smcewan

Thank you both for your replies, they were very helpful. I now understand the processors a bit more, and I think I may use that link as a template for the pieces I'm putting together. I'm now uncertain about which motherboard to get, though. I had been planning on getting a server motherboard, as they are very stable and can house a lot of ram. The workstation linked above uses an Intel X58 ATX Motherboard, though I'm not sure exactly which model - the ones I looked at got mixed reviews. The benefit of that over the server mb would, obviously, be overclocking. So, with the processors I'm interested in, do you have any motherboard recommendations?

A question that has been asked many a time, yet I must ask it once more.

I'm putting together a 3d workstation, the primary focus of which will be Houdini work. My budget is in the $3,000-$4,000 range (US dollars). I have a decent idea of what I'm looking for, but I'm caught on a couple of technical details that I have researched to no avail.

So far, I'm looking at the following:

Supermicro Server Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182177 [newegg.com]

Nvidia 460 gtx - I haven't settled on an exact model yet.

14-16 gb of ram

Processors - Dual Six Core Xeon. This is where I need a bit of advice.
A newegg search yields many similar looking products across a very large price range: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000727&IsNodeId=1&Description=six%20core%20xeon&name=Processors%20-%20Servers&Order=BESTMATCH [newegg.com]

I don't think I can overclock these on a server motherboard (correct me if I'm mistaken about that). What I don't understand is the other differences. For instance, this model:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117252 [newegg.com]
is an Intel Xeon W3670 3.2GHz 130w for $600, while this model:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117230 [newegg.com]
is an Intel Xeon X5660 2.8GHz 95w for $1220.

Why the significant price difference? I can't figure out why some of the higher GHz are such lower prices than some lower GHz. Does the W3670 / X5660 have some significance I'm unaware of, or is the large price difference based solely on the wattage?

Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated. Feedback on my other choices would also be helpful.

Thanks!