AMD vs Intel Xeon?

[JohnyGluebag]

My boss wants me to spec out computer to run Ansys, allowed to spend $10k.

I have most of it sorted out. We are not paying for the license to use more than 2 cores at this time, in the future this will happen though.

Two things I cannot figure out:

1. So far no one at Dell or HP can confirm if all the DIMM slots need to be filled to bennifit from DDR ram. I thought it was universal that all DIMMS need ram for DDR, or does the ram go into specific slots?

2. The dual core AMD Opterons are relatively more expensive than the quad core Intel Xeons. I realize that AMD has memeory controller on chip and clock speed connot be compared...anyne have a link to some benchmarks for Ansys with Opterons?

The Ansys site shows info for Intel Xeons but no AMD, that I have found yet. I do not think 8 cores are needed. I figure if I can get 4 very good cores that will make the most of the money and future licenses.

Other than the CPU's and ram configuration the system will be:
- 16GB ECC ram
- 2 x 300GB sas 15000rpm drives, raid0

Thanks for any advice or comments.


____________
JohnyGluebag

 

[Baldy217]

1. No you're thinking of Dual Channel, which you need preferably two matching RAM sticks in the right spots.

And DDR? What age are you in? DDR3 is already starting to come out

2. From my research, the consensus is to stick with good Dual cores at the moment, mostly because of extra license costs.

And remember that structural analysis don't scale very well. Unlike CFD that can scale on dozens of cores.


And simulations can eat up a lot of space and fast. Get 500GB drives at the minimum. The price is going down pretty much on a weekly basis.

RAID 0 is a very bad idea for files that are crucial to keep (unless you do full nightly backups). If you want speed, focus on RAM. I think that RAID 0 will only margenally improve your simulation time. I've heard of getting fully buffered ECC RAM, than disabling the ECC to get some pretty decent performance.

 

[qwicker]

We just ordered a computer that cost just over 10k (with our corporate discount) I attatched the quote, have a look

SYSTEM PRICE: $10,572.80 GROUP TOTAL: $10,572.80

Base Unit:
Dell Precision T7400 Mini-Tower, Quad Core Xeon Proc X5482, 3.20GHz, 2X 6MB L2 Cache,1600MHz (223-4701)

Processor:
2nd Processor, Quad Core Xeon Proc X5482, 3.20GHz, 2X 6MB L2Cache,1600MHz, Dell Precision T7400 (311-8069)

Memory:
32GB, DDR2 ECC SDRAM Memory 800MHz, 8X4GB, Dell Precision T7400 (311-7700)

Keyboard:
Entry Level, USB, No Hot Keys keyboards, Dell PrecisionWorkstations (310-7949)

Monitor:
Dell UltraSharp 2208FP,Wide Flat Panel w/Height AdjustableStand,22.0 Inch VIS,OptiPlex Precision and Latitude (320-6106)

Video Card:
nVidia,Quadro FX 570,256MB dual DVI, Graphics Card, Dell Precision T3400 (320-5865)

Hard Drive:
300GB 3Gbps SAS, 15K RPM Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch, Dell Precision T3400 (341-5236)

Hard Drive Controller:
C25 All SAS Hard Drives RAID 10 for 4 Hard Drives Dell Precision T7400 (341-5404)

Floppy Disk Drive:
NO FLOPPY DRIVE, Dell Precision 490/690, Factory Install (341-3414)

Operating System:
Windows XP 64 SP2 with WindowsVista Business 64 Edition License, Dell Precision English, Factory Install (420-7632)

Mouse:
Dell USB 5-Button Premium Optical Mouse, Dell Precision (310-8851)

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive:
16X DVD+/-RW, Data Only, Dell Precision T3400 (313-5709)

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive:
Roxio Creator Dell Edition,9.0Dell Precision (420-7980)

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive:
Cyberlink Power DVD 8.0,with Media,Dell Precision (420-8857)

Speakers:
Internal Chassis Speaker, DellPrecision T7400 (313-5938)

