Hi,
I’m after some advice. I’m looking to purchase a new workstation, but can’t decide between these two.
Dual xeon E5-2670
16gd ram 2400
gtx 960 graphics
250gb ssd
I7 5820k
16gb ram
gtx 960
250gb ssd
They are roughly in the same price bracket. Using the benchmarks the dual xeon appears faster, but is three years old.
Dual xeon benchmark is 18580
i7-5820k is 12906
However, not sure how this transfers to real world use.
Thanks.
EDIT: My post bellow does not apply much anymore in this thread, since it’s now possible to buy 2670v1 C1/C2 Xeons very cheaply on all auctions around the world (60-70 dollars for each). Read the whole thread to form full opinion ]
You are building these or buying already built from someone ? It’s unclear from your post what are you actually intending to do/get regarding source.
Because they’re not in the same price bracket if you were to build them, even single E5 2670 ( “v1”, basically original Sandy-Bridge E, ) would still hold value comparable to i7 like 5820k.
Of course, for workstation, i7 that can be clocked into 4.5Ghz makes better candidate for single-threaded tasks than 2.5Ghz of 2670, but then again, even with overclocking of i7, 2P 2670 will be faster in multi-threaded tasks like rendering.
Regarding Passmark (probably from cpubenchmark.com ? ) scores that you quote, those translate well. (But Cinebench R15 scales better)
Sandy Bridge-E isn’t that old (it’s 2012 architecture) and the increase in architecture since wasn’t drastic (Ivy Bridge +8, Haswell + 5perc. roughly increase for same clock).
T 2P xeon would make better rendering workhorse, but in the latter, Haswell-E i7 overlocked makes better candidate for single-core intensive tasks as workstation
Thanks Juraj,
They are both pre built systems, the i7 will be new and the dual xeon is second hand, that has been built by an enthusiast.
I was going to with the dual xeon, the plan being to use this for about a year, then get another computer and use the dual xeon as a render machine.
Does this Xeon support embree? I can’t seem to find any information about it.
-2P 2670 v1 = (all-core turboclock) 18 520
Sorry for ressurrecting an old thread but now that I got 2x E5-2670v1 I am exploring ways to squeeze as much juice as I can from them. Juraj could You elaborate a bit about possibility of running all cores at turbo frequency - since You seem to know the topic. Is it motherboard dependent (my mb seems to prevent all tweaking expect for ram) or could it be enabled somehow in operating system?
It should be enabled by default in Bios. You can only enable Turboclock on/off. If single core is used, it will overclock massively, and then scale down with amount of cores used.
2670 (v1) has base clock of 2.6Ghz and Turbo feature “4/4/5/5/6/6/7/7” (from all to single core). So when rendering with all cores, it should rise to +/- 3.0 Ghz.
Btw, did you buy one of those Facebook-servers going for 70 dollars each :- ) ? I was looking at it too haha.
Juraj thanks for clarifying this turbo boost matter. I got confused because in my rig cpu-z sometimes reports wrong cpu frequencies like lowest possible frequency when all cores are engaged. Eventually I compared corona benchmark results with mine and all seems ok - always getting like 1:37.
Btw, did you buy one of those Facebook-servers going for 70 dollars each :- ) ? I was looking at it too haha.
Exactly - very happy with purchase. This duo even slightly outperforms gtx970 in blender cycles rendering speed. The hardest part was getting the motherboard though which is the most expensive part of the rig.
Which one did you manage to get ?
Asrock EP2C602
Can’t even find that one anymore much… cheapest I found is Asus Z9PA-D8 for 300 euros, and 380 euros for Z9PE-D8 WS (that’s one I use for my other Xeon builds).
Cheapest dual socket I could find on retail or used is the Asus Z9PA-D8C (284euro). And I doubt it supports basic DDR3 like the Z9PE-D8 WS did, which makes it even more expensive.
If anyone knows of other cheaper dual-socket boards, I’d love to know 
Hi Juraj.Do you recommend those dual E5 2670 Xeons as cheap solution for render slave with this price point?
Or is it waste of money?
I already bought 2 yesterday :- D ( 140 euro for both !)
The issue is it’s hard to find good motherboards. I opted for ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS because it takes normal Dimms memory, which I already have plenty at home. I will sell older 3930k+motherboard and just swap this new combo there, paying only 150 +/- euro difference (I paid 380 for the Z9PE because it was opened…otherwise it’s 500, the Z9PA is cheaper, but doesn’t take regular memory sticks). And then buy 2 Noctua U12S to cool it off.
Pretty cool deal, def more powerful than any i7 currently or up coming (even the new 10 core when clocked), but not as powerful as my current 2680v2 workstation (where I paid 1500 for each Xeon :- D) or the new V4 monstrosities (have you seen Say’s and Guthrie’s score in benchmark ?).
My new summer project, buy 2699v4 ES for 500 euro each and see if I can build 8k machine under 2k :- )
Thanks mate.As an I7 user i’ll steal these then.
I’ll appreciate if you can suggest budget friendly components for these please.(Case,Cooler.PSU etc.)
Cheers
you can buy used cpu at really cheaper pric and only for 2670 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2322090.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XIntel+Xeon+E5-2670.TRS0&_nkw=Intel+Xeon+E5-2670&_sacat=0
it’s rare phenomenon at market, but if you will buy it read some info about stepping and revisions, you can save huge amount of money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7zy0y881eI sorry video in russian but there config and comparison with i7
Since i’m noob about xeons could you point me at stepping and revisions part.Thanks
The stepping and revision refer to version of chip. When buying those, earliest revisions can have much lower clock and offer lesser stability and features.
Some of the the E5-2670 v1 which are flooding the market are SR0H8, feature C1 stepping, which lacks working VT-d, a virtualization tech by Intel, which DOESN’T matter for rendering :- ).
It’s possible also to buy E5-2670 v1 which is SR0KX, stepping C2 for slightly higher sum.
Again, none of this matters for rendering, as both versions feature otherwise same spec (frequencies, turbos,etc..).
I see.
Is there an easy way to inspect decent ones when buying?
Also i’d like to now your opinions about supermicro motherboards and the cheap server rams on ebay.
Thanks
Buy the cheapest :- ) When it’s for node, it doesn’t matter. When it’s for workstation, it does… and SuperMicro has a lot of versions, so if you find one, search it on their website to see if it has what you need (USB 3.0 slot, enough PCI slots,etc..).
Regarding memory, always buy the cheapest :- ) If you buy Supermicro, or Asus Z9PA (opposed to PE WS, first is server board, second is workstation board), you will need DDR3-ECC (1333-1600 Mhz), just find the cheapest. Remember, to run these in quad channel, you need 4 modules for each CPU. But it doesn’t matter too much, because for rendering it doesn’t matter a lot. Just don’t buy 2x16 if you want 32gb :- ) buy 4x8 to run dual-channel, and if you need later 64gb, you will just buy another 4x8.
Juraj: What would be the cheapest board you can think of for such a render node? Is there a reason why this Xeon CPUs are so cheap?
thanks.
