Gonna build first dual cpu video rendering rig...need advice!!!

[krag]

I will be planning to build my first dual chip video rendering rig. This will be for a client. Thtey want to use it for video editing, dvd burning, graphics and various multi-media tasks. I have never built this type of rig before so I need your help. I have a $1500 limit, they already have "pinnicle" software for the multi-media stuff. so what I need to spend the cash on is OS & hardware. I would like to price out 2 boxes.

Intel w/H.T. single physical chip

Dual Opteron rig

What do you bros think? which one will give me the best performance?

Thanks, krag:)

[]-[itman]

Well, it basically comes down to if the software he's going to use can take advantage of both processors. If it is, the dual setup will give you the best performance by far. If not, then he'll have to be doing multiple, intensive things at once to take advantage of the dual setup, but it sounds like he will be, so I'd say go dual. With a lot of memory and harddrive performance/capacity, he should be very happy with his machine.

[JCLW]

What does the have to $1500 include? Everything?

[Yuriman]

I would saym get dual opterons, 1gb-1.5gb of ram, a 9800pro, and dual raptors in raid. If you need a quadro or something, it will cost a lot more though.

[JigPu]

I'd say the dual opteron. Hyperthreading is good, but nothing is quite like two physical CPUs. If you have leftover budget, you might even be able to splurge on dual HT Xeons for pseudo-quad power ;) :drool:

That and a hefty amount of RAM (1-2GB), good HD setup (RAID-0 if only caring about speed, 5 if he wants some redundancy with a little extra speed, 1 if only redundancy), and reasonable video card (say an R9600).

Will buying a monitor be part of the budget?
JigPu

[krag]

Thanks fellas!
Nope, no monitor. Just mobo, ram, HD, mem, DVD burner, OS, chips, case PSU, floppy & vid card.

So far, from what you guys have said. I should make it a dual opteron setup? Do I need registered ram for the Opty's?

Which mobo?


Yuriman, do you think a 9800 pro is gonna be good enough? I was thinking Quadro....but I don't know much about Quadro's except they are NV.

[Dragonprince]

The P4 would be totaly out classed by a Dual Opti setup as long as the software supports dual processors. If there is no Dual CPU support then the higher clock on the P4 would be an obvious winner...

this board
http://www.xpertronics.com/pd_msi_k8t.cfm

these chips
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-388&depa=0

and you still have 700$ for case, ram, drives and video.....



Or just grab a P4EE and an 875 board for the single rig.....

either way your kicking butt ;)

[Dragonprince]

Originally posted by krag
do you think a 9800 pro is gonna be good enough? I was thinking Quadro....but I don't know much about Quadro's except they are NV.

Video encoding will not care if your using a 9600 or an 9800 or a Quadro....the Quadro is for CAD/CAM design and is not needed for a video rendering rig...

[Arkaine23]

I think two physical CPU's is going to be essential, that way he can start a big encoding job on one and keep working smoothly on other things using the second cpu. Opterons may be too expensive when you factor in a lot of ram and a DVD burner. You can sometime land pretty good deals on xeons, and MPX duallies are a pretty good value.

[9mmCensor]

I'd love to say dual opterons but for that budget, it might not be enough for lots of ram, so check out a dual Xeon rig. Go for an AIW card.

[JCLW]

Xeons do well at multimedia stuff.

[Quailane]

I'd say the dual opteron. Hyperthreading is good, but nothing is quite like two physical CPUs. If you have leftover budget, you might even be able to splurge on dual HT Xeons for pseudo-quad power


Dual ht xeons would be a pointless waste of money. If you have dual cpus in a computer you use at home, it's not going to get you anything. I think splurging on opterons are way better than ht xeons (which aren't really a splurge since they don't cost much different or are any better)

[Cerberus2k7]

For rendering Nvidia cards are best for crap like that.

[krag]

Originally posted by Dragonprince
The P4 would be totaly out classed by a Dual Opti setup as long as the software supports dual processors. If there is no Dual CPU support then the higher clock on the P4 would be an obvious winner...

this board
http://www.xpertronics.com/pd_msi_k8t.cfm

these chips
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-388&depa=0

and you still have 700$ for case, ram, drives and video.....



Or just grab a P4EE and an 875 board for the single rig.....

either way your kicking butt ;)

Thanks for the links dragonprince.

Am I gonna have to use registered mem with those Opty's? Or can I get away with non-reg ram?

[Sentential]

IMHO, why dont you buy a PNY 5900FX Non-Ultra and flash it to a Quadro?

I know several brands flash just fine to a Quadro. I believe that XFX and PNY are 2 that do.

