Dell c6100 for workstation?

[Dreznon]

Hello,

I am wondering if I could buy a c6100 and add a pci-e x16 riser card with a gtx 1070 then put Windows 10 OS on it for a working workstation.

I would be using this for 3D modeling, and mostly rendering! I mean holy cow the benchmark on all 8 of those e5530's would be phenomenal.

I guess I want to know if the server would use all 4 nodes of dual processors to render at once or would it use each individual node with dual processors for rendering. If that makes any sense.

If this would work, I think I stumbled upon a new era of who makes 3D movies.

 

[Lutfij]

I think you would be able to pull it off but to what degree would depend entirely on the amount of driver support you're going to see for your platform while on Windows 10. You also need to factor in the point where people who do use servers like these happen to have a team/army of dev's who work to fix errors and bugs and even so come up with on the fly solutions like driver creation much like what one of my friends have done while setting up a small server with older hardware.

I think the logical answer to why you're going for a board that has official Xeon+Windows 10 support is due to costs but the trade-off is that you will need reliability as opposed to Jerry-rigging a system.

Oh right then there's the thing about using a gaming grade card to do something like a Titan Xp or a Quadro card to do...not a good path.

 

[photonboy]

I highly DOUBT this is a good path to go down.

You should not mix SERVER hardware in general with a desktop OS and applications.

Nor do I think you would properly utilize all those CPU cores even if you could get it working properly which I have my doubts on. Server farm software is probably not even available for the desktop, and utilizing multiple sockets is very problematic.

No...

You should give a BUDGET for the build and go with something more like a Ryzen setup perhaps depending on your exact requirements.

Use PCPARTPICKER as a good guide.

 

[photonboy]

e5530
The R7-1700 would get probably 3x to 4x the performance of a single e5330.

Many applications are limited at times by one or two cores during certain phases of editing.

I highly doubt a lot of the desktop software would scale too high anyway, plus if you have a GTX1070 you'll end up with some tasks benefitting mostly from the graphics card.

Probably better off with something like (just an example)

Ryzen R7-1700
AM4 socket motherboard
32GB DDR4 3200MHz
SSD(s) + HDD(s)
GTX1070 (depending on software)

W10 64-bit Pro
etc

 

[Dreznon]

The dual Xeon-E5530 benches at 7740 with Passmark. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5530+%40+2.40GHz&cpuCount=2

There are 4 nodes of 2 CPU's for a total of 8 CPU's. In my theory, the benchmark will be 4 times the 7740 minus 5 to 8 thousand because there is always a margin for smaller benchmarks when I look at dual to quad comparisons on Passmark's website. Something around 24 to 25 thousand benchmark score.

The R7-1700x benches at 14629 with Passmark. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+7+1700X
This means that CPU would not compare.

I do understand that benchmarks are "not" for real life applications. At least, my tech friends say that. I still believe if I look at that data and compare other things like instruction sets, frequency, cache, technologies supported between the two pieces of hardware that a generalization of real life application can be made.

I would be using this as my professional workstation. No games would be installed on it. The Dell Poweredge C1000 has PCI 3.0, so I would be able to get the fastest, I think, transfer rate for the GTX 1070. I looked up the benchmark on the Quadro P2000 which is the same amount of money as the GTX 1070 and I am extremely pleased with how high they benchmark for the cheap price. Thank you for testing my knowledge on that. I am going to love the stability.

Back to the main rig though, the Dell Poweredge is going for a cheaper amount than a R7-1700. I would have to have to buy the rest of the computer. Granted you have a point the rendering power is a better value for your money through AMD right now, however, I will stay team blue until I get to test a new AMD rig in my 3D software for a few days in a row because I believe the stability of intel can be felt through your fingertips. Bulldozer architecture really killed it for me. Very unstable in 3DS max. My arms would always be very wary to click anything in worries of a crash. Although, you could argue it was some other part of my rig, but it was full of all premium parts back then.

 

[photonboy]

I'm quite knowledgeable of computers in general. I studied Electronics, Radar Systems and while I don't know the ins and outs of specific 3D software let me be clear on what I do know...

1) your plan is NOT a good idea.
2) stick with modern, desktop hardware which is the intended hardware for the software you plan to use

3) balance the parts (probably Ryzen) based on the SOFTWARE you plan to use. Look at the two or three most used applications and find out what benefits the most... the CPU or Graphics Card

4) The Graphics Card choice varies a lot. Some software benefits a lot from Quadro architecture (Workstation) whereas other software may get the best bang-for-buck from a gaming CUDA (i.e. GTX1060) or even AMD VEGA card

Other:
Without getting into details, there are all sorts of issues when you try to use server technology, especially mixing multiple CPU's which is very problematic in terms of even using, though there can be severe latency issues too which happens even between a CCX of the same physical die, or even just due to buffering a new thread for the same core (i.e. hyperthreading) let alone between physical separate CPU's. There's probably security/support issues as well as REPAIR concerns.

*The AM4 socket conversely is quite new, and is apparently going to hang around for a few years. If the budget is really tight perhaps go for an R5-1600 (6C/12T), then later it may support a ZEN2 8C/16T CPU with a little more processing power.

There's also M.2 PCIe SSD support that's a good idea to have even if you can't afford a fast M.2 SSD yet. Later on some real-time tasks may be highly latency sensitive (like real-time video editing changes) so software that can work to transfer tasks between a fast M.2 SSD and DDR4 system memory could make a big difference. At least those are options.