Intel / AMD for integer crunching powerhouse

[Alone]

If you're only pushing for 3GHz, an E6300 would be enough as well.

This is only important if money is a concern.

 

[mrissmann]

If you're only pushing for 3GHz, an E6300 would be enough as well.

I don't think that overclocking is an option, this program is going to be running (crunching) for days/weeks on end.

any reason you guys are choosing the E6300 to overclock? The E6600 on up has 4mb cache where the E6300 has only 2.

 

[Alone]

I personally couldn't justify the cost of an E6600, but if it's possible with your budget, no reason not to.

I overclocked my E6300 to 3.43. I run it at 3.36 for the sake of stability, and I crunch every day.

 

[Cogman]

If stability is the key for you, you can feel safe overclocking the Core 2 Duo. The reason is because 3.0 ghz is not too hard to get with stock voltage. If you want to save money, get a 6300 and Over clock it. If you have time to spare, you can wait for the release of the 6350, which has 4 mb of ram, and should be able to easily over clock to the 6600 - 6800 speeds.

 

[mrissmann]

Thanks ALL! Great Thread!

Anand needs to add a donate button to these forums for the best responses.

-Markus

 

[Alone]

You PM'd me and I tried to reply, but you have PM's disabled.

Make a thread in Gen Hardware and I'll jump over there when I get a chance. That way it'll be more objective and others can make suggestions.

 

[mrissmann]

Thanks, the thread is there. going to turn on PM as well.

(note, this is for another development machine, not my number cruncher, I will post the results of this thread when I get the computer.)

-Markus

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: mrissmann
Hey Guys,

How is this setup:

1 x Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93 GHz) Dual Core Retail
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2
1 x Asus P5B Intel P965 Retail
1 x Corsair XMS DDR2-1066 2 GB EPP TwinX Pack
1 x Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 36GB 15,000 RPM SAS OEM
1 x Vantec 24 Inch Clear Rounded Floppy Cable
1 x Adaptec 44300 Serial Attached SCSI Controller Retail
1 x Sony 1.44 MB Black Floppy Drive
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM
1 x XFX GeForce 7600 GS PCIe 256MB Retail
1 x Antec Atlas Black Full-Tower w/ 550W PSU
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM with Vista Upgrade

I recommend a Thermalright Ultra-120 with Yate Loon D12SL-12 ($4) for better performance and ease of installation. You will need to mod the fan a bit to get it to work, though. See here.

If you don't plan to overclock, DDR2-533 memory is sufficient (at least for C2Ds on a 1066MHz bus... which that one is).

Why such a fast HD?

You can get by with a cheaper video card.

A mid-tower will suffice, but I would suggest a top consumer PSU or server-grade PSU. e.g. Silverstone ST56ZF or Zippy HP2-6460P. Be warned - the Zippy will be loud.