New Work Station! Suggestions Needed

[Sledgehammer70]

Okay boys I am pretty good at racking up a system, but I want to see what you guys can come up with for me. My work has asked me to get prices on a new Workstation for me. I use the following porgrams.

3Ds Max 8.0
Photoshop CS2
Vray
MS Office
Adobe Priemer

For the most part I run dual monitors @ 1980 x 1440 with 2 versions of 3ds max all day, I might be rendering in one while working on a project in the other. I need a system that will allow me to run both and my other programs all at the same time without showing a hicupp...

Budget: $10,000 or lower.. the lower the better.

Standard must have specs:

- Windows XP Pro
- AMD Opteron "Dual Core" 285 or FX 62
- 3GB Ram "Xp limitations"
- Nvidia 7950 GX2
- 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- 2 x DVD Burner DVD+RW/DL/+R-R/CD-RW Double Media 4.7/8.5GB
- No Keyboard or Mouse or monitor I have those things

This is what I have so far, let me know if you find soemthing better or give me your input on what I have listed.
---------------------------------------------------------------

l Xi® MTower™ 64 SLI Workstation (Base Configuration) $1,059.00
Upgrades And Options:

l AMD® Athlon™ 64 FX-62 64Bit Dual Core (DC4400) 2x1024KB Cache HyperTransport™ Socket AM2 Only $999.00
l 4096MB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 4x1024 Dual Rank Interleave $419.00
l nVidia® EVGA® GeForce 7950 GX2 1024M DDR3 PCIe SLI-Ready Dual Head 2xDVI-I Dual Link HDTV $649.00
l No Monitor ($100.00)
l 250GB 7200RPM SATAII 300MB/s 16MB Cache 9ms $89.00
l DVD+RW/DL/+R-R LightScribe™ Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 16x w/SW-Media $79.00
l DVD 16x40x Reader $25.00
l On Board Sound AC 97 Codec or accordingly to motherboard selected
l On board 1GB Ethernet (10/100/1000) on board LAN
l Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg.** SP2 $69.00
l Asus® M2N32-SLI DLX. Nvidia® NForce® 590 2xPCIe@16x DDR2 800/1000-2x1GbEthernet+WiFi-g-6xSATA3Gb RAID 0/1/5-1394-8Ch.DTS-Digital $165.00
l 600W OCZ GameXStream™ Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper™ UL $65.00
l Three Years Parts & Labor + Three Years NBD On Site Service $372.95
l Xi® MTower Black/Silver 2xFr.USB 460W UL PS 4x 5 1/4" 6x 3 1/2" 2x BB Fan. $0.00

Total: $3,884.00 x 2 :)

[edcentric]

Have you looked at the Asus mobo? I haven't worked with either, but I know someone running the Asus. They like it a lot.

Maybe the PC Power and Cooling PSU. That is the last place to cut corners on this box.

[GHoosdum]

I'll put in a good word for the PC Power & Cooling as well. Ed is right - in this league, it's worth every penny.

And don't forget to install folding on this puppy the instant it hits your desk! ;)

[Sledgehammer70]

So you think the 700W OCZ GameXStream™ Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper™ UL is cheap?

I never have used OCZ's PSU's so I can't comment.

[GHoosdum]

OCZ tends to make good PSUs, actually, but it's more something I'd put in a gaming system. For rock solid world-class reliability, I'd put PC Power & Cooling in a workstation. That is, if I had a budget at all. ;)

[Sledgehammer70]

lol, well i will look into it. I don't know if it is an option.... but if it is I will add it in :)

[Sledgehammer70]

You know I just realized I can't use XP pro with 4 cores... I would have to use XP 64Bit...bahhh! well downgarde to 2 cores :)

[edcentric]

Are you thinking of running a single socket dual core machine, or staying with dual sockets?
If you go single socket you can run standard memory, non-ECC.

Couldn't you run server OS? or won't it support your applications?

[Sledgehammer70]

Im going Dual coket for the extra cores for rendering power. also ECC ram seems to like to render better.

3DS Max runs in XP Pro only...

[Sledgehammer70]

I wonder how those Opty 285's fold? I hope better than those Intel Xeons

[Donut]

You know I just realized I can't use XP pro with 4 cores... I would have to use XP 64Bit...bahhh! well downgarde to 2 cores :)

Double check on that, IIRC Xp was licensed by the socket, not the core.

(I think I read it somewhere last fall.)

[RWB]

Sledge you have me drooling....

[GHoosdum]

Double check on that, IIRC Xp was licensed by the socket, not the core.

(I think I read it somewhere last fall.)

I think I read that Microsoft decided to run all their licensing that way. However, with XP 32-bit, I think it's more of a technological limitation than a licensing limitation that prevents it from properly running 4 cores.

[airbornflght]

it wont run on server 2003?, you could always get both processors and just not use one until everything migrates to 64 bit. dunno.

[Sledgehammer70]

XP Pro can run 4 cores or 4 intel CPU's with HT.... Not 4 CPUs with 8 Physical Cores. windows XP Pro is limited to 4GB of ram as it is a 32bit OS so it would be pointless for 8 Cores at 512MB...

[drasnor]

I like my SuperMicro H8DCE motherboard. It is a bit cheaper than the Tyan K8WE but lacks integrated IEEE1394 and trades off the PCI-X slots for additional x4 and x1 PCI-E slots. I'm not too sure that graphics card is going to do a whole lot for the listed apps but knowing your line of work... :D

Do yourself a favor and get a decent keyboard.

