Upgrade system. Primarily for rendering

[DTAT]

Hello everyone. I'm currently owning an old platform 1156, with i5 760, 8gb of memory, HD5830, no SSD. Recently, my sister is studying Sketchup and doing a lot render (Using Vray). I kow that rendering is cpu dependent and my 4 threads cpu is rendering quite slow, so i'm thinking of getting a xeon X3470 (8 threads) which is much cheaper now (around 40$).

What really concerns me is whether that old xeon can keep up with newer software or i should just build a haswell/skylake system. Thanks in advance

p/s: btw, in Sketchup, i check hardware acceleration option. Sometimes i see a much smoother image when orbiting, most of the time i don't. I double check with gpu-z and see the graphic is utilizing (max core/memory clock). That's weird. Did anyone ever experience that? Could it be Sketchup doesn't favor AMD card?

 

[peche]

well, you could improve just a few parts, leaving your processor there...
add more ram {16GB DDR3 are kinda cheap now! }, and also stronger Video Card and you will get a notable boost, also SSD for OS and that software will be another notable boost on your system,

Regards,

 

[alucasa]

If you want a quick fix, grab 960. I am not sure 1060 is supported at this point. I am talking about GPU assisted rendering.
I don't 100% rely on GPU rendering. Main issue with GPU rendering is RAM limitation and GPU rendering is susceptible to errors.
I usually use GPU rendering when the render is going to be finished before I go bed. If it's over night render, I always use CPU rendering.

If you want a long term fix, refer to this page. http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

 

[DTAT]

well, you could improve just a few parts, leaving your processor there...
add more ram {16GB DDR3 are kinda cheap now! }, and also stronger Video Card and you will get a notable boost, also SSD for OS and that software will be another notable boost on your system,

Regards,

Thanks man. Since i never used up 8gb, i guess i grab a SSD. Video card is being considered

If you want a quick fix, grab 960. I am not sure 1060 is supported at this point. I am talking about GPU assisted rendering.
I don't 100% rely on GPU rendering. Main issue with GPU rendering is RAM limitation and GPU rendering is susceptible to errors.
I usually use GPU rendering when the render is going to be finished before I go bed. If it's over night render, I always use CPU rendering.

If you want a long term fix, refer to this page. http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

So basically, Nvidia graphic is better in sketchup, am i correct?

Upgrade video card seems easier and cost less than dual e5-2670. I also have to find a bigger chassis.

How about i just get x79 mobo + 1x e5-2670? Is it good enough? I read the article you gave me, 1x E5 is already stronger than i7 6700k

 

[alucasa]

Nvidia spent a lot of money trying to get developers to implement their CUDA programming for a decade. It's the fruit of their labor.

Nowadays, a lot of grahpic, video, music editing software will try to use GPU if it's detected and supported. AMD GPU is also supported by usiung OpenGL but Nvidia CUDA is almost universally supported.
My main rig, currently, has i7-6700 (non-K) and Geforce 760 2GB. 760 is about 5% faster than i7-6700. But then it's limited by its RAM. 2GB is painfully small in rendering.

The given idea of the article I link is simple. Buy a monster Xeon CPU that is few generaitons old and build a rig aorund it. Those Xeon CPUs are very good despite of their age and 10 core / 20 threads will .... make you cum.
So, yeah, go with 1 CPU if you want. It will still be FAR better than Xeon X3470.

 

[peche]

Upgrade video card seems easier and cost less than dual e5-2670. I also have to find a bigger chassis.

its easier to notice a boos just getting a better video card, but for your normal tasks, but your ram is kinda less than desired, you must add some more ram, 16GB are great for what you normally do or want to do, i also have a older i7 which is also my everyday working PC, intel i7 870, stock cooler and also 16GB of Ram, this beast serves me since 2012 like a boss, had replaced several video cards, also added a SSD !
so trust me, you could desgin and also game with older units like theese ones like a boss!

How about i just get x79 mobo + 1x e5-2670? Is it good enough? I read the article you gave me, 1x E5 is already stronger than i7 6700k

its not worth it since the price, X" chipsets preserve value despite age, its better to swap your i5 for an i7 or xeon on the same socket and get better ram and video card,

Regards,

 

[DTAT]

Nvidia spent a lot of money trying to get developers to implement their CUDA programming for a decade. It's the fruit of their labor.

Nowadays, a lot of grahpic, video, music editing software will try to use GPU if it's detected and supported. AMD GPU is also supported by usiung OpenGL but Nvidia CUDA is almost universally supported.
My main rig, currently, has i7-6700 (non-K) and Geforce 760 2GB. 760 is about 5% faster than i7-6700. But then it's limited by its RAM. 2GB is painfully small in rendering.

The given idea of the article I link is simple. Buy a monster Xeon CPU that is few generaitons old and build a rig aorund it. Those Xeon CPUs are very good despite of their age and 10 core / 20 threads will .... make you cum.
So, yeah, go with 1 CPU if you want. It will still be FAR better than Xeon X3470.

After watching some videos on YouTube about dual xeon E5 2670, they are really good at Vray on 3dsMax. But i dont find tests with Vray on Sketchup. Would it be the same?

Also the asrock ep2c602 mobo doesn't inclue usb3, sound card. Sata 3 controlled by marvel, which is slow. Asus mobo is better, but is 200$ more

I guess i'll get a Nvidia graphic first. I'm still searching for a selling dual E5 2670 combo if there is a good deal. Or else i go with x3470 which is available now.

its not worth it since the price, X" chipsets preserve value despite age, its better to swap your i5 for an i7 or xeon on the same socket and get better ram and video card,

Regards,

I'm thinking of upgrading like you suggested. Btw, is SS 850evo 120/250gb a good choice? Will it lose performance cause of sata 2 port? Thanks

 

[alucasa]

Yeah, rendering is the same for all 3D applications. You need as many threads as possible. RAM speed doesn't matter. You just need many threads and usually at least 10GB RAM for light usage.

Don't expect much from a server board. As you noted, it's not going to have USB 3 and other fancy stuff we are all used from desktop boards but a rendering machine needs none of those and you can get by using networking to share files. Going with X79 will be more expensive but is going to have the fancy stuff.

Or alternatively, you can go for X99 board and Xeon 12core (fucking 24 threads...) ES chip on ebay.