two Xeon 1230v3?

[xjapanese]

Hi Guys,

 

I am purchasing one xeon1230v3 for my machine and the question comes:

 

what motherboard can host two of those.Is it possible and worth doing it guys.

 

Thanks!

[numerobis]

The xeon1230v3 is only for single CPU boards.

 

For a dual CPU mainboard you need the E5 Xeons with a product number starting with "2" (Xeon E5-26xx) which are much more expensive.

(E3-1xxx for single, E7-4xxx for quad socket)

Edited April 3, 2014 by numerobis

[xjapanese]

I see thanks a lot! so maybe two machines with vray spawner

[Dimitris Tolios]

I see thanks a lot! so maybe two machines with vray spawner

 

Yes, you cannot combine more than one Xeons on s1150 platform that is strictly for 1 CPU.

Even on a dual s2011, you will need the E5-2xxx models as numerobis mentioned. Be careful cause there are E5-1xxx versions that would not work on a 2P board, much like s2011 i7 CPUs.

[dennisbeswick]

You can check out some motherboards that support dual Xeon cpu setup over at Supermicro. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/

 

I'm working with one in a studio. The only drawback for me is whoever built it was obviously making a server. It was just sitting there collecting dust so I decided to stick a GTX 760 card in there and use it. The only drawback is that the processors are only 2.2GHz but it has 8 cores (2 quadcores). It inspired me to make such a workstation for my next rig but I want to get faster processors. Hyperthreading is not important to me though. While we're here, what are the best quad core dual Xeon setups for 3D work?

[xjapanese]

thasnk Dimitris.What about xeon 5650 and EVGA classified SR-2 They could be two of those on that motherboard correct? ...the other question is if you want the power of two 3930k what is the cheapest way to go if you want only one maschine

[Dimitris Tolios]

There is no way for dual 3930K/4930K or any current i7. This feature is locked out of all non E5-2xxx (or better) Xeons.

 

So you have to go with E5-2xxx, which doesn't come nearly as cheap.

 

The "cheapest" approach in this case, with similar single threaded performance and easily double the performance of a 3930K/4930K 1P system, would be:

 

Mobo: Asus Z9PE-D8 WS. This is the most "enthousiast" oriented dual s2011 board. There are other choice which are more "server" oriented. No performance difference really as all are based on the C602 chipset , and all have more than enough features for the average workstation.

 

There are cheaper choices, but in the bigger picture saving $50-100 on the board won't really save you from the real wallet pain: the CPUs.

 

CPU: The choices of fast base clock E5-2xxx's are roughly:

 

1) Xeon E5-2687W v2 - $2,200 * 2- 3,4GHz -4.0 Turbo Ivybridge Octa-core. Massively fast, expensive, the fastest E5-2xxx v2. Will be faster than a 3930K in single and 2.5-3x in multithreaded.

2) Xeon E5-2687W $1850 * 2 - 3.1GHz Sandybridge Octa-Core. The fastest E5-2xxx of its era with price to match. Replaced by the above. Still 3930K performance (3.2GHz base) single threaded, and 2.5x the multithreaded give or take. Overkill price, but...fast.

3) Xeon E5-2667 v2 $1700 * 2 - 3.3GHz - 4.0 Turbo Ivybridge Octa-core. A "watered down" version of the 2687W v2. It is the best value in v2 Xeons for workstations. Practically as fast as the 2687W v2, faster than the 1st gen 2687W. Hard to find in stock.

4) Xeon E5-2680V2 - $1800 * 2 - 2.8GHz - 3.6GHz Turbo Ivy bridge "deca-core" (Yes, 10x). That lil gem is Jurajs choice. Pretty good value for superior multithreaded performance. A 2P system with those will be in the 3* 3930K range easily.

5) Xeon E5-2643 v2 $2000+ * 2 - 3.5GHz - 3.8Ghz Turbo Ivy bridge Hex-core. I don't know what to think of that. Doesn't worth it really, as it is more expensive than the 2667V2 for no real single thread advantage and notably slower multi-threaded. The faster turbo speeds of the octa-cores will probably out-weight the base clock advantage making this CPU slower in single threaded...meh. Not recommended imho.

6) There are the 12C v2s too, but the massive price and slower clocks make them better for server or rendering nodes, and its hard to beat the 2680 in value for money unless you are really space limited or hate to have 20% more boxes to manage in large farms. Not as good workstation chips imho - I would prefer something with better single threaded from the choices above.

