Dell Precision T7820 Tower Intel Xeon Gold 5120 for audio ?

Discussion in 'Computer Hardware' started by wanderer, Oct 23, 2023.

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  1. wanderer

    wanderer Guest

    Hi everyone !
    I've been lurking on sister site for a long time, sometimes reading Audiosex posts linked through the RSS feed.
    I eventually signed up to ask a question :
    I can buy a used / refurbed Dell Precision T7820 Tower with dual Intel Xeon Gold 5120 CPUs for a decent price. It runs @2.2gHz with turbo up to 3.2 gHz for 28 cores / 56 threads total.
    I'm doing mastering and mixing and I'm loking for a silent machine suitable to use mostly Reaper and Wavelab (and tons of plug-ins).
    I've no experience with Dell hardware and Xeon CPUS.
    Does someone know if this machine could be suitable ? Are Dell products silent and reliable ? Do they consume a lot of power ? Will Reaper use correctly the 56 threads ?

    Thanks in advance.

     
    wanderer, Oct 23, 2023
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  2. Ads Master

    Ads Master

     
  3. Semarus

    Semarus Producer

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    Audio production is not suited to parallel processing. You will see diminishing returns past 12 cores. You want max clock speed over core count.
     
    Semarus, Oct 23, 2023
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  4. earthangel69

    earthangel69 Newbie

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    Use Audiogridder ( even on the same machine ) and use every Core.

    But i don´t think the machine will be silent.
     
    earthangel69, Oct 23, 2023
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  5. quadcore64

    quadcore64 Audiosexual

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    Best Answer
    At the right price, yes. Some info from Avid Knowledge Base:
    https://avidtech.my.salesforce-site...orted-Windows-Computers-and-Operating-Systems

    for a system like this you will want to make sure at least four RAM slots in each of the two banks are populated. The quick & dirty formula for needed RAM is 4GB per core for audio processing.
    • 8 x 8GB ECC DDR4 (minimum)
    • 8 x 16GB ECC DD4 (ideal)
    Reaper will dynamically use as many cores/threads/logical processors as it can inside a session.

    WaveLab will perform quite differently. Usually within the 16 core/thread/logical processor limit set by Steinberg unless they have removed this limit.

    If you have an option of CPUs from the refurbisher, an 8 or 16 core with a higher bass clock from the following would be more ideal:
    https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...es/125191/intel-xeon-scalable-processors.html

    From the Dell Canada site (for reference only):
    https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/wor...spd/precision-7820-workstation/xctopt7820usca

    Edit:
    If the price is more than half that of an equivalent new build, don't do it. A comparable single no-Xeon new build ranges from $1,500 (U.S.) to $2,500 (U.S.).
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2023
    quadcore64, Oct 23, 2023
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  6. quadcore64

    quadcore64 Audiosexual

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    You could be surprised. Bought my son a Lenovo P520 w an 8 core Xeon (2667 V4) while waiting for new pc parts to come down again. Very quite machine. He has been happy running Ableton Live 11 so far. Has not asked about building or buying a new system for at least 8 months.
     
    quadcore64, Oct 23, 2023
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  7. Citrik Acid

    Citrik Acid Platinum Record

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    Xeon are not well suited for audio production, I have an old HP Z600 with two xeon X5672 running at 3.2ghz (turbo boost 3.6ghz) 6 cores each, this is work not so bad, but not better as an processor with less cores but higher speed. I have test with hyperthreading and turbo boost together and I have not noticed any benefits just more heat. But since I use more hardware than software I don't need a lot of cpu power so using my cpu's at standard spec is good for me. If you will use software only forget about xeons and workstation, build an more powerfull pc IMHO.
     
    Citrik Acid, Oct 23, 2023
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  8. vuldegger

    vuldegger Producer

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    i run studio one 6.5 projects @ 48khz/16 samples on the ryzen 7 5700x, doesnt even sweat, also dead silent
     
    vuldegger, Oct 23, 2023
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  9. quadcore64

    quadcore64 Audiosexual

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    Here is an example system with current pricing using Newegg (U.S.) for everything except, the CPU which is the price listed on the Intel Ark page for the W3-2435.

    Fractal Design Define 7 $179.99
    Black Brushed Aluminum / Steel E-ATX Silent Modular Mid Tower Computer Case

    CORSAIR RM1000e $159.99
    Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 Compliant 80 PLUS Gold Efficiency

    Noctua NH-U14S DX-4677 (140mm, Brown) $129.90

    Kingston Fury Renegade Pro 64GB (4 x 16GB) ECC Registered DDR5 6000 (PC5 48000) $471.00
    (Server Memory) Model KF560R32RBK4-64

    PNY Quadro T1000 4GB GDDR6 Graphics Card $339.99

    Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe (SSD) SSDPFKNU010TZX1 $44.99

    Solidigm P41 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe (SSD) SSDPFKNU020TZX1 $79.99

    CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO $59.99
    Six Macro Keys with Elgato Stream Deck Software Integration

    Intel® Xeon® w3-2435 Processor $669.00
    8 core/16 thread,22.5M Cache, 3.10 GHz base/4.5 GHz boost

    ASRock W790 WS Intel® W790 (LGA 4677) $879.99
    CEB workstation Extended ATX Motherboard

    Total $2,814.83 (U.S.)
     
    quadcore64, Oct 24, 2023
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  10. wanderer

    wanderer Guest

    Thanks to all for your answers. Plenty of very useful info here.
     
    wanderer, Oct 24, 2023
    9
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