Difference Between Desktop CPU (Sandy Bridge-E) & Server CPU (Sandy Bridge-EP) ?

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03-16-2012, 07:07 AM
LUCI5R

Difference Between Desktop CPU (Sandy Bridge-E) & Server CPU (Sandy Bridge-EP) ?

Ave,

I will be building a machine exclusively dedicated to Autodesk Maya - this machine will be used for 3D Animation, Modelling and most importantly Rendering. I'm not using a GPU-Renderer so the most important component in my machine needs to be the CPU, followed by Memory. In terms of CPU, the bottomline with Renedering is always a good combination of "more" cores & "faster" cores.

I'm trying to figure out the best parts to use for this machine, but I'm sort of stuck on a question.

What is the Core difference between a Desktop CPU (Sandy Bridge E) and a Server CPU (Sandy Bridge-EP), *IF* the # of cores are equal (say 6) and you take away two factors ... Cost & GHZ Speed?

Let me clarify, obviously the Server CPU's are far more expensive then the Desktop CPU's; at the same time, the actual GHz you're getting out of a Server CPU is generally less then a Desktop CPU ... so if you were to NOT take those two factors into consideration, what would be the sheer PERFORMANCE difference between the two?

Let me take 2 real world examples:

The system is going to be a Dual-CPU either way.

I was going to go the server route and build a machine with:
Motherboard: ASUS Z9PE-D16 (Dual LGA2011 Socket)
CPU: 2 X E5-2687W (Or perhaps one slightly cheaper then that - a 6-Core; depending on availability of funds)

And then I saw the Desktop counterparts, and I thought I could build a machine with:
Motherboard: ASUS Z9PE-D8 (Dual LGA2011 Socket)
CPU: 2 X i7-3930K

In the above, the Desktop system has more GHz Speed, and assuming the # of Cores are equal - but it's cheaper then the Server build.

So let's say if both the Server & Desktop CPU's had the EXACT same GHz Speed ... and both by some miracle cost me EXACTLY the same, And let's also imagine that BOTH are 6-Core CPU's, which one would perform better - and most importantly WHY?

Another way to look at my question is, what advantage am I getting spending almost twice the cost but gaining less GHZ speed with the Server CPU ... as opposed to the Desktop CPU ... assuming # of cores are equal?

Thanks!!
03-16-2012, 07:35 AM
Splave

ASUS Z9PE-D8 does not support non server chips, you are paying big money for the ep chips because they are a necessary part of the equation if you want sandy bridge and more than 1 cpu.
03-16-2012, 08:15 AM
LUCI5R

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splave

ASUS Z9PE-D8 does not support non server chips, you are paying big money for the ep chips because they are a necessary part of the equation if you want sandy bridge and more than 1 cpu.

So essentially you cannot have Dual Desktop (Sandy Bridge E) chips in any motherboard? If you want DUAL CPU ... you HAVE to go Server ... Correct?
03-16-2012, 10:08 AM
Leeghoofd

Unless you go fully pro in your rendering there's no need to cash out enormous amounts for the dual socket server board and CPUs... just OC your SB-E to 4.5 and let it do it's job...
03-16-2012, 10:09 AM
Donnie27

Yes!
03-18-2012, 01:33 AM
safan80

Sandy Bridge in a nutshell:

With the desktop chips they can only be used in single cpu setups and you have a MAX of 64GB of ram and no registered ECC support.

With the server chips (E5 Xeon) you have a max of 750GB of memory ( a max of 375GB with the 1600 series). Both have registered and ECC support. The 2600 series can be used it dual configurations while the 1600 series can only be used in single chip setups.

Check out ark.intel.com to see the details.
03-18-2012, 03:11 PM
Cookiesowns

Safan summed it up.

Also, the Xeons also have 8 core variants, and also various "RAS" features which the desktop chips don't have.
03-20-2012, 02:26 PM
LUCI5R

Quote:

Originally Posted by safan80

Sandy Bridge in a nutshell:

With the desktop chips they can only be used in single cpu setups and you have a MAX of 64GB of ram and no registered ECC support.

With the server chips (E5 Xeon) you have a max of 750GB of memory ( a max of 375GB with the 1600 series). Both have registered and ECC support. The 2600 series can be used it dual configurations while the 1600 series can only be used in single chip setups.

Check out ark.intel.com to see the details.

Ah! This is the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you.
I have to be honest - I did not know that you couldn't have 2 Desktop CPU's in a dual socket board; that right there would have been the most viable difference & reason to go with Server system.

Appreciate the responses.