Is AMD to go for good value quadcores? Also, some build questions.

[lopri]

It's a Gigabyte P35 UD4. I don't remember the exact model name off the top of my head. I just returned from vacation and I'm looking for an upgrade. I don't play games as much anymore and instead I'm travelling a lot more. Having said that, I still want a machine capable of gaming.

Your E8400 is more than capable of that duty. The whole conversation began because of your need of multitasking.

I suppose an i750 ain't out of the question at the moment. I'm not convinced an i750 is a good value at the moment. Maybe I'm wrong. I think the Anandtech article on Lynnfield mentioned the i860 being a better value, but I'm guessing things have changed since the article's publication. Should I really aim for the i750? It's nothing something that I can't afford. I just need to be able to justify the purchase.

I'd rather do that than wasting money on a Q9550. $250 for a Q9550? Let others spend that money. A quick search for Q9450 turns in even more ridiculous results.

 

[lsquare]

I appreciate the comments guys. I see where you guys are coming from. I think I'm going to get a Core i5 570 regardless of whether it makes economic sense or not. I'm not exactly cash strapped despite going away on a 8 month trip around Asia and Australia. I just want something that will be substantially faster at encoding videos, music, and using photoshop. My hobbies are changing and I think that's a fact of life. I'm getting older and not younger. I'm out a lot more often than when I was younger. A faster computer that encodes movies for my Ipod Touch would be great.

 

[lopri]

Interesting you say that. I kind of feel the same way. (the 'getting old' part, that is. ) i5-750 or i7-860 would be the best choice in general, though I'd like to ask what your source material (YouTube download? DVD? Blu-Ray? ) and application of choice for encoding.

 

[lsquare]

Interesting you say that. I kind of feel the same way. (the 'getting old' part, that is. ) i5-750 or i7-860 would be the best choice in general, though I'd like to ask what your source material (YouTube download? DVD? Blu-Ray? ) and application of choice for encoding.

My source material will be from my Blu-Ray collection. Now before you or anyone accuse me of downloading MKV content or rent and rip, I'm ripping from my small, but growing library. I haven't really decided because I haven't began the process of encoding. It's something I'll think about as soon as I have the computer up and running.

Do you have any comments on the overclockability of the 860? I heard that HT can limit the overclocking potential. However, I'm not aiming for the highest possible overclock. I'm not sure if the 860 is worth it given the performances between the 2 chips will be very similar despite the clockspeed differences.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Do you have any comments on the overclockability of the 860? I heard that HT can limit the overclocking potential. However, I'm not aiming for the highest possible overclock. I'm not sure if the 860 is worth it given the performances between the 2 chips will be very similar despite the clockspeed differences.

i7 860 is an amazing chip, it will do 4.0 ghz easy

@ stock it performs better than a stock 920 due to the higher turbo mhz

 

[lopri]

You're in for a difficult mission.. I don't mean to scare you off, but Blu-Ray encoding is still a cumbersome chore. On a bright side, hardware isn't an issue. Any modern CPU has enough horse power to rip/encode Blu-Ray content. For a relatively small size (i.e. iPod), a quad-core CPU will do it in a couple hours usually. Encoding is the bigger part of it, obviously, and ripping is relatively quick. (not MP3 quick, though. )

Whether the output is going to be usable, will depend on the source's codecs (video AND audio) as well as the encoder AND its setting. I've seen some encoder from a top software vendor trying to put a whole thing (25GB+) in the system memory, hosing the system. Some encoder puts out utter garbage, and some gets video right but not audio, or vice versa, etc. But I guess that's outside this thread..

 

[soccerballtux]

I have no vdroop on my motherboard, NONE....

Shoot, that's nice, my old IP35-E had it and it just got worse and and worse...I was only using a dual though so it wasn't _horrible_.

 

[BD231]

A quad core Phenom II 955 at 3.8ghz would spank the life out of your current setup. This requires you overclock but you'd be amazed with the performance increase at the very least.

The I5 will last you longer with its higher IPC and new tech.

