Opteron or Xeon? And where to purchase?

Dinarius

I am a photographer and I want to replace my Pentium 4 machine with something that is reasonably future proofed. For this reason I am going to buy a dual core machine.

I have never had a machine built - I always bought off the shelf - but I am thinking of taking this route. Make sense?

Image files are both RAM hungry and HD hungry.

Should I go Opteron or Xeon? If Opteron, which one? If Xeon, which one?

Any advice on the make of RAM I might consider? Also, what about the graphics card?

Can anyone recommend firms that build computers in the Dublin area? If this is too sensitive on the BB, please PM me. On balance, I'd rather establish a relationship with someone I can trust, than have to deal with DELL at one remove.

Many thanks.

D.

Dooom

Now I'm not even close to an expert when it comes to photography, but would you consider an AMD X2? They're dual core, and it'd work out cheaper overall. Just a suggestion really.

commited

There are several options..
Assuming value for money is a consideration:

Pentium 4 D820 (dual core) - €260 - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309926&cks=PRL
Opteron 165 - €350 - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313936&cks=PRL
Athlon 64 X2 3800 - €365 - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311700&cks=PRL

Obviously there are better models of each line of chip, but these are the cheapest way into dual core.

As far as Ram goes, get at least 2GB of CAS2 DDR400 (PC3200), should be plenty!
How much hard disk space do you currently require? DDR2 shows little to no advantage over DDR.

Graphics card wise - any reasonably good graphics card should do - depends on the size of the images you work with!

Have you given any thought to your monitor?

What is your overall budget?

As far as companies to build custom PC's in Dublin, I dont know of any. Alot of peopl will be willing to help out as a nixer I'm sure, including myself. PM me for more info

Dinarius

Committed,

Thanks for the reply.

I have a monitor. LaCie Electron Blue 19". Superb piece of kit.

I will buy a Logitech keyboard and mouse.

I only need the brains bit! ;-)

Budget...........that's a big question. About €2k at a stretch for the brains bit alone, I guess.

D.

osmethod

Opteron....

It is fully 32/64 bit binary compatible.... I believe the Xeon emulates 32 bit so doesn't guarantee that all 32 bit apps will work...

Opterons have also come down in price...

osmethod

Dinarius

Thanks for the replies.

This is one of the best online forums for all things digital in photography and this thread deals with precisely this issue...........

http://forums.robgalbraith.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=370494&an=0&page=0#370494

..........I wanted techie but non-photographic opinions - which is why I started this thread here - and the concensus seems to be Opteron. That's the way I have been heading too.

Thanks again.

D.

astrofool

osmethod wrote:

Opteron....

It is fully 32/64 bit binary compatible.... I believe the Xeon emulates 32 bit so doesn't guarantee that all 32 bit apps will work...

Opterons have also come down in price...

osmethod

There is so much wrong said above.

Xeon's and Opterons run the exact same code.

Photography wise, if you're going for a single chip (albeit it dual core), then an a64x2 3800+ or 4400+ with 2gb of fast ddr pc3200 ram (corsair xms cas2 pack), would be a better option than opteron. Go opteron if you want two physical chips in a machine (and be prepared to pay for it), otherwise, the a64x2 is a faster and cheaper alternative.

Make sure you get fast hard drives if having to load big images alot, and a fast video card, about the 6600 level. If you use 3d apps maybe consider a quadro or firegl, but again be prepared to pay extra for it.

joePC

Heres an example spec that would be perfect for you,

Antec Performance One P180 Miditower, Aluminum Silver = €135

Fortron/Source Powersupply ATX 400W 120mm Fan, SATA, 24pin = €67

LG DVD±RW burner, GSA-4167SBB, 16x, Dual, Silver = €49.5

Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB SATA 8MB 7200RPM = 2x €280

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 2MB = €530

MSI K8N NEO4-F, nForce4, Socket-939, ATX Raid, Sound, 4xSATA, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16 = €95

PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB Dual Pack Kit w/two matched PC3200 DDR DIMMs = 2x €210

Asus Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, HDTV, DVI, ViVo, Retail = €270

An X2 4400+ / 2 Gigs Ram / X850Pro 256Mb / 640Gb Hdd's / DVD Burner etc...

