SMP: When they recommend you disable hyper threading they're not kidding!

[Rubycon]

When I run CB for the CPU, I notice what I will call sticky windows. But it doesn't seem absolutely consistent ... what the heck is it with that?? Some runs are like the Snake Game with the little windows always together. Others have a couple of stragglers. What the heck?

Some of the workspaces are more complicated and those will take longer than the simpler ones. (just a guess here)

 

[PsiStar]

We-e-ell, that could be ... rubycon ... but I forgot that I had another GUI program open when I ran CB yesterday & noticed the couple of "slow" windows.

What can I say? I loaded it early in the day, did 20 things & came back hours later, discovered & remembered that I loaded CB ... re-ran the CPU bench as an anal thing ... posted, and *then* discovered a couple of hours later that I had another program open. Not exactly a moment of epiphany, but an "oh crap" moment.

While the other GUI-ish program was open, there was no animation running, no changes occuring as it was just a static view, but it was taking video memory ... ok, that is at the limit of my understanding what these programs do & consume. I wish they offered more information about how they worked, ppl as we would read it.

 

[Cattykit]

I am wondering if for the average user who uses regular mostly single threaded apps in a regular desktop, browsing, office using capacity it makes sense to have HT.

I have more cores than I really know what to do with. The one program that maxes out my CPU is clearly single threaded in that with HT on I see it pegging the CPU at 13%. With HT off it pegs my CPU at 25%.

That having been said, I don't see it running anywhere close to twice as fast with HT off.

But I don't any sense in keeping HT on. Does it ever help in a "domestic" usage situation?

As more and more people are using encoding programs for portable multimedia devices, I think more cores have great merits. Also, nowadays cameras have great video capabilities that require quite a lot of cpu power.

Now that Canon is coming out with 550d which will do 1080p H.264 40-45 mbps video, and that others will follow, I think we're in a stage where we 'need' more CPU power.

 

[Rubycon]

We-e-ell, that could be ... rubycon ... but I forgot that I had another GUI program open when I ran CB yesterday & noticed the couple of "slow" windows.

What can I say? I loaded it early in the day, did 20 things & came back hours later, discovered & remembered that I loaded CB ... re-ran the CPU bench as an anal thing ... posted, and *then* discovered a couple of hours later that I had another program open. Not exactly a moment of epiphany, but an "oh crap" moment.

While the other GUI-ish program was open, there was no animation running, no changes occuring as it was just a static view, but it was taking video memory ... ok, that is at the limit of my understanding what these programs do & consume. I wish they offered more information about how they worked, ppl as we would read it.

That test does not care what the GPU is preoccupied with as long as said process isn't using CPU cycles at high priority. I ran the benchmark using RDP from my notebook and got the same result. The OpenGL bench obviously isn't going to work with "Generic GDI device".

I work with 100Mbps 1080P video streams so I know all about needing more cores.

 

[soccerballtux]

That test does not care what the GPU is preoccupied with as long as said process isn't using CPU cycles at high priority. I ran the benchmark using RDP from my notebook and got the same result. The OpenGL bench obviously isn't going to work with "Generic GDI device".

I work with 100Mbps 1080P video streams so I know all about needing more cores.

what do you mean, I stream those over my g-wireless to my 1.3ghz Atom for displaying on our projector. GMA500 baby.

 

[tweakboy]

Yall are right, software has to recognize the threads. And be thread optimized.

 

[Rubycon]

NOTE: I would embed the images but there is a silly ten picture per post limit!

pics are always good ... lets see those bad boys

Not all software scale very well with additional threads. One number cruncher I use will put all 16 "CPUs" of dual W5590s (not mine, sadly) to nearly 100% ... another competitive program tapers off rapidly after 4 threads, but different versions of the same problem can be launched to solve 4 different problems concurrently in the same box.

Ok as promised here are the pics!

Front of the case - nothing to write home about!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755010.jpg

Nvidia Quadro FX4800 and Intel G2 160GB SSD

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75504.jpg

Dell branded 15K SAS drive. These are made by Hitachi for Dell. They are fairly loud when accessing. More than one also results in a throbbing off beam humming noise. If I use one of these workstations in a quiet area these drives are getting discarded and replaced with SSDs!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75505.jpg

1100W OEM PSU. Sorry about the low DOF in these images!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75507.jpg

Surprise! That sucker's modular!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75509.jpg

This is a proprietary module. It's a riser card that carries the second LGA 1366 socket, six DDR3 slots and fans for CPU cooler as well as a squirrel cage blower for the ram!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75501.jpg

Here's the live end of the riser CPU card. Notice the two connectors!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755014.jpg

Here's where they plug into the motherboard.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755012.jpg

Another shot of the same motherboard area. That blower is for the "northbridge"

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75508.jpg

Here we have CPU1 with its cooler installed. The fan to the left is behind the lower front grille on the machine. It's a 140mm fan.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755011.jpg

Here's a shot of that cooler when removed.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75502.jpg

Here's the bottom of the cooler, Megahalem Shadow is to the left for comparison.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75503.jpg

The motherboard uncovered. Notice the fan on the "southbridge". Not too pleased about that fan. Looks like your typical dollar store junkfan you'd find on a really crappy video card!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/75506.jpg

Another shot of the riser card showing the active memory cooling.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755013.jpg

Time to put things back together! CPU 1 mounted with heatsink (to left) and riser card snapped back in. Handle on bottom folds up to lock it in place. It's pretty foolproof. Hey I didn't manage to break it!

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755016.jpg

Shroud in place over CPU1 and graphics card re-installed. Ready for side cover to be snapped on.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/C6FT7/755017.jpg

Hope you enjoyed a short tour of the T7500.

So how does she sail?

Well to be honest the computer does work but I am a little disappointed in load temps and cpu throttling under extreme loads. We run this in a sub 20C ambient too! If you use these for heavy rendering make sure your programming room is cool - like operating room cold! Most people won't be bothered with it though. CPU temps never go higher than 70C under typical workloads. The severe load (Linpack) got them into the upper 80s but that's a REALLY high load hardly realized in the real world. These computers cost $13,000 USD EACH and are about what I expected.

 

[DrMrLordX]

These computers cost $13,000 USD EACH and are about what I expected.

Please avoid the Somali coast.

 

[Adina]

Hi,

Not necessarily, it really depends on what has gone down and if it has carried the fault over onto the other components.

 

[PsiStar]

That connector!! It is an Airmax by FCI. I did a lot of analysis on it 4 or 5 years ago ... wondered where they go.

Great pix. My friends got their dual W5590 e/w 12 GB RAM for $6500. Not quite as amply equipped as Rubycon's box tho.

 

[ehume]

Linpack definitely prefers HT OFF.

Speed or stability?

 

[Rubycon]

Speed or stability?

Speed. (throughput)

If HT is causing stability issues then the CPU clock is too high.

Some turn it off to achieve higher clocks when shooting for the stars. I noticed this with my C0 i7 (3.8GHz vs. 4.0GHz). With the 3520 D0 I'm BCLK limited due to heavy memory loading and aggressive timings. (tried both ways and prefer the former)