Best CPU/Mobo Crunchin' Thread - AMD vs Intel Wars, etc.

[DrPop]

Let's start an on-going thread to have on hand where anyone upgrading can come and leaf through the pages of posts we will eventually have regarding best CPU / mobo platforms. Afterall, we all know the big points are in the GPUs these days - but everyone needs a stable platform and a good solid rig or two or three to house those GPUs...

From a max CPU points perspective...within a "certain budget"...not cheap, let's say $1K, so we could build the final system for ~ $1500 to $2K give or take.

Today we're comparing a 16 core (2 CPU) 8 Core Opteron "Magny-Cours" rig with a single 4 core Sandy Bridge CPU rig and the fastest single CPU AMD rig, the 6 core 1100T.

Dual AMD rig:
(2) AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours 2.0GHz @ $280 each for $560
(1) SUS KGPE-D16 Dual Socket G34 AMD Dual 8/12 Core @ $400.
Total: $960
GFLOPS: 95.65*
Ratio is $10.03 / GFLOP

Intel rig:
(1) Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz @ $315
(1) ASRock P67 EXTREME6 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 @ $210
Total: $525
GFLOPS: 83.3
Ratio: $6.30 / GFLOP
Initial savings of $435 or ~45% with the Intel rig.

Single AMD rig:
(1) AMD PhenomII X6 3.2GHz CPU @ $200
(1) ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 AMD 890FX @$150
Total: $350
GFLOPS: 57.39
Ratio: $6.09 / GFLOP
Initial savings of $610 or ~64% with single AMD rig.

*I could not find an accurate GFLOPS rating for Opteron 6128 CPU. To arrive at this, I took an 1100T (6 core @3.2GHz) rating of 57.39. divided by 6 = 9.565 (@3.2GHz). Knock it down to 2.0GHz this = 5.978 GFLOPS per core. Multiply by 16 cores = 95.65.

DrPop's Thoughts:
Intel has improved the i7 architecture to such an extent that it literally owns the high end with this second generation. When I built my AMD X6 1100T rig, I realized a ratio of $6.09 / GFLOP, considerably less than the 1st Gen i7 platform I was comparing against (approx. $9 / GFLOP at the time).
Now, the Sandy Bridge platform changes the game dramatically. While 20% cheaper in the initial outlay, my rig in no way compares with the performance of a Sandy Bridge i72600K rig. I get 31% less performance while only saving 20% on initial cash outlay.
Of course, the team got the benefit of the last 3 to 4 months worth of points from it, so no real complaints.

Conclusion: For AMD, Bulldozer cannot come fast enough. Intel is the shizzle right now. Hope this little exercise was of some value to anyone considering an upgrade.