Hardware configuration

[zacuttialberto]

Hi everyone,

I'm proceeding to set up a new pc specially for Corona render.
I have 2 different solution :

1)  i7 v3 8 core
2)  xeon 2670 v2 10 core or 12core but with slower clock compare to the i7 v3
3) buy on abay a server to use as render "farm"

Any suggestion is appreciate.

Alberto

[juang3d]

IMHO price/performance i7-5820K :)

Cheers!

[Juraj]

Unless you absolutely know everything about your hardware of choice, never go for for the more complicated solutions based on purely the suggestion of forum adventurers, who rarely know themselves well.

Stick to simple, buy i7 machine based on your budget.

[agentdark45]

IMHO price/performance i7-5820K :)

Cheers!

What about factoring in the cost of DDR4 RAM or an X99 motherboard? (compared to a 3930k / 4930k X79 system)

[tomislavn]

As an owner of i7 machine (4/8 cores haswell, s.1150) and a dual Xeon setup (older s.1366, X5650 series, 12/24 cores) - I can say that even with the age difference, Xeons still do great and that's for maybe 600-800 bucks in total (search HP Z800 or Z600, or Dell T5500 with dual x5650 on ebay).

Then again, I would still advise you to stick with new i7's simply because the new Xeons (the ones that would offer lets say twice the perfomance) cost way way way more (like 10 times more), and for the similar price you will get same or better perfomance for your money. For a home/office machine you should be completely fine with 6 or even 8 core i7 5xxx.

[juang3d]

IMHO price/performance i7-5820K :)

Cheers!

What about factoring in the cost of DDR4 RAM or an X99 motherboard? (compared to a 3930k / 4930k X79 system)

The difference is not so big, a 3770K i configured cost 550€ more or less and the 5820K cost 800€ more or less, but the performance difference and the power line cost, space, noise and heat make the 5820K a better choice.

Two 5820K are more or less the same in performance as three 3770K (without any OC in any of two, and based on published benchmarks), 100 frames with the time from the benchmark (wich I don't remember, I think I based this on the Toms Hardware benchmark, or Guru3d.com benchmarks) in two 580K are 10 minutes slower than the same 100 frames in three 3770K, it's a very decent gap considering that oyu will pay less for electricity, you will get less noise and less heat.

Please bear in mind that I'm referring to render nodes, I don't consider any fancy GPU, and my nodes have 16Gb for the time being.

Cheers.

[Juraj]

There are already "decently" priced DDR4 (for example Crucial) modules. X99 boards, well they still hold premium but it's manageable considering this platform (LG2011-3) will last two "extreme" generations, so it will be still upgradeable in two years in case you would want.

[zacuttialberto]

thank you to everyone,

the buig question is also if on x99 solution istall a i7 or a xeon e5 2660/2670-v3 with 10/12 core.
And i dont know with plus has the xeon compare to standard i7

Ciao

Alberto

[juang3d]

For me it's i7... my advice would be to consider what performs better, two 5820k (complete nodes) or one dual xeon of the same power? and what's the price difference between those two?

Cheers!

[Juraj]

thank you to everyone,

the buig question is also if on x99 solution istall a i7 or a xeon e5 2660/2670-v3 with 10/12 core.
And i dont know with plus has the xeon compare to standard i7

Ciao

Alberto

No. The premium price for 2P CPU units (E5 26xx Vx family) is worth only if you go for 2P system. Never otherwise.

8core 5960X can be clocked stable for 24/7 at around 4.4GHz with impressive cooling (otherwise I would suggest against, because 80+C is..well 80+C) which gives around 18 Cinebench score. With top 2P Xeon systems you can get up to 34+ non-clocked but you see, that's worth in different situation from yours.

5960X is native Octacore, architecture wise it doesn't differ from its Xeon counterpart much at all from performance side (although originally it was speculated it would be deactivated 12-core, in case it would be identical to Xeon).

If you wish to waste money, buy fancy X99 board ;- )  {Deluxe, ROG, WS} But that should be enough.