Another New Computer Thread - Dual 6 Core Processors

[HumbleChief]

I just upgraded to a dual Xeon system, (specs in signature) as I was really bogging down with some larger models and RayTracing was just taking too long.

Even my 3D rendering was slowing down so I had a new system built with dual, 6 core Xeon L5640's, which is a low voltage older (2010) Xeon chip.

It was built using EVGA SR-2 Classified Mother Board because it's one of the few MB's that can be overclocked with socket 1366 Xeon chips.

Also threw in a Nvidia GTX 780 video card which,, IMO, might actually be overkill for the current state of Chief.

I still have my old system so I took a fairly simple room camera view, added about 18 lights and ran a RayTrace test. I never add so many lights but wanted to stress it a bit.

Old machine (specs still in signature) - 6 passes - 15 minutes 9 seconds

New machine - 6 passes - 5 minutes 44 seconds.

Haven't really used it much day to day but if can duplicate that performance I'll be happy.

For the super geek the pass mark score was over 18,000 which is just bit faster than the fastest single Xeon processor. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html So it's pretty fast. Is it fast enough? A resounding no. I can't imagine a computer ever being fast enough but this should take some of the wait out of the design process.

Even though it's very fast a build like this is NOT for the faint of heart. The first MB got wrecked during shipping so even though I did not want to build another computer I ended up re-building this one any way.

The Mother Board can be a bit ornery with a few things to watch for. The MB is HUGE and the case is even bigger - really never thought a computer case could be so large. Not too bad on the power because they are low voltage CPU's - but there are 2 so it's still going to eat some electricity.

I know there are others with dual Xeons and was wondering if they are happy with performance?

Ask question if I missed anything and I'll update my sig with all the specs.