Dual chip i7 PC configurations for video rendering.. they exist?

[gleem]

I am looking for a monster configuration to justify not getting another mac, and everyone says the PC's are so much cheaper, they are, but I can't seem to find a WIN7 box with a dual chip i7 motherboard so I can process over 8 or 12 cores?

Anyone set up a multi core PC and can help a brutha out and point him to a good place to config.

[bronco67]

i7's can't be run dual, as no motherboard exists for that. You need a xeon CPU.

I would stay away from it. I built a dual CPU xeon a year ago, and it was so expensive --you pay a premium for all of the parts, even the case is ridiculously overpriced. The worst thing was that one of my overclocked i7 machines was the same speed, or faster for 3D rendering.

Get a Sandy Bridge Intel(single CPU), and overclock it. Trust me as someone who has been there -- it's NOT worth it.

I'm pretty experienced with building machines and using them for serious graphical/editing work. That's my advice, hope you're willing to take it.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by bronco67

i7's can't be run dual, as no motherboard exists for that. You need a xeon CPU.

I would stay away from it. I built a dual CPU xeon a year ago, and it so expensive -- and the worst part was that one of my overclocked i7 machines was the same speed, or faster for 3D rendering.

Get a Sandy Bridge Intel(single CPU), and overclock it. Trust me as someone who has been there -- it's NOT worth it.

I got a ASUS X58 P6T SLI and a INTEL i7-920 2.66GHZ which from what I read up on was easily overclocked, and every time I tried even to just stick the thing in "turbo mode" the system was unstable. Not too keen on the overclocking deal.

With my mac I get dual chip quad core, and Adobe premiere uses all the cores and is faster, but I need a separate rendering box which I've always had a PC for.

Sounds to me like I should just get another mac as my rendering machine since you can't reallly get effective dual chip cpu's in a pc config.

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by gleem

I got a ASUS X58 P6T SLI and a INTEL i7-920 2.66GHZ which from what I read up on was easily overclocked, and every time I tried even to just stick the thing in "turbo mode" the system was unstable. Not too keen on the overclocking deal.

With my mac I get dual chip quad core, and Adobe premiere uses all the cores and is faster, but I need a separate rendering box which I've always had a PC for.

Sounds to me like I should just get another mac as my rendering machine since you can't reallly get effective dual chip cpu's in a pc config.

Get a Sandy Bridge...easy to overclock. All of mine run at 4.2ghz at least.

You can get effective dual chip config. I just said that its nowhere close to being as cost efficient as an overclocked single CPU solution. You can have the same speed, for half the price with a Sandy Bridge Intel.

Anyway, that's all I can say. Take it or leave it.

[TidalWave]

#1. you should wait for dual xeons as the new sandybridge DP CPUs are coming out soon'ish.

for now, I would get a sandybridge i7 (desktop cpu) or xeon e3-1230/1270

[HomerSimpson]

Since i7 cant go dual, you better get 2x i7 (a lot cheper than xeons) + overclock them good + Team Viewer to control both from one computer and you're set to go ...

[seeandsee]

burn the config with new AMD, what else! when they come out: http://www.ruchirablog.com/amd-12-co...n-shot-leaked/

its burnning!

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by seeandsee

burn the config with new AMD, what else! when they come out: http://www.ruchirablog.com/amd-12-co...n-shot-leaked/

its burnning!

That article is 2 years old...and the AMD chips are clock for clock way slower than Intel -- including that chip.

[gleem]

Sounds like I should just upgrade my chip instead of buying a whole new system. I haven't swapped in a new CPU in a motherboard since 1995 though... is it even possible to do anymore since I got this giant heatsink (Thermaltake CL-P0114) mounted by some sort of glue on it.

Also the system runs at 75 - 79 Celsius at max load as it is with the 2.66 INTEL i7-920 and that's not overclocked or in turbo mode even.

Would you swap in a new i7 like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115071


Is this even compatable with my MB (ASUS X58 P6T SLI)

help appreciated

[anexsia]

Originally Posted by gleem

Sounds like I should just upgrade my chip instead of buying a whole new system. I haven't swapped in a new CPU in a motherboard since 1995 though... is it even possible to do anymore since I got this giant heatsink (Thermaltake CL-P0114) mounted by some sort of glue on it.

