worthwhile to add a second Xeon x 5550?

[mumblyjoe]

I have a workstation with a single Xeon X5550, 8 gb of RAM and an ATI firepro v7750. I just got a better hard drive to replace one died recently and become the primary drive, and while I'm at it I planned to clean the heat sinks, fans, and look into filling the empty processor slot.

I mainly use it for heavy vector image editing, photoshop and some work in Maya, though primarily rendered with toon textures and usually as single, high-res still images. I'll be starting a motion media class in a week or so though and bring in video and after effects. I figure I can install a second x5550 of x5560 for about $160 including the processor and a cooling unit. Would the performance gains, particularly rendering 3D in Maya and rendering video, be worth it for that price?

 

[das_stig]

I would have though beefing up the video card would be more beneficial to rendering, if the software can offload to the GPU, rather than cpu, if not, then yes.

 

[mumblyjoe]

I would have though beefing up the video card would be more beneficial to rendering, if the software can offload to the GPU, rather than cpu, if not, then yes.

Well, I can't upgrade the GPU nearly that cheap. Just a 2gb version of that card would set me back nearly $500. Although, knowing what I now know about soldering the thing to make it work with "pro" openGL drivers I could probably find a raedon card with a lot more bang for the buck. I don't know that I'd be comfortable soldering it though..