2 i7 860 or dual xeon x5550 for 3d rendering workstation

hello guys,

i'm planning to buy a 3d rendering machine which i'm going to use only for render high-res images using mentalray,vray in 3dsmax and also do lots of photoshop & after effects composting. my idea is to buy a dual xeon x5550 setup with 8gb ram or buy 2 i7 860 2.8ghz which can be overclocked . i dont know if dual xeon x5550 can compete with 2 i7 860 cpus powered machines. i'm not a computer hardware wizard but i know that even using network rendering to connect 2 i7 machines, there will be some speed reduction in rendering performance since rendering via network. i really want to go for xeon x5550 but if 2 i7 machines perfrom better than dual xeons then i would go for 2 i7 machines. i would like to get some advice on this....here are the specs for both the computer i got so far from my hardware guy ..


2 pcs i7 rig

i7 860 2.8ghz oc @4ghz
ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
2 x Super Talent DDR3-1333 2GB/128x8 CL8
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KSRTL 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB
GIGABYTE GV-N94TOC-1GI GeForce 9400 GT 1GB ( i'm not concerned about the graphics card since its a rendering machine maybe in the future will upgrade with quadro)

approx prize 950$


xeon rig

Intel Xeon X5550 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB
ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon ( not sure about this mother board..any better performance board for x550????)
SUPER TALENT 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
SUPER TALENT MasterDrive SX SAM64GM25S 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB
Rosewill RG530-2 530W 80Plus Certified, ATX12V v2.3/EPS12V
COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm
GIGABYTE GV-N94TOC-1GI GeForce 9400 GT 1GB

approx prize 2500$ i could spend 3000$ max on this rig as i'm on heavy budjet


need some advice, i hope xeons cannot be overclock..is there a way to over clock xeon x5550?
also need some advice on motherboard


thanks

if you go dual xeons consider getting the E5530 as they are not much slower (2.4GHz vs 2.66GHz) and about half as cheap (~$550 vs ~$1000 ea)

mindless, arent the e5530's hald as powerful? since they are based on the older architecture, not nehalem surely they are much less powerful?

but to OP, i would imagine a dual XEON workstation would be much better saince you owuld have no risk of network bottlenecking. since they are almost as powerful as 870's anyway, you should get much better performance.

they are nehalem, so its going to be a small difference (for a huge price)

Xeon E5530 Intel Spec Sheet

or just check the link to newegg stating its the nehalem architecture

EDIT: you beat me to my post

the only reason i picked the psu i picked was because i needed 2 x 8pin EPS 12V

it was one of the cheapest i could find, if the Corsair 650TX has enough connectors you should be fine

Sorry.. I just realised you needed it for the two processors.. My bad.

thanks for the help guys..i really appreciate it. it helped alot..

do you think that dual xeon can compete with 2 i7 860 over clocked in network rendering?

is this it Lenova D20 Ebay

if so, that is way more than what he OP wanted to spend, his max was around $3k and i did that

if not, where is your posting, this is the only one that showed

wow, way to be an asshole, i was only asking because if that is the system, then there was no point in posting since the OP was $3000 or less (and i don't need that kind of power in a computer since i am just a CS student)

if it isn't then you should post the link to his

anyways, this is not the place to sell stuff from

fair enough, tough it looks like OP has left the building

Hi!
Thanks for all the help! Another question. Will putting in a better graphics card, say a HD5970 or a 5870 make any difference in rendering?