Also the system runs at 75 - 79 Celsius at max load as it is with the 2.66 INTEL i7-920 and that's not overclocked or in turbo mode even.

Would you swap in a new i7 like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115071


Is this even compatable with my MB (ASUS X58 P6T SLI)

help appreciated

It's not compatible, you need a 1155 socket motherboard to put in the Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge you wanted. Switching out a CPU is really easy nowadays and you should have no trouble with it at all.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by anexsia

It's not compatible, you need a 1155 socket motherboard to put in the Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge you wanted. Switching out a CPU is really easy nowadays and you should have no trouble with it at all.

What is the correct best chip then?

[raymor]

Check supermicro.com. I don't keep up with CPUs that much but I know the quad socket in clonebox2 didn't cost us too much. For sockets with four cores each gives us 16 cpu cores. That machine, with 16 drive trays, probably cost us around $3000. Another of our boxes has a supermicro board with two quad cores.

There are also a number of hardware h.264 encoder and transcoder chips available. Some software such as ffmpeg and Final Cut can use the Maxim MG1264 board, for example, so the hard work of encoding and transcoding is done by a dedicated chip made for that purpose rather than by the CPU.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by raymor

Check supermicro.com. I don't keep up with CPUs that much but I know the quad socket in clonebox2 didn't cost us too much. Another of our boxes has a supermicro board with two quad cores.

There are also a number of hardware h.264 encoder and transcoder chips available. Some software such as ffmpeg and Final Cut can use the Maxim MG1264 board, for example, so the hard work of encoding and transcoding is done by a dedicated chip made for that purpose rather than by the CPU.

I got the matrox max card, total crap for real video editing and final production, only good for testing stuff out, you have to have a flattened video for it to accelerate it.. and their software doesn't do a good job fine tuning the h.264 setting for various devices and various mbps...

I'll checkout some other boards soon, pretty put off though from my matrox experience and they were rated the best.
But when you just need some quickie stuff, it does it 1:1 ratio or better which is pretty incredible.

[fris]

Originally Posted by gleem

I am looking for a monster configuration to justify not getting another mac, and everyone says the PC's are so much cheaper, they are, but I can't seem to find a WIN7 box with a dual chip i7 motherboard so I can process over 8 or 12 cores?

Anyone set up a multi core PC and can help a brutha out and point him to a good place to config.

not dual.

i have a i7 980x 6 core, with 32 gigs of ram, and 2gb video card, that works just fine.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by fris

not dual.

i have a i7 980x 6 core, with 32 gigs of ram, and 2gb video card, that works just fine.

yeah, but wouldn't two i7 980x6 be better?

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by gleem

What is the correct best chip then?

Just get a new board with the Sandy Bridge...you'll be glad. It's really the best CPU ever to be released.

All of my systems use this cooler. Keeps it cool and has super low profile in the case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835181013

It's out of stock in this page, but you can get them at Best Buy off the shelf.

Also, look at this article

http://www.techradar.com/news/comput...-tested-941237

[bronco67]

Originally Posted by gleem

yeah, but wouldn't two i7 980x6 be better?

Yes, if it was possible to have them on the same board.

The problem with dual CPU is that server boards don't overclock. That's why a single powerhouse overclocked CPU is better. It's less headache to deal with(especially if you build your own), and you don't have to buy a $600 motherboard, $200 PSU, $300 case -- get what I'm saying?

If you have money you like to flush down the toilet, then forget what I said.

[mikesouth]

You dont want the cpu doing your renders anyway forget that shit I have a high end NVidia card that only uses 25% of the cpu and still renders 1080P at 10x real time.

THATS how ya do it.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by mikesouth

You dont want the cpu doing your renders anyway forget that shit I have a high end NVidia card that only uses 25% of the cpu and still renders 1080P at 10x real time.

THATS how ya do it.

since when do video cards render video, what video card you talking about?

[mikesouth]

all the high end video cards from nvidia will render h.264 in hardwARE AND ALL the better editing programs support it as well but for pure renders mediacoder is best

look for cards marked CUDA

[CS-Jay]

I'm glad you came here and asked some people that know! I like Mike's idea fo sho!

