Xeon E5-2630 v4 workstation advice

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1

Hi guys. I’m planing on building new workstation/render node based on single Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4 CPU.

I was thinking of purchasing these components:

CPU: Intel Xeon E5 - 2630 v4 CPU.
MB: ASRock X99 Extreme4, s2011-3
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 2133 MHz CL13
PS: Corsair CX 750
COOLER: Corsair Hydro H75

As I’m not experienced PC builder I would need some advice on this setup (especially regarding MB and RAM (ECC or not?))

I’m currently using i7-5930K@ 3.5Ghz with 32 GB RAM setup.
Is it better to keep this as my workstation or switch to E5-2630 v4 once i purchase it.

Thanks!

2

First of all, if you’re jumping from a 5930K to 2630 v4 to gain some render speed improvements, you won’t get much of a speed improvement.

3

I would suggest against this too as workstation replacement. It would only give you marginal multithreaded performance (it’s 10 core but very low-clocked) but weaker single-threaded performance ( 3.1 Ghz turbo clock, and that only if you buy retail version and not some ES ;- ) ..]

As additional render node I would too suggest against it. Xeons due to performance/cost ratio are highly preferable to use in dual-cpu configuration.

Nothing quite wrong with your 5930k as workstation. Maybe just overclock it more :- ).

4

Thanks for your reply.

I’m aware that E5-2630 v4 is not that much faster, but in the end I’ll be using both PCs with DR so there should be overall speed improvement.

E5-2630 v4 is not much more expensive than 5930k and has 10 cores so that’s the reason I was considering it. Also I can use it later if I decide to upgrade to dual-cpu configuration.
Unfortunatley dual-cpu is out of my budget for now.

Maybe I’ll get another 5930k rather than xeon then.

5

Considered Ryzen ? It’s 8-core chips will surpass your i7 for rather good price.

6

Never dealt with AMD :smiley:
Ryzen 7 1800X really looks promising considering price and benchmarks. I’ll have to look more into it definitely.
Thanks for advice Juraj.

7

By the looks of it even the Ryzen 1700x would be a better buy for you performance wise let alone budget wise as its CB score is higher than that of a single 2630 v4.

I’m totally with Juraj and Freakaz on this one. Unless you plan on doing some crazy GPU builds with nvme drives and what nots I’d just go with Ryzen. The basic 1700 is actually a hair faster than the 2630 v4 for like 50% less. Granted, the 2630 v4 would give you extra PCI-E lanes (can be a rare commodity these days) and the ability to have dual CPUs running but the CPU rendering performance looks to be the same..

If that is the case, then you need to go for a dual socketed motherboard and then you can double your rendering speed by buying another 2630 v4. That said, Ryzen will have better single threaded performance still - if that is important to you.

Ultimately, if you are very budget concious, I’d really think about the 1700x-1800x from AMD. Do think about expandability though as currently Ryzen motherboards seem to take up to 3 GPUs (that last one is on PCIE 2.0 x4 I think) and 1-2 nvmes. I’d say for most rendering workstations that isn’t a problem but just wanted you to think about it :smiley: