RadiantDragoon87 Here and boy it has been a while, and what a ride it has been. I finally got settled down and now I can begin my projects again. Alas, I look at my list of to-do items and think i still have two SR-2s that are 90% complete
 
"Is the SR-2 still a viable PC? or has technology surpassed the board in the 5 years since its inception?
 
I only ask because I still have two boards, and many processors left over to choose from.
 
My core question is as follows:
 
Is the power draw, Overall architecture, system limitations, still usable, or should I keep it as a museum piece and start a new with a new board like the SR-X? That is if I can even locate one? and go with a pair of 8 core or 6 core procs? or .... stick with the SR-2 using LGA 1366: 5650? 5550? 5620?
 
How about switching to a single socket LGA 2011: i7-3960X, i7-4960X or LGA 1150: 4790K
 
the overall use would be media processing / render PC for Adobe video editing / second would be gaming
 
I know it is not fair to judge just a board but I understand video cards will play a pivotal role as well. so i understand that this is a symbiotic relationship. that said i have 2XX series, 4XX, 5XX and 6XX cards available to use up to triple SLI.
 
Help me choose as its been a bit and I'm not up to snuff on the new tech as much as i would like to be.
 
Sources:
http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVGA_Corporation
 

I’ve been stuck on the same dilemma. I even got a i-5 3570k water cooled setup for games, and sold it because I didn’t notice a significant difference. Just putting the 780ti into my old SR-2 gave about the same frame rates, despite the clock/IPC difference. For the cost going dual 2011 is just not worth it, and the SR-X is a fail in the OC department. Here is how I see it:
 
SR-2 Pros:
12 dimms,  cheap to get ram for it. 4gb x 12 is way cheaper than 8gb x 4. Plus you can keep ecc! $244 for 48gb of 1600mhz ecc on ebay right now.
Brute force on the cheap. I got two x5650 for $87 each on ebay. They are holding stable at 4ghz. Lets say that is 48ghz of crunch. Even with a 25% IPC derate, you would need a six core Ivy at 6ghz to match it. Now, there are cheaper ways to get brute force, such as the 4p socket F system, but not much video card support, and very limited memory bandwith.
SR-2 Cons:
The USB 3.0 sucks, so does the 6g sata. I don’t use either, so I don’t care.
The ICH10R is getting slow. Yeah, you can do 700 megs over three SSD, but not much else.
Power, the SR-2 takes tons of power and heats up the room.
Once you get the nice stuff added that is standard on newer boards, such as 3d sound card, usb 3.0, and 6g raid, you only have room for two or three cards in sli.
SR-2 Workarounds:
If you really need usb 3.0, use a pci-e card for it. For 90% of what I do, I don’t. If I’m moving massive amounts of data, I use DAS/SAS on my Acera.
Get an Acera, LSI Fastpath, ect! Or be cheap and get a pci-e based ssd. Can’t beat bursts of 3.8gb/s and sustained 1.2gb/s. I added a intel expander and now I’ve got 28 ports to play with and I still have a DAS port to spare.
Enable the power stuff so you get idle clocks. For me than means sometimes it will try to turbo up to 4.4ghz, but my dual 220mm rads handle it. I just get a little nervous with the cpu gets up to 80c.

I've had two SR-2 boards, and I beg to differ. Its luck of the draw I guess? I got my boards used off ebay. I've found a quality power supply makes all the difference with the SR-2, or any overclocked dully. Both SR-2 ran at 200 fsb 100% stable. And by 100% stable, I mean I folded 24/7 cpu and gpu, plus did the Prime95, Memtest, and all the other utility's that are out there.
 
One I burned out the audio, and passed off to my brother as he uses an usb headset anyway. It folded for two years at 200x16+1 (turbo) with a pair of e5520 chips. And at was completely at stock voltages for everything, even the cpu. Now he runs it at 180x16+1 because he runs air and 1333mhz ram. I'm not so nice of a brother as to give him my water :-p
 
The other I still run as my desktop, but just upgraded to x5650 chips from e5520 as above. I have to volt up the chips a little, otherwise once again stock voltages for the motherboard. This I also ran folding 24/7, and have run terabytes thru the southbrige/network with no problems, plus ran raid cards, sound cards, network cards, and sli.
 
