dumisoft :
Hello there,
Currently I'm running a system with Intel Core i7 - 6700K CPU. Mobo is Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 3 and 16GB of RAM.
I'm working with Autodesk Maya and my requirement is to speed up render time at least twice. So, I'm thinking about building a system with 2 CPUs. But I never built dual CPU system so basically I'm looking for some help or some piece of advice.
These are my questions.
1. If I build a PC with two CPUs with Dual CPU mobo, will it actually speed up my render time at least twice than the system I mentioned at the beginning?
2. Let's say I built a system with two CPUs and each one is hexa core. Then will I get a 12 cores system? or something different?
3. Can you suggest a mobo, CPUs, and amount of RAM for this new system?
If you can answer all 3 questions separately, that would be great..!
I appreciate your answers.
Have a nice day.
dumisoft,
1. It is possible to speed up rendering by focusing on GPU rendering- adding CUDA cores, but I've found the image quality to be poor in some cases- crude reflections, shadows, and color gradients. Adding CPU cores is preferable. Doubling the speed is difficult to pinpoint. If you look at benchmarks of dual CPU configurations, you'll that the scores- roughly the relative number of calculations cycles per second say is not doubled for a pair and a single eight-core will be faster than a pair of four-cores of the same clock speed. There is also a relationship of clock speed to core count and a fast eight core can quickly cost $1,500 to $2,000 each. But, to answer the question, if you want to halve the time to do CPU rendering , a dual setup is probably the way to do it. One exception is the E5-1680 v3 (8-cores at 3.2 /3.8GHz) but that one costs about $1,900.
2. A dual 6-core CPU system will have 12 cores and 24 threads. In CPU rendering, it's usually possible to assign the proportion of threads to the rendering. I have a dual 4-core Dell Precision (=8 cores /16 threads)and I usually give 12 threads to the rendering and leave 4 for the OS. The 6-core is probably the best combination of thread count and clock speed.
3. The easiest method to have a high quality, high performance system is to find a great deal on a used workstation:
HP Z820 - 2 x E5-2643V2 - 8GB - 2 x 1TB 7.2K - FirePro V3900 > offered for $3,450
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z820-2-x-E5-2643V2-8GB-2-x-1TB-7-2K-FirePro-V3900-/231682750371?hash=item35f15e37a3%3Ag%3AdEgAAOSwgNRV8Mni&nma=true&si=IadoXrvmUxLbXZ%252FrGI03tqlsqsI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
That one may be unrepeatable as a pair of Xeon E5-2643 v2 can cost $3,000 used, but good values do pop up.
DELL Precision T7600 Workstation 2x Xeon E5-2687W 3.1GHz 16GB 500GB Desktop sold for $1,703
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Precision-T7600-Workstation-2x-Xeon-E5-2687W-3-1GHz-16GB-500GB-Desktop-/231631291270?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ee4d0386%3Ag%3AYm4AAOSwu4BVsU9m&nma=true&si=IadoXrvmUxLbXZ%252FrGI03tqlsqsI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
I don't think you could buy only the two CPU's used for that price.
Or, the very least expensive method:
Dell Precision T7500 2x 3.46GHz Six Core X5690 48GB RAM No HDD No OS > sold for $870
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T7500-2x-3-46GHz-Six-Core-X5690-48GB-RAM-No-HDD-No-OS-/381407044082?hash=item58cda1a1f2%3Ag%3AAWcAAOSwFnFV-zSj&nma=true&si=IadoXrvmUxLbXZ%252FrGI03tqlsqsI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
That's 12 cores /24 threads at 3.46 /3.73GHz, 48GB of RAM, and an 1100W power supply for $900. Add a good GPU, 6GB/s RAID controller and Drives. Yes, obsolete technology, but at that price- buy two!
One of the best tactics for an economical high performance system may be to build a new system with high quality, high speed used CPU's- that is everything is new except the CPU's and possibly the RAM and GPU. For this, consider using a Supermicro Superworkstation:
http://www.supermicro.nl/products/nfo/superworkstation.cfm
> and you'll see that there are various versions for LGA1366, LGA2011 and LGA2011-3 Xeons consisting of a case with motherboard, power supply, and CPU coolers. Supermicro make, in my opinion, the best multiple CPU motherboards for solid performance and reliability under heavy loads. The ASUS ASUS Z10PE-D16 board can get a bit more out of the CPU's and for a priority 3D modeling use I'd say ASUS, but for animation /processing, Supermicro. These are of server-grade components and designed to be ultra-reliable and quiet, and some have features like hot-swap drive bays. The good feature, besides the ability to use depreciated CPU's is that building the system is generally plug-in: the CPU's, RAM, GPU, and drives- a few hours work instead of days research, ordering, assembling, and configuring separate parts.
