Well, I took the big jump to upgrade. I found a guy selling E5-2680v2s (real, NOT ES) for $159 + shipping on eBay, so I bought 4 (closed him out), so for $658 I am upgrading my two dual E5-2670 crunchers (less, of course, what I net from selling the 2670s back on eBay), which are selling at $100 or so now.

My boards both have BIOS that supposedly supports v2s, so I will be moving to 40 threads from 32 on each machine, at a higher freq. (3.1Ghz vs 3.0 for all-cores Boost) and at the same wattage. So I should boost my RAC on each maybe 5-8K. We shall see.

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Great! They are nice work horces, I'm using them six weeks now, 115W each @ 10 cores running 3,1GHz in HT. My RAC shows 49k but according to my estimations the machine is making 53-54k a day, presumably half are CPUs, half GPUs.
Happy new 2018 !!

Well, I took the big jump to upgrade. I found a guy selling E5-2680v2s (real, NOT ES) for $159 + shipping on eBay, so I bought 4 (closed him out), so for $658 I am upgrading my two dual E5-2670 crunchers (less, of course, what I net from selling the 2670s back on eBay), which are selling at $100 or so now.

My boards both have BIOS that supposedly supports v2s, so I will be moving to 40 threads from 32 on each machine, at a higher freq. (3.1Ghz vs 3.0 for all-cores Boost) and at the same wattage. So I should boost my RAC on each maybe 5-8K. We shall see.

What motherboard do you have to put the CPUs into?

I have an Intel s2600cp2j from a Natex bundle and kind of wondering if this would work for me too. $59 per CPU upgrade seems pretty good.

What motherboard do you have to put the CPUs into?

I have an Intel s2600cp2j from a Natex bundle and kind of wondering if this would work for me too. $59 per CPU upgrade seems pretty good.

I have 2 - one is an ASUS Z9PE-D16 (the one with 4(!)Ethernet ports), the other is an ASROCK Rack EP2C602.

Both have BIOS which should support the V2 CPUs (waiting for them to come to find out for sure!).

Check out the BIOS in yours to see if it will support the V2s; if not, check the MB webpage to see if such a BIOS is available (fingers crossed!).

EDIT: BTW, my machines both make 75-80K RAC, but both have dual GTX 1080s installed, running 3 WUs each.

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What motherboard do you have to put the CPUs into?

I have an Intel s2600cp2j from a Natex bundle and kind of wondering if this would work for me too. $59 per CPU upgrade seems pretty good.

I have 2 - one is an ASUS Z9PE-D16 (the one with 4(!)Ethernet ports), the other is an ASROCK Rack EP2C602.

Both have BIOS which should support the V2 CPUs (waiting for them to come to find out for sure!).

Check out the BIOS in yours to see if it will support the V2s; if not, check the MB webpage to see if such a BIOS is available (fingers crossed!).

EDIT: BTW, my machines both make 75-80K RAC, but both have dual GTX 1080s installed, running 3 WUs each.

Luckily the Intel S2600CP MBs do support the v2 processors, up to 135w, and also allow the use of 1866MHz memory with using v2 processors.
I grabbed a few of the E5-2670 S2600CP MB bundles from Natex last year.
I think the worst thing for me will be putting 256GB of 1866MHz in each board after upgrading the CPUs. That stuff still isn't doesn't come cheap.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the BP6/VP6 User Group today!

So I got the 2680v2s, and I have a question, perhaps some of you can help me:

They were packed in pink antistatic bags (one per bag), and some of the heat sink compound on the top got on the pinpads on the bottom on 3 of the 4.
What is the best way to clean that off, so I don't have a problem with (possible) short circuits on the CPUs? I am very reluctant to do anything at the moment, for fear of damaging some of those contacts.

Thanks for your help!

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Not knowing exactly ... I would likely try a can of ether (starting fluid) which is pretty good at washing away stuff and drying clean.
Use outdoors - Highly Flamable !!!

Edit: You could put a WD$) nozzle on the can to have a more direct spray.

When I have that problem (compound, or even finger prints) after opening up some of the used CPU's I've bought in the past, I just go to the medicine cabinet and get some 92% rubbing (Isopropyl) alcohol and a lint free cloth, and a couple wipes with fresh spots on the towel each time & it's all gone. At least that's been my experience. I like the higher proof, more concentrated I guess.

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Ethyl alcohol works for me. ;-)

Cheers.

When I have that problem (compound, or even finger prints) after opening up some of the used CPU's I've bought in the past, I just go to the medicine cabinet and get some 92% rubbing (Isopropyl) alcohol and a lint free cloth, and a couple wipes with fresh spots on the towel each time & it's all gone. At least that's been my experience. I like the higher proof, more concentrated I guess.

I normally start with dry wipes to get whatever will come off free first. Then hit it with rubbing alcohol and I normally use q-tips until they come back clean. I haven't had any issues leaving any q-tip fluff behind, but it is something I watch out for when cleaning contacts that way.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the BP6/VP6 User Group today!

It is surprising how resilient modern electronics are.

I worked for a time for a company that was recycling electronic scrap, one of the more profitable sidelines was telephone systems or cards out of these systems.

The condition at times of some of these was so bad that although they were tested and proved working they were unfit for resale due to dust, grease or other airborne contaminants.

One of the easiest methods was scrubbing them with a soft brush in a sink of warm water and washing up liquid, then rinsed off thoroughly with clean water.

The boards were then hot air dried for a couple of days, an airing cupboard or boiler room is ideal for this.

The boards were then retested and sold, the only problem this occasionally caused was damage to paper labels which sometimes had to be carefully replaced :-)

We never lost a board cleaning them this way.

Petrol (lighter fuel) and alcohol are safe on most electronics, the thing to stay away from are corrosive type cleaners.

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Kevin

Petrol

Not these days.
Unleaded fuel tends to lead a nasty residue when it dries.
Acetone for really stubborn dirt & adhesives, but it does attack plastics. So any plastic brackets etc on the board, remove them if possible, or use a less damaging cleaner (such as the various forms of alcohol. Isopropyl being the usual type for cleaning electronics).

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Grant
Darwin NT