 

* Bare with me linking Amazon.com and referring to its prices. I know prices will vary in EU or other areas, but its a solid reference.

 

For the rest, there is a pretty recent thread giving you lots of info: http://forums.cgarchitect.com/75929-planning-my-new-workstation-your-opinions.html#post388858

[RyderSK]

 

Mobo: Asus Z9PE-D8 WS. This is the most "enthousiast" oriented dual s2011 board. There are other choice which are more "server" oriented. No performance difference really as all are based on the C602 chipset , and all have more than enough features for the average workstation.

 

There are cheaper choices, but in the bigger picture saving $50-100 on the board won't really save you from the real wallet pain: the CPUs.

 

CPU: The choices of fast base clock E5-2xxx's are roughly:

 

1) Xeon E5-2687W v2 - $2,200 * 2- 3,4GHz -4.0 Turbo Ivybridge Octa-core. Massively fast, expensive, the fastest E5-2xxx v2. Will be faster than a 3930K in single and 2.5-3x in multithreaded.

2) Xeon E5-2687W $1850 * 2 - 3.1GHz Sandybridge Octa-Core. The fastest E5-2xxx of its era with price to match. Replaced by the above. Still 3930K performance (3.2GHz base) single threaded, and 2.5x the multithreaded give or take. Overkill price, but...fast.

3) Xeon E5-2667 v2 $1700 * 2 - 3.3GHz - 4.0 Turbo Ivybridge Octa-core. A "watered down" version of the 2687W v2. It is the best value in v2 Xeons for workstations. Practically as fast as the 2687W v2, faster than the 1st gen 2687W. Hard to find in stock.

4) Xeon E5-2680V2 - $1800 * 2 - 2.8GHz - 3.6GHz Turbo Ivy bridge "deca-core" (Yes, 10x). That lil gem is Jurajs choice. Pretty good value for superior multithreaded performance. A 2P system with those will be in the 3* 3930K range easily.

5) Xeon E5-2643 v2 $2000+ * 2 - 3.5GHz - 3.8Ghz Turbo Ivy bridge Hex-core. I don't know what to think of that. Doesn't worth it really, as it is more expensive than the 2667V2 for no real single thread advantage and notably slower multi-threaded. The faster turbo speeds of the octa-cores will probably out-weight the base clock advantage making this CPU slower in single threaded...meh. Not recommended imho.

 

 

 

 

 

There is currently a big problem with getting these Xeon family (which is quite odd) in Europe for smaller end-clients, lifting prices of certain models into incorrect state.

 

E5-2643 v2 $1,451.19

 

Here's link to Amazon from same dealer as the above 2667 v2. There should be in fact a 400 euros price difference per each CPU in favour of 2643 v2 not oppositely, which does make it imho a good contender in performance/value range.

 

It's listed as 1500 dollars per tray by Intel as well, compared to 2667 v2 listed as 2000 dollars. It ranges incredibly, which is quite surprising, but it's not shitty unit imho :- )

[Dimitris Tolios]

Could be. Didn't spent enough time to see the cheapest (apparently, thought I did ) just listed the 1st one.

So yea, this could be the cheapest "2* 4930K" solution =)

[xjapanese]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks very much for the in depth information.I really appreciate that! you saved me a lot of time!

I think my budget is way off the prices of the systems you have described in details.

Having said that I have one last thing to ask.I am sorry if my question had been asked before.

Using the information you have shared and research on the benchmarks on all the cpus that are normally compared what are the advantages of the system you have described.Let's take for example the cheapest x2 Xeon Dimitris mentioned.I am comparing the motherboard +cpu prices and consider what's left not to be of significanse as to the subject of comparison and 4 PC network system.I have taken 1230v3 as is best for price performance ( better than 4770k).

 

1.Singe PC system wit two ( x2) Xeons E5 2667-1700$ each and motherboard Asus Z9PE-D8 WS 500$

 

TOtal of : 3900$

Productivity* ( cpu scrote total ) : 32324 points

 

*( based on cpu benchmark taking into consideration the sandybridge lower performance compared to Haswell on vray,that is why I choose to compare 1230v3 configurations)

 

2. 4 PC-s boxes each 1230v3 Xeon 300$ plus motherboard basic 100$ in a net using vray network rendering. TOtal of : 1600$

 

Productivity* ( cpu scrote total ) : 38400 points

 

Now aparat from using more space 4 boxes what are the drawbacks for the work you do as price is more than double.

