Opteron 270 vs. Xeon 3.4ghz Irwindale / Which is better?

fishquail · Mar 5, 2006

Which is better?

AMD Opteron 270 Dual Core 2.0ghz with/
Tyan Thunder K8WE motherboard = $1,395

or------

Intel Xeon 3.4ghz Irwindale with/
Supermicro X6DAE-G2 motherboard = $1,371

Strickly for video editing. 2GB of ram in each. Both will have dual Processors on the motherboard -prices reflect this. So far I have read the Sep 2004 Toms Harware guide article on Opteron vs. Xeon :
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/09/27/amd/
It sugests the Opteron 250 over the Xeon Nocona (at that time) Opteron was better. Is this still true of these newer Xeon Irwindale vs. Opteron 270 processors? Thanks!

luminaris · Mar 5, 2006

Yeah, the Opteron still holds the server/workstation arena by far. Get the opteron system.

MadModMike · Mar 5, 2006

That Opteron 64 system will crush the Xeon in performance. I have used both Opteron 64's and Xeon's, the Opteron 64's beat Xeon's in everything, Price/Performance wise. If you're getting the K8WE, put 2 512MB sticks in each 4x DIMM's per CPU, that will be the best performance.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

jokersgrin · Mar 5, 2006

That opteron will crush that xeon :twisted:
Do a google on it. It will show everything in the benches..etc compared to the xeon!

hrudy · Mar 5, 2006

The Opteron will perform much better!

HOWEVER Tyan makes the Jaguar of motherboards meaning that they are top performing but their reliability leaves much to be desired.
Supermicro makes an equivalent Opteron in their Aplus line.

fishquail · Mar 6, 2006

Ok, I have been googling this all day and am exausted. So The opteron is clearly better acoring to benchmarks; However, as hrudy said;
- Compatablility !
I will be using the Matrox RTX100 extreme pro video editing card- and some users claim it has an incompatable chipset. Thus, I will have to probably go with the Xeon motherboard. Which makes me sad to pay all that money when there is a better system of the same price. - Well , how much time could I possibly be saving (for renders) , maybe what, 20 seconds???

fishquail · Mar 6, 2006

Then again....

I wish I could test the Opteron 270 with the Tyan Thunder K8WE and my matrox video card and see if it works, and if it dosnt send it back, but as i can guess; you cant return a Processor once youve opend it and stuck it on... - Right?

( Theres got to be a better way! )

endyen · Mar 6, 2006

Unless ofcourse you got it from newegg, or some other company with cohones. Tell them straight. I want this. I have this. If it dont play nice with what I got, I want to be able to exchange.
With the price of those puppies (and thier profit) they want the sale.

fishquail · Mar 6, 2006

Well I already orderd the Xeons and Motherboard with Ram and video card...

I guess I could call them tommrow and see what they say?

apache_lives · Mar 6, 2006

ah glad to see non fanboy BS - get what you need for your requirements

linux_0 · Mar 6, 2006

Is it too late to cancel your order?

Or at least exchange it for the Opterons?

They will perform so much better.

There should not be any compatibility problems unless they are artificially created.

fishquail · Mar 6, 2006

Yeah, I know - the Matrox support page/ system requirements say that AMD processors are supported, but they havent ever "officaly" tested an Opteron system of any kind. Some users are claiming that the Tyan K8WE will work great for them and some users claim that the K8WE does nothing but crash all day. For the ones who crash, matrox support says that they belive that chipset to be incompatable... Now The last thing I want is a another crashmaster2000, so stability has to be my number one issue here... However, what really annoys me is that the Matrox Axio LE ( a higher end Matrox editing card) under its system recomended motherboards is this exact Tyan K8WE card! - So you would think they could make drivers to make the RTX100 work on this thing...right?

fishquail · Mar 6, 2006

Mad Mod Mike,
is this true of the dual Xeon system as well: that it will perform better with 4 sticks of 512mb rather than 2x 1GB? -or does it not matter.

pengwin · Mar 6, 2006

we ned to make a sticky thread stay says: AMD > Intel (except in laptops)

linux_0 · Mar 6, 2006

No, that is only true for Opterons.

Each time you add an Opteron CPU you increase your memory bandwidth.

With 2 CPUs and 4 sticks your memory bandwidth is 2x

With 4 CPUs and 8 sticks your memory bandwidth is 4x

With 8 CPUs and 16 sticks your memory bandwidth is 8x

linux_0 · Mar 6, 2006

The Opteron is so superior it isn't even funny.

The K8WE S2895

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151148

is your best option.

There are 2 K8WEs make sure you get the S2895.

pengwin · Mar 6, 2006

Athlons are better than P4's
X2's are better than P4's/EE
FX is better than EE
Opteron is > all

Grimmy · Mar 6, 2006

Sack of 10 please...

. o O <(Whoops... this isn't white castle)

apache_lives · Mar 7, 2006

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

linux_0 · Mar 7, 2006

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

Indeed, the Opteron architecture "scales" VERY well.

There is no comparison.

Can't wait for the 16way and 32way series

Although an 8way machine with 16 cores would do some serious damage.

MadModMike · Mar 7, 2006

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

The proper term is "Google.com Intel Fanboy".

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

apache_lives · Mar 7, 2006

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

The proper term is "Google.com Intel Fanboy".

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

Boo hoo MMM AMD fanboy

fishquail · Mar 7, 2006

Alright, due to everyones advice here -I have decided to return the Intel Xeons rig to Newegg and go with the Opteron System. Im tired of trying to build a system around the 4 year old matrox RTX100. That card is way too picky and I need something that is going to last another 3 years plus. So I will just throw in the towel on the matrox RTX100 and get a new RT editing card. So...Heres what Im getting. Any advice or recomendations other than this please let me know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

MB = TYAN K8WE S2895A2NRF Dual Socket 940 NVIDIA nForce4 Professional SSI EEB v3.5 Server Motherboard - $409
CPU = (2x) AMD Dual-Core Opteron 270 Italy HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 940 Processor $495x2 = $990
RAM = (4x) CORSAIR 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM ECC Registered DDR400 (PC 3200) System Memory - $69.00x4 = $276.00
System HD = Maxtor EIDE133 250gb Hard drive - I already own.
Video HD = (2x) Maxtor S-ATA-II 250gb in RAID 0. = $96.00
PSU = Antec TP2-550 EPS12V 550w power supply. = $99.99
GPU = PNY Quadro FX540 proffesional video edition 128mb DDR PCI EXpress 16x Video card = $229.
Case = Thermaltake XASER, Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Full Tower = $149.99

Opteron 270 vs. Xeon 3.4ghz Irwindale / Which is better?

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