I have a dual 2200+ MP system that rocks.
tyan mb
1 gig ddr reg ram
160 gig 7200 rpm drives
ati 9000 video
5.1 audio.

I've been using dual systems since VV3.

Perception is reality, watch the CPU and Memory Utilization.
It makes a real difference in renders that have numerous effects
and transitions.

I'm watching this thread with great interest too because I'm also considering building my own computer.

One big question: What motherboard to use???? So many out there by so many different companies!

Ted

For sheer rendering speed the 3.06 P4 will be the fastest. There is no doubt.

I have a dual Xeon 2.4 and wouldn't trade it becuase I can render full blast and still do other things.

The Vegas Render test will run about 1:58 on a Dual Xeon 2.4 and 1:28 on a P4 3.06. However, the Dual Xeon will run two instances of Vegas and run two render tests at the very same time and do them in 2:05. So for multiple instances, the dual really makes it go. I can't see the faster P4 3.06 breaking the 3 minutes barrier running two tests at a time.

We talked about these sytems about a month ago. Here is the thread:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=160497

Kirk

Interesting topic. My dual Xeon 2.4 ghz Supermicro P4DC6+ MB is faster in real world than my 3.07 single P4. The 3.07 finishes the 'rendertest' faster, but when actually 'rendering', my dual Xeon is about 20% faster! Like the post above, I can also run 2 instances, or surf the net, play a game, etc... with the Dualie. Wouldn't be without one. (Unfortunately, my P4 is not Hyperthreading enabled).

JTH

jtimhall,

I have a Dual Xeon 2.4 Supermicro X5DA8 and I have not tried real rendering with it yet. Only the test. I usually build a new system and then test it at home for a couple months to see if it is stable before I take it to work for a production machine. The X5DA8 seems to be rock solid and has only crashed once, and wouldn't reboot. (I found the boot drive wasn't plugged firmly in. - builder error)

I am wondering how a single P4 3Ghz couldn't beat a dual Xeon 2.4Ghz rendering? It is obvious that V4 doeesn't utilize multiple threads at all while rendering. If the render is locked into a single thread, then I would think that the fastest CPU would always win.

Do you regularly open another instance of Vegas or some other program while you are rendering?

Kirk

No, not always. Using Hyperthreading on my dual Xeon system Vegas will hit the CPU's to about 70%. With two instances, 100%. Like I indicated, if I run the Sundance Media 'rendertest', the single P4 renders quite a bit faster, (about 1:24 secs compared to 2:12 secs), however, if I render to MPEG DVD NTSC my dual Xeon renders faster. I bought the P4 for video editing, to speed up some long compositing/renders, but it just didn't happen. I am extremely happy with my dual Xeon, and happy with the P4.

JTH

I don't have this, but if I were building another PC before Opteron matures, or PCI Express architectures arrive - I would use this currently:

SuperMicro X5DAL-TG2.

I'd debate over whether I would stick WD Raptor drives on its SATA.
With there being 3 PCI contention bus' onboard (SATA kind of takes one of these). I'd try to evade DirectShow's requirement to play things at 1x and no faster by bolstering my layers capabilities across multiple drives. Even Maxtor 160GB 2Mb cache 7200s can crank 50MB/sec initially, down to 40MB/sec by the time it is full. So I figure with this architecture the number of layers it can grow to is only bottlenecked by the DirectShow hobble, and your processor speed for uncompressing the DV/MJPEG/MPEG/WMV.

The mobo above fits a standard ATX case, doesn't need special extra leads from the PSU, AGP 8x (4th bus), unbuffered DDR266 dual channel (2 sticks of regular instead of premium) RAM. Unlike previous E7500 boards (and competitors to date).

As for sticking one Xeon in or two - depends on the Vegas4 roadmap and what other tasks you like to do during rendering/NLEing.

Going single 2.4 Xeon is about a 1.50 hike on a single AthlonMP in an AMD 760MPX board (which only has a single PCI contention bus with support for Pci64@66 and PCI32@33 peripherals). Milage can vary especially with Windows. i860 (even P4DCE+) and previous E7505 boards took the main base up to over 2x and AMD SMP option mostly by needing big case and special PSUs.

Thank goodness that AMd is nipping at the performance server market! In PIII days, such systems would have beenwell over $1000 for barebones+CPU+RAM (for home builders).

It seems everyone with dual processors is running xeon 2.4; I recently upgraded to WIN XP Pro and a MB that would support dual processors. I have a P4 2.53 installed, can I go dual by installing (well actually someone that knows what they're doing install)another P4 2.53 or a P4 2.4?
TIA,
Randy

I have a P4 2.53 installed, can I go dual...?

P4 can't be run in Multiple CPU configuration. That is why all the Intel Duallies you see are either P-III or Xeon.

Kirk

Thanks Kirk.
Randy