Is it better to go for 2 Xeon x5650's or 1 x5690 for now ?

[sithlord3k]

Although I may be able to get another x5690 6-12 months down the line.

Main uses of pc will be 3D and graphics Design, with maybe a few games (WoW SWTOR etc).


Will also get:

either a GTX 590 or 1/2 GTX 580s
around 16-24GB RAM
1000w Corsair PSU
EVGA SR-2

Any advice on the other bits that I've listed ?

[redddraggon]

Xeons?

[sithlord3k]

Xeons?

Yep, sorry, should have listed that

[Skulltrail]

I would say go for the two 5650s now - you may not get the extra 5690, and if you don't the SR-2 is wasted, and I don't think the cost is worth the extra as when overclocked there will be only ~400-600MHz difference.

[sithlord3k]

Thanks.

Should a 1000w be enough to support:

2 xeons
2 gtx 580s
possibly 8 hdds (inc an ssd) ?

[CooperXS]

I see following solutions here:

1) get two E5645 six-core CPUs and overclock them on SR-2. You might be looking at 3.3-3.4 GHz range with decent cooling, skills and luck.
2) if you not willing to overclock...don't buy SR-2 Get much cheaper Tyan or Supermicro entry-level dual LGA1366 board and couple it with CPUs of your choice. I'd go with same six-core solution as 3D rendering prefers threads over frequencies. Besides fast Xeons are quite expensive.
3) Build a rendering farm out of cheap desktop Sandy Bridge platform. This ought to provide much greater performance/price ratio.

[sithlord3k]

I see following solutions here:

1) get two E5645 six-core CPUs and overclock them on SR-2. You might be looking at 3.3-3.4 GHz range with decent cooling, skills and luck.
2) if you not willing to overclock...don't buy SR-2 Get much cheaper Tyan or Supermicro entry-level dual LGA1366 board and couple it with CPUs of your choice. I'd go with same six-core solution as 3D rendering prefers threads over frequencies. Besides fast Xeons are quite expensive.
3) Build a rendering farm out of cheap desktop Sandy Bridge platform. This ought to provide much greater performance/price ratio.

This might sound silly, but can you oc the 5645 using the stock cooler ?

[CooperXS]

I'm not sure if Xeons-EP even come with stock cooler

[sithlord3k]

Will the 1000w psu be enough ?

[CooperXS]

Depends if you gonna overclock and how many VGAs you will be running.


What is your budget and what parts you already have ? Do you do 3D for living or just hobby ?

[sithlord3k]

Budget is around £3000
I have no parts already (apart from optical drives and some 1TB hdds)
The 3D work is what I will be doing for a living.

For the time being I've settled for getting just 1 GTX580, and I'm planning on oc'ing the Xeons.

[aidanjt]

Avoid overclocking if it's for actually serious work. They're already plenty fast enough, and you don't want errors creeping into your work. One will probably be fine for now, you can always pick another one up later if your workload is actually sustaining heavy CPU usage.

[Pob255]

for 3d work at a professional level and that budget I'd look at a work station card, yes it's more expensive and worse for games but far better for 3d work.
granted it's mainly down to drivers these days not the card, however they are still faster than the equivelent gaming card in supported software (down to gaming cards lacking certain driver level features and support)
eg http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...ro-5000_6.html
note the Quadro 5000 is basically a gtx465 with the memory bandwidth of the gtx470

the real issue is which, as the price rises very steeply very quickly, the quadro 5000 is £1,600 that's just over half your budget right there.
The other factor to consider is that final rendering is still very processor heavy, some parts are farmed out the the gpu but not all of it.

And yes there is a major difference in the workload of a gameing card and workstation card when working with 3d software, it's not just the speed benchmarks but the quality and function.
This is all down to drivers and the fact that gaming card drivers are still not truely fully functioning OpenGL and DirectX, some of the more complex calls and commands (which are not used by games) are missing.
The cost of workstation cards is down to the drivers and driver support. (you often get better warranty support too)

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/th...-desktop-gpus/

That said there are ways round it, hacked drivers and flashed BIOS are routes to turn a gameing card into a workstation card, but there are risks involved with that.

You need to start by doing some research, go onto the official forums of the software you plan to use ask about the difference between a gaming and workstation card for it and what benefits a workstation card will actually give you with that software.
Also which is better nvidia or ati for that software.

[spoon_]

I was going to say that GTX580 will be relatively poor in 3D... Games and pointless 3DMark numbers will look good but not 3D design apps.

[CooperXS]

I assume graphics design includes mostly static final imaging and simple animation - not a complex Avatar like stuff. In this case an entry/mid range Quadro FX1800/FirePro V5900 will be enough. If you doing just CAD apps then entry-level Pro card for about 150 quid will be plenty. Workstation cards only accelerate viewports. Final rendering still done by CPU. Of course there are plug-ins outsourcing rendering to GPU but those come at extra cost and are not cheap.
In any case I assume you are not a big animation/advertising studio cos if you are just go with Dell Precision or the likes by HP These guys will insure proper working and stable as rock system fully compliant with various Pro applications and full long-term support - of course at a price. But for companies it is worth it
For PSU Corsair HX1000W should do the trick assuming you will go with a single graphic card (even GTX580 power hog). There are some alternatives in 1000-1200W area. But make sure it has all the connectors to power the SR-2. Might also do some research on what existing owners of this board say about PSU choice.
Overclocking dual CPU config will be challenging and will require you to research on all the caveats and proper procedure. If you to go with air cooling on CPUs I'd advise to limit your OC to 3.4-3.5 without much of voltage increase over the default. Else wise the thermal output will jump to 200W+ very quick. Should you go water cooling it would only make sense if you to invest in a heavy set with at least 240mm rad per CPU.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

3) Build a rendering farm out of cheap desktop Sandy Bridge platform. This ought to provide much greater performance/price ratio.

I would build a fast quad core for model designing. Then I would build a render master with additional render slaves in the future. I would go with a six core CPU for this. However,for model design a dedicated graphics card is preferable but means you will have poor performance in games.

What software will you be using??

BTW,Bulldozer is confirmed for release next month it seems and rumours say September 19th for retail release. An 8 core Bulldozer would be ideal for rendering.