Multi CPU's or Multi cores?

[MrP]

Alright I've got a good one.

I'm planning on building a dedicated rendering machine to render all of my video content. What I mean by rendering so people don't get confused is taking a large uncompressed video file format and using a video editing program to compress it down and render it as a new, smaller video.

 

Now my question is this.

 

Will I be better off building a desktop with a single cpu lets say i5 4670k with 4 cores at 3.4 ghz 

 

OR

 

would I be better off getting an older server mobo and cpu and going with 4  xeon X7350

 

The reason I ask this is because I can get the server stuff REALLY cheap and the i5 I'd have to purchase outright.

 

I'm not concerned about price. What I am concerned about is rendering time.

 

So, will the i5 perform better by rendering my projects faster with its newer 22nm technology or will 4 OOOOOOOOld 65nm xeons perform better?

 

No gaming will be done on this machine. Strictly rendering.

 

Thank you.

 

The reason I have to ask this is I've found no rendering benchmarks for the xeons.

[Arty]

Why not both

[FAQBytes]

If strictly video editing, those 16 cores will wipe those 4. No question.

Cooling will be a PITA with 4 130W TDP chips though.

[Sanderman135]

 

Linus did a somewhat similar build a while ago. It's not quite the same scenario but it's a similar concept.  

[Djole123]

They are just going to consume waaay more power with (next to no performance gain.) Not quite sorry, they will probably be better

 

They are also going to be outputting way more heat and noise.

 

So my answer is no.

[FAQBytes]

Your Build:

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X7350+%40+2.93GHz&id=2156&cpuCount=4

 

i5:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4670+%40+3.40GHz

 

Mine:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2680+%40+2.70GHz&id=1221&cpuCount=2

 

You can get two of these for $150 total:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2670+%40+2.60GHz&id=1220&cpuCount=2

[SLAYR]

I would second the dual e5 2670 like FAQBytes said. You can get 16 cores, and 32 threads with sandy bridge architecture. A dual socket mobo might be a few hundred US dollars but the performance of the chips is better then a 5960x in raw performance. 

[paddy-stone]

OK, forgive me if this is a stupid question as I don't make my own content videos etc, and haven't used a "video editing program" as such in a long long while. So my question is :-

Will you be using a "proper" video editing program to render each frame and audio? or will  you be using a compression algorithym such as on handbrake or similar?

 

Only reason I ask is that I am a consumer of the handbrake method or similar to re-code video because as I said before I don't make content so have no reason to use the other method... anyway, so my musing is this, I can recode a 2 hour blu-ray rip that at that point has no compression other than what it came with from the creator, in approx 15 mins give or take using QSV into mkv/mp4 container to a decent quality in x264 and 1080p (give or take the letterboxing level) on my 4670k. Would you want to get better quality than that? oh, sorry - the video you're left with comes in at approx 4GB give or take, from approx 25-30GB initial file size.

 

[MrP]

Thank you all for replying.

 

FAQBytes - I've got cooling covered. With those other chips I'd need a new mobo costing even more money. I realize there are better options, but this one is only costing me 60 bucks for the whole server box lol. Thanks for your input.

 

Djole123 - I'm not worried about power consumption, just render time.

 

Paddy-stone - I'll be using Vegas Movie Studio Hd Platinum 11.0  I'm not sure on their methods.

 

 

 

Well... I was also thinking of splitting it up into two individual server with 2 of the xeon chips i mentioned, but that would put their performance even below the i5.

 

Thank you for everyones input. I guess I'll keeping looking for a better deal.