[cess]

Originally Posted by gleem

I am looking for a monster configuration to justify not getting another mac, and everyone says the PC's are so much cheaper, they are, but I can't seem to find a WIN7 box with a dual chip i7 motherboard so I can process over 8 or 12 cores?

Anyone set up a multi core PC and can help a brutha out and point him to a good place to config.

Like others have said the new sandy bridge chip is better and there's no Xeon edition yet that can run dual chips. Although the i7 is really just a nehalem chip and there is a Xeon version. You could buy two or more Xeon Westmere which would outperform a single sandy bridge in some cases. It's not worth it though unless you are sure that you will really be using both chips. The cost really isn't that bad if you can put it together yourself, quite a bit cheaper than a mac.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117256

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131378


If you do go that route you better make sure you get the right power supply and ram etc.

[cess]

Originally Posted by bronco67

That's why a single powerhouse overclocked CPU is better. It's less headache to deal with(especially if you build your own), and you don't have to buy a $600 motherboard, $200 PSU, $300 case -- get what I'm saying?

Eh? Dual socket Nehalem Xeon motherboards do not cost anywhere near $600 unless you want a lot of extras on it. The cases do not cost anywhere near $300 either. The motherboards will fit in any just about any ATX or ATX Extended case although you do need one with good cooling.

[gleem]

Originally Posted by CS-Jay

I'm glad you came here and asked some people that know! I like Mike's idea fo sho!

I cast a wide net.

I still don't get the answers though, would the NVIDIA cards work with adobe media encoder, and the few cards I saw have different CUDA specs some have 8, some have 64
"CUDA Parallel Processor Cores"

So far answers have been:

new processor

switching from 10k satas to 15k scsi

upgrading cpu

buy new system all together & network with the old one.

Which one gives the most bang for the buck

[fris]

ill sell you my system ;)

im gettting a mac soon.

Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) VH6000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W Power Supply
ASUS P6T WS PRO Board Core i7 LGA1366 Quad-Core DDR3 SAS/SATA2 eSATA RAID GbE HD-Audio IEEE1394a PCIe PCIx SLI CrossFireX ATX
Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition Processor - 3.33GHz, LGA 1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 12MB L3 Cache, Six Core, HyperThreading
Noctua NH-D14 LGA775/1156/1366/AM3 I7/I5/PHENOM Heatpipe Cooler W/ NF-P14 140MM & NF-P12 120MM Fan
Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH160G2R5 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
XFX HD-587A-ZND9 Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB XXX Edition 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner
Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Champ PCIe Sound Card
SAMSUNG T260 Rose-Black 25.5" 5ms Touch of Color Series HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor

[My Pimp]

bump bump

[cess]

Originally Posted by gleem

would the NVIDIA cards work with adobe media encoder,

I don't believe it does, but I might be wrong. Also CUDA is fast, but last I checked (over year) the quality of the video encoded with CUDA wasn't great but not bad either.

Originally Posted by gleem

So far answers have been:

new processor

switching from 10k satas to 15k scsi

upgrading cpu

buy new system all together & network with the old one.

Which one gives the most bang for the buck

Two of the CPU I listed above would outperform a sandy bridge when it comes to encoding. That would probably be best, although if you can get the encoder to work over a network that's just as good if the other systems have good CPUs.

More CPU cores/power is going to make the biggest difference when it comes to video encoding speed.

[TidalWave]

Maybe I'm wrong as to whats happening and how it works... but the idea of doing encoding using the video card sounds best...

I would look at what video cards the people who are doing Bitcoin mining are using and grab one of those.
Apparently doing the encoding/decoding in the video card is umpteen times faster than using the main CPU.
Then you can get 2 and run them in SLI or crossfire mode (nvidia/ati)

[cess]

Originally Posted by TidalWave

I would look at what video cards the people who are doing Bitcoin mining are using and grab one of those.

Those are AMD/ATI cards and don't use CUDA. I wouldn't spend a bunch of cash on a nvidia card unless the video quality is great with CUDA which I don't think it is, but I haven't looked in awhile. If the quality is good enough and it works with the encoder he needs to use then that would definitely be the way to go.

