i7 Processors..any good ?

[stevesideas]

Very tempted to overclock my system..just dont want to blow it up...

[duke2]

I have always had my passes set to 12. My other render nodes still have hyperthreading on which splits each core into 2 threads.

12? You have... 6 cores?

[stevesideas]

No I have 4 cores...but to be honest I didnt know what the passes option did anyway so I just set it above what I had so it would use every possible thread/core available.

[werticus]

so that explains the speed difference, 4 goes into 12, a nice round 3 times but 8 goes into 12 only 1.5 times which you cant have efficiently, So you're wasting 50% cpu there!

Set it to 8.

[werticus]

Very tempted to overclock my system..just dont want to blow it up...

It will just hang if its pushed too far. Naturally with insufficient cooling and constantly higher temps associated with increasing voltage to the cpu, you will reduce its life.

I have heavily over clocked machines running for 2 yrs now without a hitch, and they are nearly paper weights in terms of speed anyway.

[beestee]

For those interested:

Info regarding new Lynnfield i7s

Also some (new to me) news about the upgrade path for those of us running (or considering) Bloomfields on the X58 LGA-1366 socket MBs:

Say hello to Core i9
Intel's upcoming flagship client processor, codenamed Gulftown will get the higher Core i9 marker. This 6-core chip will have every performance enhancing feature in the book available, including a total thread count of 12, and a 50% increase in L3 cache over Bloomfield, at 12 MB. It will retain compatibility with the existing LGA-1366 socket, and X58 chipset, and will be available in Q1 2010.

Source: TechPowerUp

[stevesideas]

ok...so I have hyperthreading off on my main comp and on on my render nodes...so should I should still set it to 8 ?

Plus, when I look at performance on the cpu readout, it says 100% on every thread..so am I really wasting that amount of cpu power ?

[stevesideas]

For those interested:

Info regarding new Lynnfield i7s

Also some (new to me) news about the upgrade path for those of us running (or considering) Bloomfields on the X58 LGA-1366 socket MBs:

Say hello to Core i9
Intel's upcoming flagship client processor, codenamed Gulftown will get the higher Core i9 marker. This 6-core chip will have every performance enhancing feature in the book available, including a total thread count of 12, and a 50% increase in L3 cache over Bloomfield, at 12 MB. It will retain compatibility with the existing LGA-1366 socket, and X58 chipset, and will be available in Q1 2010.

Source: TechPowerUp

Sounds VERY nice...and VERY expensive !

[werticus]

ok...so I have hyperthreading off on my main comp and on on my render nodes...so should I should still set it to 8 ?

Plus, when I look at performance on the cpu readout, it says 100% on every thread..so am I really wasting that amount of cpu power ?

You should have it set to 8 and you should have hyperthreading on. My tests have shown 20% speed improvement in a typical scene vs hyperthreading off, with the latest vray.

Do your own tests with the correct number of threads (eight) and you will see.

[pskdude]

New PC

Hello all, Quick question. I currently have dual 5345's however from benchmarks i feel like the 920 would be a slight upgrade oc them that is. Now i have around 1500 to spend and i was wondering if i should be waiting till this first quarter for any new processors. Any feedback would be appreciated i need to upgrade soon.

Thanks,
rg

[stevesideas]

I'd probably keep an eye out for the new processors coming out and the price drops on the 920's...then just buy a 920 or 2 and overclock it...you'll still have a faster cpu than the new ones..i would have thought.

[pskdude]

cool

Great thanks for the advice, can anyone recommend a video card. I dont think i can spend the money on a quaddro right now ill swap it from another system but still need something to replace. Any advice? There should be a technology thread or something hehe. =) sorry been out of the pc scene for a bit and just lately started catching up.

[Mikokariadis]

Last time we upgraded video cards we went with the nvidia 260 models, entry level stuff that does it all.

[beestee]

I also have a 260 series card, but it is an OC version and has a tendency to overheat and crap out at default settings...make sure you check reviews on the card you are looking at, whatever it happens to be.

For 1500, you could spend about half of it on this case and make everyone jealous!

[pskdude]

Lol

yea i saw that case the other day, it looks nice i dont think it would be to practical. Some heatsinks dont fit the casing but nevertheless it looks nice. Almost like i just wanna put it up on my desk without anythingin it. hahah