Dual Xeon or i7

[wouterz]

Dual Xeon or i7, that's the question.

i7:

- Cheaper (compared to 2 Xeons)
- Lower power consumption
- Quieter (less fans needed)
- Feature richer motherboards available (eSata, Firewire, more USB ports)

Dual Xeon:

- More powerful (but how much when used in a DAW?)

Could dual Xeon systems have more issues when used as a DAW because the technology is more aimed at the server market? Any advise is welcome.

[CarvinGuitarFreak]

Hi wouterz,

I use a server board (Supermicro H8DCE - with 280s), its a bit long in the tooth but does run Win7 64bit with Scope 5.1 and 12GB RAM with 3xPCI and 2xPCIe cards (no problems). Server boards make excellent DAWS (Steinberg tested SX3 with H8DCE). Very very reliable and good compatibility.

Your assumptions about them are right, they produce more noise, heat, use more power, cost alot more (components). The only benefits are more power for running VST plugs and samples.

Check out ADK for benchmarking if you havent already.

Regards,
CGF

[garyb]

dual 1366 xeon IS basically a heavy duty i7.

there aren't many people who REALLY need dual xeons, if you're talking about the latest, current processors. that's why only server boards are available.

[valis]

Sandy Bridge 17-2600K in 30 days when b-stepping boards are in good supply. For audio tasks you can come close to i7-970 performance at a fraction of the cost. The downside is that the bios settings are a bit more convoluted and you need to get that set properly (auto should be ok to start) as making changes that affects the cpu affects the OS's device tree (much of what was previously on the northbridge is now moved to the cpu and CHANGES along with bios settings.) Get your settings right before instaling Win7 to avoid hair-pulling later.

[wouterz]

I once build a dual P3 450MHz system with SCSI disks. It made more noise than a vacuum cleaner and by the time I finally had a multi processor OS working with my soundcard and MIDI interface it was time for a new computer. A lot had changed since then and I'm willing to give it another try. But first I'm going to wait for the octa cores to become available/cheaper. I am not in a particular hurry, I have a room full of hardware (including scope of course) that could keep me busy for the rest of my life All connected to a 7 year old P4.

[Neutron]

one thing about any dual, it always takes a lot longer to boot but if you had dual xeon hex core, thats basically 2x an i7 hex core.

If you want a lot of power in a single i would get a i7 970, in a couple of weeks after the i7"sandy bridge" is re released.(the price will drop again) the hex is a lot more powerful than a sandy, even a 2600k overclocked.

I have some machines just doing folding@home one is a sandy at 4.5 ghz and one is a 970 at 3.7 ghz. the 970 is consistently better, and more reliable, and about 25% better production. also if you are not interested in overclocking at all, the sandy bridge is very mediocre.

the 970 never stops, and it is on a very ancient P6T-SE motherboard.

[valis]

Correct about overclocking, changing typical OC related cpu/mem features with Sandy Bridge causes MASSIVE issues with Win7 on reboot, so you have to either dial in the major stuff before your final OS install or restrict yourself to a few specific changes that won't affect the OS as much (which is usually what you'd do to 'fine-tune' your OC once it's running stable.)

Also the 970+x58 still has more memory bandwidth, and will win cpu specific benchmarks. 6 cores? No contest of course (that's the bloomfield core.) But compare the cost of the better x58 boards + triple channel ram kit + 970 to a sandy bridge build and the reason for the performance increases in most cases is clear (higher cost.) Then have a glance at DAWbench and look at your specific applications, comparing performance scaling and think a bit on that too.

Certainly not saying 2600K is a replacement for a dual 6-core Xeon either, that's just silly. But personally since I *do* build Xeons, I'd get a Sandy Bridge build now and wait for Ivy Bridge this fall for the Xeon (or just wait.)