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Hardware questions (WORKSTATION) i7 7820X OR 2 * Xeon-E52690 v1 ?

Florian Woelffel

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Hi everyone,

I need your help please.
I want to buy a workstation for Davinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Maya, and work with 6K RED footages but I hesitate with 2 products (between 2 processors):

- I7 7820 X (8 cores, 16 threads): 3.6 to 4.3 GHZ, fairly new (Q2'2017), support of the DDR4, can handle just 28 PCi express lanes (so I will not be able to graphics card) ...

OR

- 2 * Xeon E5 2690 v1 (8 cores, 16 threads): 2.9 GHZ to 3.8 GHZ, fairly old (Q1'2012), no support of the ddr4 just ddr3, can handle 40 PCI Express lanes (so no problem to add another graphics card in the future), lack of the new intel features (AVX2, FMA3, F16C, etc ...).

Here are the 2 configurations (about the same price, I have this budget: no more):

1) With the i7 7820 X:
- Motherboard: MSI X299 RAIDER
- 64 GB DDR4 Ballistix Sport 2400 MHZ
- Noctua NH-D15
- Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE
- SSD (boot) Samsung 850 PRO Series, 256 GB, SATA III
- SSD (cache, files, ...): Samsung 960 Pro 1 TB M.2
- Power station: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 w P2
- Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5

2) With the 2 * Xeon E5-2690 v1:

HPZ 820 Workstation (case, 1125 W power station, ...)
- 64 GB DDR3 DDR3-12800R (ECC memory) 1600 MHz
- Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE
- SSD (boot) Samsung 850 PRO Series, 256 GB, SATA III
- SSD (cache, files, ...): Samsung 960 Pro 1 TB M.2

Thank you in advance for your answers / advices.
Regards,
Florian
 
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I would avoid 8 cores. Better with more. Either the Dual Xeon you found, but maybe better with a Threadripper. Vs1 are very old are they not?

/Andreas
 
Yes Xeon E5-2690 v1 are very old (2012)... But I was wondering if it was a good compromise related to quality / price level.
In fact, it's not !

Check this links:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Should-you-use-a-Dual-Xeon-for-Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-932/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/DaVinci-Resolve-14-CPU-Performance-Skylake-X-vs-Threadripper-1063/

Right now my budget is limited... Of course, I would like to buy right away the I9-7960X (16 cores, 32 treads 2.8 to 4.4 GHZ)... But for now, I was thinking about going with the i7 7820X and in the near future upgrade to the 7960X.

A Threadripper 1950X (16 cores, 32 treads 3.4 to 4 GHZ) is also to take in consideration, you're right. (Plus I can benefit of 200 euros of reduction price here in France for 1 week). But I don't know, I never liked AMD before... And I read somewhere that their processors are not fully optimized in Windows 10 for now... After all these years, developpers optimized theirs applications for Intel processors, not Amd. I'm a little worried about that if I go Amd.
 
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Yes Xeon E5-2690 v1 are very old (2012)... But I was wondering if it was a good compromise related to quality / price level.
In fact, it's not !

Check this links:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Should-you-use-a-Dual-Xeon-for-Premiere-Pro-CC-2017-932/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/DaVinci-Resolve-14-CPU-Performance-Skylake-X-vs-Threadripper-1063/

Right now my budget is limited... Of course, I would like to buy right away the I9-7960X (16 cores, 32 treads 2.8 to 4.4 GHZ)... But for now, I was thinking about going with the i7 7820X and in the near future upgrade to the 7960X.

A Threadripper 1950X (16 cores, 32 treads 3.4 to 4 GHZ) is also to take in consideration, you're right. (Plus I can benefit of 200 euros of reduction price here in France for 1 week). But I don't know, I never liked AMD before... And I read somewhere that their processors are not fully optimized in Windows 10 for now... After all these years, developpers optimized theirs applications for Intel processors, not Amd. I'm a little worried about that if I go Amd.

Pudget is Intel only and when they test AMD they use the worst memory possible(AMD likes good and fast mem).

