*A:M User* Roger Posted January 9, 2014 *A:M User* Share Posted January 9, 2014 I had been thinking about buying a used i7 970 to upgrade my desktop and get an extra 2 cores, and while trawling through ebay I found one of these bad boys for about the same price: http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/poweredge-r900/pd It has 4 quad cores and can accept 4 6 core xeons. 32GB of RAM, will take a max of 256 I think. 140GB HD or so. I'm really tempted but it has a 1500 watt power supply, if I leave the thing running 24/7 and it is pulling down 1500w constantly it will cost about $1000 yearly in power costs. It probably doesn't draw that much, the xeons can't be more than 100W a piece and I could put a low power flash drive and bare bones video in it and probably get the power envelope down to 500-600W max. And make sure I make aggressive use of sleep mode. Or shut it off. What do you guys think? It is less than $400 shipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 9, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 9, 2014 What does it have in it now? Buying xeons would be expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted January 9, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted January 9, 2014 It currently has 4 quad core Xeon E7340 processors at 2.4ghz, it will take hexacores as well. But the upgrade would be expensive. I found a quad hexacore model for $600 but wasn't looking to spend that much. I think the E7340 is comparable to an i7 920. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted January 9, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted January 9, 2014 Did some digging on that processor model, doesn't look like it has hyperthreading. So it would have a total of 16 possible threads. Would need to use Server 2008 on it or Linux, since Windows 7 Pro only supports 2 sockets. Might be better off getting a dual socket 1366 motherboard, and two Xeon 5670 processors (the 6 core variant with multithreading). That would give me 12 logical cores and 24 threads. But, I would have to pick up RAM, CPUs, motherboard all separately. Would probably run at least $600. Or I could just get the single i7 970 to drop in my current box, and hang onto or sell my i7 920. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 9, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 9, 2014 Of course, my standard advice is don't buy any tech until you need it. I think upgrading your current desktop to a 4-core is your most advantageous path now that would require the least additional purchases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted January 9, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted January 9, 2014 It's currently a 4 core, so I may just hold off until I absolutely need the extra cpu. It's fun to think about but there are always hidden costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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