 

Thanks a lot!

[Dimitris Tolios]

Will be hard to put together a complete node with less than $550-600.

You need more cases, more psus, more HDDs and more RAM sticks to support multiple nodes.

So for 4* systems you are looking at a total of at least $2200-2400, not $1600. And that's without any software costs: windows - and in case of VRay - extra node licences.

 

PC-Foo "The less than $600 rendering node"

 

The obvious drawback is that you have to maintain and upkeep lots of nodes, that usually take more space, require a more cables running around, should you start expanding more expensive networking routers etc.

That's why Juraj - once business started picking up and his man-hours were too valuable to bother on saving few $100 here and there. This is highly dependent on your revenue ofc: providing services in certain regions might take a long time to save up this kind of money to invest in equipment, thus starting small with cheaper nodes is not a bad idea.

 

The positives are decent processing power per $ and redundancy (losing 1/4 nodes = you still have 3/4 of your processing power available).

[RyderSK]

consider what's left not to be of significanse as to the subject of comparison and 4 PC network system

 

Definitely not a good idea :- )

 

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Building cheap nodes makes sense to me as well, but only to certain threshold, I would say 6,maybe 8 for some people, boxes. Then it's just too much hassle to maintain by smaller offices. But what then ? It's not scalable forever, and maintaining anything further than that is quite painful.

 

Also, your price comparison is way off mark and unrealistic. You do actually have to compare full systems (with equal rendering capacity, so 32GB ram for all systems), with licences already. (Windows cost per licence, Vray already charges per node,etc..)

 

Here is absolutely rough math:

 

Dual Xeon of 5500+/- euros = 32 000 points // Includes 32GB ram, Windows8 Pro licence, Vray node licence /// 5.8 point of performance for 1 Euro or alternatively 0.1712 euro value for one point

 

1230v3 // 9000 points // Includes 32GB ram, HW included in above Dimitris's spec + Windows8 OEM Pro licence and Vray node /// HW now costs 750 euros (he has dollars, but you know the dollars/euro conversion when it comes to HW in Europe...it's 1:1 ) + 120 euros for Win + 250 euros for Vray Node (excluding package uprade) = 1120 Euros //// 8 point of performance for 1 euro or alternatively 0.125 euro value for one point

 

To summarise it as comparison : You're getting roughly 50 perc. better value deal with non-2p systems compared to 2p systems at median range (of course, it would rise to 100perc. if you take extreme models such as 2690v2, but then again, you could compare those to 4930k instead, going lower again).

 

And that accounds rather very cheap parts for nodes, so they would also be noisier, would not overclock (or overclock extremely badly), could not be upgraded easily to workstation if necessary and also cost more in electricity. Plus the time to maintain them and shorther moral lifespan.

 

It really isn't a clearcut division, there are so many aspects that can influence a choice between various systems. One should always do a big pros and con list, evaluate budget, consider the future,etc.. and then make a decision.

 

Outside of 2p systems built last week (aaalmost ready) I maintain few 4930k workstations. I even decided to not build any pure node, and instead, stacked them all as quite high-end workstations. My considerations were, that this way, they are much more universal in nature, can work both as workstation and node depending on time and use, and importantly have longer moral life-span which also correlates to higher residual value. Such computer can easier be upgraded, re-sold, or just given to somebody.

 

I am sorry for writting bit confusingly, I don't format my thoughts beforehand, just write as I mean it :- ) HW choice is such amazing but complicated feat, I can tell you it takes time to consider all things and make decision. I spent good deal of childhood building "virtual" machines on checker-box paper, because I couldn't own one (I think I over-compensate that slightly now heh)

Edited April 6, 2014 by RyderSK

[xjapanese]

Hi Guys,

 

Dimitris, Juraj thanks again!Right on the spot.. I entirely forgot the software in the picture yes!You are absolutely right!Loosing 1/4 of the power in the nodes was something else that I din't know!

I don't think there is anyhting more that has to be said after you explanations Juraj I think I need to practise mine on checker box paper too for a while

 

Thanks again guys!