Supermicro X7DWA-N

Author: Movieman
Published on: 05-08-2008
Views: 32254


Discuss this article [3 comments]

Conclusion

Final thoughts on the X7DWA-N

We all have our own different ways of viewing hardware. Mine is looking for top quality parts that perform as designed and last. Supermicro has built their reputation on building solid, dependable equipment for the professional and high end enthusiast. This commitment to build the best possible, back it up with knowledgeable technical support and sell the product at a fair price continues with the X7DWA-N.

I put this system to the test to see how it would handle a high load for a long period. I ran a program on it that pushed all 8 cores to 100% load for just over 48 hours straight. During that time the temperature never exceeded 52C on the cores in a 22C room. Due to illness there was app one month between my first testing with the X5482s and testing with the E5450s. These have been in for app 2 weeks now and running at 3404MHZ.

My passion is in Aids and Cancer research, to help the next generation live better lives. During this 2 week timeframe the machine has run the Cancer reasearch application at 100% load, 24/7 and without a hiccup. The machine does app 40% more work per day than my 8 core Clovertown machine at 3000 MHz, while drawing 320w versus the Clovertowns 421w draw. It runs 12C cooler than the Clovertown although running 404MHz faster. An example: The Cancer work units that take 4 hours and 30 minutes to run on the Clovertown machine take 3 hours and 20 minutes to run on the Harpertown equipped X7DWA-N. Now factor in that the machine is doing them 8 at a time and you can see the huge improvement in computational power and the boards ability to put it to use. This pretty much says it all, faster, cooler, better clock for clock and less electrical needed to run.

I’d like to thank Douglas Herz from Supermicro for his assistance and patience. Without his help this wouldn’t have been possible.

Here’s a link to the board on Supermicro’s site for any details that I might have missed.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5400/X7DWA-N.cfm

I’d also like to thank the good people at the OCZ Corporation for donating the power supply towards this project. The 750w PCP&C Silencer is an excellent PSU and more than able to handle this system’s needs.

Dave Hunt (Movieman at XtremeSystems forum)