Dell Workstation Owners Club

[crazydrve`]

I'm getting glitches here and there. This board may still be bad.

 

[Caring1]

I go to the boot sequence section in the bios and it was just a blank area.

I completely reset the bios using the pins and now it seems good.

No drives recognised or installed.
Check the cables, connections.

 

[elfoam]

Hello, Dell Workstation fans. Long time fan myself and often end up reading this thread so I figured I should join in.

I'm currently running 2 x T7500s and 2 x T5500s in various states of cases full and cases more empty. I've been trying to figure something out for a very long time but the answer seems hidden.. and I wonder why. Do these machines run crossfire?... I have never been able to find any evidence that they do and it bothers me .. because with those 1100 watt PSUs in the 7500s it's a real shame to not use two low end cheap gpus like RX-570s if in fact that does work and I'd like to run something like that if it's working. All I need in my life is to find one single person that's tried it with success and perhaps this is the best place to find the truth.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Do these machines run crossfire?

This is a good question. Have no idea. Can anyone test this or chime in if you know?

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

 

[elfoam]

This is a good question. Have no idea. Can anyone test this or chime in if you know?

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

Thanks, I'd try it myself if I had two identical cards. I've seen pretty convincing evidence the T5400 (And T7400) can run crossfire, but never from the T5500 and T7500. I am convinced SLI does not work, but the crossfire.. still unsure. I'm currently trying to build a very budget gaming machine from a spare T7500 with single Xeon rather than dual to save on power. A single X5675, X5687 or X5690 will be the cpu I run, If I could run dual rx 570s or even 470s that would be a nice budget box.

 

[lexluthermiester]

X5687

Did you mean an X5680? The X5687 is a quad core..

 

[elfoam]

Did you mean an X5680? The X5687 is a quad core..

No I meant the X5687, yes it's a 4 core but very fast (and cheap). I have two of them in one of my T7500s

 

[lexluthermiester]

No I meant the X5687, yes it's a 4 core but very fast

Gotta disagree with you there. I'd rather have the two extra cores(@3.33ghz) than the extra 266mhz on four cores...

(and cheap)

Totally understand this though.

I have two of them in one of my T7500s

And that's a thing.

 

[elfoam]

The X5687 has a faster single core and more cache per core, if you were playing a game that can not max out all 4 cores then it's a better choice for gaming than the X5675 but it depends on the application. The X5675 is the one I would normally choose in a single cpu machine because it's similar performance and lower wattage.. But it depends.. For my dual machine I decided on the X5687 because 8 cores at 3.86ghz is.. (very good). It's a super responsive machine, I have no regrets on the choice for that machine. P.S I did end up ordering a X5675 to replace the E5649 in my sons T5500 so I can get a bit faster QPI speed. But still no decision on the single CPU T7500 I'm building.

Meanwhile after weeks of searching I found this video from some guys in Bulgaria that had the T5500 running crossfire on some (now) old GPUs in 2013... Not sure why they have been the only people to ever document it working. Perhaps on only works on cards with a crossfire cable.

 

[lexluthermiester]

it's a better choice for gaming than the X5675 but it depends on the application

True but I was comparing to the X5680, a 3.33ghz 130W part, not the X5675, a 3.06ghz 95w part.

The X5675 is the one I would normally choose in a single cpu machine because it's similar performance and lower wattage..

That's fair to say, but i've got both as well as a W3680 and the temp differences are minimal, likely due to Intel's binning process.

But still no decision on the single CPU T7500 I'm building.

Go with a pair of X5680s or W3680s. You'll thank yourself later, especially with the W3680s which can OC in software(ThrottleStop) on Dell systems.

 

[elfoam]

Go with a pair of X5680s or W3680s. You'll thank yourself later, especially with the W3680s which can OC in software(ThrottleStop) on Dell systems.

