[JasonSTL739]

Hello all - first post for me here.

I currently have a workstation with the following components:
Supermicro X7DA3+ Dual Xeon (5000X chipset)
16GB DDR-2 667Mhz FBDIMM memory
Two E5440 2.83Ghz Harpertown Xeon's

I'm thinking about selling the above as a board - CPU - memory combo for:
Intel i7 Extreme 3.2Ghz CPU
Asus P6T6 WS Revolution X58 board
12GB of OCZ Platinum DDR3 1333 memory (CAS 7)

The rest of the system is:
Supermicro tank of a case with a 865watt PS, and space for 16 disks in hotswap trays.
Four disk RAID 10 array of 73GB 15k SAS disks for OS
Three disks as RAID 0 for dumping ground/editing
Four 1.5TB disks on RAID10 for data
Bunch of externals

I have been using a 6GB memory drive for paging/swapping/caches/etc.

Primary uses are:
-Photoshop CS4
-Lightroom
-Premiere CS4
-Virtual Machines
-Typical office junk

I do regularly see the system use 10GB of RAM today, however that is also Adobe product being Adobe. And also when I have the whole world open.

It *appears* I could almost evenly swap based on the ebay prices of the components. I think. If not, should I consider snagging the 920 and OCing? Stability and speed > budget assuming I could sell peices for nearly the cost.

The reason for this is in short.... most of the programs I'm using don't properly utilize eight cores. I'm starting to think that the i7 might actually seem faster than the Xeon system. It would also be less complex.

Drive infrastructure: Can the Asus board definitely deal with 7 SAS disks? For the SATA array I have a Acrea 1220 8-port card I could sell or use. It is PCIe with a battery backup.

Case: Think the Asus will sneak into the Supermicro?

Anyone running a newer Intel based SLC flash disk? Ready for prime?

 

[sdla4ever]

jesus do u need to upgrade? does that thing ever bog down? plus not a huge difference in DDR2 to ddr3. id wait awhile since your rig now is pretty powerful.

 

[G|F.E.A.D|Killa]

i think they have a new dual i7 CPU mobo coming out soon so look into that

 

[JasonSTL739]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdla4ever jesus do u need to upgrade? does that thing ever bog down? plus not a huge difference in DDR2 to ddr3. id wait awhile since your rig now is pretty powerful.

Probably not... Essentially I was thinking swap while I can get decent $ for the components and bail. I was thinking the newer tech might actually be perceived to be faster for my needs.

I hate waiting.

Think anyone would buy the 2.5" 15k 73GB SAS disks for more than the ebay $30/each? I'd love to have two 32GB SLC SSD's on RAID0 instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by G|F.E.A.D|Killa i think they have a new dual i7 CPU mobo coming out soon so look into that

Will be zillion bucks - if I was rendering or something I probably need it. Perhaps if Photoshop actually used over 4 cores properly.

 

[sgdude]

keep what u have 2x xeon is enough for anything.

 

[JasonSTL739]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgdude keep what u have 2x xeon is enough for anything.

"enough" is always debateable.

Think about it like this... if something simple like saving a compress 500MB TIFF in photoshop, or running a filter in photoshop, or exporting images in Lightroom are increase by just a few seconds each; I would do it as it would FEEL much much faster.

 

[ALiShaikh]

If he wants to upgrade, let him upgrade. Don't stop him. He shouldn't have to argue about whether he needs a new comp or not

 

[JasonSTL739]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALiShaikh If he wants to upgrade, let him upgrade. Don't stop him. He shouldn't have to argue about whether he needs a new comp or not

Ah yes, but that is the purpose of this thread. Is it an upgrade, or just a sideways move?

Not much out there comparing performance of these two platforms.

 

[bstew]

I would be inclined to say do it. While the ability to run 8-cores is a plus for the Xeon's, as you mentioned, Adobe's software fails on that front (It doesn't even come close to efficiently using my single quad core), so the Turbo Mode and hyper-threading of the i7 should benefit you.

Also, the X58 + QPI should give you an overall quicker feel as opposed to the limited FSB bandwidth of your current chipset. The higher memory bandwidth wouldn't hurt anything either.

The board will certainly handle all of your drives, but you would see an increase in performance if you moved them all to dedicated controllers (obviously).

All in all, the only way I could see the new system falling behind is if you happened to run Premiere and the likes of 3DS Max or Maya at the same time. Having newer tech is always nice as well.