[eobard]

Moved to SMP. *push*

[krag]

Originally posted by eobard
Moved to SMP. *push*

Than ks brudda!;)

[]-[itman]

You'll need registered RAM for the Opterons.

[xCarne_Asada]

Originally posted by ]-[itman
You'll need registered RAM for the Opterons.

i am looking to build an opteron setup also, does the ram have to be ECC and Registered or can it just be Registered?

[krag]

Here it is so far:

Opteron “dualie” system

$240 ECC 1 gigabyte pc3200 memory
$91 530w fortron power supply
$63 Antec Computer Case
$614 2 Opteron cpu ($307 per chip)
$215 10k rpm 74gig Raptor hard drive
$56 2 heat sink fans "Venus silent boost K8"
$199 MSI K8 “dualie” motherboard
$141 Windows XP Pro
$174 ATI 9600XT video card
$89 DVD-R 4x CD-R 32x burner
$11 Floppy drive
$24 2 120mm case fans

$1967.98

This kind blows my limit out of the water by $467.

Maybe I should do the Intel H.T. rig?

[MLMIB]

remember, refurb section on newegg is your friend ^_~

[cccary]

Originally posted by krag
Here it is so far:

Opteron “dualie” system

$240 ECC 1 gigabyte pc3200 memory
$91 530w fortron power supply
$63 Antec Computer Case
$614 2 Opteron cpu ($307 per chip)
$215 10k rpm 74gig Raptor hard drive
$56 2 heat sink fans "Venus silent boost K8"
$199 MSI K8 “dualie” motherboard
$141 Windows XP Pro
$174 ATI 9600XT video card
$89 DVD-R 4x CD-R 32x burner
$11 Floppy drive
$24 2 120mm case fans

$1967.98

This kind blows my limit out of the water by $467.

Maybe I should do the Intel H.T. rig?

Here is where I think you can save:
Get the Compucase LX-6A19 at Directron. See the "building an AMD dually" by CMCQuistion sticky for details. Saves $20
Get two sticks of Registered PC2700 512MB. Saves $40
Buy a OEM or refurb Hard drive. Check out on Newegg. I recently bought a 15k SCSI 18gig drive for $100. You could save at least $100 here.
Heat sink fans, get Panaflo H1A. SVC has these. Saved $30
The case I mention comes with 1 fan, so you only need one more. Saves $12.

Good for about $200 savings

One more thing, if you go with the dual board, you can run a single CPU for a time and add a second CPU later when you have more budget.

[Arkaine23]

Yeah, HT is no substitute for SMP, especially when serious workloads are involved.

[Dragonprince]

Originally posted by krag
Here it is so far:

Opteron “dualie” system

$240 ECC 1 gigabyte pc3200 memory
$91 530w fortron power supply
$63 Antec Computer Case
$614 2 Opteron cpu ($307 per chip)
$215 10k rpm 74gig Raptor hard drive
$56 2 heat sink fans "Venus silent boost K8"
$199 MSI K8 “dualie” motherboard
$141 Windows XP Pro
$174 ATI 9600XT video card
$89 DVD-R 4x CD-R 32x burner
$11 Floppy drive
$24 2 120mm case fans

$1967.98

This kind blows my limit out of the water by $467.

Maybe I should do the Intel H.T. rig?


I would explain to your customer that serious computer power requires money. What you have spec'd out is a very good system that will work for years and is fairly cheap. I would look at a dual Athlon XP 2800 setup before Id go with the single P4...you can get away with cheaper ram as a bonus...that will put you more in line with your price cap...

[OC-NightHawk]

Originally posted by Arkaine23
Yeah, HT is no substitute for SMP, especially when serious workloads are involved.

Of course as far as video editing go a decent xeon system would be cheaper and just as fast....

[zachj]

The K8T Master Opteron board comes with heatsinks and fans because of MSI's non-standard layout, so scratch those off your list. There's no reason to hobble memory performance with PC2700 when it's that little money (assuming you buy Opterons that make use of PC3200 . . .). I'd say get the 36GB Raptor and save some money and tell him to use his old (current) drive for storage. 74GB isn't that much anyway, and the point of a fast drive is only for the video while it's being worked on. When it's done, he can move it to much slower, much larger storage. A 160GB Samsung drive is available at Newegg for 93 dollars right now. That's plenty, though it's only 2MB cache . . . You can also certainly start him off with one processor and upgrade to two later . . . That is, if he can't afford it, because one Opteron might well be a downgrade for him when it comes to this stuff.

Those are my thoughts

Z