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Long Cat, on 21 Jan 2014 - 5:56 PM, said:snapback.png

Not saying i wouldn't love a 24-core dual Xeon setup! But for the 'I can't spend more than about $600 on a CPU' people, the i7 was the best choice because of the performance edge over the comparable Xeon - which costs exactly the same.

 

Well said, I think we can agree on this.

 

All the best!

 

theconnactic,

 

You just undermined your own tirade against the i7 as a gamer's CPU.  "..., I think we can agree on this."

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I'm not trying to start anything but ....

 

Just a basic search on newegg:

 

ASUS P9X79-E WS LGA 2011

$469.79

 

8X Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) ECC Registere

$591.92

($73.99 each)

 

Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 3.4GHz LGA 2011 150W 8-Core Server Processor

$2,199.99

 

Subtotal: $3,261.70

 

You can add another grand on SSD, Case, PSU, Misc. stuff.

 

So for about 4,300-4,500, you can get a very powerful workstation.

 

Similar specs iCan(With 2xD500) will go for $6,199.00.

 

The difference:

 

iCan; Small form factor, thunderbolt, workstation grade graphics with ECC (Maybe), "Imma Cool Cat" Effect, the thing called; It's just works (well, rarely does), lack of any kind of expansions (thunderbolt is NOT an expansion in my book), a subconscious instinct to flick my cigarettes ashes in it.

Off the shelf future upgrades: CPU, Memory, SSD, maybe wifi

 

Your build: You can do whatever hell you want with it, can get ANY graphics into it x 4, if something burns simply replace it,no need to wait for someone to fix bootcamp so you can install a weird version of *nix on it, a very satisfying thing called I've done it myself, and consider the fact that you can shop around and get it even cheaper(minus the tax and sometimes free shipping).

Off the shelf future upgrades: everything.

 

Now, I will play a devils advocate a bit and will say that, building your own rig is a challenging process, you actually kind a need to know what you're doing. Whilst iCan is a plug-and-play.

 

 

Just my 2c.

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@ Balamut

 

VGA card(s)? A pro grade VGA card can cost 1K or even more then that. MP has two cards.

 

IMO MP has much better $/performance value than MacBooks or iMacs have. Sure it has some cons (as most Apple devices), but it is still good option (in the base config at least).

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@ Balamut

 

VGA card(s)? A pro grade VGA card can cost 1K or even more then that. MP has two cards.

 

IMO MP has much better $/performance value than MacBooks or iMacs have. Sure it has some cons (as most Apple devices), but it is still good option (in the base config at least).

 

Let's agree to disagree....

 

Given that it's 7970(R9 280x have a bit more punch), few sec. here or there doesn't make huge difference.

http://www.barefeats.com/tube08.html

 

 

Food for thought on ECC VRAM iCans

 

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1691548

 

 

6GB R9 280x

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-radeon-r9-290x-280x,25632.html

 

 

Now, I'm not saying one is better then the other, just my 2c.

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Food for thought on ECC VRAM iCans

 

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1691548

 

Balamut, that was deliberate: definitely wouldn't be cost-effective to purchase a workstation like the nMP for the sole purpose of GPGPU number crunching - the scientific community is more than well-served with headless dedicated Linux clusters for this kind of ultra-high precision work. For multimedia production workflows, the ECC VRAM would give no advantages - differently from ECC RAM, which is much needed - and would make the already underclocked (for thermal management reasons) D-series FirePros slower. 

 

Still, do you really think the sole difference between a workstation grade GPU and a consumer-aimed one is ECC VRAM? No, it's not. Check out this post: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=25944797#p25944797

 

All the best!

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