Would using a couple of Intel xeon processors or would a Intel core duo processor be better?

Question

Im looking for the best system for rendering digital models and some animation. Wich would you suggest and what versions?
Thank you.

Answer 1

DEFINITELY Dual Xeon
(either 2 CPUs or dual core).

This is the professional's choice (apart from Mac of course).

Look at the high end HP Workstations....they have various options available.
http://www.nextag.com/hp-dual-xeon-workstation/search-html

regards,
Philip T

Answer 2

Xeon processors have had the same core CPU as Pentium CPUs up to P4 and I think that Core 2 duo and quad core versions are now available, with 8 core coming soon. Some models had larger/additional caches to normal desktop CPUs. They also had the added MP facility allowing more than one CPU to be installed on expensive server/workstation boards. The latter could house more RAM and could have faster I/O boards.

I recently received some results for my benchmarks on an expensive 3 years old dual 3.0 GHz P4 Xeon workstation and a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo PC. The latter had by far the best average performance.

Benchmarks (free) and results reports are available from:

http://freespace.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/

Answer 3

Opteron would also be a choice to look into. They are extremely powerful cpus, shutting out xeon and even Itanium 2 cpus.
http://www.psds.com/products/servers/benchmark.htm
The world record for the x86 in integer throughput performance is the Opteron quad:
http://www.spec.org/osg/cpu2000/results/res2006q2/cpu2000-20060410-05857.html
If you're thinking more of a standard desktop, use this chart:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html