UPDATED BENCHMARK (ITS FASTER I PROMISE)

[pshupe68]

n6 - How about overclocking a Dual Xeon 2.8?? I guess that would really cook eh? Where would I go to find out how this is done. I've got a big thermaltake case with 500W power supply and way more fans than I would image that I would need. Never had the temp over 25 C, the default alarm setting is at 60.9 C.

Thanks for the info. Regards Peter.

[n6]

n6 - How about overclocking a Dual Xeon 2.8?? I guess that would really cook eh? Where would I go to find out how this is done. I've got a big thermaltake case with 500W power supply and way more fans than I would image that I would need. Never had the temp over 25 C, the default alarm setting is at 60.9 C.

Thanks for the info. Regards Peter.

check the site link I give : everything is explained here.
But anyway a few words :
-the xeon's overclocability depends on a lot of factors :
default voltage, stepping #, default multiplier.
A PSU of 500W means... nothing : what you need for good OC with XEONs is something over 30 -32 A on a SINGLE 12V rail.

Your mobo chipset is also important in order to access FSB, PCI locked frequency, multiplier etc...

[andrewjohn81]

it's an HP xw8200
dual Xeon 3.6
3Gigs of RAM (no 3Gig switch yet)

note: i also have another copy of max open with a large file open.

[dlparisi]

No image.

[arobbert]

I'm thinking about buying some new machines and since a little water has gone under the bridge I'm doing some comparisons between Intel and AMD based systems.

I know that the X2's are the hot ticket right now but I'm wondering if anyone has tested any of the Intel D series (D 930, D 940) with hyperthreading. They seem to do pretty well against the x2 4800 and are similar in price for a prebuilt system. See these bench marks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/...lt/page16.html

I've read that these chips can run four threads. It seems like you would get four buckets per chip with these. Two from the dual core and two more with the hyper threading. I've always had good luck with hyperthreading and get 4 buckets with my dual xeons.

It looks like the prices on the intels have come down (I guess I expected they would). I'm also wondering if this will lower the cost of the X2's soon. Has anyone noticed?

[arobbert]

It seems that this D 940 is the same thing/price as the 840 but with "Intel® Virtualization Technology" doesn't seem to be of any use to me.

[arobbert]

Ha ! I spent $3200 (CAD) on a 3.2Ghz Intel D840 4 threaded beast and it renders at 5min22sec (3GB Ram Asus P5WD2 Premium MB). THEN I smelt the coffee and just bought my first AMD. Its a midget of a computer (I could fit about two of these inside the other computer) Micro ATX, shared graphics card, 2GB Ram, no bells & no whistels. This machine cost $1380 (CAD) and rendered the scene in 6min 4sec. Pretty darn good value. Then I overclocked it (very very simple to do - took about 10 seconds to do it) and it now renders the scene in 5min 12sec. Not only that but it did it at 43degrees. The D840 Extreme hits 78 degrees when its at 100% !

Leo, what AMD did you get?

[leotchest]

I bought the x2 4200 for my first AMD (motherboard = Asus A8N-VM) and then an x2 4400 for the second machine. There is almost no difference in speed between these two machines. Actually I found that the 4000 overclocked better than the 4200 (no idea why). Very very happy with these two machines.

[arobbert]

Thanks Leo. Wow, so you got hat kind of performance out of a over clocked X2 4000 (5min 12sec). What was involved with the over clocking?

[dlparisi]

I didn't think the 4000 was a dual-core machine (compared to the 4200 which is). But your saying they're about the same in speed-is that rendering speed or just overall like opening applications, working in max, etc????

[leotchest]

Well, I know nothing about overclocking (& dont really want to go there) so it must have been easy! That particular motherboard has very minimal options - you just go into the advanced configuration and set the "Jumper Free Configuration" to whatever value you want - I used a figure of 220 (and that gives you a clock speed of approximately 2.4Ghz instead of 2.2Ghz). Sorry, I cant be more specific right now because all machines are rendering. However, it really is that simple. For some reason the 4400 did not like a value higher than 215, which means I cant get it to go faster than the 4200.

[leotchest]

The 4200 is an x2 - so yes it definitely is dual core

[leotchest]

SORRY ! I have a 4200 & a 4400. Sorry for the confusion !

**Both CPU's are now clocked at 2.41Ghz and typical rendertimes on current project are 9min26seconds for the 4200 & 9min16seconds for the 4400. Definitely not worth the extra cash for the 4400.

[arobbert]

Leo, thanks. That sounds like my kind of overclocking. I'm looking at that same motherboard.

[jow]

ive found the same,
ive got a 4200 and a 4400 on the same mobos and the times are the same with in a second or two..(NO OCing)