i7 920 or 2x xeon E5430 for rendering, visualization

[Koza43]

First, I want to tell you that I've never seen this kind of forum. It's really eye friendly and all threads & topics are in the best order. For someone new on this forum it's easy to navigate & orientate.

 

I'm working on Autocad,Adobe suite programs, but mostly 3dsmax. What I'm worried about is which processor(s) would be better for rendering & workstation; core i7 920 or dual quad core Xeon E5430 (Harpertown). I don't really know what is the difference between i7's 4physical+4logical throught HT and 8 physical which offer two Xeons. I'm reading on other forums and they said it's equal. But how can i7 use other 4 logical if it is using 100% of his physical power?

I don't know which would be better solution: i7 or xeon? I use laptop at the moment for all my programs (toshiba satellite pro A200-1MI). I really need one desktop/workstation which can do things that my laptop isn't capable.

I'm not considering of Gainestown on Nehalem architecture because it's a little expensive for me. Only if I go with one core today and second upgrade later.

 

i7 would be:

 

MBO: Asus P6T deluxe v2

CPU: Intel i7 920

RAM: Corsair DDR3 6gb kit (3x2Gb) ; upgrade later

GPU: not sure (ATI or NVIDIA) if ATI then HD4770 512Mb

PSU: Antec Earth Watts 650 W

HDD: 1x WD Caviar Black 500Gb + 1x Caviar Green 500Gb

 

Xeon would be:

 

MBO: ASUS DSEB-DG/SAS (i really like supermicro MBOs but there isn't any of them in local stores).

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon (Harpertown) E5430

RAM: Transcend 8gb 4x2Gb

PSU: maybe the same as for i7

HDD: same as i7

 

From last computer i have 4U rack case with watercooling GPU + CPU.

If anyone can tell me advantage of Xeon's on Nehalem architecture, I'll be thankful since LGA 771 goes into past.

 

Sorry for the long post and i hope you can give me some answers about my doubts.

Best regards from sunny Croatia! :-)

[eye-kon]

Hi there,

 

1- the best thing you could do is upload a test-scene and ask people to give you rendering time results with these processors.

2- Keep in mind that the i7 can be easily overclocked ( with the right components and air cooling) from 2.66ghz to 3.5 and even 4ghz.

Being a new member I am unable to paste a website link , but we have in the UK an online shop that sells overclocked bundles and systems and that could help you choose the components that can give good and stable results. If you need more help on that point, post your email.

 

Hope it helps

 

ps: be very careful with teh components you pick with the dual-xeon option: the RAM have to be ECC and very few power-supplies work with the xeon Motherboards ( and Ive got a feeling the earth-watts wont work)....

[Koza43]

Thanks eye-kon for quick reply. I've decided to go for i7 architecture for now. (also reading Greg Hess post from Tim in Hollywood topic "i7 vs Dual Quad Core Xeon?"; one marked with "?"). Better for now to save some money for the future Xeons. I already have watercooling and think I'm pretty good at Overclocking. Guess I'll find stable frequencies at i7. :-)

 

Thanks again.

[beestee]

You can get to 3.2 Ghz with the i7 very very easily...and honestly the only real benefits you get from overclocking the i7 is in very CPU intensive situations(like rendering or encoding video). The i7 920 screams right along even at it's default 2.66 Ghz.

[BOXXLABS]

I'll share that our internal testing shows that pretty much ALL CPU-bound processing tasks will enjoy a performance boost on an overclocked system equal to roughly the % that the CPU's core clock or multiplier has been increased over stock speeds. This applies to both single-threaded and multithreaded operations and applications.

 

Performance will scale pretty "linearly" until either the speed of the system's RAM holds up "traffic" and becomes the bottleneck for your application -or the CPU has reached its overclocking potential.

 

The most noticeable gain will be in single-threaded operations. In all your software apps, this includes simple GUI operations, loading/unloading files, and most other calculations being performed by 2D/3Dapps. These tasks being excellerated is the big primary contributor to the quicker "seat-of-the-pants" feeling and extra performance you get working on the OC'd machine.

