Anyone build a dual quad machine yet (8 cores)?

[RobotClayton]

Yes, sadly you are going to have to use xeon. I have a 8 core server coming in a couple of months. I don't need 8 cores by a long shot, but I had money left over in the budget, and I figure I can come in on the weekends and load my lightwave stuff on it! Wahaha!:twisted:

[Jon-Huhn]

You say "sadly".... is it because of the added expense? Or do they not perform as well as the Intel Core 2 Quads?

[RobotClayton]

You say "sadly".... is it because of the added expense? Or do they not perform as well as the Intel Core 2 Quads?

Just the expense. The performance boost is really almost non-existent (Xeon is SLIGHTLY faster due to faster FSB). To tell you the truth, clock per clock my macbook 2.16ghz runs at ALMOST the same speed as my Dell precision 490 3.0ghz Dual Core Xeon. I used cinebench to test that out.

[UrbanFuturistic]

Robot: do you only have the one CPU? In this case you wouldn't see any great performance improvement, it's not really worth getting Xeons unless you are going to use multiple CPUs. The advantage with the 490 is that you can use two CPUS and that they have independent memory buses which means that the 1066/1333MHz FSB is per CPU rather than shared between the CPUs. The whole Xeon architecture is pretty much just a load of overpriced hardware until you start taking advantage of what the Xeon architecture, including the motherboard, is capable of.

[icknick]

I just got done doing this over the weekend. I upgraded from a old 939.
Anyways your looking for a dual 771 motherboard to accomplish the dual quad. I myself got the TYAN S2696A2NRF for the PCI Express x16 slot. You got to remember to get the fb dim ram. Just not the cheap ddr2 stuff as to be fb ddr2. Also your motherboard is problebly going to be pretty big, most servers are. You should get a case that supports e-atx motherboards.

I see my render time from over a hour cut down to under five minutes. Thats what I call a upgrade.

Hope this helps.

~Nick

[PanzerMKZ]

intel does not make dual desktop proc boards. they have not since the last of the coppermine P3's. Luckly when dealing with 3d stuff then you can get heavy on a computer. How often do you have to wait for a render? how often do you read about clusters in 3d. How often if you look at the computers built here do they say get the best procs and memory you can buy. And more ram the better. how often do you not see save the money on that super vid card and put into more proc and ram? Or that great disk subsystem that is not needed to be put back into procs and ram?


Panzer

[Lucca]

is not recomended yet.. many programers have didnt yet make a program for a quad.... until the programers find solutions and how programming for quad.. because is hard... is not very progress..... i keep my dual core

[Jon-Huhn]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We'll see what happens.

is not recomended yet.. many programers have didnt yet make a program for a quad

Fortunately, 3ds Max (and many other 3D programs) HAS been written to take advantage of multiple cores, so for 3d artists looking to get higher-quality work done faster (and who have access to the funds!), it IS recommended :)

Thanks again everyone for your input!

[Lucca]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We'll see what happens.



Fortunately, 3ds Max (and many other 3D programs) HAS been written to take advantage of multiple cores, so for 3d artists looking to get higher-quality work done faster (and who have access to the funds!), it IS recommended :)

Thanks again everyone for your input!

sorry.. i have to read more about it... upsiiiiii... ok
anyway... if you have a quad... te rendering and the others aplications can be more fast... i meann..... is a real thig.. because.. i just buy a dual core only and if you say that the quad is better.... mmmm... i want my money back jojojo.. sorry ok..

enjoi...

[lots]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We'll see what happens.

Fortunately, 3ds Max (and many other 3D programs) HAS been written to take advantage of multiple cores, so for 3d artists looking to get higher-quality work done faster (and who have access to the funds!), it IS recommended :)

Thanks again everyone for your input!
You're both right. In the UI (modeling, animating, etc) 3D apps are very single threaded. While rendering, they're fairly friendly to multiple CPUs (though you do get a diminishing return the more CPUs you have).

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