Hi All, I would like some help with comments to a system I am looking at for running CFD (Fluent). I do not have experience with the Xeon processor, so I would appreciate any comments. How would the performance be of a system with

4 Core 2 Duo E6600(2.4GHz/1066MHz/4MB)

compared to a system with

4 Dual Core Xeon 3060 (2.4GHz/4MB 1066FSB)

The Xeon solution is more expensive, but I am trying to figure out if it is value for money

Regards Jan

I use a 64bit AMD chip and Fluent runs just fine. The things I found that make a difference is the amount of RAM you have and a powerful video card, b/c fluent's output is graphic intesive (can be).

Dear Jan

Personally I think the increase in speed (Xeon vs. its standard "cousin" of the same generation) does not justify the increase in performance. Experience based on various compilers (including the Intel one) used for some research codes, and on Fluent.

Regards

I don't have experience with Xeon, but

note that when u use multi-core system it is equivalent with shared memory computer, so u can use complete CPU capacity when u run your application in multi-thread manner (is possible with MPI or OpenMP or pthread) if your Fluent version don't has this support, i am certain that multi-core CPU is not usefull (else u can perform more than one work simultaneously on your computer)

I believe the Xeon has a different memory architecture that allows it to address more memory and run on multi cpu boards- it is designed as a server chip.

My understanding is that this system (using fully buffered memory) is actually slower than that used on the workstation version of the chip. Therefore unless your memory needs exceed that possible with the E6600 I think that the E6600 would be a more economical.

Check out www.anandtech.com they have tested many of the latest chips. Also look under the apple section as the Mac Pros use the xeon chips.

I've tested the Core2Duo (2.4GHz) against my 2 processor 3.6GHz Xeon (single core) using StarCD, and it is between 20% and 50% faster for 2 processor jobs.

I think, that this is a very nice result.

I have similar results, with the same configurations.

We have 4 Xeon workstations in the office. I really do not believe they were worth the money we paid for them. The Duo systems are far superior, we've observed & at less cost than the Xeon's.

desA