As this is article is aimed at the professional looking for the most secure stable working platform we took to task our mainstay workstation. This has been seen on numerous recent outings supported by Intel’s new Westmere Xeon CPU’s, Supermicro’s X8DAi mainboard supported with Crucial’s memory. This will be now a typical workstation that can be found in most high-end studios and enthusiast workstation scenarios. This steadfast mission critical workstation platform has plenty of scope for upgrading, which we have voiced on many occasion and demonstrate once more today. This in turn will demonstrate to you the end-user just what to fully expect when you purchase systems of the like we have here in situ.
Component | Test System |
Mainboard | |
CPU | 2 X 3.33GHz Intel® Xeon® X5680 Westmere® 12MB Shared Cache, 6.4GB/s QPI |
HSF Coolers | 2 X Noctua NH-U9DX 1366 |
Memory | 12 X 2GB Crucial DDR3 (24GB Total) 1333MHz Unbuffered ECC DIMMS Memory Modules |
Hard Drive | 256GB Crucial C300 RealSSD |
| 640GB Fusion-io ioDrive Duo Drive | |
Test PCI Ex Video Card | NVIDIA® Quadro® 6000 |
Hardware Suppliers for the Review
Intel EU for the supply of the 3.33GHz Intel® Xeon® X5680 and 3.46GHz Intel® Xeon® X5677 Nehalem EP® CPU’s
Supermicro for the supply of the X8DAi Rev 2 Mainboard shown within the Test System
Crucial Memory for the C300 RealSSD and the DDR3 1333MHz Unbuffered ECC Memory, thank you for pulling out the stops here.
NVIDA® for the supply of the Quadro® 6000 professional graphic card for the professional tests within.
ATI® for the supply of the FirePro V8800® shown within the system build pictures
Noctua for the supply of the Heatsink Fans critical to the high end Xeon systems
With the support and help of all the companies involved. It gives you the reader a choice on upgrade paths that many of you look for here with the performance ratio’s the system has to provide and notwithstanding the
Fusion-io Duo from Fusion.
Systems Integrators, OEM’s and VAR’s should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components. Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly. One main e-tailer that can supply the EU reader readily all the parts listed you should pop over to SCAN and see what todays best bottom dollar deal is on the main parts listed.
Benchmarks and Software Used 64-bit Mode
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
ATTO Benchmark
Everest Ultimate Ver. 5 with latest build
HD Tune Pro Ver. 4.50
SiSoftware Sandra 2010 with latest build
CrystalMark Disk Benchmark with latest build
PCMark 2005 with latest patches
PCMark Vantage Professional with latest patches
SPECviewperf® 11.0 64-bit. Test ran at 1920 X 1080 Resolution
Each set of tests has been applied on the clean system hard drives shown above to ensure that no residue drivers were left installed with all updates/patches applied. A test/render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime. Whilst maintaining the fair play rules of SPEC® HyperThreading and Turbo Boost have been enabled, with the memory being left in its default status of Auto. Tests have been conducted in accordance with the resolutions detailed above @ 59Hz in 32 bit colour. Results that have been shown within this article are from the application/benchmarks first run in accordance with the SPECviewperf® fair play rules. Not an average of 3 runs as some seem prudent to think that this is correct.
Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – ioDrive Duo Pictures
Page 3 – System Set-Up and Software Used
Page 4 – ATTO Benchmark, Everest Ultimate Ver. 5 and HD Tune Pro Ver. 4.50
Page 5 – SiSoftware Sandra 2010 with latest build
Page 6 – PCMark 2005 Advanced, PCMark Vantage Professional and CrystalMark Disk Benchmark
Page 7 – SPECviewperf® 11.0 64-bit and File Transfer Test
Page 8 – Conclusions and Award