overclocked core i7 good for rendering?

[danieljhatton]

I was think of purchasing some new kit to add to my aging E5000 processor setup.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with overclocking and rendering. Would this system be a stable one? They are Core i7 kits from Overclockers which contain just the parts you need and not a whole system. Very tempting.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=BU-003-OB

watercooled version.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...39&subcat=1333

These seem like really good deals and it's not too steep in terms of price for investment. Crazy to think 3Ghz versions of my E5000 processors are still nearing the €1000 mark! Crazy. I would have to find out whether they build versions with 8Gb - 12Gb of ram, possibly not. Hope so...

Would continuously rendering with overclocked processors shorten their life? It's not something I have any experience with, I am not sure if rendering is a good thing as these are primarily sold as gaming. These core i7s do get very good vray benchmarks.

http://www.3dspeedmachine.com/?page=3&scene=41 - You can see the difference to my current system at the moment, mine is at the bottom DHFrame. Would be good if a few of you could take a look at this particular benchmark. Even better if some of you are overclocking.

I was wondering if anyone could do a quick benchmark with the Mac Pro as I am still thinking of going there.

Thanks peeps.

[danieljhatton]

http://www.techspot.com/articles-inf.../Memory_03.png

[peterguthrie]

I got all the parts for my i7 920 system from overclockers.co.uk. Good service and price, and nice to deal with real people for a change (as opposed to ebuyer.com). I still use my mac pro as my main machine but the extra memory bandwidth on the 920 means on large scenes it is actually quicker!

Go for a 920 system, in fact, get 2

(Can look out the list of parts I went for if you are interested. I think I originally bought an asus mobo and then swapped it for gigabyte due to oc'ing problems)

[werticus]

I wouldn't bother with water cooling. Its too much effort for not a hell of a lot of gain.

with get decent air cooling and you should get just under 4ghz for stable 24/7 rendering.

I had mine at 3.9ghz but ended up back down at 3.8 for total 100% stable renderings.

The i7 is fantastic! twice as fast as a q6600 which is probably twice as fast as your e5000

[jacksc02]

(Can look out the list of parts I went for if you are interested. I think I originally bought an asus mobo and then swapped it for gigabyte due to oc'ing problems)

I would be interested in that list peter, im in need of a few render nodes

[peterguthrie]

-Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail
-Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
-Corsair 6GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X6G1600C9) (x2)
-Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
-Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366)

and I already had a case, dvd and some crappy graphics card.

this was 6 months ago though so there may be better options. Its all worked perfectly since at 3.4ghz (I'm a bit nervous about going higher than that!)

Maybe worth getting a decent graphics card if vrayRT is going to be upgraded at some point??

[glyph]

there's several other places you could look at and get a complete machine built to your spec for not much more..
these guys were helpful on phone though I haven't placed an order with them
http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/comp...ome_PC_I7.html

novatech do bundles as well

[danieljhatton]

Thanks a mill guys. I got this reply from Overclockers in regards to buying the kits with more memory.

Dear Daniel,

Unfortunately not, we can do the bundles with more RAM, however you'd risk having no overclock on the bundle - so there's really no point in going for it, truth be told. It's a choice between the RAM or the overclocked CPU. I hope this helps you, and thanks for the web note.

Regards,

James Salmon

---

I think I will definatly go for a similar setup to your's Peter but with around 12Gb of ram, along with increasing my existing to 12 Gb also. But, since I have had the reply I am wondering, can you overclock these core i7's using 12Gb onboard?

[peterguthrie]

I do have 12gb (note x2 at end of ram line) and have had it at 3.4ghz with no problems.

I s'pose the main thing is to get really good ram and dont skimp on the psu either and you'll be giving yourself the best chance.

[danieljhatton]

I do have 12gb (note x2 at end of ram line) and have had it at 3.4ghz with no problems.

I s'pose the main thing is to get really good ram and dont skimp on the psu either and you'll be giving yourself the best chance.

Yeah, I just noticed. lol. Those Core i7s are £200. Its a great price. Two of them are now very appealing. Time to get the old PC cases out....

[danieljhatton]

This is interesting. http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/nvidia/performanceday2

[glyph]

can anyone explain how having more ram stops overclocking?

that is bs imho

[danieljhatton]

can anyone explain how having more ram stops overclocking?

that is bs imho

It does'nt. If you read through you will see it was a question. Question being, does it stop overclocking?

As Peter said he has 12Gb of ram and he is overclocking.

This is a nice setup from scan. I have used a couple of your bits Peter.


- Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £184.17 x1 LN27163
- Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £164.17 x1 LN25261
- Corsair 6GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X6G1600C9) (x2) £380.24 x2 LN26793
- Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU £78.00 x1 LN20298
- Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £45.69 x1 LN25671
- TJ07 Temjin ATX Case Black £193.19 x1 LN12817
- XFX GTX 275 896Mb £154.27 x1 LN27043
- HD 160Gb Western Digital 7200rpm £25.27 x1 LN18052
- Windows7 £92.07 x1 LN29163
- DVDR Sony AD £13.69 x1 LN28905

All before VAT

Total £1330.77
€1480.66

[danieljhatton]

Sweet. These will go in an i7 mainboard next year. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardwar...photographed/1

[danieljhatton]

Ok last post before everyone starts getting bored.

Which is the fastest renderer here?

I presume it is the Xeon. There is about 400 in the difference. The advantage to the Xeon is it has more space for ram. Uses only 3 slots for 12 Gb instead of 6 and has some left over for later. Its a bit cheaper to run in terms of lekkie bills. I need to have a sift around for rendering benchmarks unless someone has some for me.

Thanks for all your help guys!

Core 7i

CPU Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £184.17 x1 LN27163
MB Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £164.17 x1 LN25261
MEM 12GB (6x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24 £190.12 x1 LN26793
PSU Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU £78.00 x1 LN20298
CPUCOOL Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £45.69 x1 LN25671
CASE TJ07 Temjin ATX Case Black £193.19 x1 LN12817
GPU XFX GTX 275 896Mb £154.27 x1 LN27043
HD 160Gb Western Digital 7200rpm £25.27 x1 LN18052
OS Windows 7 £92.07 x1 LN29163
DVDRW Sony AD £13.69 x1 LN28905

£1140
€1269.33

Xeon

CPU BX80602E5520 - Intel Xeon E5520, S1366, Gainestown, 2.26 GHz, 5.86GT/s QPI, 8MB Cache £487.54 x2 LN27121
MB Tyan S7002AG2NR, Intel 5520, S1366 x2, PCI-E (x16), Triple DDR3 1333MHz, SATA 3Gbps £194.19 x1 LN27139
MEM 4GB Supermicro DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333MHz) Memory, 240 Pin, ECC, Registered, Heat Spreader £269.97 x3 LN27425
PSU Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU £78.00 x1 LN20298
CPUCOOL Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £45.69 x1 LN25671
CASE TJ07 Temjin ATX Case Black £193.19 x1 LN12817
GPU XFX GTX 275 896Mb £154.27 x1 LN27043
HD 160Gb Western Digital 7200rpm £25.27 x1 LN18052
OS Windows 7 £92.07 x1 LN29163
DVDRW Sony AD £13.69 x1 LN28905

£1553.88
€1738.70