 

[lsquare]

Let's put it like this, with the current batches of i5 750, will it be easy to overclock to 4ghz with air cooling and a quiet fan? I'm not aiming for the highest overclock. I want a decent overclock without turning up the fan.

 

[alyarb]

as long as you have something big, like some 120 mm heat tower, then sure it will work fine. it's up to the lynnfield specimen at that point.

 

[Axon]

If you live near a Microcenter, the Q9550 is back at $170.

No one can make any guarantees about how the particular chip you get would perform, though, of course, some generalizations can be made. If you're going to go in for a whole new platform, I'd hit up the i5 750.

 

[evolucion8]

Set encoding to low priority and buy more ram. A quad core will not help (much) with this issue.


For gaming, AMD's quads would mostly be a step sideways and in some cases they'll actually run slower. E8600 at stock speed vs Phenom II 965 at stock speed. IMO, the cheapest upgrade would probably be to buy the best cooler possible for maybe $50 then overclock the hell out of your E8400.


Luckily the guys at AMD made overclocking their stuff a lot easier. An AMD processor marked as a "black edition" means you can change the multiplier. Overclocking is as easy as buying a $50 motherboard and turning the multiplier way up.


Don't worry about ram. In every test I've ever seen, overclocking the ram does almost nothing. \

By your mentality you could state that the Core 2 Duo is even better than the Core i7 in gaming performance in regard of these results;

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3619&p=7

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=12

The Phenom X2 is only a hair behind generally in some tasks and faster in others like video encoding and decryption thanks to its strong FPU performance compared to the Core 2 Quad, and its gaming performance is closer to the i7 in most scenarios than the Core 2 Quad thanks to its IMC and other optimizations, but sometimes it trails behind considerably. But definitively a Phenom XII isn't the way to go because you won't notice a much difference in gaming performance, unless if you play GTA4 a lot which runs like crap on dual core CPU's. Gaming performance with Core i7 is less than stellar, but its encoding power will make it better suitable to you if you have money to burn, if not, a nice Q9550 will do nicely, or a new AMD Platform, specially that there's rumours that a 3.60GHz Phenom X2 is coming.

 

[ShawnD1]

By your mentality you could state that the Core 2 Duo is even better than the Core i7 in gaming performance in regard of these results;

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3619&p=7

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704&p=12

Indeed the E8400 is better than the i7 in that regard. Anyone who would pay $500 to increase their gaming frame rate by 5-10 fps should be checked into a mental hospital and sterilized so they don't have any kids.

 

[MrK6]

Indeed the E8400 is better than the i7 in that regard. Anyone who would pay $500 to increase their gaming frame rate by 5-10 fps should be checked into a mental hospital and sterilized so they don't have any kids.

Or whiny people that lack that kind of disposable income could stop sulking and move on.

 

[ShawnD1]

Or whiny people that lack that kind of disposable income could stop sulking and move on.

Will you buy my Killer NIC? It'll give you the same 5 fps increase as the i7 but I'll sell it to you for only $200 because I'm such a nice guy.

 

[Fayd]

Will you buy my Killer NIC? It'll give you the same 5 fps increase as the i7 but I'll sell it to you for only $200 because I'm such a nice guy.

i remember that shit. when it came out, i was thinking "is anyone dumb enough to think that networking represents a significant load to a CPU?"

 

[MrK6]

Will you buy my Killer NIC? It'll give you the same 5 fps increase as the i7 but I'll sell it to you for only $200 because I'm such a nice guy.

And setting up a straw man proves my point, do continue.

 

[ShawnD1]

And setting up a straw man proves my point, do continue.

Explain how that's a straw man.

 

[MrK6]

Explain how that's a straw man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Seriously?

 

[ShawnD1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Seriously?

I said that getting an i7 when you already have an E8400 is a horrible idea and you implied that the OP upgrading his entire system to the cost of more than $500 was a good idea. I said the Killer NIC is also a great idea, obviously making fun of you.

 

[lopri]

i remember that shit. when it came out, i was thinking "is anyone dumb enough to think that networking represents a significant load to a CPU?"

