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Core 2 Duo VS. Dual Core Xeon


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hello, i am ordering a new computer. the people at dell tell me that the dual core xeon is far superior in speed to the core 2 duo. another advantage would be that with the system that is built with the dual core xeon can be expanded to 2 processors. i have heard great things about the core 2 duo, and i have heard people say that the dual core xeon is junk. could someone please help me , i am a 3d artists but not very well versed in techincal computer jargon, so please simplify your answers. which on should i choose: core 2 duo or dual core xeon? thank you very kindly for any help you may provide.

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things don't look setteled yet

 

but look at these 2 benchmarks i just found

 

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/amd%20quad%20fx_11300611157/13591.png

 

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/misc/pdnbench200607.png

lower better

 

new stuff comming out and more tests to be done and looked at.

 

any choice you make will certianly blow your mind compared to anything from the past.

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The Dell people are trying to get you to pay more. Basically:

 

-Pentium 4, Pentium D and Xeon chips that do not have a 4-digit model number beginning with 51 or 53 are based on the obsolete "Netburst" technology and are crap.

-51xx Xeons are Xeon versions of Core2 Duo (dual core) CPUs.

-53xx Xeons are Xeon versions of Core2 Quad (quad core) CPUs.

 

A Xeon is not much faster, and in many cases not any faster at all, than a consumer version (Pentium or Core2) of the same generation with the same clock speed (the GHz number). For example, a Xeon 5150 is a dual-core 2.66GHz chip that is about equal in speed to a 2.66GHz Core2 Duo E6700.

 

A Xeon costs more than an equivalent Core2, and requires a more expensive motherboard and RAM, making the computer a good bit more expensive.

 

However, there are two advantages to the Xeon:

-You can get a dual-socket Xeon motherboard that allows two Xeons in one system. This is not to be confused with dual cores - you get that with either option, but with Xeons you can use two dual-core at a time for 4 cores total, or 2 quad-cores for 8 cores total. This is not possible with Core2 chips. (But two of those Xeon 5150 2.66GHz chips, 4 cores total, would not give you appreciably more speed than one Core2 Quad QX6700, 2.66GHz, 4-core chip, which is a much cheaper option.)

-Xeons systems, because they are sold as server or workstations systems, usually are built with better components.

 

So, unless you have some specific reason to buy Xeon, buy Core2. For example, if your budget is huge and you want the most power you can possibly get in one box, buy a system with two Xeon 53xx CPUs, which would be 8 cores total. But if you want to spend, say, $2000 and get the most you can for that, you should get a Core2.

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if ur going to make a high end core2duo machine with core2duo xtream edition processor. ill tell u to compare price with dual xeon 51** series.

 

 

 

core2duo X6800 (2.93 Ghz) = 999$

 

Xeon 5130 x 2 ( 2ghz X 2 ) = 316 x 2 (632$)

 

isnt that extra Ghz help on rendering time,,, ?

 

mother board and Ram 'll be costly than normal consumer products, but take a look on both rig and compare the price before u take a final decision..

 

take a look on this article, its little old but might be usefull,

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=2002&cid=2&pg=4

 

 

regards.

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The X6800 is at the crazy place on the price/performance curve - way at the end where the price shoots up and the performance goes up a little. Keep in mind that these are dual-core chips, so with the Core2 you've got 5.86GHz total and with the dual Xeon you've got 8GHz total. Also keep in mind that the Xeon motherboards cost more, and so does the RAM, so price out complete systems first.

 

But yes, the extra GHz would be helpful, depending on what software you use.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Andrew,

Since you're so hardware savvy, i sure would be great if you and/or someone else in these forums could maintain a simple page on this site (not a forum), where you recommend your top choice for a $1000 computer, $1500, and $2000 for 3D use. The same questions keep getting asked over and over and it would be cool to see what you guys thought was the latest and greatest out there. Nothing fancy, just the basic specs and a sentence or two about it.

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the concern i have is things are so dynamic and always changing and it would have to be a person keeping up such a project and doing allot of testing and that it may lean towards favoritism based on past experience, not everybody having the same ones

but overall generally i agree with the idea that we can help each other out by bringing what we know together to build more affordable powerful boxes.

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  • 1 year later...

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