Dual E5-2630 worth it?

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

I've just learnt, from the Dell site, that 1600 MHz memory will work at only 1333 MHz on a 7.2 GT/s CPU.


The CPU I was looking into is a dual E5-2630, for either an HP Z820 or a Dell T7600 workstation.


Now I'm wondering whether it's too low. I'm not looking to use it professionally on a daily basis. It's more of a test-bed for all kinds of codecs and resolutions. Will be running R3D, Sony RAW and Arriraw through it, but not for projects greater than 5 minutes in final length. Raw source footage will be an hour's worth. Only native editing (don't mind lower resolution previews).


Using it for CS6, Vegas Pro and Resolve.


I'm aiming at the Quadro K4000 and 64 GB of RAM. All this is about $6,500 or so, and that's as far as I can take it. Am I aiming too low?

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Just got my supermicro workstation to work as supposed a week ago or so after 3 month of hell! In my bios you can change the ram from 1333 to 1600. Not sure about Dell.
Seams you could get similar perfomance with a clocked 3939 as with dual 2687w in davinci. But the dual cpu dont need to stress that much under same workload so you can keep doing other things.

 

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Just got my supermicro workstation to work as supposed a week ago or so after 3 month of hell! In my bios you can change the ram from 1333 to 1600. Not sure about Dell. Seams you could get similar perfomance with a clocked 3939 as with dual 2687w in davinci. But the dual cpu dont need to stress that much under same workload so you can keep doing other things.

Thanks, Joel. Dell can't (or won't) help with that.I'm also looking at Supermicro, what are your specs like? Is there a noticeable improvement after the upgrade to 1600?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I've just learnt, from the Dell site, that 1600 MHz memory will work at only 1333 MHz on a 7.2 GT/s CPU.

This is correct. Not all of the CPUs support 1600MHz RAM. While Joel is correct that there are BIOS settings to set the speed for the RAM, the CPUs may not support it [officially]. Some SuperMicro and boards by other manufacturers do support minimal overclocking on the E5 platform via external base clock modification only, internal multipliers are locked on the Xeons. You can push to 1600MHz memory speed that way, by overclocking the CPU and/or RAM.

Now I'm wondering whether it's too low. I'm not looking to use it professionally on a daily basis. It's more of a test-bed for all kinds of codecs and resolutions. Will be running R3D, Sony RAW and Arriraw through it, but not for projects greater than 5 minutes in final length. Raw source footage will be an hour's worth. Only native editing (don't mind lower resolution previews).


Using it for CS6, Vegas Pro and Resolve.


I'm aiming at the Quadro K4000 and 64 GB of RAM. All this is about $6,500 or so, and that's as far as I can take it. Am I aiming too low?

You're not aiming too low at all. Seems like a nice system. It's not the fastest system, but it will work just fine. The other option to consider is a 6-core i7 3960X or 3930K CPU. You can save a lot of money by going that direction. And it is actually going to be a faster system for everything that uses 12 threads or less. With the Xeon you have more cores and more robust memory architecture, but slower clock speeds. Depends on what you need...

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

3930K +1

Cheers - #19

 

[Les C.]

Just got my supermicro workstation to work as supposed a week ago or so after 3 month of hell! In my bios you can change the ram from 1333 to 1600. Not sure about Dell.
Seams you could get similar perfomance with a clocked 3939 as with dual 2687w in davinci. But the dual cpu dont need to stress that much under same workload so you can keep doing other things.

3 months of hell?

Did you assemble it yourself?

I've got an integrator working on mine who specializes in SuperMicro - Next International http://www.neqx.com/ . Been using them for years with no problems.

The X9DAi motherboard turned out to be faulty when they were testing it, wouldn't run all of the 8 DIMM's of Crucial CT2K16G3ERSLD41339 RAM = 132GB.

So they cross-shipped a board and should have it working this week.

I ended up going with dual E5-2670's, as the extra few percentage points in speed for going with the ES-2690 to get a slightly higher Passmark (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/multi_cpu.html ), would be rather costly and also generate a lot more heat (the faster they go, they faster the curve rises for how much heat they produce).

My only possible regret so far in my choices is the Corsair AX1200i power supply. I bought two of them, and one came with the cables for the AX1200 (which won't work) and the other was defective. I'm not very happy with Corsair's quality control, and wondering whether I've made a mistake?

The 7 year warranty and reduced part count and reliability due to being DSP based certainly sounded good. All the hardware reviews where they put it through the paces were very favorable - as in best power supply ever.

But ... having 100% of my first two units have quality control issues is a bit depressing!

 

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

You're not aiming too low at all. Seems like a nice system. It's not the fastest system, but it will work just fine. The other option to consider is a 6-core i7 3960X or 3930K CPU. You can save a lot of money by going that direction. And it is actually going to be a faster system for everything that uses 12 threads or less. With the Xeon you have more cores and more robust memory architecture, but slower clock speeds. Depends on what you need...

Jeff, I'm sure you're trying to tell me something here but I can't figure it out!

My first choice is the i7 3930K, and I could build a system with a GTX 680 (4GB) or Titan - everything else stays the same - for half the price. I've built systems in the past, and I can make it work. If I'm leaning towards a dual Xeon workstation, it's only for the Z820 or T7600 Chassis, reliability and 5/5/5 service - There's no way I can get this anywhere else.

I've also got quotes from Supermicro, but the prices aren't that different from the HP or Dell.

And it is actually going to be a faster system for everything that uses 12 threads or less.

I'm planning on using CS6 (all apps), Nuke, Resolve and Vegas Pro, mostly for RAW files, in 4K. I don't mind previewing in 1/2 res, because that's the resolution of the monitor I'll be using (Dell U2711).

Maybe I should be asking: Would these apps make use of the double processor and max it out? I don't mind the slight increase in rendering time on an i7, but will there be a noticeable difference working with it, with native files?

As an aside, I've read your earlier posts on your Supermicro build. Do you have a couple of suggestions for a good case that might 'ease the pain' of going DIY?

Thanks for the help!