i7 920 Motherboard and operating system?

[ddrueding]

My disk score wasn't a VR

 

[Santilli]

This is what my HD tach looks like on the raptor.

Here's my velociraptor ATTO score:

WEIRD! This disk is about 60% full, just ran it. Handruin, looks like we have the same sort of limit...

 

[Santilli]

My disk score wasn't a VR

WE got that;-)

Handurin:

The weird part is HD Tach REALLY doesn't know what to do with SSD's. It gives me a line that looks about the same as your Velociraptor's....

 

[Handruin]

I'm not sure David's computer even qualifies to be compared on a sane level. ;-)

 

[LunarMist]

WE got that;-)

Handurin:

The weird part is HD Tach REALLY doesn't know what to do with SSD's. It gives me a line that looks about the same as your Velociraptor's....

HD Tach can have an issue with RAID, not SSDs in general.

 

[LunarMist]

Greg,
Do you know that Alt+Print Screen copies only the active window?

 

[LunarMist]

Greg, read here, and here. If you haven't found the 940 yet, you better get on it. I don't see them listed in most places for sale. The 920 is a great buy if you have a microcenter near you. Check my earlier post.

But won't the new top-end consumer Intel CPUs use the LGA 1366 socket?

 

[Handruin]

Yes, I believe the new Gulftown will be LGA 1366 and maybe even Sandy Bridge.

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, I believe the new Gulftown will be LGA 1366 and maybe even Sandy Bridge.

If Greg will be keeping the board for years, then wouldn't LGA 1366 be the way to go for future upgrades?

 

[Mercutio]

But won't the new top-end consumer Intel CPUs use the LGA 1366 socket?

Not by the end of the year. LGA1366 has always been an odd duck. After 1156 came along Intel claimed 1366 was a hobbyist technology and that the extra pins to the CPU were for triple channel RAM and other hobbyist wankfest toys.

I guess we'll see 1156 and then some new oddball, probably will 1500 pin connections.

 

[Handruin]

That's his call, but he'd have to go from the consumer level i7 over to the Xeon (I'm assuming) if he went that route. I personally chose the consumer-oriented 1156 because I likely won't put another (newer) CPU on this board unless if it's super cheap. I've never built an SLI rig, so dual 16x PCIe wasn't really a selling point for me.

Honestly with newer features coming out all the time, it's probably not worth holding on to a board for many years and upgrading just the CPU. You'll miss out on the faster SATA, USB 3, better memory controllers, etc along with whatever else gets created in the next couple years.

 

[Santilli]

I really don't think about processor upgrades. I've yet to find one that I thought was worth the money.

If I've kept a system long enough to consider a processor upgrade, usually another part of the computer requires improving. Video slots in particular seem to put out to pasture motherboards pretty quickly.

When I considered putting a faster 939 processor, Xeon, or others the faster processors in the line have never come down enough in price to make it worth it, or, the increase in speed was so small it wasn't worth it.

Also, motherboard bios updates may not even support the new processor.

I really don't even consider that as a factor in buying components these days.
Non-factor.

 

[Stereodude]

Memory standards change more frequently than video slots.

 

[ddrueding]

Do people still do CPU-only upgrades? GPUs, memory, storage, optical maybe. But in my experience, most people do the CPU and Mobo at the same time, usually with the PSU and chassis.

 

[Mercutio]

Do people still do CPU-only upgrades?

I've been known to do them, just because every once in a while a vastly better CPU falls in my lap and I can cascade out something older. I switched an AMD x2/5200 for an AM2+ Phenom Quad core not too long ago. The x2 went in a super cheap spare parts build I'm going to use around my office.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't have a Raptor or VR. I was referring to all the Raptor and VR benchmarking.

I had a WD3000 something up until last year and then put it in a system I built for someone else. The VR was a good drive in 2008, but is too slow for a boot drive nowadays and is too small for data storage.

 

[Chewy509]

Socket 1366

Re: Future on consumer grade single socket 1366.

That's typical of Intel. Let's change the path again after 12mths. <end sarcasm>

I'm starting to get itchy feet myself, and am keeping an eye on high-end i7 stuff to replacing my aging dual-Opteron system (which is now 5yrs old, but still holds up well for the tasks I use it for, but my main concern is component failure now).

I was looking at Xeon 3500-series (mainly for ECC support since 12GB of RAM would be installed) on socket1366, but looking through the local distributors, I only see the Xeon 3520 being listed, otherwise it's 3400-series (socket 1156), where the 3400's are somewhat cheaper for the same clockspeed.

Socket 1366 boards that support Xeon 3500 and RegECC that are workstation orientated are few and few between. (Intel has 1, Tyan has nothing, Supermicro has 1, Gigabyte has 1 and Asus has 1). ** While socket 1156 boards for Xeon are coming out quite fast, but look to be relegated to entry-level servers (due to PCIe slotsetup) and not workstations.

And most people are staying that the triple channel setup offers very little over a dual channel setup, and the benchmarks tend to agree...

For future proofing, even I would only consider socket 1156... (or go with AMD and AM3 based CPUs).

For the record, I am pricing an i7-8xx w/8GB RAM on a P55 board, 64GB SSD + 1TB HDD + BR/DVD combo to be a replacement, but due to recent revelations may not be financially viable and will opt for a netbook instead...