Killer NIC is dumb but network traffic, along with anti-virus, does represent significant load to a CPU. If only thing happens over network is surfing the web, then yeah the load is insignificant. But there are many things that will take the CPU load to 20~30% on a less-than-stellar on-board NICs (I'm looking at you, Realtek). Multiple FTP uploads/downloads, backup over network, multiple media streams, and (gasp) multiple VMs, etc. Shitty on-board NICs would drag the system and system wouldn't feel as responsive, no matter how fast the CPU is.

I now gave up on on-board NICs and buy a $30 PCIe Intel network card for a serious build. The difference is like night and day.

 

[MrK6]

I said that getting an i7 when you already have an E8400 is a horrible idea and you implied that the OP upgrading his entire system to the cost of more than $500 was a good idea. I said the Killer NIC is also a great idea, obviously making fun of you.

You either have severe difficulties with the English language or some kind of general mental deficiency. You stated, and I quote:

Anyone who would pay $500 to increase their gaming frame rate by 5-10 fps should be checked into a mental hospital and sterilized so they don't have any kids.

which is utter stupidity. Because you can't or refuse to pay $500 for an upgrade doesn't mean anyone else who would is stupid, insane or should have their genitalia mutilated. Complaining to such extremes shows a lack of maturity both emotionally and mentally.

Thousands of people spent $500 and more to get 5-10FPS when Crysis came out. Are they all stupid and should be neutered? How about every enthusiast that grabs a Tri-SLI or QuadFire set-up and puts it under water because he or she can? Do you cry and post the same bullshit in those threads too? For some people, $500 doesn't even register in their bank accounts. It's called lots of disposable income, and it's a good way to live. Personally, I like to see people spend their money on what makes them happy, especially hobbies. I like seeing what kind of awesome rigs one can get when money is no object. If you're going to cry and sulk every time someone uses their own money to tweak or upgrade their system past a point you can't or won't afford, get the hell off an enthusiast forum.

/rant

 

[zsdersw]

A pointless rant, to be sure. You're taking things *way* too seriously.

 

[MrK6]

A pointless rant, to be sure. You're taking things *way* too seriously.

No, I just like to nip such behaviors in the bud, it's a pet peeve of mine. I'd hate to see enthusiasts leave the board because they get stomped on by the average Joe every time they make a purchase that doesn't follow the same price/performance curve. It does happen and it makes for an insipid forums experience.

That said, sorry to derail your thread OP. To address your latest concerns, especially how you've highlighted your projected use, I'd recommend a Xeon X3440 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117225 You'll save $50 over an i7 860, but you still get to keep HT, which will really help speed up encoding. As long as you keep any of these 1156 chips cool, 4.0GHz is relatively easy to do. I'd recommend one of the higher end heatsinks (Prolimatech Megahalems, Thermalright Venomous X, or Noctua D-14 etc.). The Noctua is already set up to be very quiet, but as long as you choose a decent fan for the other two you should be fine (I prefer 120mm fans with 38mm depth as opposed to the standard 25mm depth; they produce more pressure and airflow at lower noise levels). Also make sure you grab a good board. You don't need anything extreme, something like a Gigabyte P55A-UD3 is more than sufficient (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412 , note I like Gigabyte boards, there's plenty of great options from others as well). Also grab some good Socket-1156 designed RAM (has an operating voltage <1.65V). I like G.Skill - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 .

 

[zsdersw]

No, I just like to nip such behaviors in the bud, it's a pet peeve of mine. I'd hate to see enthusiasts leave the board because they get stomped on by the average Joe every time they make a purchase that doesn't follow the same price/performance curve. It does happen and it makes for an insipid forums experience.

Such behaviors? Oh jeez.. how big of a mountain is this mole hill of yours?

People come and go on forums all the time. You should be a big boy and recognize that there are plenty of ways to be an enthusiast without spending a lot of money for relatively little gain, and there's room for more than just your opinion. If someone goes onto a message board and describes a purchase they made, clearly they want attention of some kind. There's never a guarantee that the attention they receive will be congratulatory.

If anything ShawnD1 said was a "get stomped on by the average Joe" moment then you and anyone else who was even remotely offended needs a real problem to be concerned about.