xeon e5-2620 (2GHz) compared to i7-3770K (3.9GHz)

[lukx]

I'm struggling to put together new rigs. Two options.

workstation:
EVGA SR-X 2011
2x Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2620

render farm:
Asus Rampage IV GENE
i7-3770K

or I could go with :

workstation:
Asus P9X79 WS
i7-3770K

and TWO render farms:
Asus Rampage IV GENE
i7-3770K

I'm really thinking if I would really benefit from two xeons in the long run.
I want fast workstation to quickly see results of material adjustments etc ( so render times are crucial).
But also want to have some speed when job is done and render final frames faster without clogging workstation.

[super gnu]

imho there is no point getting the sr-x, as those socket 2011 sandybridge xeons cannot be overclocked in any meaningful way, so youd be better getting a cheaper non-overclockable dual cpu motherboard.

do also bear in mind, a sad amount of the processes we use every day are not multithreaded. most of max and even parts of vray. so in this case a machine with less cores but higher clockspeed would be preferable.


2 ghz is prettly low by todays standards for anything singlethreaded.


id go for the second option, with a nice fast network between the workstation and the 2 rendernodes. that way you can distribute your rendering so test renders will use all your juice even if its in seperate machines, and your day to day work will still benefit from the higher singlethreaded performance. especially if you get some decent cooling and give all three boxes a modest overclock, say to 4.3 - 4.5 ghz..

if you want to go the dual xeon route, id wait and see if the ivy bridge xeons are overclockable.. if they are the sr-x option starts to make more sense.

[super gnu]

oh and make sure each box has a nice fast SSD as well as the fast network connection. that way you wont wait till your test render is almost finished before the other nodes kick in with distributed rendering..


in fact this is something id like to see discussed, how to design a network/ workstation/nodes to get the best distributed rendering responsiveness.. i.e. the closest to one beefy machine...

maybe a system that constantly mirrors your work drive to an ssd on each machine, so everything is always local to the node that is rendering might help... probably kill the ssds quite quick though!

[lukx]

thanks super gnu! yeah SSD is on my list for sure. Well in this case I will save a lot of money this way and probably will bump up ram from 16 to 32 and some kick ass graphic card for workstation !

[lukx]

One thing would be nice to have finally mainboard on the market with 2011 chipset and graphic card on board for renderfarms

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

U CAN NOT OVERCLOCK XEON E5 !!!!!! Its CRAP.

Btw 48 gb ram cost 200 quid... even less now...

[Franx]

Lukx, the P9X79 WS is socket 2011 and the i7-3770K is socket 1155. But if I were you, I'd keep the P9X79 WS and go for the 3930k. It's more expensive but has 2 additional cores (so 12 total in HT). Reports mention a stable 4.8ghz overclock with a good air heatsink (like the Noctua nh d14)

[lukx]

yes, sorry my mistake.