More than enough

Total: 1636.5

Good luck with the search, Try these sites for the hardware Komplett.ie / Jes.de / pixmania.com

Cheers, Joe

commited

Do you want dual core or dual chips?
You can have both with the opteron if you want There are dual S939 motherboards coming out (one or two out now), which will result in cheap enough "4core" machines.
I'd also consider two 10000rpm 74GB SATA raptors in a RAID config for your day to day photoediting and then 2x250GB drives as storage.
The main decision therefore, is whether to go dual CPU or dual core!
The X2 4400+ is a good chip, with 2mb cache and should be more than enough. However, going opteron would give scope for a future dual CPU upgrade.

astrofool

there is no such thing as a dual socket 939 board, and won't ever be. To have dual chips the Opterons use an extra HT bus to connect the two chips together, the 1xx series does not have this, the 2xx socket 940 chips do.

Also, server side (i.e. Xeon/Opteron), there is usually no such thing as future upgrades, when an upgrade is needed, a whole new motherboard/cpu is generally needed.

commited

You're right - sorry I got my wires crossed.

Dinarius

Many thanks for the replies guys!

JoePC,

What's the nearest 'off the shelf' PC that DELL offer which is nearest in spec to what you recommend? No harm in comparing..................

Thanks.

D.

commited

From Dell, you are looking at about €1900 for a similar machine:
P4 D820 2.8ghz dual core, 2gb ram, 2x250gb hd's, DVD-rw, 19" LCD, 256mb 7800 - quite expensive really..

joePC

Dinarius: I would stay away from Dell for this type of PC, I really think you benifit from a PC built with 3rd party components. More preformance in general plus the X2 from AMD.

Cheers, Joe...

Dinarius

joePC wrote:

Dinarius: I would stay away from Dell for this type of PC, I really think you benifit from a PC built with 3rd party components.

..........and the added plus of being able to look a guy in the eye across a counter if it breaks down. That's worth a lot, particularly when your livelihood depends on it! ;-)

Thanks.

D.

Dinarius

This is an interesting read..........

http://theinquirer.net/?article=26628

........AMD don't come out of it too well. Socket 939 gets the nod.

Meanwhile, here DELL recommend a single core processor (at an extra €96.80) over a dual processor that comes as standard. Wonder why? Yes, it clocks faster, but surely when timed one program against the same program on both machines. Once you have other programs running in the background (Outlook, Anti-virus etc...) the dual wins out. Correct?

I'm tempted to go the 2 x AMD 64 route, despite the cost.

Are the SLI graphics cards really worth it?

Ta.

D.

Dinarius

Another thing..........

Joe,

You quote €539 for the processors.

This is what Elara charge.........

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1070256&productID=145209

Where can they be bought for €539?

Thanks.

D.

commited

The enquirer dont seem to know what they're on about.. The Sempron 64 is easily a match for the celeron D 775. It's better

AMD offer far better value than intel. They now have overtaken intel in retail pc sales.

Also, elara are now out on their way to liquidation & komplett sells the X2 4400 for €530 - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309862&cks=PLS

Dinarius

What's the difference between, say, the Athlon mentioned above @ €530 and this Opteron http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307529&cks=PRL at roughly the same price?

The blurbs don't really differentiate them.

There is a huge difference in clock speed. How does the Opteron make up for this? Or does it?

Ta.

D.

DemonOfTheFall

AFAIK, that Opteron is a single core chip, which is capable of being used in dual processor systems. The Athlon is a Dual Core chip, which can only be used in single processor systems.

The Athlon is much better for the money.

Mutant_Fruit

Unfortunately the Inquirer are talking BS.

The reason why AMD don't have a "budget" dual-core chip is simply because AMD's slowest dualcore chip is a far cry better than intels offerings.

Read This linky here. For comparably priced processors, AMD won every test but 1 (i tihnk thats 30/31 in AMD's favor).

EDIT: Opterons are quite similar to the X2 processors performancewise... but check out some of the opteron reviews from anandtech.

silent

opteron 250 - single core, dual capable, required socket940 mobo
A64 X2 4400+ -> 2.2Ghz and 1MB cache per core, dual core, socket939 mobo

I'd buy an opteron 175 instead of the 4400+ - effectively same chip, can go in the same mobo and stricter quality control -> if you decide to overclock it should be better. price is same btw, at least on komplett.ie

commited

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313936&cks=PRL - Opteron 165 - best performance/value ratio. Socket 939. Dual Core.