** In reference to support, I mean that the board is designed to run a Xeon and give you complete options with regards to ECC, while many socket 1366 desktop boards will take a 3500-series Xeon, ECC support is minimal or completely missing.

 

[ddrueding]

ECC is massively overrated even for non-life-threatening server stuff, much less workstations. I run 12GB in all my machines. While OC'ing is limited, there are no issues. Running off to server hardware is the path to madness (and bankruptcy).

 

[LunarMist]

LGA 1156 seems like a step backwards since the boards only have 4 memory slots.

 

[ddrueding]

LGA 1156 seems like a step backwards since the boards only have 4 memory slots.

Indeed. This seems to be overlooked quite often. Sure, the third memory channel doesn't get you much performance in most stuff, but those extra slots sure are handy.

 

[Mercutio]

Gigabyte has an 1156 board with 6 DIMM slots. I sold a system on one a couple weeks ago.

 

[Chewy509]

Upcoming 3450-chipset, coupled with a 3400-series Xeon will give you 6 slots.

Problem being is that i5/i7 is limited to 2 banks, while Xeon is limited to 3 banks. (In theory a Xeon 3500 or 5500 can drive up to 9 slots at DDR3-800).

i7-860 @ 2.8GHz, 8MB L2 Cache - $280
Xeon 3460 @ 2.80GHz, 8MB L2 Cache - $350

** Price off Newegg.

 

[ddrueding]

So long as you stick to the slower clocks, the Xeons won't kill you. Only Xeons make the price ramp of i7s look sane.

 

[Chewy509]

Gigabyte has an 1156 board with 6 DIMM slots. I sold a system on one a couple weeks ago.

One of these by any chance?
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Networking/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3328

I thought with the 3420, you are limited to 8x PCIe slots off the CPUs PCIe controller? Thereby limited gfx card performance.

** The upcoming 3450 chipset allows 16x PCIe slots off the CPUs PICe controller.

3400 Datasheet - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/prodbrief/322569.pdf
3450 Datasheet - http://download.intel.com/products/workstation/323136.pdf

 

[LunarMist]

Gigabyte has an 1156 board with 6 DIMM slots. I sold a system on one a couple weeks ago.

I assume it is this one. How are dual memory channels supporting 16GB spread out over 6 slots? The 6-slot X58 systems support 24GB.

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah. The UD6. I only put 8GB in it though.

 

[Santilli]

When do you ever use 12 gig of RAM? Ram disk for page file? Scratch disk for Photoshop?????

How much ram does 7 use?

 

[ddrueding]

Photoshop, and other image processing programs. Mainly just for not having to worry about open applications, ever. 7 is stable enough that I reboot only for updates and hardware changes. At the moment I have Photoshop (half-dozen images), Google Earth, Pandora (their local app), Light-O-Rama, A bunch of Office 2007 stuff, Steam (downloading), I left my Portal game open from earlier, AnyDVD HD is ripping some stuff, and of course, a small army of Firefox windows and tabs. In total, about 8GB of stuff in RAM at the moment.

 

[Pradeep]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di..._Core_Microprocessors_Available_for_Sale.html

48 cores on four sockets?

Socket G34 it is. I for one welcome our new overlords. I can settle for 24 cores on two sockets, those four socket boards can get expensive.

 

[Santilli]

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
Lite-On SATA BR Burner
BFG Tech GTX 295
6x 2GB OCZ 12800 DDR3
Thermaltake Tower-style CPU coole
Plus one

 

[Handruin]

I ordered the Thermalright MUX-120. it's supposed to be one of the quietest in relation to how well it cools. It's not the absolute best at cooling, but quiet was important. It'll still be a lot better than the stock Intel cooler in both regards.

It'll be here some time next week via slow ass fedex. I ordered it on the 15th and should hopefully be here by the 24th. Amazon had the best price, but it was through one of those resellers. They shipped it quick, but for whatever reason, it's going the slowest fedex possible...ugh.

 

[Santilli]

If I try and overclock this more, what settings should I try?

 

[Santilli]

Sam:
Do you notice much difference between 3.11 ghz, and 3.8 ghz?

 

[Mercutio]

Between 3.33 and 3.8, no. Unless I'm transcoding movies from disc to MP4 or MKV. Which I do a lot. Mostly what I notice is that those two machine are WAY faster than the boxes they replaced.

 

[Bozo]

Maybe you need one of these.

 

[Santilli]

The Extreme edition processors have one very endearing characteristic:
They are able to be overclocked, without having to alter other bios settings.

Is that feature worth a bunch more money?

Don't know. It would mean another grand for a cpu, or 700 if I can find one used, and, another 400 dollars for a water cooling setup.

Then I would have a 4.2-4.5 ghz processor, that I probably would never stress at all, though I do wonder about that.

That's a lot of money for no reason other then to see the Intel Core reporter go up to 4.5 ghz...

 

[Handruin]

Maximum PC review of Gulftown.

 

[Santilli]

Maybe you need one of these.

As you can see, it's cheaper to buy the next fastest cpu and a normal cooler. On the other hand, even that one may not get over 4 ghz.

There is something to be said for a 25% processor boost, and, overclocking. Intel seems to be stuck at 2.8-3.2 ghz, and, I kind of wonder why that is?

 

[Santilli]

Maximum PC review of Gulftown.

Just got done looking at the benchmarks. Looks like a wash, and I don't really think any human could tell the difference...