Title: Which processor? Post by: bib on June 29, 2009, 09:38:10 PM Hi there
I plan to buy a new PC. I'm not especially a gamer, but I need CPU speed to calculate...guess what? :angel1: What would you advise: at the same speed, is a quad core twice as fast as a dual core? I mostly use Ultrafractal. Thanks in advance! bib Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: cKleinhuis on June 29, 2009, 10:00:20 PM ulrafractal5 is working quite well with multiprocessor, so 4x2.2 could be better than 2x3.0 :police: :police:
Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: David Makin on June 29, 2009, 11:24:52 PM Quadcore will almost certainly be twice as fast as the equivalent Dualcore.
If you can possibly stretch to it then I'd recommend Dual Quadcore Nehalims :) They're considerably faster than the equivalent older quadcore Xeons MHz for MHz and the older Quadcore Xeons are blazingly fast ! See: http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm (http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm) Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: bib on June 30, 2009, 09:47:09 AM Many thanks for the link : that is very interesting. I think I will take a Quad Q6600 that shows the better speed/price ratio regarding my needs and budget.
Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: lycium on June 30, 2009, 11:37:48 AM q6600s aren't available anymore, much faster (and less expensive) models have replaced it. right now the best "bang per buck" processor is either a phenom 2 or i7, depending on how much you want to spend. i'd say the i7 920 is an absolute bargain for the incredible amount of processing power you get O0
ps. dave: 6gb of memory with a 32bit operating system?! even with less than 4gb, running a 32bit os in 2009... what's going on mate :P Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: bib on June 30, 2009, 11:46:03 AM Maybe the Q6600 is not available as a part, but there are still cheap PCs with Q6600 on the market.
My budget is 600€ for a quad core with 4GB RAM, 640GB HD and a 22" screen, and Vista: should I absolutely gear towards 64-bit? Knowing that I will use the machine for almost nothing else than, say, 4 hours of Ultrafractal per week :evil1: I think PCs with the i7 are in average 150€ more expensive. Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: David Makin on June 30, 2009, 12:04:37 PM ps. dave: 6gb of memory with a 32bit operating system?! even with less than 4gb, running a 32bit os in 2009... what's going on mate :P Errmmm - I may be a programmer but I work with a very small software company and we only write what we want to write - we don't write software to order for publishing houses. Consequently we get paid nothing for development and are 100% reliant on the sales of our software - unfortunately that's not been making a whole lot of money recently :( So the problem is lack of capital !! (I haven't earned enough to even owe any tax for 3 years). I am saving for a Mac Pro (with dual quadcore I7s) - but I'm still around £2000 short (and I don't believe in buying on credit). Oh - we only have Vista 32-bit on the MacPro at work because we have a considerable amount of software for Windows that simply doesn't work properly with the Microsoft 64-bit OS (they *ought* to work in 32-bit compatibility mode but don't). The machine is normally used as a Mac system i.e. full 64-bit OS. I invite any iPhone/iTouch users reading this to buy our VNC client software "VNC Pocket Office" from the Apple App. Store - then you can use your favourite Windows or Mac fractal software anywhere from your iPhone/iTouch ;) (Well OK *any* Windows or Mac software - but who cares about the other stuff ?) Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: David Makin on June 30, 2009, 04:43:50 PM Maybe the Q6600 is not available as a part, but there are still cheap PCs with Q6600 on the market. My budget is 600€ for a quad core with 4GB RAM, 640GB HD and a 22" screen, and Vista: should I absolutely gear towards 64-bit? Knowing that I will use the machine for almost nothing else than, say, 4 hours of Ultrafractal per week :evil1: I think PCs with the i7 are in average 150€ more expensive. From the point of view of UF 64-bit does not currently provide any real benefit - at the moment it doesn't even allow more memory use within UF, and if you check those timings you'll see that there's basically no difference between 32-bit or 64-bit systems (all other things being equal). Having said that you could bear in mind that at some point there *will* be some fractal program or other that takes full advantage of 64-bit. Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: David Makin on June 30, 2009, 07:49:43 PM Maybe the Q6600 is not available as a part, but there are still cheap PCs with Q6600 on the market. My budget is 600€ for a quad core with 4GB RAM, 640GB HD and a 22" screen, and Vista: should I absolutely gear towards 64-bit? Knowing that I will use the machine for almost nothing else than, say, 4 hours of Ultrafractal per week :evil1: I think PCs with the i7 are in average 150€ more expensive. From the point of view of UF 64-bit does not currently provide any real benefit - at the moment it doesn't even allow more memory use within UF, and if you check those timings you'll see that there's basically no difference between 32-bit or 64-bit systems (all other things being equal). Having said that you could bear in mind that at some point there *will* be some fractal program or other that takes full advantage of 64-bit. Just to clarify by 64-bit here I'm talking about the OS not the motherboard/hardware - I'd definitely go for the 64-bit hardware. Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: Nahee_Enterprises on July 03, 2009, 01:30:43 AM Quadcore will almost certainly be twice as fast as the equivalent Dualcore. ......the older Quadcore Xeons are blazingly fast ! See: http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm (http://www.shadoworld.co.uk/UF5/Benchmark/Benchmark%20results.htm) My machine (the Intel Xeon X5482 3.2GHz with dual Quad-Cores [8 processors] and 16-GB, DDR2 800MHz) was top of that list for awhile, until Chris got that i7. Now I have to settle for the number 2 position. :( But for an "older Quadcore Xeon", it still out runs most machines that the average user has. :evil1: Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: bib on July 05, 2009, 08:48:38 AM I finally ordered a PC with the i7 920 :):)
Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: bib on July 10, 2009, 06:05:54 PM Intel i7 920 @ 2.66Ghz
4GB RAM Vista Home 64 bit test 1 : 12.58 test 2 : 38.69 I am very very pleased by this machine I bought 780€ with a 23" 2048*1152 O0 :angel1: Title: Re: Which processor? Post by: cKleinhuis on July 10, 2009, 08:32:26 PM congrats, i have a simmilar machine with a 1gb grafics card :D |