Documentation Diskette:
Resource DVD contains Diagnostics and Drivers for Dell Precision T7400 (313-5674)

Additional Storage Products:
300GB 3Gbps SAS, 15K RPM Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch, Dell Precision T3400 (341-5247)

Controller Option:
PERC6/i SAS/SATA Hardware RAID Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives, Dell Precision T7400 (341-5975)

Service:
ProSupport for IT: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response 2 Year Extended (983-8752)

Service:
ProSupport for IT: 7x24 Technical Support for certified IT Staff, 2 Year Extended (983-9152)

Service:
ProSupport for IT: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response Initial Year (984-5400)

Service:
ProSupport for IT: 7x24 Technical Support for certified IT Staff, Initial (984-5800)

Service:
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service Extended Year(s) (988-6888)

Service:
Thank you choosing Dell ProSupport. For tech support, visit

http://support.dell.com/ProSupport

or call 1-866-516-31 (989-3449)

Service:
Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service Initial Year (988-6887)

Installation:
Standard On-Site Installation Declined (900-9987)

Misc:
Dell UltraSharp 2208FP,Wide Flat Panel w/Height AdjustableStand,22.0 Inch VIS,OptiPlex Precision and Latitude (320-6106)

Misc:
300GB 3Gbps SAS, 15K RPM Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch, Dell Precision T3400 (341-5247)

Misc:
300GB 3Gbps SAS, 15K RPM Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch, Dell Precision T3400 (341-5247)


Vista Premium Downgrade Relationship Desktop (310-9161)

 

[JohnyGluebag]

Thanks for the info.

DDR3 was not offered for use with the HP AMD Opeteron setup, neither for the Dell Intel Xeon.

qwicker, the machine I have gotten a quote for is nearly identical to yours. You have gone all out on the processors and ram, nice.

The machine I am getting will be solving problems using OrcaFlex as well, my company has a good discount with Dell, so 8 Intel Xeon cores it is (OrcaFlex wants lots of fast CPU's).

Already the OrcaFlex people are fighting the Ansys people for use of the machine...we should be buying two!

____________
JohnyGluebag

 

[cbrn]

Hi,
the Ansys Customer Support has a very good document about how to achieve maximum performance with any "HPC" computer.
- processor may easily be the last of your problems. Fastest chip in terms of "flops per clock" is Intel Xeon with "core micro technology". Warning, not all Xeons on the market are of this type. Associated with 3 GHz clock and 1333 MHz bus, it is nowadays the fastest "PC" architecture.
- memory: due to the non-linear scaling-up of cost wrt size, it is better to "saturate" all the RAM slots instead of having, for example, half the number of sticks twice as big. Make a count of the mem occupancy of the biggest solve run you are planning in the near future, and take into account the possibility to run "full in-core" with the sparse solver, together with the possibility to "cache" ALL the temporary solve-files which Ansys continuously writes and reads back. I think a MINIMUM of 16GB should be considered, better 32 GB (I don't think you can spec out a 64GB machine with 10000$)
- hard-disk becomes almost irrelevant if you can fit all the solve run into RAM.

Regards

 

[JohnyGluebag]

cbrn,

Aye, I was thinking along the same lines regarding the ram modules. Currently the quote is for 8x2GB ram, which will fill all the ram slots on the board. I have been pushing for 32GB but it seems like I am lucky to get 16GB.

This will be a good first 'fast machine' that myself and the company will have to learn and grow into.

Currently I have a job that is going 1.8GB into the page file on a system with 2GB of ram (our top machine :/). There is a fair bit of contact. Coarse mesh on the test run converged no problem, I remeshed to get the mesh correct and going on 10+ hours now, 1 bisection so far. I have everything to learn about FEA with Workbench, but it will be nice to get some quicker solves so I can troubleshoot abit faster.

When I get some runs in I can post performance of new vs old machine. The I.T. department is giving us grief for going around them on the machine spec's and purchase...in the past I had a sober conversation with the I.T. guy asking for more ram, which his answer was to empty my recycle bin...

____________
JohnyGluebag