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 :D 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. :pX_X
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.

[Mike029]

Great Job!! We should do something like this for the GPU's as well and sticky them both.

[-GER-]

Great info there. I was expecting that intel would have a good cpu but I thought it would cost quite a bit more than it does.

[DrPop]

Thanks to JPM for some mobo suggestions. I didn't know anything about Sandy Bridge mobos before I started this thread. After some research, best bang for the buck would probably be this ASRock P67 EXTREME6 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 at $209 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157231).

I have edited this into the original post - the $/GFLOP drops to nearly the AMD x6 level! Bring on the Sandy Bridge builds, folks...or hold out for a Bulldozer. Hopefully AMD can keep up with this stuff so we at least have a little competition! Intel is doing great on the price of the Sandy Bridge vs the 1st Gen i7 CPUs! ;)

EDIT: Everyone cool with making this a sticky? We sort of have a GPU one started as well, thanks to Dan for that.

[-GER-]

Great Job!! We should do something like this for the GPU's as well and sticky them both.

+1

We(or at least me :rolleyes: ) could use cpu/mb thread. Gpu thread. Case PS thread. Maybe a cooling thread. All stickied. When upgrading there are all kinds of mistakes to be made, these kinds of threads would help the members and the team.

[joker]

I want a dishwasher thread. >:)

[JerWA]

The real reason the i7 2600k wins is not the stock performance. As I mentioned in another thread, it is the first CPU ever tested by most sites that actually increases in computing power faster than it does in power consumption. What that means is that you can very easily overclock one to 4.5 GHz on air cooling (4GHz or more on the STOCK cooler even) and while your total power consumption does go up, it goes up slower than the rate at which the processing power is. In other words, it's MORE EFFICIENT overclocked!

You no longer have to decide if you want the best performance or the best dollar/cpu cycle. They're one in the same now.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-overclocking-efficiency,2850.html

Practically, though, you should be able to reach anywhere between ~4.5 and roughly 5 GHz on air cooling with all Core K-series processors based on the 32 nm Sandy Bridge architecture.

While all previous processor generations caused an increase in power consumption that was always more substantial than the added performance (especially at higher, more difficultly-achieved frequencies), Sandy Bridge is the first processor architecture where clock speed and power consumption scale almost linearly.

I sincerely wish I had the GFLOPs of the CPU running at 4.5 GHz.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/3

These chips overclock very well. Both my Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K hit ~4.4GHz, fully stable, using the stock low-profile cooler.

[Dandasarge]

I'll wright a more formal argument when I make a conclusion. But one thing that I don't see brought up is that you can unlock the 6128 Magny-Cours to 12 cores. Not all ways and not 100% but It is a factor, Its is a gamble you could get 1 extra core or 2 or 3 or 4. I also think the team needs to find ways to keep the heat down. If you can control your heat you can run 4 v cards.

[Beerdrinker]

I'll wright a more formal argument when I make a conclusion. But one thing that I don't see brought up is that you can unlock the 6128 Magny-Cours to 12 cores. Not all ways and not 100% but It is a factor, Its is a gamble you could get 1 extra core or 2 or 3 or 4. I also think the team needs to find ways to keep the heat down. If you can control your heat you can run 4 v cards.

To keep the heat down, you could always make a "old-school" airduct....That can be made real cheap.

[JerWA]

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Opteron+6128

According to that test (whatever PassMark is), the 980X beats the 6128 down. And the 2600K is equal to, and often better than the 980X.

Are there any overclocking chipsets for the G34 socket? I'm also not seeing much talk of unlocking cores with any enthusiasm, even on the sites dedicated to such silliness.

So you'd need two, at insane prices, to almost beat a mid range desktop proc that runs so cool and on so little power than the stock cooler will do 4 GHz, any tower cooler will do 4.5GHz, and top end air, entry water will do almost 5 GHz.

And let's not forget that the Xeon (server) family equivalents are now available as well, and are just as cheap (cheaper than the chips they replaced), run just as cool/effeciently, and are just as powerful. Oh, and they go up to 10 cores now too. But that's not budget, you're talking about $1,600+ CPUs on both sides now.

You can run 4 video cards on just about any socket, including 1155. The 4x 16 1155 motherboards (P67) start about where the G34 boards start, price-wise. I don't even look for that any more, knowing I'll never actually run 4 GPUs in a system like that. 2 is plenty for me, I've yet to run out of PCIe slots.

Besides, how can you even consider it a "budget" system if you're going to stuff 4 GPUs in it? hehe

[DrPop]

True; even in a HAF case you would run into heat issues trying to do more than 3 of the big dog GPUs, I think.