Quad vs. Dual Quad

[Tim Saunders]

I recently made a purchase for a rendering node and in my hasty research, I didn't even read up on what I ordered. I figured a Core 2 Quad was a dual quad--not the case.

 

Anyway, I purchased the following:

 

Dell Precision T3400

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40ghz

8GB of RAM

 

I use Windows xp64 and Max 2008 with Vray. Since it is just a rendering node, I didn't get anything else that really matters.

 

Is it worth it, or is there any benefit of swapping it for the following (for roughly the same cost):

 

Dell Precision T7400

Intel Quad Core Xeon E5420 @ 2.50ghz

Intel Quad Core Xeon E5420 @ 2.50ghz

4GB of RAM (it apears 8 isn't available for this model)

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Hazdaz]

I recently made a purchase for a rendering node and in my hasty research, I didn't even read up on what I ordered. I figured a Core 2 Quad was a dual quad--not the case.

 

Anyway, I purchased the following:

 

Dell Precision T3400

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40ghz

8GB of RAM

 

I use Windows xp64 and Max 2008 with Vray. Since it is just a rendering node, I didn't get anything else that really matters.

 

Is it worth it, or is there any benefit of swapping it for the following (for roughly the same cost):

 

Dell Precision T7400

Intel Quad Core Xeon E5420 @ 2.50ghz

Intel Quad Core Xeon E5420 @ 2.50ghz

4GB of RAM (it apears 8 isn't available for this model)

 

Thanks for any advice.

Somethings not adding up in my mind....

You are telling us that a dual processor (quad-core Xeons x2) cost the same as a single processor quad-core (Core2Quad chip)??

 

8 cores will almost always render faster than 4 cores (not counting some extreme cases).

[Slinger]

You will see a benefit from going with the Xeon as it is a 45nm cpu, where as the Q6600 is the older 65nm. The Xeon has 12mb L2 cache where the Q6600 has only 8mb L2 cache. The Xeon runs cooler and uses less wattage then the Q6600.

Overall it is a newer more efficient chip with more cache and speed. I'd go for it.

 

ALso you can OC the proc. by dl'ing a little program

 

 

BTW, How did you spec a T3400 with 8gigs of ram when on Dell's site the max is 4gigs?

[AJLynn]

Like he said, better CPUs and twice as many. The question being, are you okay with paying a second time to get that?

[Tim Saunders]

You're right. The quote I was looking at must be out of date. We must have picked this one up for $1000 less than what i was expecting--I just re-ran the configuration with a q6600.

 

I'm not sure how we got 8gb of RAM. My IT guy ordered it, and it has it.

 

As far as spending the money, I'm not sure. I may be able to get them to just give it to a CAD guy or something. I just wanted to see if it was worth the hastle of convinving them that we should do it.

 

I already have the cost (roughly $3000 ok'd), not to spend a second time, but if we can use the Q6600 elsewhere, we should be fine to get a Xeon.

[F J]

You will see a benefit from going with the Xeon as it is a 45nm cpu, where as the Q6600 is the older 65nm. The Xeon has 12mb L2 cache where the Q6600 has only 8mb L2 cache. The Xeon runs cooler and uses less wattage then the Q6600.

Overall it is a newer more efficient chip with more cache and speed. I'd go for it.

 

right! the fact of the 45nm transistor technology + larger L2 cache is what REALLY gives this system the efficient/effective advantage, not the fact that its 2 CPU's versus 1 CPU!

 

 

Is it worth it, or is there any benefit of swapping it for the following (for roughly the same cost):

 

a single of those Xeon's is almost twice as expensive than the Q6600 (not to mention dedicated dual-socket motherboard, as well as dedicated RAM)..

if money is really not a factor go ahead n get ur Xeon 'gourmet', otherwise u can save up n get ur Q6600 render nodes (as many as needed)..

as for the 45nm benefits u might wanna swap the Q6600 for a nice Q9450..

 

u can either have all that Xeon 'horse power' under the same hood, or u can have an equal amount of power under 2 hoods, or more as power is needed (u might have seen Tom Livings' render farm setup?)..

 

PS: a C2Q seems like a bit of overkill for a CAD guy

[Tim Saunders]

Thanks everyone. I may see if I can sell the idea. Some (at least 20) of our cad guys are pretty involved in failry heavy sketchup modeling, so a step up from the other CAD stations may go over okay.

 

I'll cross my fingers.

 

As far as setting up a farm, I don't really need that. All I do is high resolution stills. Yeah, distributed rendering is an option, but that is rarely stable for me. I want the power "under one hood."

[Slinger]

Remember though the hard sale for quad cores on sketch-up is that sketch-up can only utilize one core...hopefully sketch-up 7 will deal with this issue.

 

However, I have noticed that if they use Podium to render there sketch-up scenes that Podium distributes the workload over all 4 cores....who knows if its a bug or now but it does and I have seen a difference in rendering times at home on my Q6600 based machine vs. my work machines D950 dual core

[AJLynn]

Some people from another firm we worked on a project with used Podium. With multiple people doing parts of the Sketchup project and ridiculous render times. By far the worst 3D project I've ever seen. Is it possible to get Podium to do presentable work?

[Tim Saunders]

Our Sketchup use is 90% for design use. Any presentation work they have done with sketchup has been satisfied with simply exporting the 2d image--no special rendering.

[Slinger]

Some people from another firm we worked on a project with used Podium. With multiple people doing parts of the Sketchup project and ridiculous render times. By far the worst 3D project I've ever seen. Is it possible to get Podium to do presentable work?

You tell me? http://www.suplugins.com/gallery/index.html Remember that this is a program directly linked to sketch-up, which is a very user-friendly program. For $180 you can have Podium and free google sketchup and bust out some renderings. We use it in our office b/c you get the realism you need and in a very quick time frame.

 

 

Yes, you just have to know the program really well. If people use Podium, I would go to http://www.suplugins.com for any questions.

[katkatemos]

Core 2 quad

 

I think that sketchup is really good for schematic and for rush projects. Different companies are trying to develop rendering plug-ins to make sketchup projects photo-realistic. My preference would be v-ray. But if your going to do large and complex projects, and render them later, better stick with 3dsmax or other modeling and rendering softwares as such. Sketchup can be really heavy on your pc.

[AJLynn]

The ones on the first page of the interior with the sofa actually are pretty good.

[Andrew Roane]

Hey Tim, back to your original question. I'm not an IT guy, I know very little about the guts of a computer. The company I work for has a handful of dedicated rendering nodes, and we use Max 2008 and Vray 1.5 to render. We just upgraded two of our nodes to (2) Xeon quad-cores...they are WAY faster than our older quad core nodes. I also have a Q6600 chip w/ 4 gigs RAM on my local machine, and the new nodes can finish a 2500x1875 pixel image in less than half the time it takes my machine. I would highly recommend getting the other computer if you can, you won't regret it. Hopefully this helps.

[Antisthenes]

i am in the same situation

 

i am waiting for the 45nm (non Xeon) chips for the Maximus Formula board to upgrade.