question for computer people

[skittles_of_SDC 0]

Do I wait for the new core i7 980X EE (hexa core gulftown previously thought to be called i9 on release) and hope that it comes out in March as rumored or bite the bullet and buy the current top of the line quad core i7 975 EE or buy the low end i7 920 with the intention of upgrading when the hexa core is released?

Before someone says something, yes I do need the power. The computer will be used for 3D modeling and animation. While the programs aren't optimized for 6 cores yet the early test results with an early sample showed 50% increase in speed for rendering and such.

Also if anyone has an educated guess as to when the 980X EE may come out I'd love to hear it.

[justinb138 0]

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Do I wait for the new core i7 980X EE (hexa core gulftown previously thought to be called i9 on release) and hope that it comes out in March as rumored or bite the bullet and buy the current top of the line quad core i7 975 EE or buy the low end i7 920 with the intention of upgrading when the hexa core is released?

Before someone says something, yes I do need the power. The computer will be used for 3D modeling and animation. While the programs aren't optimized for 6 cores yet the early test results with an early sample showed 50% increase in speed for rendering and such.

Also if anyone has an educated guess as to when the 980X EE may come out I'd love to hear it.

If it were me, and the software supported it, I'd skip the high-end i7's and pick up a dual-socket board and throw in a pair of i7-920's and overclock them a little bit.

[shropshire 0]

um ... what was the question? .... whoosh

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Hausse 0]

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If it were me, and the software supported it, I'd skip the high-end i7's and pick up a dual-socket board and throw in a pair of i7-920's and overclock them a little bit.

Agreed if you already spend that much money, this would be the way to go.

[Squeak 17]

Well how urgently do you need it.
Since you know that you WILL be spending, if you have the time available, waiting until what you really want is available seems reasonable

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[piisfish 140]

where's the : "get a Mac" option ?

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[DSE 5]

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where's the : "get a Mac" option ?

Probably in the same column as "I don't care how long and how many clicks it takes to get it done, looking cool is more important."

Seriously. There is a reason that most of the heavy-duty stock animationware, rendering engines, etc are on PC, and there is a reason that a huge volume of the computing horsepower at Pixar is PC-based.

Skittles, I'd agree with overclocking, or at the least, waiting if you don't need it *right now.*

[ryoder 1,590]

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um ... what was the question? .... whoosh

Skittles wants a shiny fast new computer to cruise the Internet and pick up chicks.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[shropshire 0]

See, now it all makes sense

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[skittles_of_SDC 0]

Actually I already have a MacBook Pro that still works great and will remain my main computer. However since Windows is pretty much the industry standard for the visual effects and game industries I intend to build a Windows machine to run all that software.

[skittles_of_SDC 0]

The info I'm finding says that you can't do a dual processor setup with i7's due to missing circuitry or something like that. So that would leave Xeons.

[justinb138 0]

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The info I'm finding says that you can't do a dual processor setup with i7's due to missing circuitry or something like that. So that would leave Xeons.

I think the Xeon equivalent is the X5520. I'm not sure of the benchmark #s, but I'm betting you could put together a dual socket setup with 2x 5520s, a nice ASUS board, and 12GB of DDR3 for slightly more than the 980XE would cost alone.

Also, I've been told the 980XE is expected to be out on March 16th.

[skittles_of_SDC 0]

After doing some more reading it appears the i7 980x would be faster for the actual modeling and compositing but the xeon's would be faster for rendering which was what I wanted the speed for from the very beginning.

Now instead of waiting for the 980x I'll be waiting for EVGA's dual socket board with the overclocking features of their classified series of X58 boards.

ETA: I was gonna go with 16GB (4GB x 4) of RAM for the single processor. Opinions on how much on a dual processor setup?

Another edit: everything i said was wrong the 2 xeons would be faster than a single 920 but the 980xe will have 12 threads vs. 2 zeons having 8 making it a faster renderer.

[justinb138 0]

IIRC, the Xeons w/ HT enabled will do 2 threads/core, for a total of 16 simultaneous threads for the dual-socket rig.

As far as ram goes, not sure what you'll need, as I'm not sure if that type of application is memory-hungry or not. I'm only running 6GB of DDR3 1600 on my box and even while running 2 VMs (Ubuntu and Server 08), Visual Studio, SQL Server, and watching HD video at the same time I haven't had any trouble.

I'd recommend that what ever amount you do decide to go with, to take advantage of the bandwidth that the triple-channel memory setup offers.

[skittles_of_SDC 0]

DDR3 for sure. You can get a 4GB module of DDR3 for $155.