For Houdini: Used Dual E5-2670 or i74930k

[BFSVFX]

My i7 4930 workstations motherboard has died, we all know 2011 motherboards are now difficult if not impossible to find, during my search I came across these 4930 motherboard and this Dual E5-2670 mobo and 128gb ram . My question -is it worth it to opt for the dual xeon with 128 gb or just get the 2011 motherboard.

I can spend between $500-600 USD, I mainly use houdini, maya and blender.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Eric

[malexander]

It looks like the dual xeon is out of stock, so you may have your decision made for you

[BFSVFX]

Yeah but there are others for just a little more.

 

[Atom]

The 4930 uses a socket that limits you to DDR3 motherboards. Which effectively limits you to 32Gb of main memory. Look into the Skylake architecture 6700K for a more modern system that leverages DDR4 and higher then 32GB of maximum memory.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Atom

[BFSVFX]

Thats incorrect the i7 Extreme edition chips handle 64gb of ram my current machine has 32gb of ram and 4 more slots available for a total of 64, on top of that I run the 4930 at an overclock of 4.5Mhz combine that with the 6 cores and 12 threads, If I where to move it would be to the i7 5930k or the i7 5820 which I dont see providing enough of a bump to warrant a $700-1000+ outlay. As for DDR4 the difference is minor between it and DDR3. Now for a new build SKylake may work but considering the 5820 is only $30-$50 more Id probably get that and be in position to upgrade to the BRoadwell E when it comes out.

[Atom]

Yeah those single stick 16GB RAM chips are a bit more expensive. Sounds like you know your gear pretty well. I recently speced out a machine and came to the conclusion that buying into the new Skylake architecture would be better for a new build rather than adopting the older technology. But if you already have parts you want leverage it makes more sense to stay on the same platform.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Atom

[jonmoore]

There are huge bargains to be had if you're looking for something as an auxiliary network box (or workstation for that matter) and many of them come from corporate backgrounds where they've not been fried 24/7 on sim/rendering duties. Here in the UK I recently picked up a pair of HP Z620's for £650 a box (with 1TB drives 32Gb Memory and a pair of Xeon E5-2670's in each). These chips are still near the top of the Cinebench charts and for that kind of money with the high quality component parts you get in the HP Z series I don't think you can go wrong. The only downside is that the fans run hard all the time which seems a little odd seeing as the E5-2670's are famed for their low power consumption and low temperatures. I have a feeling their BIOS was tweaked in a former life. We picked them up to use with Redshift (coming to Houdini very soon). Probably stick a pair of GTX 980 TI's in each box as the forthcoming 1080/1070 means there's a lot of vendors wanting to shift their 980's sharpish at near half their original price. 32 Xeon cores mixed with all those Cuda cores for a shade over £1k, you'd find it hard to bespoke build units with decent components for much less. The trick in all this is to find a vendor you trust and that provides you with a warranty (even if it's only six months).

[cgcris]

On 5/17/2016 at 10:56 PM, jonmoore said:

Probably stick a pair of GTX 980 TI's in each box

Can you fit two GPUS in this box? 

What would be the main difference with z820 line?

Thanks!