i7 950 or SB 2600k Platform for FEA and other scientific calculations

I'm building a new system, mostly for running engineering structural analyses (finite element analysis, which basically involves sparse matrix solution) the odd bit of Matlab, etc.

It was going to be an i7-950 and I actually bought a lot of the parts pre-VAT rise, but they're still new and in their boxes. Looking at benchmarks for newly released SB 2600k, it looks to wipe the floor with the i7-950 on a lot of things, though I don't know what benchmarks relate to what I'll be using it for?

It's a ~£600 system, and changing to SB will cost me ~£75. Worth it if it doubles the performance in the applications I use, but probably not worth it if the performance difference is marginal.

Anyone able to tell me which benchmarks are relevant, and whether it's worth the upgrade?

Thanks!

I would get the Core i7 2600 unless you want to overclock. TBH,for important work related stuff I would not overclock a CPU anyway.

You can get an H67 motherboard too as these tend to be cheaper than P67 motherboards and you can use Quick Sync too unless you get a dedicated graphics card.

I can't really help on the benchmarks front, but I would still expect the i7 2600 to be faster in pretty much everything. The only reason to stick with the i7 950 isn't actually the chip, but the motherboard, if you anticipate utilising peripherals that have high bandwidth requirements (accelerator cards, SSD etc.), or if you have >16GB ram requirements.

Looking at this bechmarking
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...&limitstart=13
The SB is faster in just about every measure.

Whether the software is SMP capable or not I suspect the higher clocked 2600k would take the lead or at least be as fast as the 950.

I recall some FEA packages are specifically licensed restricting the use of SMP to a number of threads (e.g. I think the student version of Ansys only makes use of 1 core), if such restrictions are in place the 2600k would certainly be faster.

However, if the FEA package you have is fully SMP capable then the 1366 platform may make some sense, this way you may upgrade to a 6 core.

Many thanks for the replies.

Although the FEA software is capable of running multithreaded, I don't foresee un upgrade to 6 core if I go with an X58 platform - the 980X is more than I'm spending for the entire system and I doubt it wil be dropping to anywhere near current 950 prices!

It looks like SB is the better way to go for me, as I don't need the extra PCI-e bandwidth of the X58 platform (only running a single graphics card), and the dual channel memory of SB doesn't seem to have reduced the memory bandwidth compared to the X58.

I'd better get on the phone then...

- Stuart

Are you overclocking?? If not get the cheaper Core i7 2600 and not the 2600K.

ooooh, I smell dodgy industry leading software napped from lads in the engineering rooms! :D. What programs are you using? I hammered my PC with Hypermesh & Catia on a regular basis!

edit: and this post is about staying on topic & what an off topic post may look like! Stay alert folks, these friendly community warnings don't come around very often! :woowoo:

Abaqus, and it is a local install that connects to the University license server via PuTTy (and you need a university login to access). Matlab too (same remote access to license server setup).

I happen to know the Abaqus rep personally and I think he would be mighty peeved if I was running a dodgy copy.

But back on topic - what do you think the Sb vs Bloomfield performance will be like on these packages?

- Stuart

Closest I can get to answering my own question...

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=9

...showing SB 2600 is quite a bit faster at solving a CFD problem. Mathematically this should be reasonably similar to FEA.

from what i understand, 2nd generation core products are clock for clock a huge improvement over gen 1 products, with added bonus of being more 'futureproof' and more power efficient
definitely worth it

Yes, decided to go for the 2600k SB build.

Put up some pics when your done :D