Intel P4 Extreme vs Xeon vs AMD in workstation?

[ted-mail]

In my Studio, I'm currently running a dual intel 3.06 533mhz plugged into a supermicro X5DAL-G E7505 m/board setup with 2gb ECC ram, 120gb eide drive, Quadro 4 980xgl and windows xp professional.

For working in Maya 5, i'm considering purchasing a second workstation for modelling on so as to free up the above setup for rendering, as i am a freelance designer and therefore cannot afford to have a machine tied up for weeks. The considerable uses for the new system would not only involve modelling in Maya, but also compositing in After Effects/Discreet Combustion 3, editing in Avid DV express as well as other day to day design usage, so......

I have a couple of questions if anyone can spare the time to answer them, i would be most greatful;

1) Are there any recommended upgrades anyone can see that should be carried out on the above system to improve its performance and reduce rendering times ?

2) Does anyone know of stats regarding the new pentium 4 extreme CPU's and their application for use with the aforementioned programmes ?

3) how do the AMD's hold up against the Intel competition in workstations ? Dual Opterons, Athlon MP etc.

4) would another dual xeon be a better consideration, as I can build one cheaper than the exreme or opteron setup, and would this maybe be best to enable a network rendering option if the rendering comes down to the wire, so to speak.

5) anyone know of any good benchmark sites other than toms hardware ? with more up to date tests and across the board comparisons ?

Any help is very much appreciated and thanks to anyone who can make sense of this waffle!

apologies for the length of this post.

[user_deleted]

A G5 is an option.

[ted-mail]

thanks for your advice, to be honest a G5 hadn't even come into consideration. I wasn't aware that linux 64bit worked on them! it'll definately help confuse me more now, but at least it solves alot of problems if i do decide to go down that route

Thanks for the links also, sadly i'm located in the UK at present, but will be out there later this year so will have a look around then.

cheers

[c-a--4]

We run everything here. Our best 3D machine is a dual 3.2 Xeon running Linux (red hat). Keep in mind, you can't break the 3gig memory barrier if you want the best graphics performance.

c

[user_deleted]

Check this out

http://www.suse.com/en/private/products/su...i386/64bit.html

[dvornik]

jesus dude... Ignore Tomshardware.... Not that there are that many Maya benchmarks out there, but still...

Now... There's nothing much you can do to improve on your current system cause it's already pretty good.

You gotta decide if rendering or viewport performance are your priorities. In your case network rendering with another dual system would make sense if you're after rendering (Athlon MP is best value here) .

Viewport-wise you could gain a bit by going dual Opteron with a Quadro FX1000 or better.

And here come the benchmarks:

http://www.specbench.org/gpc/apc.data/apc_maya50_summary.htmlhttp://www.specbench.org/gpc/apc.data/apc\_...50\_summary.html (mostly viewport but very processor-dependant - see those Opterons)

http://highend3d.com/tests/maya/testcenter/database.3dhttp://highend3d.com/tests/maya/testcenter/database.3d - rendering database on this site, kind of a mess

http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000275http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000275 - some decent processor review

And some graphic cards stuff:
http://www.3dchips.net/content/review.php?id=65http://www.3dchips.net/content/review.php?id=65
http://www.3dchips.net/content/review.php?id=63&page=16http://www.3dchips.net/content/review.php?id=63&page=16 (pay attention to those Geforces)

And if you are really into Mac benches here you go:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90691&highlight=specapchttp://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&am...ghlight=specapc

[user_deleted]

RE: "We run everything here. Our best 3D machine is a dual 3.2 Xeon running Linux (red hat). Keep in mind, you can't break the 3gig memory barrier if you want the best graphics performance."

Isn't this possible on dual AMD - Opteron 64-bit systems?

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_8826_8832,00.html

For dual proc (Athlon-MP, Opteron and XEON) workstations and render servers I recommend see link below.

http://www.boxxtech.com/swf/index.asphttp://www.boxxtech.com/swf/index.asp

AMD reviews and test comparisons:

http://www.amdzone.com/http://www.amdzone.com/