Which Comp is better for FEA

[joejoe666]

Hello

we have a Desktop and a Laptop. Which device is (1) faster in general (2) better suited for FEA (finite element analysis)

Desktop
CPU -E8500 @ 3.16GHz
RAM - 4Gb
Graphics - NVIDIA Quadro FX 570
64 bit

Laptop
CPU - i7-2720QM @2.20GHz
RAM - 16Gb
Graphics - NVIDIA Quadro 2000M graphics (2GB GDDR3)
64bit

 

[vshah]

the laptop will be way faster for pretty much everything.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, the laptop turbos to slightly faster than the E8400 under light load, and has two extra cores for multi-threaded workloads. So it should be slightly to a lot faster depending on the workload.

I have an E8400 in my desktop at work though, and for everyday use it still seems plenty fast.

 

[vshah]

not to mention it's an i7 vs a core 2 duo

 

[joejoe666]

man i always thought that desktop had 4 cores. any change it has 2 cpus?

 

[mvbighead]

They're both on this list...

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/overclocked_cpus.html

It ain't even close.

 

[Torn Mind]

not to mention it's an i7 vs a core 2 duo

i7 vs core 2 Duo doesn't really tell you much except that one is newer than the other and that the i7 has better performance/watt. Clockspeed, benchmarks at the same clock speed, and core count are three of the major components is figuring out "speed".

 

[mvbighead]

i7 vs core 2 Duo doesn't really tell you much except that one is newer than the other and that the i7 has better performance/watt. Clockspeed, benchmarks at the same clock speed, and core count are three of the major components is figuring out "speed".

Find any i7 that is slower than a Core 2 Duo. That is the point they were making. Long story short, regardless of what is out there, you will not find a Core 2 Duo being faster than an i7.

 

[NewYorksFinest]

Use the laptop, and buy a Celeron for that socket .

 

[mfenn]

man i always thought that desktop had 4 cores. any change it has 2 cpus?

Nope. If it were dual-processor capable, it would be a Xeon instead of a Core 2.

 

[joejoe666]

so some updates...i have been authorized to upgrade our FEA workstation. Not sure if i can get $2-$3K but we'll see.

what do the experts think of this system?
Also How does it compare to my laptop?

~$2300
Dell Precision T3610 685W TPM Chassis
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Processor: Intel® Xeon® E5-1620 v2 Processor (Quad Core HT, 3.7 GHz Turbo, 10 MB)
Memory: 16GB (4x4GB) 1866MHz DDR3 ECC RDIMM
Video Card: 1 GB NVIDIA® Quadro® K600 (1DP & 1DVI-I)
Hard Drive: 256GB SSD

Laptop
CPU - i7-2720QM @2.20GHz 64bit
RAM - 16Gb
Graphics - NVIDIA Quadro 2000M graphics (2GB GDDR3)
Hard Drive: 256gb SSD

 

[DominionSeraph]

Dell Outlet has a Precision T3600 sitting there with a E5-1650 hex-core, 16GB and 256GB SSD for $1679. No worries in the warranty department, it still has the 3 year NBD.
I don't know how graphics dependent your FEA software is, but that gives you room for something a bit better than 192 cores.

 

[mfenn]

Dell Outlet has a Precision T3600 sitting there with a E5-1650 hex-core, 16GB and 256GB SSD for $1679. No worries in the warranty department, it still has the 3 year NBD.

Nice find!

I don't know how graphics dependent your FEA software is, but that gives you room for something a bit better than 192 cores.

Most finite element software doesn't really care about graphics, it's basically just solving systems of equations. There are packages which include CUDA accelerators though, but that depends on the specific software.

What can be graphically intensive is the actual modeling of the geometry. However, it's not clear where the OP is doing the modeling (or if he is doing any at all).