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Best computer for single threaded work productivity

F

Frankie

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Messages
2,086
Looking to put together something for work. The software does tons of single threaded number crunching and what I believe to be pretty light 3D rendering. I say pretty light because even when you're using the 3D rendering functions the computer maxes out the processor and that seems to be the slow down. It's been a while since I ran it through some tests but IIRC even when things were stuttering it was like 100% (i.e. 12%) CPU utilization and 30 or 40% GPU utilization.

Current computer I'm using was put together for a different piece of software (which I'm told is multithreaded but I don't use it so I don't care). Specs on current computer:

E5620 x2 @ 2.4 GHz
6 GB Ram
nvidia Quadro 4000
250 GB WD 7200 RPM hard drive

And it runs the software absolutely horribly because it never uses more than 12% of the CPU power and the individual cores of the CPUs are pretty darn slow. I brought in my SFF HTPC with stock clocked 4670K and 760GTX and it absolutely murdered this POS work computer. Ran a bunch of identical tests on each computer and mine did everything in less than half the time.

New computer has to be from Dell. I wish they'd let me build my own, I'd probably put in a 4770K and OC the crap out of it, but that's never going to happen. From looking at single threaded Passmark benches it seems like the E3-1270 v3 is a good option.

Probably need to keep the price under 3 or 4k. This is what I've got so far:

Dell Precision T1700 Up to 90% Efficient 365W TPM Chassis
Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1270 v3 (Quad Core HT, 3.50GHz Turbo,8MB)
16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC
3 GB NVIDIA® Quadro® K4000
256GB 2.5inch Serial ATA Solid State Drive
1TB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7200 Rpm) Hard Drive

Totals around $2500. Any ideas of something that I'm missing? Thanks in advance.
 
Show them how much faster it'll run and how much money they'll save by letting you build the pc yourself lol, they should listen up then. If its only required to run single threaded to quad threaded apps a heavily OC'ed sandy, ivy, or haswell i5 cpu should be way better than an E3-1270 that you can't OC.
 
ssnyder28 said:
Show them how much faster it'll run and how much money they'll save by letting you build the pc yourself lol, they should listen up then. If its only required to run single threaded to quad threaded apps a heavily OC'ed sandy, ivy, or haswell i5 cpu should be way better than an E3-1270 that you can't OC.
Click to expand...

I'll disagree on the OC'ed part. But I also believe that nothing OC'ed should be used in a production environment.

I think your on the right track if its it truly single threaded just find the fastest clocked Haswel or Ivy based CPU you can find. I do sometimes wish they would release a 4+ GHZ chip even if it was only a dual core.

I've been burned in the past by people OC'ing production machines.
 
Depending on CPU you also have "turbo". Free overclocking.
 
Athlon XP lolz, Athlon II blows xp out of the water. It was already pointed out and fact, you don't want to use an overclocked cpu for professional environments, its not rated in an overclocked state and a much higher chance of errors.

according to passmark
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v3 @ 3.60GHz is the fastest single threaded cpu currently, Devils canyon high clock chips will supplant this I am quite sure, and maybe haswell-E.

So, stock speed 4770k or the 1280 seem to be the best though the lower cost ones which can also clock up if you choose to do so are so very close performance wise anyways.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Now then if your app relies on clock speed far more then raw IPC, why not a 83xx series AMD chip, or 9xxx chip as well cause they do have very high clock speeds.
 
dragonstongue said:
Athlon XP lolz, Athlon II blows xp out of the water. It was already pointed out and fact, you don't want to use an overclocked cpu for professional environments, its not rated in an overclocked state and a much higher chance of errors.

according to passmark
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v3 @ 3.60GHz is the fastest single threaded cpu currently, Devils canyon high clock chips will supplant this I am quite sure, and maybe haswell-E.

So, stock speed 4770k or the 1280 seem to be the best though the lower cost ones which can also clock up if you choose to do so are so very close performance wise anyways.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Now then if your app relies on clock speed far more then raw IPC, why not a 83xx series AMD chip, or 9xxx chip as well cause they do have very high clock speeds.
Click to expand...

