Workstation dilemma: 2012 mac pro (12-core xeon) or new build with modern components

Dimitrios,

You're on the right track for this kind of work although I feel a dual Xeon E5-2600 series PC would be a more appropriate platform as the cost /performance ratio is so much better. This may be impractical if you're a committed Mac user, but consider this example:

HP Z820 Barebone Workstation / Chassis (Motherboard + PSU + DVD-RW) 618266-001 > sold for $750

TO this add>

2X Xeon E5-2680 8-core @ 2.7 /3.5GHz > $200 (about $100 each
2nd CPU heatsink > About $70
Add to 128GB RAM (DDR3-1600 ECC reg) > about $300
A Quadro 6000 6GB > about $300
NVIDIA Tesla M2090 6GB GDDR5 PCIe x16 GPU Computing Processor Card sold for $99 or offers - $2,600 new and a MTBF of 170,000 hours.
2X 2TB storage HD in RAID 1 > about $220

TOTAL, about $2,000

< and there you have 16-cores / 32 threads (= +1/3), and very good performance. The E5-2680 is 2.7 / 3.5GHz and on Passmark, the average CPU mark for dual E5-2680's is 18833 and the single-threaded mark is 1709). There's 128GB of RAM, a 6GB Quadro that was designed for video editing- and $4,000 new, a $2,600 Tesla 6GB co-processor- designed for Matlab, and a RAID 1 mirrored storage.

To put this into perspective, the two E5-2680's new would have cost a total of $3,450 alone. That system would have cost $14,000-16,000+ new.

The Quadro 6000 workstation card in specified here as that allows the possibility of adding a Tesla (Fermi platform) GPU co-processor- just made for Matlab. At my local particle accelerator the experiment simulations run on a cluster (11 systems) of dual Xeon systems each with four Tesla K20X GPU processors. Much extended, the multiple CPU with multiple GPU acceleration cards (Telsa and Intel Xeon Phi) has been the general configuration of the fastest supercomputers in the world.

The only thing this system might need is a good RAID controller, (recommend a used LSI 9260-8i) but that can be added later if the disk system needs reinforcements.

However, if all your software is Mac and you're not inclined to jump into the crazy fix-it world of the PC, the Mac Pro should be fine. The Mac Pro 5,1 is LGA1366, a great series of CPU's- and I have two LGA1366 systems, but for intensive Matlab and deep analytics an E5-2600 series can apply more cores and a wider memory bandwidth- a greater calculation density. For example, some 12-core Mac Pro 5,1's use a pair of Xeon X5675's 6-core @ 3.06 /3.46GHz) with an average CPU score on Passmark of 12955 and the single-threaded score is 1403. Compare that to the E5-2680 8-core mentioned above. The cost /performance possibilities with a careful selection among Xeon E5-2600 PC's though can be in another league.

What kind of problems are you running?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI / Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) / Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

PS> Here's a Matlab system I worked out earlier. I quote this as it shows some statistics on the value of adding a GPU coprocessor plus the cost of building to that level with (mostly*) new components" *the Quadro K4200 and Tesla K20 iare used:

BambiBoom CalcuCannon <Matalabacompurendersimulicious iWork TurboSignature Extreme ScienceStuffer 9900 ®©$$™®£™©™ _ 5.3.16

CPU: 2X Intel Xeon Processor E5-2640 v4 (10-core @2.40 / 3.4 GHz, 25M Cache) > $1,840 ($920 each)(Superbiiz)

CPU Coolers: 2X Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4 CPU Heatsink For LGA2011 >$64 ($32 each)

Motherboard: Supermicro X10DRG-Q (4X PCIe x16 GPU slots) > $499 (Superbiiz)(This motherboard has four GPU slots)(Review of this motherboard)

Memory: 128GB (8 X 16GB) Crucial DDR4-2133 16GB/2Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory > $800 (Superbiiz)

GPU 1: NVIDIA Quadro K4200NVIDIA Quadro K4200 (4GB) Part No. VCQK4200-PB > used about $550

GPU 2,3,4: TESLA K20 GPU ACCELERATOR > $2,700 (used about $900 each)

Drive 1: Intel 750 Series AIC 400GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 MLC PCIe Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDPEDMW400G4X1 > $350

Drive 2, 3: 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST3000NM0023 3TB 7200RPM SAS3/SAS 6.0 GB/s 128MB Enterprise Hard Drive (3.5 inch) $370 > ($185 each)

CASE: Supermicro SuperChassis CSE-747TQ-R1620B 1620W 4U Rackmount/Tower Server Chassis (Dark Gray) > $950

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit English (1-Pack), OEM > $139.

____________________________________

TOTAL = about $7,892

Notes:

1. The 4X GPU configuration is unconventional: The Quadro K4200 is single height but the Tesla K20's are double- height cards. However the GPU slots are double spaced on the Supermicro X10DRG-Q motherboard.

2. The Xeon E5-2640 v4 has not been benchmarked extensively, but performance should be very good. There are two systems using the E5-2640 v4 on Passmark and the CPU score for a single CPU is 15776 and for a dual configuration- 25080. That would place it at No. 8 in the Passmark dual CPU list. A total of 20-cores /40 threads, and 8,832 CUDA cores (1344 + 7488) provide a lot calculation power. The 3.4Ghz turbo speed should have a sufficient single-threaded capability in combination with the Quadro K4200 for quite demanding visualizations, so in addition to Matlab and Mathematica: simulation animation, Arc/GIS, 3D structural design /analysis, particle and thermal simulation, and visualizations of these should be very good.

2. The Quadro K4200 was chosen as the GPU's in a NVIDIA Maximus configuration (Quadro + Tesla) have to have the same series processor- in this case all have to be Kepler series.

[3. Benchmarks of GPU's:

NVIDIA Quadro K4200 _________NVIDIA Tesla K20

OS Windows
API OpenCL

Face Detection

27.889 mPixels/s_________________32.104 mPixels/s

TV-L1 Optical Flow

9.092 mPixels/s_________________ 11.228 mPixels/s

Ocean Surface Simulation

1032.353 Frames/s______________ 1427.912 Frames/s

Particle Simulation - 64k

363.404 mInteraction/s___________ 377.433 mInteraction/s

T-Rex

2.597 Frames/s__________________4.129 Frames/s

Video Composition

38.83 Frames/s _________________ 64.479 Frames/s

Bitcoin Mining

66.493 mHash/s ________________ 179.058 mHash/s

______________________________________________________________

4. The disk system is somewhat generic and it may be useful to consider a RAID controller for the 5th PCIe x16 slot (wired as x8) to include a hardware RAID controller, and to add a RAID 5 for the storage. This may, however, mean that there would be a single PCIe SSD drive in the remaining x8 slot (wired as x4). In some ways, my inclination is to have a cache drive for fast swaps to RAM and chance to saves, but the cache drive could be an SATA SSD with good performance as well.