3D/VFX workstation: Dual Xeons vs 6950x

Hey guys,

DS customer here from 2012. I'm upgrading from my trusty HAF-X based x79 3930k desktop. It has served me well for 1080p workflows, but falls flat when faced with 4K and 6K files.

I was teasing the idea of a used dual Xeon built off a used or refurb HP Z840 workstation. But recently I fell in love with the new Asus x99 Deluxe II + i7-6950 10 core combo. It seems to give me a good build for exactly my budget.

Would you guys suggest the a dual Xeon build or the 6950. 2 x Xeon E5-2643 v3 or v4 would give me 12 cores with similar clock speeds. The 6950 on the other hand has 10 highly overclockable cores.

Budget:
<= $5,000, not including GPU and secondary storage

Expectations:
- 1.2TB base SSD PCI-E or equavalent as primary storage
- Raid 0 with 3 1TB SSDs for caching 4K videos
- Need Thunderbolt 2/3 support - we're getting a thunderbolt based NAS very shortly to enable 4k and 6k shared workflows (note: the HP Z840 supports Thunderbolt 2)
- Fast 128 GB ram
- No need to include GPU price in budget. Got a used Titan X that'll go in. Also forgo monitor, keyboard, and the 3 secondary SSDs.

Usage:
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Autodesk Maya
- Octane Render
- HTC Vive games and apps

Special Needs:
USB 3.0 Card Reader. No need for optical drive or wifi.

Here's a sample DS build I put together around the 6950: https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1441408



Edited by spiralofdivinity - 28 Jun 2016 at 12:55am

Originally posted by DST4ME If the software you are using can put all the cores from dual cpu system to use then you go dual xeon. If not then you go 6950, thats assuming the xeon chips cores are on par with the 6950 cores. I would go with a case with better airflow and also either go with noctua cooler or upgrade to HydroLux cooling.

That's where things get more interesting and confusing :D

While more cores are great for Maya, we render using Octane which primarily hogs the GPU. Between 10 or 12 cores there's no big gain or loss.

Everything eventually goes through Adobe CC, which seems to use the fastest 6-12 cores it can gets it's hands on. 20+ cores with slower freqs have diminishing returns.

Here's an extract on Xeons and Premiere 4K editing:
Due to how Premiere behaves with multiple physical CPUs, there is actually only a single CPU model that makes sense for Premiere (the Xeon E5-2643 v3). Lower end options will actually be slower than our 1080p system and higher end options will not actually provide any performance improvement.
Source: Puget Systems: Adobe Premiere Pro CC Multi Core Performance

I haven't been able to find a direct comparison between a 2 x E5-2643 v3 or v4 vs a 6950x. My current thesis is I can't go wrong either way lol

Are there any other aspects I might be overlooking?

Ultimately trying to maximize the value and performance I get out of the $5K budget.

Edited by spiralofdivinity - 24 Jun 2016 at 4:47pm