[Marialovesporn]

What I can tell is like most people say here :

-Get the Sandy Bridge i7, or even wait a few months till the Ivy Bridge comes out?
-get a fast SSD drive for your OS and Video software
-set up some fast raid drives configuration for rendering, use different drives for source and output
-plenty of Ram ( 16GB+ )

[MK Ultra]

almost 2 years ago I built a monster video machine using dual w5590 xeons, I was using 5 machines at once at the time and wanted to cut that number down without affecting my daily production, I figured 1 machine could replace at least 3.

when I posted the specs here more than a few gfyers told me I was out of my mind

well...yes and no

the machine has performed flawlessly, I can run 3 wmv encoding threads while having 3 instances of Squeeze running flvs while resizing 5k images while editing videos.

it's a serious multi-tasker

but it cost a bundle.

I recently spec-ed out a sandy bridge system just to see how cheap I could build a fairly fast machine.
the i7 sandy bridge is around $300, while the w5590 xeon is over $1600

for what I paid for the one xeon system I could now build almost 5 sandy bridge systems

looks like I'm right back where I started

[gleem]

CUDA sounds good in theory, but from research it effects the quality of the renders just like the matrox max rendering card I have, and since I'm doing member's area videos, can't have that.

CESS seems to have it right, dual 6 core chip system:

2 of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117256

on this MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121446


with some good SSD drives and 24 gigs of ram, should last a couple years and looks like I can build it for around $3k which is pretty cool.


Of course if I was a big time player I would just render once in the office, upload to a pimpin' video rendering server system with 7 to 14 servers pumpin' out any codec on demand... but I got a bit to go before that's affordable.

[cess]

Originally Posted by MK Ultra

the i7 sandy bridge is around $300, while the w5590 xeon is over $1600

for what I paid for the one xeon system I could now build almost 5 sandy bridge systems

looks like I'm right back where I started

That's the wrong Xeon to buy, look at the one I linked above or here's a complete system...

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=13501454

[Elli]

bump for an interesting thread.

[Phoenix]

nerd alert!!!!

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by bronco67

i7's can't be run dual, as no motherboard exists for that. You need a xeon CPU.

I would stay away from it. I built a dual CPU xeon a year ago, and it was so expensive --you pay a premium for all of the parts, even the case is ridiculously overpriced. The worst thing was that one of my overclocked i7 machines was the same speed, or faster for 3D rendering.

Get a Sandy Bridge Intel(single CPU), and overclock it. Trust me as someone who has been there -- it's NOT worth it.

I'm pretty experienced with building machines and using them for serious graphical/editing work. That's my advice, hope you're willing to take it.

I have a x58 motherboard, 12 gig ram, i7 975. renders fine... just build 2 of those if you need more....

[Dvae]

Originally Posted by gleem

I am looking for a monster configuration to justify not getting another mac, and everyone says the PC's are so much cheaper, they are, but I can't seem to find a WIN7 box with a dual chip i7 motherboard so I can process over 8 or 12 cores?

Anyone set up a multi core PC and can help a brutha out and point him to a good place to config.

Out of curiosity whats wrong with buying another mac. Is it strictly price?

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by Dvae

Out of curiosity whats wrong with buying another mac. Is it strictly price?

a general rule with macs is 1-2 year old technology at a 30-40% premium on price...

[AzteK]

Originally Posted by fris

ill sell you my system ;)

im gettting a mac soon.

haha love it! Dude, I'm loving my Mac. I want to switch out my desktop but I don't want to spend the money...what are you getting?

[gleem]

Originally Posted by Dvae

Out of curiosity whats wrong with buying another mac. Is it strictly price?

Price is one, I have no problem paying a premium for a mac when I use it as my main machine. But this is separate from my main PC just for video editing/rendering and I use it as a beta for pc browsers when not rendering.

Originally Posted by bm bradley

a general rule with macs is 1-2 year old technology at a 30-40% premium on price...

Not true, really only as true as the latest mac pro update which usually get you the intel high end processors before you can get em on a pc config. Now that same config is there for a year or so before Apple updates the line, this the 1-2 year old tech and the premium price for the old tech.

[Elli]

Originally Posted by bm bradley

I have a x58 motherboard, 12 gig ram, i7 975. renders fine... just build 2 of those if you need more....

Good to know!

[Why]

just build multiple i7 machines, and get the throughput you want at a reasonable price. yes its more space and a little more work to manage an extra machine, but the i7's are really quick at encoding and are very affordable.( < $600 )