Here's a sample Superworkstation system using LGA1366:
BambiBoom PixelCannon Animamatoryrendercadasimulicious iWork TurboSignature Extreme ModelBlast 9800 ®©$$™®£™©™_6.28.15 / 10.28.15
1. Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7036A-T Dual LGA1366 Xeon Mid-Tower Workstation Barebone System (Black) > $658 (Includes case, motherboard, power supply, heatsink, fans)
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SY-736AT
2. CPU: 2X Xeon X5690 (6-core @ 3.47 / 3.73GHz) > about $500 ($250 each)
http://ark.intel.com/products/52576/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI
3. Memory: 96GB (6X 16GB) DDR3 1333 ECC Registered > about $500-$600 ($80-90 each)
4. GPU: Quadro M4000 (8GB) > $890
4 ALT: Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Used about $525
5. RAID Controller : LSI MegaRAID SAS 9341-4i (LSI00419) PCI-Express 3.0 x8 Low Profile SATA / SAS High Performance Four-Port 12Gb/s RAID Controller (Single Pack)--Avago Technologies > $175
6. Disk 1: SAMSUNG 850 PRO MZ-7KE512BW 2.5" 512GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) > $292.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147361&cm_re=samsung_850_512gb-_-20-147-361-_-Product
7. Drive 2, 3: Western Digital Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive, Black, WD2003FZEX> $246 ($123 each (Files, Backup, System Image)
8. Optical Disk: SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-224DB/BEBE - OEM > $18
9. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM > $140
____________________________________________
TOTAL = about $3,525 with Quadro M4000
If the system is strictly rendering- no modeling, the GPU could be a lower model , e.g., Quadro K1200 (4GB) at $300. If you're adventurous, there are used Quadro 6000 -6GB, designed fro high end modeling and video editing. These cost $4,000 new that are now $400 or so.
CPU: The choice depends on the budget, but the best cost/performance is in my view LGA1366 as you can buy a
pair of Xeon X5690's for under $500 that would have cost $3,300 new in 2012. The X5690 is still impressive today- 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz- and you'd have to spend $3,500- $4,000 in CPU's to have that specification new. On Passmark a pair of X5690's is ranked No. 54 with an average score of 14388.
If the budget is healthy, you could use the LGA2011 version Superworkstation with dual E5-2643 (6-core @ 3.3 /3.5) for about $400-600 each (No. 61 At 13447) and that would be an E5 possibility as well as E5-2667 (6-core @ 2.9/ 3.5) scoring No, 42 at 16924 . The E5 will be faster than X5600-series- more memory bandwidth, the RAM is 1600 and disk may be SATA III 6GB/s. If the budget is healthier- E5-2687w- 8-core @ 3.1 /3.8- about $900 each . For this use, this is close to the ideal cost /performance (No. 23 at 21241)and has a 3.8GHz speed for modeling with a still quite good 3.1 when running all threads for rendering. The E5-2687w v2 is 8-core @ 3.4 /4.0-
fantastic, but still almost $2,000 each used. The 8-core E5-2687w v2 is actually faster than the newer 10-core v3 version.
A sleeper 8-core is the E5-2690 2.9 /3.8GHz and these can cost as little as $500-600 a pair and performance (No. 25 @ 20744 Passmark) is not far off the E5-2687w (No. 23 @ 21241)
The E5-2690 v2 is 10-core @ 3.0 / 3.6 for about $1,200-1,400 a pair and No. 11 @ 24471 = serious. Many good possibilities.
RAM: A limitations of LGA1366 is the DDR3-1333 ECC RAM, but 48GB should still be very useful and it's not expensive. I bought - 24GB of used server RAM for $100. LGA1366 uses the X58 chipset which is triple channel so the RAM is best using 3X: 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB.
Disk: The disk system of LGA1366 is 3GB/s, but a good LSI PCIe RAID controller can sure that- they make controllers that are called "12GB/s", but I haven't seen tests of those.
GPU: You didn't mention GPU's, but have a look at the new Quadro M4000 (8GB) for a bit under $900 in the US. The performance is at K5200 level, and that costs $1,800. On a budget, for Maya, I'd say the minimum is a Quadro K2200 (4GB), which I had, but changed to a (used, $520) K4200(4GB) after about 6 months. You can try a GTX, but I did and never had a rendering I could use and after a month took a loss and bought a (used) Quadro FX 4800. With animation, it's doubly important to use a Quadro because of the textures and aliasing.
Sorry for such a long rambling post, but having a good rendering system without spending more than $10,000 takes more consideration.
Cheers,
BambiBoom
HP z420 > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz), 32GB 1866 ECC / Quadro K4200 / Intel 730 480GB , WD Black 1TB, 600W PSU > Win 7 Prof'l
HP z420 (2013) > Xeon E5-1620 ( 4- core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz) > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600 RAM > AMD V4900 (1GB) > Seagate 500GB > Win 7 Prof'l
Dell Precision T5500 Xeon X5680** (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz) 24GB DDR3 1333 ECC / Quadro K2200 /Samsung 840 250GB, WD RE4 1TB, 875W PSU > Win 7 Prof'l [**Can add 2nd X5680]
Dell Precision T5400 (2008) > 2X Xeon X5460 (4-core @3.16GHz) > 16GB DDR2 667 ECC> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 500GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > Win 7 Ultimate
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