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best CPU for crunching? Q6600? E8400? Others?

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Just wondering whether it would be better to get an E8400 or a Q6600 for a crunching rig. I suspect the Q6600, but I thought I would ask. Are there any DC programs that do NOT take advantage of a quad-core? Are there any that will take advantage of SSE4.1?

I'm going to Microcenter in the morning with $420 to pick up two CPUs. The Q6600s are $200, and the E8400s are (I think, still) $190.
 
I'm not sure about the E8400, but I stress tested (crunched) a Q6600 that I built for IT, and that Q6600 destroyed my E6400. And if there are any specific projects that won't take advantage of a quad-core, you can usually run multiple instances to accomplish the same thing.
 
Crunching is one of the few applications where it actually does make a difference to have more cores. Each project is different, but I think you can install multiple instances of most any of them.

IMO, for crunching, quad cores are pretty much top of the heap

-Sid
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Just wondering whether it would be better to get an E8400 or a Q6600 for a crunching rig. I suspect the Q6600, but I thought I would ask. Are there any DC programs that do NOT take advantage of a quad-core? Are there any that will take advantage of SSE4.1?

I'm going to Microcenter in the morning with $420 to pick up two CPUs. The Q6600s are $200, and the E8400s are (I think, still) $190.
Click to expand...

I have two systems with the Q6600... one is running vista32(non-raid) with 3gigs of ram.. the other is running vista64(raid0) with 4gigs of ram... and I have one E8400(OC to 3.5Ghz, raid0) with vista64 with 2 gigs of ram
all running seti 24/7

I've been running the q6600 against each other for month now. the Q6600 with vista64 crunches more than the q6600 with vista32.

i've only been running the e8400(OC to 3.5Ghz) for a week now, and it looks like it will compete when OCd with the q6600 wista32... won't be able to really give you good number's until it's been crunching for a month
 
8 cores!?:Q😎

Originally posted by: Insidious
Crunching is one of the few applications where it actually does make a difference to have more cores. Each project is different, but I think you can install multiple instances of most any of them.

IMO, for crunching, quad cores are pretty much top of the heap

-Sid
Click to expand...
Yep same here 🙂

I love my quad for DC😉

dajeepster
Are you sure about that? I wouldn't of thought even a heavily o/ced dual would compete with a quad in DC.
For arguements sake if we say a dualie @ 3.5GHz = 7GHz of power, a quad @ 2.66GHz = 10.64GHz ,I know it won't quite scale like that but it won't be far off ,& it wouldn't be enough to close the gap I don't think.IIRC the penryn core is about 5-10% faster than a conroe? ,even then I wouldn't of thought it'd be enough to close the gap?
How much cache has a E8400 got?
 
Originally posted by: Esquire
mac pro octa core 😉
Click to expand...

My wife said I can build my 8-core (dual quad-core) after we move. And I can put it in the big case, and put as many hard drives as I can fit in there.... 😀

remember this post... she said I could....
 
Originally posted by: dajeepster
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Just wondering whether it would be better to get an E8400 or a Q6600 for a crunching rig. I suspect the Q6600, but I thought I would ask. Are there any DC programs that do NOT take advantage of a quad-core? Are there any that will take advantage of SSE4.1?

I'm going to Microcenter in the morning with $420 to pick up two CPUs. The Q6600s are $200, and the E8400s are (I think, still) $190.
Click to expand...

I have two systems with the Q6600... one is running vista32(non-raid) with 3gigs of ram.. the other is running vista64(raid0) with 4gigs of ram... and I have one E8400(OC to 3.5Ghz, raid0) with vista64 with 2 gigs of ram
all running seti 24/7

I've been running the q6600 against each other for month now. the Q6600 with vista64 crunches more than the q6600 with vista32.

i've only been running the e8400(OC to 3.5Ghz) for a week now, and it looks like it will compete when OCd with the q6600 wista32... won't be able to really give you good number's until it's been crunching for a month
Click to expand...

Are those Q6600s OCed too, or are they at stock?
 
I don't understand the assertion that only the E8400 can be overclocked???

My quads at 3.45GHz will toast it

-Sid
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: dajeepster
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Just wondering whether it would be better to get an E8400 or a Q6600 for a crunching rig. I suspect the Q6600, but I thought I would ask. Are there any DC programs that do NOT take advantage of a quad-core? Are there any that will take advantage of SSE4.1?

I'm going to Microcenter in the morning with $420 to pick up two CPUs. The Q6600s are $200, and the E8400s are (I think, still) $190.
Click to expand...

I have two systems with the Q6600... one is running vista32(non-raid) with 3gigs of ram.. the other is running vista64(raid0) with 4gigs of ram... and I have one E8400(OC to 3.5Ghz, raid0) with vista64 with 2 gigs of ram
all running seti 24/7

I've been running the q6600 against each other for month now. the Q6600 with vista64 crunches more than the q6600 with vista32.

i've only been running the e8400(OC to 3.5Ghz) for a week now, and it looks like it will compete when OCd with the q6600 wista32... won't be able to really give you good number's until it's been crunching for a month
Click to expand...

Are those Q6600s OCed too, or are they at stock?
Click to expand...

they are stock
 
Originally posted by: Insidious
I don't understand the assertion that only the E8400 can be overclocked???

My quads at 3.45GHz will toast it

-Sid
Click to expand...

i'm not asserting anything... only that I've OC'd the e8400.. and I haven't OC'd the q6600.. I just didn't feel like OC the q6600... they're SLACRs 😉
 
I understand.

I didn't really mean that to come off the way it did. I was just trying to say that 4 core2 cores will produce a lot more than 2 when the speeds are comparable.

sorry about the "nanananaaaa" tone it had to it 😱

-Sid
 
Well, just look at the TOTAL GHz to get a pretty accurate indication of crunching power.

For example a quad at 3.0GHz is 12GHz total. A dual at 4GHz is 8GHz total. 12GHz will wipe the floor with 8GHz everytime.

This is valid to compare total total GHz because they are the same arch. I also don't know of any DC program that you can't run multiple instances of to get more cores crunching if needed.
 
I thought that the SMP client for F@H was optimized for four cores. Why do you run two instances of the SMP client on a quad-core?
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I thought that the SMP client for F@H was optimized for four cores. Why do you run two instances of the SMP client on a quad-core?
Click to expand...

Because it isn't optimized properly, and empirical testing has proved it performs much better with two instances...

...and using affinity changer. THERE. I said it. * 😀

-jim

* affinity changer doesn't do anything good for AMD procs, and will lower your PPD. Its performance on dual-cores Intel procs seems to be "eh". YMMV. 😉
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I thought that the SMP client for F@H was optimized for four cores. Why do you run two instances of the SMP client on a quad-core?
Click to expand...

Windows and the SMP software aren't very good at using ALL the resources your Quad core has to offer (Winblows squanders lots of CPU overhead). When you run two instances, you use more nearly 100% of your CPUs and the result is a better overall PPD.

I agree with Jim that the Affinity changer doesn't do a AMD dual core SMP installation any good (at least it didn't for me on 3 different machines)

On my quad with two instances, it did make a BIG change for the better

-Sid
 
I think the P4s would be MUCH better.........





So, can I have your Quad?

-Sid

(The P4s are pittiful for the client I like, so I guess it's the Quad for me)

edit:
There is NOTHING that the P4s can do better than the Core2 architecture as far as I know.
 
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