(SOLVED) Dual CPUs, Xeon vs i7 'Haswell' and ASUS Z10PE WS

[JoLLyRoGer]

Been a long time since I've built, so it's back to n00b questions for me.

Simply put, I'm looking to build a multi-core system for some serious imagery processing using AgiSoft PhotoScan. (More threads the better)

So far my research has me believing a pair of $380.00 i7-5820Ks (6-core each) would be a better bang for the buck than the $1700.00 10 core i7 single processor for almost triple the price. For this application, clock speed is not as critical as multiple cores.

Planning on pairing this all up with 2x GTX1070's which somehow, according to manufacturer documentation, actually helps the software take better advantage of multiple CPU cores.

Bottom Line:
The Asus Z10PE WS Mobo seems to fit the bill nicely, but says it's for Xeon E-2600 family. Does Core i7 Haswell-E play? Both are LGA 2011-v3?

As per usual, I'm probably playing the village idiot role very convincingly so flame on.
Thanks!
-JR

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Nevermind.

Found it.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z10PED16_WS/HelpDesk_CPU/

 

[Torn Mind]

i7s and E5-16xx V4s do not support dual processor configurations. You need E5-2xxx and above for dual CPU configurations.

http://ark.intel.com/products/family/91287/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-v4-Family#@Server
The CPUs will say "1S supported" or "2S supported" on their spec page.

Check out dual socket server motherboards for alternative boards. Not sure if they are better than the workstation board you are considering though.

Each CPU must get its own set of RAM.

Don't worry, I just had a random soujourn through the interwebz checking out these Xeons a few weeks ago. That's how I know. Curiosity.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Thanks for the tidbit on the 16xx series. Was not aware of that one either.

It's looking like a pair of E5-2620 v3s ATM. Found it for $399.00 so just a $10.00 jump per CPU. Overall clock speed is down, but having the most multi-threading for the buck is the end game here to 2 CPUs, 12 cores, 24 threads, 2.4Ghz w/ 3.2Ghz Turbo.

ECC ram kicked me in the pants for an extra $100.00 But seeing as how even the cheapest 8 core i7 is still a $1000.00 and the 10 core is a $1600.00 processor... I think this may still be a good approach.

800.00 of processors + a 550.00 motherboard and a 100.00 premium on 64GB of ram is about a 1450.00 investment.

or...

Here comes the other approach... 1450.00 also buys an 8x Core i7 on an X99 motherboard. Marry up with some DDR4 3333 and clock the ever loving piss out of it!

I wonder how these two solutions would pair against each other for the single purpose of processing 3D photogrammetry and point clouds when the software I use only does an OK-ish job of leveraging multi-threading (Law of diminishing returns after about 8-10 threads until you add yet more GPUs to the mix)

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

So I think I've arrived at the final solution here...

CPU - Core i7-6900K (8 Core)
MoBo - ASUS X99-A/USB3.1 LGA 2011-v3
RAM - Corsair Vengance DDR4 3000 (CL15) x 64GB

GPU(s) - GTX 1070(x3) or GTX 1080(x2)???
Photoscan cares not about SLI, doesn't use it. But a 3rd GPU makes significant gains when rendering dense point cloud. Would 2x1080s outpace 3x1070s? Tough to say, 3x980s outpace 2x1080s according to the AgiSoft performance estimator so......?

Cooler - Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2
PSU - Corsair RM1000x
Storage - 3x Mushkin ECO3 2.5" 480GB SATAIII (RAID 5)
Case - NZXT Phantom 410

It will be about a $3500.00 build but hoping it should be a 3D Modeling powerhouse.