i am going to run 3D Studio MAX, should i go for a TWO dual core CPU
or ONE Quad core CPU ?
i will have 8MB RAM.
Many thanks for your advice in advance
johnn wrote:
> i am going to run 3D Studio MAX, should i go for a Two dual core
> CPU or Quad core CPU ?
For 3D Studio MAX either choice is good. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 is
<$300. Going with two Opterons or two Xeons is a great deal more expensive
for little or no gain.
To use more than 4GB of RAM you will need a 64-bit Windows OS.
The results are a little hard to compare, because the
clock rates are different. The 5160 and 5345 appear to
be similar architecture inside (judging by comparing
family codes and steppings on the most recent ones by
looking in the Xeon section of processorfinder.intel.com ).
Dual DC Xeon 5160 3.0 133 309 <--- dual sockets used
Quad Xeon E5345 2.33 167 392 <--- single socket used
If we compensate for the slower clock speed on the 2.33GHz
quad, the resulting number becomes comparable. (I.e. Chop
25% off the E5345 numbers, and you get similar results to the
dual socket with 5160's.)
Since a single socket motherboard is so much cheaper, and
you can use DDR2 RAM if you want (as low as $30 per Gigabyte),
there is no question in my mind, that a single quad core
desktop solution is the most cost effective way to go.
Yes, there are more powerful platforms. You could put
together a dual socket quad core 3GHz Xeon solution (Mac Pro is
an example of this, but you can also buy your own Tyan
server motherboard). Or you could buy a super expensive
quad socket dual core Opteron solution, and get more
performance, but you'd have to sell your car to do it.
The desktop LGA775 motherboards, top out at 8GB of RAM.
That is four 2GB unbuffered sticks. There are examples of
kits here. These kits consist of a matched pair of 2GB
modules of DDR2 memory.
This is an example with a number of reviews. It is DDR2-800
at CAS5, which would be a more or less standard offering.
Basically it would cost you $400 to fill your new desktop
board with this memory. (Higher density means higher cost.)
If you want the extra reliability of ECC memory protection,
there are limited high performance desktop solutions for
that. This board lists ECC protection for DDR2 memory, for
example. This will accept FSB1333 desktop processors. You would
want to find reviews, by looking in vip.asus.com, to verify that
the ECC feature really works, before buying the board. There have
been instances in the past, where an "ECC" board turns out not to
support it properly at the OS level.
So two of those kits set you back $600, but have ECC. The picture of
the product in the advert is wrong, as there would be nine memory
chips per side for an unbuffered ECC high density product.
This is the strongest desktop quad core readily available. But you can
also take a G0 stepping (SLACR) Q6600 and overclock it to the 3GHz level,
and a Q6600 solution only costs $280 by comparison. It really depends on
whether you like overclocking or not.
There are even more powerful quads waiting in the wings. Usually, the
enthusiasts on xtremesystems.org get to play with those, before they
get to retail. Some are in the hands of Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers,
for testing in motherboards.
The ONLY two dual core CPU's that can be used together are Intel Xeon's.
--
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DaveW
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"johnn" <johnjohn9191@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4721a7a1$1@127.0.0.1...
>i am going to run 3D Studio MAX, should i go for a Two dual core CPU
>or Quad core CPU ?
> i will have 8MB RAM. Many thanks for your advice in advance
>
"Brett Kline" <m5i4@16m76ydi.ljf> wrote in message
news:ffse8r$1e5$1@aioe.org...
> johnn wrote:
> > i am going to run 3D Studio MAX, should i go for a Two dual core
> > CPU or Quad core CPU ?
>
> For 3D Studio MAX either choice is good. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 is
> <$300. Going with two Opterons or two Xeons is a great deal more expensive
> for little or no gain.
>
> To use more than 4GB of RAM you will need a 64-bit Windows OS.
>
> > i will have 8MB RAM.
>
> You may want to bump this up a bit.
>
>
He may be using win3x...
the 8 megs of ram should be fine
johnn wrote:
> i am going to run 3D Studio MAX, should i go for a Two dual core
> CPU or Quad core CPU ?
> i will have 8MB RAM. Many thanks for your advice in advance
What multithreading support does your version of 3dstudiomax have ?
two dual core or Quad core ? 
Linear Mode