Here is a video from a total d*ck I normally don't trust, but he is not far of this time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PphEQqI1Nck
 
If you're on a limited budget its hard to beat a 1950x cpu. Can be found for $700 USD right now if you know where to look.
 
the z820 would be my choice for Resolve or other software that mutlithreads & uses mutiple video cards effectivly
the i7 would seem a better choice for Pp that only uses one core effectivly, then you want the highest clock speed you can afford

decide on the main use for the machine and compromise the other software

a z820 is a sledgehammer in the real world, but i'd try to find one that suports v2 proc's tho.
an i7 may not be as cost effictive as a AMD currently, worth evaluating that path
 
I'm running a dual E5-2620 (6 cores each) right now with a ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS with 64GB of DDR3 Ram. Its pretty awesome if I feed it the data fast enough. I have a mini sas 8 bay raid 6 hooked up to it and I am running a 1080 GPU. About to step it up tp a dual 10 core soon. Its my main machine for cutting 8K 10:1 footage.
 
Hello everyone,

I was a little busy... thanks for you help/opinion !
With the Blackfriday/Cybermonday I bought a Threadripper 1950X. So cheap compared to an Intel I9 1960X... 1000 euros saved.
I think it will be good enough for the coming years. I hope I did the right choice.

To close the topic, here is what I did ending up buying:

- AMD Threadripper 1950X
- Motherboard: MSI X399 GAMING Pro Carbon AC
- 64 GB DDR4 G.Skill Flare X 2400 MHZ CAS15 (optimized for AMD Ryzen)
- Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
- Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE
- SSD (boot) Samsung 960 EVO 250 Go M.2 NVMe
- SSD (cache, files, ...): Samsung 960 Pro 1 TB M.2 NVMe
- Power station: EVGA SuperNOVA 850w P2
- Case: Fractal Design DEFINE R5 Blackout

Best regards,
Florian
 
Hello everyone,

I was a little busy... thanks for you help/opinion !
With the Blackfriday/Cybermonday I bought a Threadripper 1950X. So cheap compared to an Intel I9 1960X... 1000 euros saved.
I think it will be good enough for the coming years. I hope I did the right choice.

To close the topic, here is what I did ending up buying:

- AMD Threadripper 1950X
- Motherboard: MSI X399 GAMING Pro Carbon AC
- 64 GB DDR4 G.Skill Flare X 2400 MHZ CAS15 (optimized for AMD Ryzen)
- Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
- Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE
- SSD (boot) Samsung 960 EVO 250 Go M.2 NVMe
- SSD (cache, files, ...): Samsung 960 Pro 1 TB M.2 NVMe
- Power station: EVGA SuperNOVA 850w P2
- Case: Fractal Design DEFINE R5 Blackout

Best regards,
Florian

When possible try to change the memory to a bit faster set 2933..3200 MHz

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-ryzen-7-agesa-1006-performance-update-review,2.html
 
Hey Misha,

Yes, thanks to you for pointing it out.
Plus, my 64 GB I have purchased were in fact dual channel and not quad channel. (Threadripper works with quad channel memory)
So I changed them instead by 32 GB DDR4 G.Skill Flare X 3200 MHZ CAS14 (optimized for AMD Ryzen).
 
Hey Misha,

Yes, thanks to you for pointing it out.
Plus, my 64 GB I have purchased were in fact dual channel and not quad channel. (Threadripper works with quad channel memory)
So I changed them instead by 32 GB DDR4 G.Skill Flare X 3200 MHZ CAS14 (optimized for AMD Ryzen).

You won't need more memory when doing all the work in Davinci Resolve and Fusion, with PP and AE it's a different story https://www.thailand.intel.com/cont...cuments/guides/workstation-adobe-4k-guide.pdf.
 
You won't need more memory when doing all the work in Davinci Resolve and Fusion, with PP and AE it's a different story https://www.thailand.intel.com/cont...cuments/guides/workstation-adobe-4k-guide.pdf.

i have seen Resolve alone useing 70+ gig of sys ram, not often, only when deleteing caches, archiveing or media manageing large projects llke a feature with mutiple deliverables, hence mutiple timelines... but if you need to use any of those functions and have large projects, 64g is not enough.

32g should be fine for some uses tho, but not all uses
 
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