show full quote

I believe that the quest for the ultimate socket 771 build is going with the Skulltrail platform which is insanely expensive.
I would go down the 775 road, specifically with the X48/X38/P45 chipset which are better than anything before them and supports all the late core 2 quad. Between X48 and X38 the only difference is the former supporting CPU's with FSB 1600mhz natively - that means QX9770 which is another sought after processor and usually that means $$$.
I personally would choose P45 because it is the best chipset for 775 and it is paired with ICH10R - yes it is right up there with X48 in terms of performance and splitting the pci express lanes form 16X to 8X+8X does not result in a performance penalty for any period correct graphic card. The best CPU would be a modded XEON which are plentiful and cheap, if you want to be 100% accurate Q9650 is slightly more expensive but still easy to find and easy to cool using any half decent cooler. Finding a good DDR3 board is goind to be a challenge but is a must because it can take 16gb of ram unlike DDR2 boards that max out at 8gb and if you want to overclock is much easier with DDR3.
An example for the best LGA 775 build would be something along the lines:
1. Q9650 or XEON
2. MSI P45D3 platinum
3. 16gb of DDR3
4. Radeon 4870/4890 *2 in crossfire.
5. SSD Intel X25 released in 2008 or current era SSD + HDD for storage.
6. cooler master 212 cooler or something similar.
7. modern PSU, new if possible because the build will require some serious power.
8. monitor with 1920*1200 resolution.

for my build, id probably do the Q9650, as thats a drop in cpu with no modification 🤣. And If I were to use a set of more powerful gpus, they might be bottlenecked by the 9650? Ive also considered LGA1366 build, cause another user in the thread brought that one up, seen boards for that platform with 6 ram slots, thought that was cool too 🤣

The configuration I described is still in use today and performs just fine with the exception of the latest games. I had running a GTX 560TI and had no CPU bottleneck whatsoever. In fact most games from 2007 -2010 are heavily limited by the GTX 560ti at maximum details. I did overclock the CPU to 3.6ghz and the ram is running now at 1600mhz to obtain a 1:1 ratio which further improves performance. To be precise overclocking with DDR3 memory is much easier than with DDR2. I swapped the video card with the GTX 960 and only now does the CPU constitutes a bottleneck. Using a SSD the system feels very snappy and has better transfer rates than using a board with ICH9R. I do not have experience running a system in SLI/crossfire - only ran such a configuration for a 3dmark score.

nd22 wrote on 2022-11-22, 08:50:

The configuration I described is still in use today and performs just fine with the exception of the latest games. I had running a GTX 560TI and had no CPU bottleneck whatsoever. In fact most games from 2007 -2010 are heavily limited by the GTX 560ti at maximum details. I did overclock the CPU to 3.6ghz and the ram is running now at 1600mhz to obtain a 1:1 ratio which further improves performance. To be precise overclocking with DDR3 memory is much easier than with DDR2. I swapped the video card with the GTX 960 and only now does the CPU constitutes a bottleneck. Using a SSD the system feels very snappy and has better transfer rates than using a board with ICH9R. I do not have experience running a system in SLI/crossfire - only ran such a configuration for a 3dmark score.

gotcha. Im just thinking about doing an SLI/Crossfire config for the fun of the build, no other point really. Unless its supported by a game or rendering software I happen to mess with 🤣. But yea, all my 775 stuff is DDR2, so I had no idea it also ran with DDR3. I wonder if there are any xeons that were designed for 775 without modding 🤣. I seem to be able to find xeons cheaper than core2 or core i stuff, with about equal performance

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-22, 22:47:

I wonder if there are any xeons that were designed for 775 without modding 🤣.

Lotts such as Intel Xeon X3320

red-ray wrote on 2022-11-22, 23:01:

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-11-22, 22:47:

I wonder if there are any xeons that were designed for 775 without modding 🤣.

Lotts such as Intel Xeon X3320

Yeah the 3XXX Xeons work fine in pretty much all 775 boards as they cannot be used for SMP, weirdly the 3XXX Xeons used the 775 socket format rather than the later 771 format.

5XXX Xeons require sticker mods, socket/notch mods and a bios mod and will not work at all in X38 or X48 boards due to having the SMP bit set on the CPU which these chipsets do not support. I wonder if there is a SMP pad on the CPU that can be shorted or sticker modded to disable chipset detection of that SMP bit, would be nice to use 5XXX Xeons on X48. (The X5470 would be a fucking overclocking beast on X48)

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-11-22, 23:06:

Yeah the 3XXX Xeons work fine in pretty much all 775 boards as they cannot be used for SMP, weirdly the 3XXX Xeons used the 775 socket format rather than the later 771 format.

5XXX Xeons require sticker mods, socket/notch mods and a bios mod and will not work at all in X38 or X48 boards due to having the SMP bit set on the CPU which these chipsets do not support. I wonder if there is a SMP pad on the CPU that can be shorted or sticker modded to disable chipset detection of that SMP bit, would be nice to use 5XXX Xeons on X48. (The X5470 would be a fucking overclocking beast on X48)

What is SMP?

Edit: yea, i can pick up a Xeon X3380 3.16ghz for $17 usd, vs a Core2 Quad Q9650 3.00ghz for around $55 usd