Aren't the Haswell cpus much faster at stock in single threaded apps than AMD AM3+ cpus? I don't see why he would need a 4770k over a 4670k. He just running single threaded apps so the 4770k offers nothing over the 4670k in his case except .1ghz speed difference.
 
yes they certainly are, though there are certain applications that do benefit from a higher speed.
4770 if you look at the passmark is faster, up to the op to decide if the higher cost is worth the benefit of course.

I personally would wait as long as possible till all the haswell refresh are out to see how this changes things up, as it stands the xeon is the fastest, 4770 is next and so forth as you can see by link I posted, do not know of course the application in question that he uses, but IPC of course matters per thread, so haswell wins, Ivy with overclock seems to come out slightly ahead in many cases BUT the difference are so small anyways.
 
Frankie said:
Dell Precision T1700 Up to 90% Efficient 365W TPM Chassis
Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1270 v3 (Quad Core HT, 3.50GHz Turbo,8MB)
16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC
Click to expand...

If your getting an ECC capable board and CPU why aren't you also getting ECC RAM? surely it can't be that much more expensive?

Cheers
 
It's for work, go with the yupid brand the company dictates and be happy.

Must of the price you are given comes from the horrible markup Dell has on everything that's not an i3/i5 and the SSD.

You just want the Intel CPU with the highest clock/turbo speed, I do not know about all of Dells offerings, but the E3-1270 is one of the fastest models Intel is currently offering.
You can gain a little extra speed with something like the E3-1286, if Dell will sell a system with it.

StoleMyOwnCar said:
Aren't there Haswell Pentiums being released?
Click to expand...

Patience, they will be released, we only just got reviews of the i3 and i5 models
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7963/...iew-core-i7-4790-i5-4690-and-i3-4360-tested/2
 
I would go with the T3610. You can get an E5-1620 (3.7GHz) and ECC RAM, for about $400 more (just under $4k). BTW I work for Dell. If you need help configuring a Dell let me know (via PM) and I might be able to find some one who can work with you as I don't work on that end of the business.
 
love the things people have put as suggestions.

This is for work aka a professional environment, overclocked systems might be sold for consumer use, but generally speaking unless it is designed for an overclocked state, this is not something to advise cause any errors can be critical issues.

High IPC needed with a good clock speed as well, so the many comments of getting pentiums or i3 do not jive, 4770 vs say 4670, if the apps he uses can actually use HT speed boost, then it make absolutely perfect sense or does not simple as that.

E3-1280 is current pick of the liter it seems for a stock condition per thread performance and it should be its a xeon which are server/work, 4770 is next up. Am sure when haswell-E will be released they will get a good bump in this as well though the cost to benefit of that boost compared to the mentioned ones probably not at all.

If you have a Xeon E3 already in there, possibly could just get them to get a faster version to boost the speed?

anywho, best of luck,
 
dragonstongue said:
love the things people have put as suggestions.

This is for work aka a professional environment, overclocked systems might be sold for consumer use, but generally speaking unless it is designed for an overclocked state, this is not something to advise cause any errors can be critical issues.

High IPC needed with a good clock speed as well, so the many comments of getting pentiums or i3 do not jive, 4770 vs say 4670, if the apps he uses can actually use HT speed boost, then it make absolutely perfect sense or does not simple as that.

E3-1280 is current pick of the liter it seems for a stock condition per thread performance and it should be its a xeon which are server/work, 4770 is next up. Am sure when haswell-E will be released they will get a good bump in this as well though the cost to benefit of that boost compared to the mentioned ones probably not at all.

If you have a Xeon E3 already in there, possibly could just get them to get a faster version to boost the speed?

anywho, best of luck,
Click to expand...

Well, BOXX only sells workstations for the creative professional and they make a big deal out of the overclocking as it pertains to single threaded applications, like Solidworks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NSv18EKTMM
 
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