Skulltrail vs i7 920 for CFD work

[lawrencelaw]

Hi,

I am considering the following to upgrade my CFD processing power (currently i have an i7 920 OC on air 3.9Ghz stable):-

1. Getting a skulltrail (a pair of QX9775;unlocked multiplier version of X5482)

OR

2. Getting another i7 920 and link to the existing i7 with a LAN cable to do parallel computing.

I have read a report "hxxp://techreport.com/articles.x/15818/13" that gives a rather poor review of the skulltrail ability to handle CFD work.

I have also reviewed CPU mark, for the skulltrail the score is 9459 while the i7 920 OC is 6700+, which gives the skulltrail about 40% performance over the i7 920. Considered the skulltrail CPU is not yet OC (i understand that these CPU can be OC upto 4Ghz on air), that will place the skulltrail somewhere 75% better performance than the i7.

The cost difference between the two systems is about USD$900.00, the skulltrail cost more.

I would appreciate any input which of the two systems can provide better CPU power for CFD work.

Thanks in advance 😍

Lawrence

 

[obsidian86]

get an i7 based xeon Model Number sSpec Number Frequency L2-Cache L3-Cache QPI Frequency Mult Memory Controller Voltage TDP Socket Release Date Part Number(s) Release Price (USD)
Xeon W3520 SLBEW 2.66 GHz 4 x 256 KiB 8 MiB 4.8 GT/s 20x DDR3-1066 1.225 V 130 W LGA 1366 March 30, 2009 AT80601000741AB $284
Xeon W3540 SLBEX 2.93 GHz 22x March 30, 2009 AT80601000921AB $562
Xeon W3550 SLBEY 3.06 GHz 23x August 9, 2009 AT80601002112AB $562
Xeon W3570 SLBES 3.2 GHz 6.4 GT/s 24x DDR3-1333 March 30, 2009 AT80601000918AB $999
Xeon W3580 SLBET 3.33 GHz 25x August 9, 2009 AT80601002274AB $999

 

[lawrencelaw]

Hi Obsidian86

I am looking at dual cpu system as I noticed that with a single cpu i7 920 (latest OC at 4Ghz) has hit its limit with a few CFD models i have - takes 15 days to complete the CFD run.

I have requested to run benchmark CFD run on the skulltrail and if i get the results i will share it here.

The skulltrail system with 16G ECC DDR2 ram and average graphics card cost (w/o monitor) is about USD$2,000.00.

The dual Xeon W5580, the new 3.2 GHz Nehalem Xeons (12G DDR 3 1600 Mhz Ram) with Intel 5520 chipset mainboard and average graphics card cost about USD2,900.00.

What do you think about these prices?

Thanks for the input.

Lawrence

 

[obsidian86]

the well depending on budget i would get a single xeon w3570/w3540 liquid cooled to 4.2 -4.4 ghz with a tesla it could drop the time be 25%