Nah I wont run dual cpu's of that generation on this next machine, it isn't worth the power consumption for a gaming machine that will be switched on several hours a day. I don't like to spend much money in general that's why I run all this old surplus hardware :0. I run a pair of L5640s in the machine I use all day, total system wattage out of the wall is 150 watts. It's a little bit laggy under big load compared to the X5687 (which uses 360 watts! idling.. ) but they still both perform well, I have Perc H700s in them both with Raid arrays and 48 gig of ram. The original plan for the latest T7500 was to gut it for spare parts and run a pair of E5 V3 Xeons on a X99 motherboard (bit of metalwork needed also), but before I do that I want to see how it goes with a single first. The 5520 chipset boards like the T5500 and T7500 can't run the W series cpus by the way. That's an advantage the T3500 has for a little gaming box, the W can't run much ram either so isn't suitable for a workstation even if it could run in a pair.

I've ordered a crossfire cable.. I guess I'll have to try and find a pair of cheap GPUs to try out crossfire now.

 

[lexluthermiester]

(which uses 360 watts! idling.. )

You might want to look into that, doesn't seem right to me. I have several T3500's and I'm not pulling that much wattage in any of them at idle. I'm measuring with a Kill-a-watt unit. Under load the most I've measured is 480ish. That was with an RTX2080 and a W3680 clocked at 4.1ghz. That system idles at 105ish watts. The one I'm typing on is currently pulling 130w right now, playing OpenRCT2 and watching Youtube. It also has a W3680, but has a GTX980 currently.

 

[elfoam]

The wattage is correct, that's with 2 X5687s, 5 x 15,000 RPM SAS drives and a pretty old power hungry GPU. Those drives use something like 20 watts each

 

[lexluthermiester]

5 x 15,000 RPM SAS drives and a pretty old power hungry GPU.

Ah, there it is. 15kRPM drive often pull as much as 25w per, so that does explain it.

 

[uco73]

I have 8 years old PC but is still very powerful today.

 

[crazydrve`]

Does anyone know of a way to test a board other than just posting it?

I keep getting weird issues and or pcie slots are bad.

I do get a bsod dpc watchdog violation sometimes too.

 

[uco73]

Does anyone know of a way to test a board other than just posting it?

I keep getting weird issues and or pcie slots are bad.

I do get a bsod dpc watchdog violation sometimes too.

Greeting! Do you have a diagnostic light on the front panel?

 

[crazydrve`]

Greeting! Do you have a diagnostic light on the front panel?

I will check again but I haven't noticed any.

Greeting! Do you have a diagnostic light on the front panel?

I will check again but I haven't noticed any

 

[Caring1]

Does anyone know of a way to test a board other than just posting it?

I keep getting weird issues and or pcie slots are bad.

I do get a bsod dpc watchdog violation sometimes too.

Check the CPU is seated correctly and pins aren't missing or bent.

 

[crazydrve`]

Check the CPU is seated correctly and pins aren't missing or bent.

I checked it again and did find some minor paste on the bottom side of the cpu, I cleaned it up and put it back together, the pins look fine from what I can see.

Now to run tests, etc. hoping this will fix the issues.

Has anyone used the dell diagnostics to test there system?

 

[uco73]

Has anyone used the dell diagnostics to test there system?

Go here and click "Quick Test" or "Full Test".

 

[crazydrve`]

Go here and click "Quick Test" or "Full Test".

I ran the pre testing before os boot but doing that website test didnt work, I think its because I am running server 2016. I might try installing windows 10 to see if that makes a difference.

 

[elfoam]

I ordered a RX 480 gpu today. In a few weeks I'll finally be able to test the crossfire on the 500 series workstations. As I can use the 480 and 570 together in crossfire.

 

[uco73]

I ran the pre testing before os boot but doing that website test didnt work, I think its because I am running server 2016. I might try installing windows 10 to see if that makes a difference.

Install Windows 10 Pro x64.

 

[crazydrve`]

Install Windows 10 Pro x64.

yea I went ahead and did that, all tests seem good. Thank you for your help. now to figure out the raid card.