Daul Xeons

[STRAT]

I've read the other xeon related posts, but thought i needed some more points addressed.

 

We're seriously considering a major 'pute up-date for me in work in the next 2 weeks or so to cope with a couple of large 3d jobs on the horizon.

 

so after getting advice from a couple of ppl i've been told about the xeon dual workstations. and they look super sweet, if a tad expensive.

 

the one hi-lited in red is what im interested in, and after V.A.T. it's knocking on £2.5K which isn't too bad considering -

 

 

but i'm curious about actually how fast these xeon chips actually are. for instance -

 

1) would a single fast processing xeon be faster than a dual p4?

 

2) any bench tests out there you know of?

 

3) even the slow speed xeons, are they much faster than fast p4's?

 

basically we cant afford the fastest pc known to man, but do want a blistering fast on (probably dual) at a not breaking the bank price.

 

have any of you guys any experiance with them?

 

[ January 15, 2003, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ]

[@lkion O]

Hello STRAT,

are you sure you want to buy those Xeon ones?Surely they are great no one doubts that but please do have a look at these benchmarks. I hope they might help you. These benchmarks are from the amd site where the compare mps with xeons. The comparison is between mps 2400 and xeons 2400.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_1278_6291%5e2003,00.html?redir=CPWS1Arks

People also await the mp 2800 in 2003 with l2 cache of 512 k on chip

http://www.geek.com/procspec/amd/k7mp_13.htm

 

 

Hope i'll save you some money.Thank you

 

 

If other people are paying for you then get the expensive ones:)

[Greg Hess]

1) would a single fast processing xeon be faster than a dual p4?

 

No such thing as a Dual P4. The multiprocessor version of the P4 is the Xeon.

 

2) any bench tests out there you know of?

 

I'm currently benchmarking a Dual Xeon system from boxxtech. See the thread below this one (2400+ MP vs 2.8B Xeon)

 

even the slow speed xeons, are they much faster than fast p4's?

 

Xeon's are the same speed as P4's. Its virtually the same chip, biggest differences lies in the fact the Xeon's can run in dual and quad configurations, and have some server based optimizations. I believe aceshardware.com had a more indepth article on them, I'm not really up to date on internal architecture differences.

 

basically we cant afford the fastest pc known to man, but do want a blistering fast on (probably dual) at a not breaking the bank price.

 

Then your either looking at a 2400+ MP system, or a Dual 2.4B [socket 604] Xeon system. Both use DDR, which substaintally reduces the price of the system. Unfortuantly due to the server nature of Xeon's, the Power supply + Motherboard usually accounts for almost 650 USD of the cost.

 

have any of you guys any experiance with them?

 

I have one right here strat. And I've got copies of viz 3, 4, lightscape, max3, max4, max5, lw, with maya and xsi on the way. I'm also a registered vray user. Just give me a test to run, and I'll be happy to run it for you.

 

Current Specs of the Boxxtech System....

 

SuperMicro X5DAE E7505 Motherboard

(533 FSB, DC-DDR)

2 x 2.8B Socket 604 Xeon's

2x 1.0 Gig PC2100 Registered ECC DDR

Quadro 900XL

 

Current CPU Temps after rendering for the 72 hour stress test....

 

CPU1: 40C

CPU2: 38C

 

Idle temps:

CPU1: 32C

CPU2: 33C

 

Boxxtech rocks.

 

My email's crossbow@3dluvr.com if you want to send me a specific scene.

 

Oh and btw, HP and Compaq are ASS for workstations. I'd avoid them like the plague.

 

[ January 15, 2003, 05:52 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

[quizzy]

>>>>Oh and btw, HP and Compaq are ASS for workstations. I'd avoid them like the plague.

 

Why greg??

[Greg Hess]

Why greg??

 

HP and Compaq machines are among the most horrid computers to ever work on. Most admin's will cringe if you bring a malfunctioning Compaq to them. Why is this?

 

Compaq is reknown for making up their own standards. They devise their own "unique" case designs, power supplies, and motherboards, which virtually no one else uses, or cares to use. Opening up an average consumer level compaq machine immediately causes one to wonder WTF they were thinking upon constructing it. As it looks more like computers or yesteryear, with poor design sense, and horrid construction. It feels cheap and plastic.

 

I get upset just talking about them heh.

 

On average with a Compaq/HP machine you can expect...

 

Less stability.

Compatibility problems.

Poor and non existent support.

 

If something sounds cheap...sometimes its because it is.

 

Btw...on a side note, dell has recently in the past 6 months announced that they to will begin using their own ATX standard.

[Jeff Mottle]

Btw...on a side note, dell has recently in the past 6 months announced that they to will begin using their own ATX standard.

Do you have a link to this announcment Greg?

[dwright]

Xeons are great if you want to have a server responding to a huge amount of "http" type requests (for example, a regular -4 may respond differently and perhaps time out quicker; on FPU based operations, both are same.

 

We have multiple AMD's for rendering, and some P4's, honestly, I prefer AMD based for core intense mathematical rendering since P4 relies on SSE2 optimizations. An example, LS will go way faster on AMD than P4 for the same reason.

[Greg Hess]

Hey Jeff,

 

http://www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com/articles/upgrade3_01_01.asp

 

Here's one of the 2002 announcements.

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=3301

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=3243

 

http://www.hardwareguys.com/dellwarn.html

 

Dell systems use non industry standard ATX plugs, and their motherboards don't like normal ATX powersupplies. Some of their case designs also do not allow for non dell motherboards to be mounted, without modification.

 

Its the power/mboard thing that makes it bad though. As its likely that specific agp/pci cards designed around the industry ATX standard could/might have trouble in a system not adhering to this standard.