Just because you have never gotten it personally, does not mean it is not possible. I once ran a Asus PC-DL for my desktop. I had a pair of 2.4 Prestona xeons at 3.4ghz 24/7. While tweaking I got that board up to 275x12fsb for a few days, but most of the time ran it at 200x17 for better ram performance. Look on 2cpu and you will find that was fast for a 875p canterwood dully. I only got 216fsb out of my iWill DH800 with the same chips. 
 
Have you tried other power supplies? I run a seasonic 850, but could not do it with a PP&C 750.  
Do you run water? I run dual 220mm rads with astek pump-blocks on dedicated loops.
Have you replaced the goo under the heat chipset heatsinks? Helps with every motherboard.
Does it go away if you change to only 6 dimms? If I run the ram faster than 8-8-8-21@1600 I loose dimms.
Bios? I run A56
 
I dunno. That seems odd you can't get to 200fsb on it. Best of luck :-)
 
 
 

You really cannot expect the CPUs to stay cool under full 24/7 load without liquid cooling.  (aside from running stock that is)
The board itself (chipset, NF200, VRMs) really benefits from a full cover cooler as well.  Nateman's actually looks incredible with full copper.
My two sets of 5690s hit 4.5GHz with no problem.  And when I test for stability I just don't test for 12 or 24 hours!  I've left it running for weeks and not had an issue.  Typically use OCCT and LinX.  Newest version of Prime95 on small FFT really heats up close to LinX levels but never had any issues either.  Running X5690s at 180x25, 4.5GHz.  All DIMMs filled (48GB) with 1T even!  No problem.
Does suck the power though.  Using an Areca ARC1882ix-24 with a variety of SSDs and conventional 15K SAS drives as well.  Using a pair of liquid cooled Titan Blacks at 1.3GHz/7GHz (custom BIOS) that can loop any benchmark or fold for weeks on end.  My PSUs are dated Antec HCP1200s (two of them, one just powering the motherboard and the other powers GPUs and chassis).  My cooling is completely external featuring four MORA 140x9 RADs in a cube with an Iwaki RD30 pushing everything.  Water temp is the same as room temp!  CPUs under full load never go higher than 30 degrees above ambient.  Ambient temp in room 20C, CPU temp 50, for example.  GPU temps even more impressive, closer to 20 degrees above ambient, so in that case around 40C and that's full load for days!  But without AC in the room, it will get hot.  Keeps it nice and cozy in the winter though.
 
I'm sorry to see that Intel locked the S2011 Xeons.  That killed any desire for the SR-X for me.
 
While it's certainly no "green" platform, it can still flex its muscles for rendering.
 
I've tried upping the RAM but having weird POST issues at times (96GB) or missing RAM was too much of a PIA to mess with considering the system was running perfect otherwise.  It would be nice to have a system with more memory support in the future when it's needed, etc.
 
My SR-2 did die on me about a month ago and I had to RMA the board.  The RMA process was painless but having a fully liquid cooled system (which otherwise was running perfect!) to tear down was a PIA.  I have the replacement board back and am happy to say that it has no problem using the BIOS settings I had saved from the prior one and has passed my stability tests so far! :)  I was scared I'd get one that would have issues with those clocks.  The board looks brand new too, I know what to look for on these things as far as 'em being used and this replacement is spot on!  Kudos to EVGA!
 
My preliminary tests just have the CPUs liquid cooled ONLY, chipset still stock but I put a fan on the CPU0 VRM because it gets bloody hot running Linpack!
Today it gets the MIPS full cover chipset block installed and back in the chassis she goes!  Have to make a trip to Walmart to stock up on distilled water.  The system takes 3 gallons to fill.