Time For A New Computer

[Jaz]

quote:

---

I don't intent to do any overclocking.

---

You should reconsider overclocking. With today's proccessors if you are not overclocked you are wasting speed that you ALREADY PAID FOR. In the old days this was not the case so much, but things have changed.

[bogusmill]

quote:

---

Is the CATIA your running a 32 bit application or 64 bit? If it's 32 bit are you saying a 32 bit application can really benefit from the extra RAM that 64 bit Vista provides?

---

I have a dual boot setup. 32 bit has:

XP Pro SP3

MCX3

Catia R18 SP4

 

64 bit has:

Vista Ultimate SP1 x64

Catia R18 SP6 x64

MCX3

Vista Ultimate x64 can use up to 128 Gb of ram, XP 32 bit can use only 3.2Gb RAM so Vista can use all 8Gb of RAM or you can make a 5.3Gb RAM drive out of unused RAM when running in XP.

quote:

---

This board got horrible reviews when I Googled it. What do you like about it?

---

Owners reviews at Newegg.com give it 5 eggs and I havent seen a bad review on it yet. All have been like this one.

 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardw...ard-review.html

 

If you've not overclocked before this board might be a bit overboard but on auto it will give you about 1Gb overclock.

[NeilJ]

quote:

---

You should reconsider overclocking. With today's proccessors if you are not overclocked you are wasting speed that you ALREADY PAID FOR. In the old days this was not the case so much, but things have changed.

---

Jaz, bogusmill: If I decide to overclock don't you think I might as well get the Asus Rampage Formula and DDR 3?

[Jaz]

quote:

---

If I decide to overclock don't you think I might as well get the Asus Rampage Formula and DDR 3?

---

Either MoBo would be a little overkill and should do you great. Personally I would get the Rampage (if I could slip it past the wife) on the assumption that it might stand up to overclocking better and take better advantage of overclocked components.

[NeilJ]

This isn't getting any easier. New Intel chips are due in the middle of November.

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/processors/?p=203

 

The 3.2 GHz Core i7-965XE is $999 and the 2.93GHz Core i7-940 is $562.

 

Is the Nehalem processor going to have any significant advantages over a Core2Quad Q9550 BX 2.83 GHZ @ 1333 with 12MB Cache?

 

What size cache does the 3.2 GHz Core i7-965XE or the 2.93GHz Core i7-940 have?

 

Making the decision to buy the Dell 2408 monitor was a snap compared to this. It should be here Monday or Tuesday.

[bogusmill]

quote:

---

bogusmill: If I decide to overclock don't you think I might as well get the Asus Rampage Formula and DDR 3?

---

NO. Formula is a DDR2 board, Extreme is a DDR3 board.

 

Nehalem has a smaller cache and no FSB so how do you overclock it? It will be april before anything other than the $1200 version is available. If your make of cash and have time to wait Nehalem's for you. If you need something now...

[Bruce Kanzelmeyer]

I'm just today putting my new computer into service. I have an ASUS Rampage extreme with 2 gigs of DDR3 ram. I would recommend spending the extra $200 for the Q9650. At first I tried the Q9550 and the best stable overclock I could get was 3.5 GHz producing Mastercam benchmark values in the 4 min, 20 sec range. With the Q9650 I am stable at 4.2 GHz and getting consistent MCX scores in the 3 min, 40 sec range. Of course I am new to overclocking and perhaps there is more to be done here. I have Patriot PC20000 memory and I'm not sure I'm getting the most out of it, but I have to get my computer on line and perhaps fool around with it a little later. These overclock effects are using FSB of 470 and using auto values for everything else, except I had to bump up the voltage on both the processor and RAM. When running Prime95 my core temps are in the upper 60's, lower 70's C but when running MCX it is in the 40's and low 50's which I believe is acceptable.

[NeilJ]

Bogusmill, why would having double the bandwidth of a 1600 FSB be a bad thing?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_QuickPath_Interconnect

 

"The initial Nehalem implementation uses a 20-bit wide 25.6 GB/s link (as reported in the Intel Nehalem Speech on IDF). This 25.6 GB/s link provides exactly double the theoretical bandwidth of Intel's 1600 MHz FSB used in the X48 chipset."

 

quote:

---

It will be april before anything other than the $1200 version is available

---

The way I read it the $562 2.93GHz Core i7-940 will be available Nov 17th.

 

I posted a question on Tom's Hardware Forum and got this response about Nehalem CPU's:

 

"64mb level 1 cache

 

256kb level 2 cache per core...unshared

 

8mb level 3 cache shared

 

clock for clock i7 is showing large gains verses yorkfield proccesors.

 

2.93 seems to out perform or stay even wt q9770.

or to put it simply a $500 to $600 Nehalem should out perform a $1400 to $1600 penryn."

[NeilJ]

quote:

---

I would recommend spending the extra $200 for the Q9650.

---

Bruce, I'm going to wait until Nov 17th and see what happens. If I do go with the older architecture I will take your advice and go with the Q9650.

[bogusmill]

quote:

---

The way I read it the $562 2.93GHz Core i7-940 will be available Nov 17th.

---

That may infact happen. However in past CPU launches they have put only the top dollar versions in the supply chain for the gotta have it now/first crowd then 2-4 months later start to release the slower variants.

 

quote:

---

"64mb level 1 cache

 

256kb level 2 cache per core...unshared

 

8mb level 3 cache shared

---

Something is wrong with those numbers. I think you mean 64kb of L1 cache. Q9650 and my Zeon have 12Mb of L2 vs. Nehalem 256kb.

 

My point is we know how to make current parts run well in MCX2/3. Besides bugs and problems board makers have at the begining of any new platform, Nehalem is an unkown right now as well as the X58 chipset it runs on and the smaller L2 makes me nervous about that unknown.

[NeilJ]

quote:

---

That may infact happen. However in past CPU launches they have put only the top dollar versions in the supply chain for the gotta have it now/first crowd then 2-4 months later start to release the slower variants.

---

Be interesting to see if this does indeed happen. I understand your perspective now.