-drasnor :fold:

[deicist]

XP Pro can run 4 cores or 4 intel CPU's with HT.... Not 4 CPUs with 8 Physical Cores. windows XP Pro is limited to 4GB of ram as it is a 32bit OS so it would be pointless for 8 Cores at 512MB...

But your spec only has 2 CPUs / 4 cores so that's fine isn't it?

[Sledgehammer70]

My original setup was a 4 CPU x 8 core system, It has been changes since than.

Here is my new layout... I am thinking 2 systems with the following specs...

l Xi® MTower™ 64 SLI Workstation (Base Configuration) $1,059.00
Upgrades And Options:

l AMD® Athlon™ 64 FX-62 64Bit Dual Core (DC4400) 2x1024KB Cache HyperTransport™ Socket AM2 Only $999.00
l 4096MB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 4x1024 Dual Rank Interleave $419.00
l nVidia® EVGA® GeForce 7950 GX2 1024M DDR3 PCIe SLI-Ready Dual Head 2xDVI-I Dual Link HDTV $649.00
l No Monitor ($100.00)
l 250GB 7200RPM SATAII 300MB/s 16MB Cache 9ms $89.00
l HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected $0.00
l DVD+RW/DL/+R-R LightScribe™ Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 16x w/SW-Media $79.00
l DVD 16x40x Reader $25.00
l 1.44MB 3 1/2" Floppy Drive $0.00
l On Board Sound AC 97 Codec or accordingly to motherboard selected $0.00
l On board 1GB Ethernet (10/100/1000) on board LAN $0.00
l No Keyboard ($8.00)
l No mouse ($7.00)
l Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg.** SP2 $69.00
l Resource CD - contains Diagnostic links & Drivers $0.00
l Asus® M2N32-SLI DLX. Nvidia® NForce® 590 2xPCIe@16x DDR2 800/1000-2x1GbEthernet+WiFi-g-6xSATA3Gb RAID 0/1/5-1394-8Ch.DTS-Digital $165.00
l 600W OCZ GameXStream™ Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper™ UL $65.00
l Three Years Parts & Labor + Three Years NBD On Site Service $372.95
l Xi® MTower Black/Silver 2xFr.USB 460W UL PS 4x 5 1/4" 6x 3 1/2" 2x BB Fan. $0.00

---------------------------------------------

Which would be faster? regular desktop CPU's seem to work with Max pretty well. so FX line with AM2 or Opteron 285?

[Sledgehammer70]

The cool thing is no matter how I look at it I will be adding 4 more CPU's to my Folding farm, hopefully boosting me up further in ranks :)

[drasnor]

The more cores the better if your rendering applications are multithreaded. I personally would go with the dual-processor dual-core Opterons.

-drasnor :fold:

[Sledgehammer70]

The reason why I am thinking I need 2 Towers is having one will still slow me down as the program will use whatever CPU's the system has, I can't set the affinity to work around it. So having 2 systems would allow me to submit and render on one and move to the next so I can seamlessly keep working..

The main Question is....

Opteron or FX "AM2"

The AM2 system has far more potential than the Opteron setup... but I haven't used both to be able to comment on which is better.

[Sledgehammer70]

Well I am pushing the FX-62 system with my boss :) 2 of them! woot....

[TheLostSwede]

XP Pro can run 4 cores or 4 intel CPU's with HT.... Not 4 CPUs with 8 Physical Cores. windows XP Pro is limited to 4GB of ram as it is a 32bit OS so it would be pointless for 8 Cores at 512MB...

Home supports ONE cpu with as many cores you want, Pro supports 2 cpus with as many cores as you want. None of either Home or Pro 32-bits supports more than 3GB of ram after service pack 2. (Microsoft stops supporting Service Pack 1 any day now)

Anything that has 2 or more physical cpu's is bound for either a fat Linux boot or a Windows 64-bit boot.

[Sledgehammer70]

Yeah There config only comes with 2GB or 4GB, I have already talked with them to configure with only 3GB.

Yeah I understand about the cores, I was talking about Physical CPU's that is why I cant run 4 880's in windows XP Pro. But I found that 2 FX-62's would give better performance and will alow me to switch between stations when I am rendering on one and not the other.

Thge only reason I see the FX62 running better and being the better choice is becuase of AM2 and DDR2. We would have a much better upgrade path for the CPU and Ram. I think a 285 Opty is about the same as a FX-62 in benchmarks, and our budget only allows me to buy this month, so the new Opty's are out fo the question...

[TheLostSwede]

What board are you gonna use with 2 FX-62's? You do know the difference between a FX-62 and a 2xx series Opteron right?

Edit, i see that you are gonna use 2 systems with one FX-62 in each.

[Sledgehammer70]

yes it is on my bosses desk for either...

1 Dual Opty 285 "2 x285's" system
or
2 FX-62 systems

[x_terna]

hmmm. okay I guess your right,

[GnomeWizardd]

THREAD REVIVE! jeesh man this thread is seriously old. I think the best idea for you is to start a NEW thread dedicated to your problem

[DanG]

THREAD REVIVE! jeesh man this thread is seriously old. I think the best idea for you is to start a NEW thread dedicated to your problem

I was just looking at the specs that Sledge wanted and was trying to figure out what he was smoking.... Then I saw the date. ;D