Scat, How about the chipset lanes. Dell 3660 has W680 Chipset & according to Intel it has maximum of 28 PCIe lanes. What are they for & could some of them be used for the 2nd T600 card ? https://www.intel.in/content/www/in/en/products/sku/218834/intel-w680-chipset/specifications.html
Assuming your info is correct... the W680 has 28 lanes... to support any compatible CPU that supports up to that number. Your proposed i7 has only 20 lanes according to Intel. The extra 8 lanes of support in the W680 chipset will do nothing for you. Your video card slot uses 16 lanes. That leaves 4 lanes for "everything else" the PCIE bus handles... including your NVME. IF (big if) you can get a 2nd video card to run, it would occupy all 4 of the remaining lanes. That leaves zero for everything else. I don't know if the system board would then "parse out" lanes to accommodate other requirements. If you were to get a machine with Xeon CPU and its "48 PCIE lanes"... and run 3x quad-port video cards, that would use 40 of the PCIE lanes (16 + 16 + 8)... and leave 8 lanes to run everything else the PCIE bus handles... especially NVME. What about the possibility of "noise"? A gamer CPU likely runs hot and likely causes the cooling fans to run high speed. If gaming, that noise would be drowned out by the game's audio. But in a more quiet environment like trading, do you want high fan noise all day, every day? I surely wouldn't. (Then again, perhaps water cooling is so good that the fans do not run at high speed and make a lot of noise? Maybe you can find that out before you buy...)
Just read up an article on the PCIe lanes & it says Chipset lanes are independent of CPU lanes. So 20 CPU lanes will be occupied by two T600 ( x16 & x4 ). That leaves 28 chipset lanes for other stuff. When I configure 3660 it also gives me 3 M.2 NVMe. Please explain how this works. Thanks
Unfortunately, you have conflated. "20 CPU lanes occupied by 2x, T600's" is correct. But there are not "28 additional chipset lanes". Each chipset lane is occupied by a PCIE lane.... 20 PCIE lanes will occupy 20 chipset lanes also*. The extra chipset lanes of the chipset (28 minus 20) will go unutilized. I get it.. you're chomping at the bit to get the 3660 in spite of what I've explained and how inappropriate it is for your desired function. You apparently won't be appeased until you get it... but don't be surprised when it doesn't work and you have to return. * I'm pretty sure this is correct, but not 100%. Check into it with others to your satisfaction. However, this may be moot. Intel specs state that the "i7 will support 4 monitors"... that's the bottom line.
You probably will hate me by now but I want to make sure that I am making the right decision. So I found something that I am attaching which looks like chipset W680 has independent 28 PCI express lane. I also have a choice of i9 12900 which has max 48 PCIe lanes. So if I chose that then would that allow me to run at least 8 monitors smoothly ? Because Dell still offers the same Two T600 cards whether I choose i7 or i9. Sorry to pick your brains. Hope others would shed some lights too.
According to Intel specs, the i9-12900 also supports only up to 4 monitors and has only 20 PCIE lanes. Check for yourself. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...12900-processor-30m-cache-up-to-5-10-ghz.html Either Dell's or Intel's info on this is incorrect... but hey, you're jones'n to try to run a gaming computer for a workstation task, so go for it. With Dell, worst case... you can return and get a refund if it doesn't work out for you.
"hey, you're jones'n to try to run a gaming computer for a workstation task, so go for it." Yeah, some weak kneed gaming rig cant possible handle the massive needs of a trader. Who could even think such a thing ?
Scat & all, You guys have been very helpful & I sincerely appreciate it. I finally ordered Dell workstation 3660. It was within my price range with latest ports & CPU. Scat you just might be right but I couldn't resist Dell claiming it a workstation & letting me to choose two GPUs. Here is what I ordered. Please comment. (1) Intel i-7 12700 (2) Win-11 Pro (3) 16 GB DDR5 4400 MHz Non ECC (4) Two Nvidia T-600 4 GB 4mDP Graphics cards, to run 8 Monitors Hoping to run 2 extra monitors using 2 DP. Still have to figure out how to run 2 more. But 10 will do now. (5) Three 512 GB PCIe Class 40 M.2 Nvme SSDs (6) Three 4 TB 5400 Rpm SATA HDDs (7) Advanced CPU Air Cooler (8) 750 Watt (80 Plus Platinum) PSU (9) 3 Year ProSupport Plus next day onsite service wth 24x7 Phone support (10) Keybord & Mouse Please comment
You've got a lot of hardware there. I'm rooting for it all to work for you. I'd like to know whether or not it does. Good Luck!