 

Multithreaded operations such as rendering and solving physics/FEA/particles/etc. also benefit to the same margin in extra performance, although those operations typically are time-consuming anyway and the extra speed isn't neccesarilly felt as much.

 

If you spend a ton of time in multithreaded modes of operation, or if you do lots of multiprocessing/background processing, then you should probably consider a dual/quad Xeon instead of an overclocked i7...it's be faster.

 

for what it's worth...

 

Adam

BOXXlabs

[beestee]

Very good to know, and nice of you to share your findings!

 

All I know is that the i7 920 at stock speed blows everything else I have ever used out of the water. I can't say I could really feel the difference after the 20% overclock, although that seems enough that it should have been noticable. Maybe that experience was simply just diminished by what felt like a 400% performance spike just by switching to the i7.

 

I guess my point is that with the i7, overclocked or not, it is a very refreshing experinece in my years of computing.

[Tim Fairbanks]

I built a system around a Core i7 920 in March, and I would recommend it for a high performance rendering processor. There are times when I'm surfing or working on a document and completely forget that I'm rendering on all 8 cores in the "background". Multi-tasking with the Core i7 is THAT good.

 

I'm not very adept at overclocking, but I've got my Core i7 920 overclocked to 3451MHz with a Noctua heatsink/fan, and it's rock-solid stable. The Noctua is almost entirely silent (with 2 fans) and keeps processor temps at about 60-degrees C when rendering full throttle. That's only a few degrees hotter than with the Intel stock heatsink when the CPU is idling.

 

The 30 percent O.C. DOES make a difference in rendering times. If the CPU is kept cool, it's a very nice way to reduce rendering times. Reduced rendering times reduces production time, and/or allows the artist to test-render faster and improve the quality of the final renderings.

 

One problem with overclocking X58-based motherboards is that most of them have problems with Sleep mode when overclocked. The PC just doesn't wake-up after it's gone to sleep. Has something to do with the memory powering down I think. It's kind of a hassle, but personally, I decided it was worth the 30 percent overclock.

 

Also be aware that older versions of Adobe Photoshop and Creative Suite (e.g. CS3) will not work with the Core i7!

 

 

TimF

http://www.geometrikstudio.com

[Koza43]

Thanks guys. I'm really thankful for all infos you shared. I think for now one i7 will satisfy my needs in rendering & visualization... For everything else there's mastercar... oh, I mean laptop :-).

thanks again eye-kon,beestee,BOXXLABS (really good explanation ;-)),TimF

 

@ TimF : The problem with waking up OC'ed i7 existed on historical(read fossil) s478, too.

 

I'll keep browsing this forum. It's plenty of good topics.

 

Best regards.

[cadmunkey]

Also be aware that older versions of Adobe Photoshop and Creative Suite (e.g. CS3) will not work with the Core i7!

Tim, just for reference I use CS3 on my i7..

[Archiform 3D]

Firstly, check out this web page: http://www.3dfluff.com/mash/cinebench/top.php

 

It is extremely helpful, using the the Cinebench application to do a real world test on hardware. Dont be misled, it doesn't matter if you run Cinema4D, this is completely relevant to all applications. The CB Dual column is the one you need to look at.

 

The i7 is pulling some very respectable numbers and I will definitely be doing my next render farm upgrade with them.

 

Now, more advice... I build my render farm with parts that I can buy in any computer store, which means Xeons are out. My workstations have Xeons but the render farm (apart from the rackmount cases) must be built from easily accessible parts. This philosophy has given me a lower cost farm with lots of power that can be fixed in an hour if something burns out. The rackmounts are used over and over again, so it's OK if they dont come from the local store.

 

Price-wise this works out very well. The RAM, Board, Processor, etc for a XEON box is down the Cinebench/Dollar ratio but the latest consumer processors are always good value.