• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Advice on dual xeon set up..

brobins

brobins

brobins

Associate
Joined
31 Aug 2006
Posts
43
Hi there!

I really need a bit of advice, I have not bought or built a PC for a good 10 years although I use one for work..

I really need to put myself together a good machine for home that can perform as close as possible to what I use for work..

My work machine is a Dual Xeon 6-Core 3.33Ghz, 24GB Ram, SSD, Top of the range Quadro etc etc.. Its a great system to use and obviously makes my home 27" iMac i7 feel a bit inadequate lol..

I have been looking into an Overclocked Dual Xeon machine for home. Dual Six Core would be brilliant but they look pretty pricey so I was thinking of something like a Six Core 2.4Ghz Xeon or maybe lower? And getting them clocked to as close to the work machine as possible? I have noticed that OC dont sell any 2.4 Six Core Xeon's, are these hard to come by? Do they clock well?

If anyone has any suggestions or advice I would be more than happy to hear it..

I am trying to build as good a machine as I can but am also conscious of the ££'s.. I think the machine at work was roughly £6000 and if I could spend half that and come out with something 'nearly' as good I would be a happy man..

Many Thanks,
 
If your looking to save some dosh and only get 1 processor installed in your system then you don't really need a Xeon processor; just get an i7 instead. It will be half the cost and just as good performance.
Plus the SR2 mobo is expensive!

If you really do need 2 processors though then you have no option but to go for a Xeon system.
What are you going to use the system for?
If your only gaming then the 2nd processor makes very little difference tbh.
 
Hi all.. Thanks for the info.

What does SR2 mean?

I work as a CGI Artist and produce images and animations for above the line advertising, tv and web. I primarily use a combination of 3ds Max, Maya, Vray, Photoshop and Nuke.. The machine at work does indeed render like a beast!

I think I have my mind made up about a dual xeon rig, I guess my main question is about the 2.4 6 core chips. As these are around £300 each I could probably build a good system for a good price. I am just curious as to how well the 2.4 Xeons overclock? Has anybody had any experience with them here?

Many thanks.

Ps, I am not a gamer and don't play games.
 
Ahh thanks for clearing that up for me. Heard good things about this board!

I think I am leaning towards the E5645 (2.4) chips and if I could run them happily at 3.33, the same as the work machine I would be extremely happy!!

What do you think?

Thanks,
 
The xeons will overclock well, and that board is made to overclock them.
24GB RAM should be doable.
It certainly has enough slots.
RAM is cheap at the moment as well.
 
Grand! That's what I wanted to hear..

Depending on price I may stick a bit less Ram in it but as you said, its cheap at the moment so maybe I should take advantage and just stick 24GB in.

Another thing I am curious about is upgrading in the future.

When 8 core or more Xeons are released are they likely to fit into the same motherboard or would we be talking about replacing the CPU's & Board together?
 
Are you certain that you don't require ecc ram, or any of the ecc related things the Xeon chips do that the consumer grade ones don't?

An overclocked consumer system is going to make minor mistakes more frequently than a good workstation will do. Does this matter?

With the exception of that evga board, overclocking a dual socket board isn't an option. They're not designed for it. A single six core chip will hit close to 5ghz, which will give a dual six core system at 2.4ghz a good run for its money.

A top of the range quadro will strip most of your 3k budget in one go as well, an fx5800 is around £2k iirc.
 
Last edited:
JonJ678 said:
Are you certain that you don't require ecc ram, or any of the ecc related things the Xeon chips do that the consumer grade ones don't?

An overclocked consumer system is going to make minor mistakes more frequently than a good workstation will do. Does this matter?

With the exception of that evga board, overclocking a dual socket board isn't an option. They're not designed for it. A single six core chip will hit close to 5ghz, which will give a dual six core system at 2.4ghz a good run for its money.

A top of the range quadro will strip most of your 3k budget in one go as well, an fx5800 is around £2k iirc.
Click to expand...


Hey, thanks for your reply..

I am not certain of anything really, as I said I've been out the PC game for a long time but I noticed OcUK do an over-clocked Dual Xeon 2.66 bundle here without ecc rated Ram so I can only assume you don't need it.

What do you mean about it making minor mistakes? Crashes and things?

Also, I wont be buying a Quadro for this machine! I really don't need one, I decent Geforce will be absolutely fine for me but certainty not a top of the range one as I don't play games at all and what I use at the moment does me for my 3D.. Its more rendering power I lack at the moment and require, the more 'buckets' the better!

Am I right in thinking that a dual six core system over clocked to 3.33 / 4.00 is going to be quicker than any single six core system for rendering?

Thanks
 
You don't need ecc ram to overclock the xeon's, but you may need it for the computational work you're doing. I don't mean crashes as such, there is an error rate associated with calculations on computers. Some information is lost in the repeated binary to decimal conversions, and ones and zeros get flipped unintentionally. This might be irrelevent or it might make absolute stabilty, complete with error correcting code, necessary for your application. I don't know enough about CGI work to guess.

I suggest you check with some of the IT guys at your work before buying anything, it would be a terribly shame if your very, very fast new computer produces results which are considered too unreliable for use.

Two six core chips at 4ghz will indeed tear through code faster than any single six core chip going.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom