X5600 Xeon CPUs for Video Rendering?

[HTTPRO]

My friend is going to University for film and he's looking to drop $1000 CAD on a computer that can render his videos, he's been using an old laptop to do all his rendering and he told me it takes like 8 hours for a video to render. I'm sure he uses Adobe Premier but I'm not sure entirely how much filter and other stuff he puts on the video for it to be that long. Anyway my question is would an X58 MOBO + 6 Core X5600 CPU would do a better job than getting a recent 4 Core CPU? I'm pairing with either a 780Ti or a 970 whichever is cheaper in the used market.

 

[utroz]

A modern 4 core cpu will be around the same as that older 6 core in video rendering and CAD. The older cpu will use much more power and have much worse single threaded performance. So I would go with a modern cpu over an older one.

 

[k1114]

But you can usually find old prebuilt towers for ~$300 so it's a lot cheaper than getting a new i5 pc.

 

[HTTPRO]

But you can usually find old prebuilt towers for ~$300 so it's a lot cheaper than getting a new i5 pc.

I found this for a really cheap price and the motherboard for $150.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Intel-Xeon-X5650-2-66Ghz-6-Core-12M-Cache-6-4GT-s-LGA1366-CPU-Processor-SLBV3-/111923709278?hash=item1a0f2c455e:g:CyAAAOSwwpdW1z-0

 

[k1114]

So that's cpu+mobo for $250. But what about ram, cooler, case, and windows. Can you get all that for $100? I left out psu and gpu since those will need to be upgraded on a prebuilt. Would something like this be cheaper? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-Precision-T3500-2-66GHz-Hex-Core-X5650-12GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-Win7-/381479795450?hash=item58d1f7bafa:g:Q-AAAOSwvUlWsQn4

 

[HardwareExtreme]

If you get a dual board, and two X56xx six cores you can make a machine that has decent multithreaded performance.
However, here is a decent build that will work great. If you can, get more ram and a better graphics card, such as 32gb ram and more ram on the graphics card. This machine has a Core i7-equivalent Xeon and a 2Gb Quadro (Someone else recommend a better one, since I am not too overly familiar with these). Unfortunately, there is no overclocking support.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($335.58 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.25 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($83.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K620 2GB Video Card ($228.00 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.61 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Total: $944.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-12 21:08 EST-0500

 

[HTTPRO]

So that's cpu+mobo for $250. But what about ram, cooler, case, and windows. Can you get all that for $100? I left out psu and gpu since those will need to be upgraded on a prebuilt. Would something like this be cheaper? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-Precision-T3500-2-66GHz-Hex-Core-X5650-12GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-Win7-/381479795450?hash=item58d1f7bafa:g:Q-AAAOSwvUlWsQn4

You can't overclock this tho because of the motherboard being proprietary, plus I still have $750 more for the rest of the stuff.

 

[HTTPRO]

If you get a dual board, and two X56xx six cores you can make a machine that has decent multithreaded performance.
However, here is a decent build that will work great. If you can, get more ram and a better graphics card, such as 32gb ram and more ram on the graphics card. This machine has a Core i7-equivalent Xeon and a 2Gb Quadro (Someone else recommend a better one, since I am not too overly familiar with these). Unfortunately, there is no overclocking support.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($335.58 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.25 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($83.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K620 2GB Video Card ($228.00 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.61 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Total: $944.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-12 21:08 EST-0500

Dual CPU boards are server boards and most of them don't have PCIE 16X Gen 3 slot or any front port headers.

 

[utroz]

If you get a dual board, and two X56xx six cores you can make a machine that has decent multithreaded performance.
However, here is a decent build that will work great. If you can, get more ram and a better graphics card, such as 32gb ram and more ram on the graphics card. This machine has a Core i7-equivalent Xeon and a 2Gb Quadro (Someone else recommend a better one, since I am not too overly familiar with these). Unfortunately, there is no overclocking support.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($335.58 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.25 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($83.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K620 2GB Video Card ($228.00 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.61 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Total: $944.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-12 21:08 EST-0500

Dual CPU boards are server boards and most of them don't have PCIE 16X Gen 3 slot or any front port headers.

Plenty of Sever boards have PCI-E 3.0 and have 16x slots. It really depends on what generation of server cpu's you get as the cpu and board dictate what you have for options. There are tons of LGA-2011 V3 dual boards with PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots. Here are just two I found in seconds with google.. I guess these might technically be workstation boards. https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z10PED8_WS/ https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z9PED8_WS/

Supermicro has tons of server boards and some do have PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, some only have 8x slots, and some 4x slots, and some have no slots at all.. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/#2011

 

[HardwareExtreme]

If you are really looking into X56xx Xeons, get something like a Dell Precision T5500 or T7500. They have PCIe slots on them, and with a riser card can run dual CPU. If not, something like a newer i5 or i7 or Xeon would probably be a better idea, since 4th gen prices are starting to get cheaper.

To sum it up:
Get Xeon(s) that is/are X56xx series, and you can save money, at the expense of a slightly worse performance (Only about maybe 30%)

OR:

Get a new(er) i5, i7 or Xeon, with slightly better performance, at a higher price.

Things to keep in mind:
1. Get graphics cards that have a large amount of VRAM (4GB or better) and AMD Firepro / NVidia Quadro (whichever is more applicable; link for some comparison Here)
2. Get as much ram as you can (16GB MINIMUM)
3. Get a fairly fast hard drive (Or SSD if you want)
4. Get as many cores as you can afford. The more cores the better.

You may want to look into a Xeon machine if the rendering is mission-critical, since these can use ECC ram. They are sometimes more expensive than the i5s and i7s, but in some cases actually cheaper.

 

[HTTPRO]

If you get a dual board, and two X56xx six cores you can make a machine that has decent multithreaded performance.
However, here is a decent build that will work great. If you can, get more ram and a better graphics card, such as 32gb ram and more ram on the graphics card. This machine has a Core i7-equivalent Xeon and a 2Gb Quadro (Someone else recommend a better one, since I am not too overly familiar with these). Unfortunately, there is no overclocking support.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($335.58 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($40.25 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($83.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K620 2GB Video Card ($228.00 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.61 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Total: $944.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-12 21:08 EST-0500

Dual CPU boards are server boards and most of them don't have PCIE 16X Gen 3 slot or any front port headers.

Plenty of Sever boards have PCI-E 3.0 and have 16x slots. It really depends on what generation of server cpu's you get as the cpu and board dictate what you have for options. There are tons of LGA-2011 V3 dual boards with PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots. Here are just two I found in seconds with google.. I guess these might technically be workstation boards. https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z10PED8_WS/ https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z9PED8_WS/

Supermicro has tons of server boards and some do have PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, some only have 8x slots, and some 4x slots, and some have no slots at all.. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/#2011

X58 ones I dont think

 

[k1114]

X58 is only pcie 2.0. Having 3.0 isn't going to matter. The point I was getting at was that $350 pc is as much performance as a new $700 pc. Ocing isn't going to change much and it'll still be a much higher price/performance. So you want to spend the whole $1000. Then that can get something a bit newer, a dual cpu e5 rig, maybe with just sandy or ivy depending on prices, I haven't checked. Going with used is going to be the best performance although most people want new.

 

[GMProtoss]

Did your friend already purchase his CPU?