togg63
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Should I buy (1) dual processor Xeon machine or (2) singles??
I am in an enviable position of having to purchase some high end gear to create six minute long animations for a client. I will be animating in Alias StudioTools and need to buy a machine specifically for this job.
My question is... Alias charges $2200 for the plug-in that will allow their program to use multi-processors. I have a pretty beefy machine spec'd that is about $4400 (dual 3.06 Xeon, 1 Gig RAM, Nvidia Quadro XL900) so my total here is approx - $6800
If I go for the same machine with one processor I am at around $3400, but can buy two of them for a total of $6800.
I guess I don't know how much slower a single chip is verses a dual. What I am wondering is will two slower machines out render one faster machine?? My feeling is that I can eliminate a rendering bottleneck at the end of my project if I get two machines, but I thought I'd ask yourselves to see if that sounds right. Also would a single Xeon be faster than a single P4 in 3D render situations??
Thanks for any light that you can shed.
My question is... Alias charges $2200 for the plug-in that will allow their program to use multi-processors. I have a pretty beefy machine spec'd that is about $4400 (dual 3.06 Xeon, 1 Gig RAM, Nvidia Quadro XL900) so my total here is approx - $6800
If I go for the same machine with one processor I am at around $3400, but can buy two of them for a total of $6800.
I guess I don't know how much slower a single chip is verses a dual. What I am wondering is will two slower machines out render one faster machine?? My feeling is that I can eliminate a rendering bottleneck at the end of my project if I get two machines, but I thought I'd ask yourselves to see if that sounds right. Also would a single Xeon be faster than a single P4 in 3D render situations??
Thanks for any light that you can shed.
One other thing to look into is whether you'd be licensed to run Alias StudioTools on two machines. If not, the cost of two machines may be considerably more than the const of a dual-processor machine.
ASKER
We do have two floating licenses of Alias so that won't be a problem.
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My advice is to TEST this out and see what works test. If you can't do that, have the vendor give you some real-world data about how their product performs on comparable dual vs. single CPU machines.