What Motherboard would you buy if......

I need some help choosing a MB!

Instead of asking ME what MY needs are. I would like to hear what YOU would do with this hardware and why.

This will help me by hearing from those that have or want to have a system based on this hardware I have.

I posted here because its STARTS with a Motherboard! (is it okay to ask what PSU as well?)

HARDWARE:

2 Xeon x5560 2.8GHZ 1333
6 sticks of 4GB 2Rx4 PC3-10600R-09-10-E0-D2
2 SAS PERC6/IR W/BBU's (RAID 1 or 0)
1 SAS PERC5/IA 256MB MEM MODULE W/BBU (RAID 0,1,10,5,50)
1 SAS PERC6/E 512MB MEM MODULE W/BBU (RAID all including 6,60)
20 (twenty) 147GB 10K 2.5 SAS drives
9 (nine) 146GB 15K 3.5 SAS drives
4 (four) 73GB 15K 3.5 SAS drives
1 (one) 300GB 10K 3.5 SAS drive
3 (three) 300GB ultra320 SCSI drives
USB 3.0 controller
eSATA controller
Many VIDEO cards NVIDEA and ATI (PCI and PCIE)

Software no issue I got it. including VMware (not the free one)

So what do you say, help me out with some ideas?

Which hardware would you choose to use as well?

WhiteHat (with a Black rim and feather!)

This is about the only one I can think of...

EVGA Classifieds SR-2

EarthDog said:

This is about the only one I can think of...

EVGA Classifieds SR-2

Click to expand...

I see it only has x16 expantion slots. Will they accept any type of card?

white...sr2 PCIe's can be used for other cards. Its one of the key features I look for myself. Just a thought but u have a number of HDDs...u need either a pretty well endowed case;-)

Wow... didnt even notice that. Even my larger than life..........case, Obsidian 800d, wont hold those without mods...

Yes, JenB is right, 16x slot will hold 1x card.

EarthDog said:

This is about the only one I can think of...

EVGA Classifieds SR-2

Click to expand...

X2...if you can find something to stuff it in. I'd love one of these.

Here's a link for which cases will support the SR-2 Board

http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmmain.aspx?faqid=58848

I would imagine the 800d does too... ?

not stock it doesn't, you would have to create custom mounting points.

Eatx is what it has, thought it was hptx or w/e.

So this the board of boards?

As far as PROC's go there seems to be mostly I7er's in these forums.

I was given these CPU's are these baby's worth a flip?

Do you need that processing power? If yes, then no, dont flip it... If you dont, then hell's yeah sell those chips and get a 'normal' system.

The Xeon Chips are very nice chips they are just designed for a bit different use than the Core Ix chips, in that they are more designed for use in a Server.

Here's a nice graphic of the different motherboard sizes and where the HPTX fits in.

EarthDog said:

Do you need that processing power? If yes, then no, dont flip it... If you dont, then hell's yeah sell those chips and get a 'normal' system.

Click to expand...

I don't do or have anything "normal" An Asian Leopard is sitting on my lap!
The idea was to get some feedback from you pro's!

Hell, I even have 8 Nvidea SLI cards. I don't even know what SLI does!

I gotta ask, which cards? and where you gettin all this stuff, lol

Noshei said:

I gotta ask, which cards? and where you gettin all this stuff, lol

Click to expand...

Okay here is my short story.... About a year ago I had 9 workstations linked together with mapped network drives and shared folders so a buddy of mine says "you need a domain"

I did not know skeeewat about how to do this so of course I hired someone. Ive always been the type to look over a shoulder and learn so.............


Okay so after the "server" crashed thats when I learned about RAID. Then when it crashed again thats when I learned about a back-up domain controller.


Then when the network was slowwwwwww here comes the DATA transfer lesson. The mail server caught on fire, active directory corrupted and took out the DC and the BDC.

Along the way I met some really cool guys that became friends. They work in high places.

Now I didn't say that they use but have access.

So Now I have some amazing utilities, unlimited software, and hardware out the wazooooski

Spending alot of time with Everest and other benching tools and a whole lot of "oh here you might want this"

I had 6 dell 690's and four dell 470's on a dolly and a guy says passing by "you need vmware" i say "yeah who can afford that?"

turns out he the man! oh and i just found out its worth 300k!!

So back to you your video card question.... several GTX8800,s a pile of FXQuadros of several models, Fire GL's.

I have been blowing away MBR's as a hobby I think! If it was not for Paragon, I would be lost.

Just today I was given a WD RAPTOR that is a multi-boot drive with 5 OP's to choose from. I havent even popped it in to see what it will do

I have a gutted precision 690 case and a 1100W PSU that came out of a T7500 looks might fit.

So back to the education. How about some ideas?

Noshei said:

The Xeon Chips are very nice chips they are just designed for a bit different use than the Core Ix chips, in that they are more designed for use in a Server.

Click to expand...

There are so many darn CPU's. That board with my chips. how long before I figure out or end up with "damn I shoulda........only if I knew.......?"


Thats how I ended up with a Nikon D3. Wasted money on 3 other bodies!!

The Xeon chips will work just fine on a regular PC and should be fun to Overclock.

Noshei said:

The Xeon Chips are very nice chips they are just designed for a bit different use than the Core Ix chips, in that they are more designed for use in a Server.

Here's a nice graphic of the different motherboard sizes and where the HPTX fits in.

Click to expand...

they are not designed different then core i7's. about the only thing different is the addition of another QPI link for cpu to cpu communication. only thing intel does is disabled that second link in the core i7 LGA1336 cpus.


Instead of those xeons chips, im kinda surprised you dont just get a i7 X980. better yet you could just spend the same amount of money and get this six core xeon instead of that quad you listed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117230
or get this OEM xeon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117242

really though with that much power the only things im thinking of are FAH/Rosei/SETI and then leave one core free for network based storage handling.