Dual Socket R3 LGA 2011 workstation m otherboards

[LMarkoya]

I need to build a 3D rendering workstation and try not to break the bank...do the current dual socket LGA 2011 MB's support both V2 and V3 Xeons? Anyone have strong feelings about which is best for a graphics workstation? Thanks for any assitance

 

[kanewolf]

I don't think so. The V3 CPUs are DDR4 the V2s are DDR3 .

 

[bambiboom]

I need to build a 3D rendering workstation and try not to break the bank...do the current dual socket LGA 2011 MB's support both V2 and V3 Xeons? Anyone have strong feelings about which is best for a graphics workstation? Thanks for any assitance

LMarkoya,

In looking at alternative for dual Xeon LGA2011 and LGA2011-3, for performance and reliability I gravitate towards Supermicro and I would probably use a Supermicro board if I were building a server.

As for comparing Xeon E5-2600 series v2 and v3, kanewolf is correct that a single board can not accommodate both CPU versions due to the memory typesupported. The choice of versions is significant as v3 have greater memory bandwidth, the RAM native clock speed is higher0 2133 as compared to 1866 and there are other features of the architecture. Using v3 will be more forward-looking too. I think that v2 are available up to 12-cores, while v3's may have 18-cores:

____ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Xeon_E5-26xx_v2_.28dual-processor.29.5B32.5D

If you are building a workstation entirely for rendering, consider the trade-off of cores as compared to clock speed- the more cores, the lower the clock speed. If you are doing 3D modeling most of the time, consider having a lower core count but at a higher speed.

For the last five years, I had a dedicated dual Xeon (2X 4-core) rendering system and a faster 4-core modeling system. Over time, I realized that I spent far more time on 3D modeling and when rendering I would leave it work on it's own anyway. In my example, it's more advantageous- and far cheaper- to have a fast 6-core, single system and put all the assets into that. With the savings of a single CPU system, I can afford a much higher performance GPU, more RAM, hardware RAID controller and so on. So, I went from having an E5-1620 4-core at 3.6 / 3.8 plus a dual 4-core at 3.16 to a single E5-1660 v2 6-core at 3.7 / 4.0GHz.

In summary, if your use is primarily 3D modeling, 2D image processing, consider an E5-1650 v3 @ 3.5 /3.8 (about $600):

____ http://ark.intel.com/products/82765

and a Supermicro X10SRi-F

____ http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c600/x10sri-f.cfm

with 32GB RAM and Quadro K4200 (4GB)

If you have a stronger rendering use than modeling, I would recommend 2X E5-2640 v3 (about $1000 ea) :

____ http://ark.intel.com/products/83359

on an Intel S2600CW motherboard,

____ http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/server-motherboards/server-board-s2600cw.html

64GB RAM, and again Quadro K4200, but Quadro K2200 may be sufficient if 3D models are smaller files and lower in textures.

In these examples , the single E5 v3 system might cost about $3200, and the dual system perhaps $6000, so the cost of going to dual CPU's- the difference between $600 and $2,000- is dignificant.

There is a good middle ground, which is to use the tactic I did and have a very fast modeling system and upgrade an obsolete Dell Precision as a rendering system.

A month ago I bought for $190 including shipping:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) Original: Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1066 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > Linksys WMP600N WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

> and I bought a Xeon X5680 ($200), 24GB RAM ($120) and added the Samsung 840, WD RE4, and Quadro 4000 from a previous system and for a total of about $650 outlay have:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB /WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card> Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1440)
[ Passmark system rating = 3339 / CPU = 9347 / 2D= 684 / 3D= 2030 / Mem= 1871 / Disk= 2234]

And, the nice quality of this is that I am adding a PERC H310 (NOS $60) for a strong 6GG/s disk system, and can add a second X5680 for about $360 (CPU $200 + CPU/ Mem /Fan riser $100+ 12GB RAM $60) to have a 12 core /24 thread SATA III rendering engine. For your use, I'd suggest using a T7500- more drive bays, larger PSU, and a pari of Xeon X5690 @ 3.47 / 3.73GHz. There are about 7,000 T7500's on Ebay at a time.

So, there are some options. consider careful, the proportion of use, scale of files, and logistics of dividing time for modeling and rendering to have the best cost / perfornance benefit.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz > 16GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K2200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D=3464 / Mem= 2669 / Disk= 4764]

2D, 3D CAD, Image Processing, Rendering, Text > Architecture, industrial design, graphic design, written projects