Xeon E5-1650

[FatCatz]

I may have missed something but I haven't seen any mention of the Xeon E5-1650 CPU being used for a hackintosh. For info it has 6 cores running 3.2 - 3.8 Ghz and max. TDP of 130w. Upto 375 GB of quad channel memory with 51.2 Gb max memory bandwidth and 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes for under 600 dollars. Seems to me that an equivalent Xeon in the dual E5-2600 series would cost about three times the price and of course you'd want two of them. Although it's similar it does hold several advantages over the popular i7 3930K for about the same price.

If for example I decided to build a hack with this and say an Asus P9X79 WS mobo and presuming I could figure out how to make audio and ethernet work and accepted no speedstep and perhaps no sleep, would I be on the right path to decent OSX workstation for a reasonable price ?

Perhaps there's a perfectly good reason for the unpopularity of this option ?

 

[ggeorge]

I may have missed something but I haven't seen any mention of the Xeon E5-1650 CPU being used for a hackintosh. For info it has 6 cores running 3.2 - 3.8 Ghz and max. TDP of 130w. Upto 375 GB of quad channel memory with 51.2 Gb max memory bandwidth and 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes for under 600 dollars. Seems to me that an equivalent Xeon in the dual E5-2600 series would cost about three times the price and of course you'd want two of them. Although it's similar it does hold several advantages over the popular i7 3930K for about the same price.

The max memory is not really relevant given that most socket 2011 boards have at most 8 slots for ram and given the price/availability on 48gb dimms.

Everything else is the same, because they are basically the same chip. You can also get a 3930k at MicroCenter for $500.

Xeon chips are also much more difficult to over clock and they don't have the unlocked multipliers like the 3930k does.

If for example I decided to build a hack with this and say an Asus P9X79 WS mobo and presuming I could figure out how to make audio and ethernet work and accepted no speedstep and perhaps no sleep, would I be on the right path to decent OSX workstation for a reasonable price ?

I believe compatibility is good on most of the ASUS x79 boards. The Sabertooth is also a popular option.

Perhaps there's a perfectly good reason for the unpopularity of this option ?

They xeon chips are just not as common, people don't think about them and most of them do tend to be more expensive without much gain.

 

[FatCatz]

Many thanks for your reply ggeorge

I don't know if it's true but I've heard it said a couple of times that the Xeon E5-1650s are "unlocked".
They're very hard to come by, unless buying a complete system. If I can get my hands on one I'll share what I find out.

Meanwhile, if anyone else has anything to add, I'm all ears

 

[BitterMelon]

I'd say that the main reason for getting a single Xeon instead of an i7 is the support for ECC memory, right? Which is mostly useful in servers. And possibly the extra PCI-e lanes, if you'll ever need them (probably not).

The Xeon has a much higher TDP (more than double), so it should be harder to cool. Also, it's 32 nm, whereas the i7 is 22 nm.

 

[ggeorge]

I'd say that the main reason for getting a single Xeon instead of an i7 is the support for ECC memory, right? Which is mostly useful in servers. And possibly the extra PCI-e lanes, if you'll ever need them (probably not).

The Xeon has a much higher TDP (more than double), so it should be harder to cool. Also, it's 32 nm, whereas the i7 is 22 nm.

You do have a point about the ECC ram, though I'm generally dubious about how useful it is for non-critical system like the average users computer.

You are confusing the socket 1155 chips with the socket 2011 though. The es-1650 is the latter and all of the 2011 chips are 32nm. There won't be an Ivy-Bridge-E (22 nm) chip until sometime at the end of 2013 according to intel's road map.

 

[Darren1969]

Many thanks for your reply ggeorge

I don't know if it's true but I've heard it said a couple of times that the Xeon E5-1650s are "unlocked".
They're very hard to come by, unless buying a complete system. If I can get my hands on one I'll share what I find out.

Meanwhile, if anyone else has anything to add, I'm all ears

HI ,

I just got one of these E5-1650 Chips and am running it on a Supermicro X9SRA with 10.8.2
ALC 889 working fine , Ethernet working,. only 2 issues
1. CPU is obvoiusly not recognized (purely cosmetic)
2. Sleep kinda works, but the computer doesn´t turn itself off, Fans are still running and Screen goes black, but will resume at the touch of a button .. also shutdown restarts immiediatly.

l I am running w/o a DSDT still , so this is probably the cause of my Power Manangement problems.

I will keep you posted should I solve this little glitches.

 

[FatCatz]

Hey Darren,

That's really great, thanks a lot for the info

I'm very interested in anything else you can report on this cpu, especially any benchmark results or over/under clocking tests you've tried.

 

[custommademac]

THe problem about Power OFF is related to your motherboard. I never got to fix that. Have Xeon 2x4 core E5620 x2 - the same issue.
greets

 

[ivokik]

Can you please advice with wich kernel flags have you got your E5-1650 to boot properly without using cpus=1 ?

 

[Thinkcat]

Darren. You seem to have more than one Xeon built on a Supermicro board.

I just wish to know, do any of these have working speedstep, sleep and shutdown?

And do you have any way of verifying that the ECC functionality is there? Can you view any logs about corrected single bit errors?

I am desperately looking for the best or a good enough chance of building a single or dual CPU Xeon with all these (ECC, sleep, speedstep and shutdown) working.