E5 2687W v3 vs E5 2696v3

[3dome]

Hi Guys,

I'm about to build a new workstation and I have to luck to know someone who is willing to sell me 2 E5 2696 v3 quite cheap. As you might know, the E5 2696 is the OEM version of the E5 2699. It has the same specs (18 cores/36threads @ 2,3GHz).

Thing is, I read a lot on the internet but couldn't find too much about those high core count machines when it comes to Houdini (I'm doing all kinds of sims in Houdini).
Some people said high frequency is better than core count most of the time because of single threaded nodes/processes in Houdini. They say, only rendering benefits a lot from more cores.

I'd like to know if someone here has experience with everyday use of Xeons in the 2GHz range (scattering many points, mountain sop on heavy geometry, etc). Are those tasks noticable slow?
Do many cores help that much with simulations?

My other choice is the E5 2687W v3 because it has 3,1GHz (10 cores/20threads @ 3,1GHz).

Any help appreciated.

 

[fathom]

i use a dual e5-2695v2 at work (48 total threads) at 2.4ghz.  there *are* times where things seem to bog down single threads, but it's pretty infrequent.  vex is totally multithreaded.  rendering is as well (aside from the initial geometry computations).  most dops do pretty well.

 

simple math: 3.1 * 10 = 3100 total ghz.  18 * 2.3 = 4100 total ghz.  i'd opt for the additional cores.  you'll probably run into times where you're waiting for a single core to finish, but i think a 25% overall improvement in horsepower is probably enough to outweigh that problem.  i mean, if you're talking about the same price point etc...

[3dome]

Yeah alright thanks for your help. Price is actually even a bit less than for 2687W.
Just found another thread here on odforce saying Windows can't use more than 64 cores. Linux capable of using all 72?

thread: http://forums.odforce.net/topic/23533-anyone-here-using-houdini-on-huge-core-count-machines/