Old school CPU quandary

[Zade_95]

Hello friends - I'm looking to get a budget system to do some video editing/rendering, and I've got a few options of which I can't decide what way to go.

 

My current system is a Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming laptop, with a Core i5 7300HQ, 16GB RAM, and a 1050ti. While it does well in games, it struggles even when scrubbing through 1080p/60 video (which is mainly what I need to edit), and when it's rendering I can't really do anything else.

 

So, I'm looking to pick up an older second hand server or something to either just render, or edit on as well if it does well.

 

So here's the options I have (prices in canadian rupees):

 

A Dell Precision T3500 workstation, with a Xeon W3550 (4c/8t 3Ghz), 12GB DDR3 and an old Quadro FX580 - $200 

 

A Lenovo ThinkCentre, with a Core i7 3770, 8GB DDR3, no GPU. - $249

 

OR a custom server with 2x Xeon E5520 (4c/8t 2.26Ghz ea.), 24GB DDR3, no GPU - $325 

 

Obviously with this kind of work 'more cores = good', but I'm wondering since the Xeons are pretty old and low clocked it might not be worth it.

 

Has anyone had any experience with these or give any recommendations?

[emosun]

8 minutes ago, Lukozade said:

Has anyone had any experience with these or give any recommendations?

I used to run two e5450's. they were okish in premiere.

provided it's only 1080 60 video that dual e5520 machine with 24gb of ram is going to be your huckleberry 

[emosun]

or if you can get more ram into that 3770 that would be about the same then

[Zade_95]

36 minutes ago, emosun said:

or if you can get more ram into that 3770 that would be about the same then

Hmm. It's possible but I'm not sure what the state of those Lenovo's are - whether they have the slots and whether I can be bothered finding some

 

A dual socket is kinda fun lol. But obviously bigger, more power draw, louder

[Pasi123]

From those I'd probably get that Dell Precision T3500 and upgrade CPU to a 6-core Xeon X5660, X5670, X5675 etc. or that custom server and upgrade it to 2x 6-core Xeons.

[Reznik]

I've got one of those Dell T3500, not a bad system but it's pretty dated these days.  A few notes on it:

 

1. That 12GB RAM is more than  likely ECC and running in triple channel. Not a bad thing but just keep that in mind that you cannot mix with non ECC. Has 6 DIMM slots. 

 

2.  The 525 Watt PSU has a single 6 pin for PCIe power.  PSU is larger than standard ATX but standard connections should you need to replace it. 

 

3. The CPU has no fan on it, just a large heatsink that is cooled by 2 large case fans in the front.  Under load the system can be loud.