Recommendations for new CPU/mobo for FAH?

[scottv67]

Hi:

I have been Folding quietly for Team AnandTech for a couple of years now. [I am currently at position #78].

I am thinking of building a new home PC. This PC will be my work-from-home PC as well as once-in-a-while gaming.

The selection of mobos and CPUs to choose from has changed greatly since I built my last machine a few years ago. I am looking for advice and guidance on what mobo and CPU people here would recommend when building a new machine. I would like to end-up with a kick-butt home system that will be a real Folding At Home work rock crusher.

My current home PC is power by Intel but I am open to using AMD.

I would like to keep the price of the mobo and CPU below $750 (case, video card, drives, etc will be extra).

If people can point me in the direction of web articles that describe the differences between the various Intel and AMD CPU models, that would be quite helpful.

The one thing I'm not looking for is to use the FAH GPU folding client. I like nVidia so I'll probably stick with nVidia for the graphics card in my new system.

Thanks in advance for any help in building my next system.

-Scott

 

[Insidious]

HiYa Scott

For crunching, you most certainly want to consider a dual core CPU. As I understand it, Intel leads the spec. race, but honestly I don't feel slighted with my AMD X2s at all. So If it were me, I'd be looking at the cost of a Intel CPU/MoBo/RAM system vs. an AMD system. I'm guessing you'll get lots of conflicting (AMD vs. Intel) opinions which tells me there isn't really that much real-life difference. (I could easily be wrong)

My computers have ASUS A8N-E motherboards and I really like them. They allow me to get very nice and stable overclocks but don't overload me with a gazillion hings to set in the BIOS that I have no idea what they do. I also trust ASUS quality for the long haul FAR, FAR ABOVE the 'cellar' brands. (MSI, for instance)

I know you need more info than this, but hopefully it's a start

:beer:

-Sid

 

[ProviaFan]

I also have an ASUS A8N-E / Athlon 64 X2 system which has been working very well for over a year and a half. However, despite my preference for AMD, Intel is currently leading, and not by an insignificant amount in some areas of performance. Unless there is a huge cost difference, I'd recommend a Core 2 Duo based system for best performance.

 

[chris huff]

If you mean $750 for just the CPU and Motherboard, the Intel E6600/Asus MB would be a bargin at $500.

E6600 at the egg. ($310)

Asus P5B Deluxe ($190)

The E6600 has 4meg L2 Cache. I've heard people getting up to 50% overclock on it.

I chose the Asus as a price reference.

One thing you might want to consider is the new GPU folding that is showing such great results. Some people are buying mb's with dual video slots so they can put two ATI X1950's in them.

 

[keeleysam]

E6700 + GigaByte DS3 + ATI video card

 

[GLeeM]

There are some tabs at the top of this page, check out Motherboards and CPU/Chipset for some great Anandtech reviews.

There are a few F@H WUs that make great use of extra L2 cache.

If you were to check out http://www.fahinfo.org/index.php
you would find that, currently, the Core 2 Duo is doing the best (except maybe on a couple WUs).

I have an Abit and an Asus motherboard. The Asus has been trouble free. I need to replace, again!, the chipset heatsink/fan on the Abit

 

[scottv67]

Thank you for the informative replies. I've been doing a lot of reading this morning. I have a question: What is the difference between the Intel E6600 and E6700? They seem close spec-wise but there is a significant difference in price. Why would I want to pay the extra $$$ for the 6700?

Thank you,
-Scott

 

[chris huff]

Scott,

Here is a good review at Anandtech

From what I can see, the E6600 is about 10-15% below the E6700. The last page or so talks about overclocking. They were able to get the E6600 up to 4gHz (up from 2.6).

So, you should easily be able to turn it up to equal the E6700 without any trouble at all.

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: scottv67
Thank you for the informative replies. I've been doing a lot of reading this morning. I have a question: What is the difference between the Intel E6600 and E6700? They seem close spec-wise but there is a significant difference in price. Why would I want to pay the extra $$$ for the 6700?

Thank you,
-Scott

260MHz is the difference