Not sure if I should get Intel CPU or FX 8150 for video encoding (restoration)

[holygamer]

I'm doing video restoration and the scripts I use need a fast CPU otherwise they would take over 24 hours to encode a 2 hour video. I overclocked an FX 8120 to 3.7 Ghz and I got an 11 FPS encoding speed. It's not quite fast enough for me and it was noisy as hell.

I've looked at the FX 8150 which has 8 cores and it seems that you can overclock this to 4.8 Ghz quite easily however I've read that it uses a lot a more power than a similar Intel CPU and that it's more noisy.

So what would be best, an FX 8150 or an Intel CPU? Also if you could point to some tests that would help as well, thanks.

I'm looking to spend £250 or less.

[Terbinator]

Well an FX-8150 is just an 8120 with a faster base speed. If the FX-8120 isn't cutting the mustard you're best jumping ship.

Is the £250 for the CPU alone as going Intel will require a board too? If not, then you could look at getting a i7 3770K, a Xeon 1230-V2 or an i7 3820. I imagine all of these will be faster than the Fx-8120 and the first and last chips can be overclcoked. The Xeon is the cheapest and offers the same performance (without overclocking) as the i7 3770K/i7 3820.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is your total budget the same as in this earlier thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-core-cpu.html

These are the two builds I suggested:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...ml#post2627077

Also,the FX8350 will be out next month. I would be looking at the Xeon E3 1230 V2 and the FX8350 or FX8320 as these should be under £200.

Well an FX-8150 is just an 8120 with a faster base speed. If the FX-8120 isn't cutting the mustard you're best jumping ship.

Is the £250 for the CPU alone as going Intel will require a board too? If not, then you could look at getting a i7 3770K, a Xeon 1230-V2 or an i7 3820. I imagine all of these will be faster than the Fx-8120 and the first and last chips can be overclcoked. The Xeon is the cheapest and offers the same performance (without overclocking) as the i7 3770K/i7 3820.

He was using a very low end motherboard around £30 to £35 so it was quite possible the CPU was throttling. Also,most encoding applications can use 8 threads:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...ded-power.html

The AMD CPUs are not far behind SB Core i7 CPUs for such tasks.

Edit!!

This is the motherboard:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3967#ov

The HTT would not have run at full speed and he was only using 4GB of DDR3 too,which might not be enough for very large files.

[Terbinator]

I can only go off the information he's given

Edit: That board is dreadful.

[scaryjim]

Yup, hexus handbrake charts suggest the best option for video encoding is an i7 2600k / i7 3770k @ 4.5GHz or higher. The Xeon is a good cheap option, but since you're obviously happy overclocking I'd recommend an i7 k-series and a good cooler. Of course, then you'd have to replace your motherboard which would be a pain.

On an AM3+ board, to get similar performance to an overclocked i7 you need an FX81x0 or a Phenom II X6 clocked to over 4.5GHz. What cooler were you overclocking your 8120 on? You might find you can push it much faster with lower temperatures and less noise if you upgrade your cooling solution, and that would cost a lot less than £250. Get it up to over 4GHz and you'll struggle to buy a significantly faster option. Also, what are the rest of your system specs? Are you sure the bottleneck is in your CPU, and not elsewhere?

Finally, if you can hold off for a few weeks, though, AMDs new FX processors should be coming out, and they should offer better performance with lower power draw compared to the bulldozer FX CPUs. Obviously this will slot in to your existing motherboard, so again it'll be a significant cost saving.

EDIT: that motherboard. bleurgh

OK, having read the other thread you've already sold the 8120. I think that was a bad move, but it's too late to worry about that now. It'd be worth including all relevant information when you start threads though, otherwise people waste time making suggestions that aren't possible. Also since you already had a thread running, you could have asked this question in there.

But, getting back on track, since you've already sold off your old CPU then you either need to wait for the FX 8350, or get an ivy bridge (i7 3770k) build now. Personally I'd wait for the 8350 as it may well be cheaper than the i7 and have similar multi-threaded performance, but if you can't wait then I really wouldn't suggest buying an 8150. It's old tech that's about to be replaced by a better version.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The OP used the stock cooler and a 450W PSU which came in a CiT case. It appears they sold it now according to the other thread. Maybe the OP can clarify whether they still have a £500 total budget for the PC??

[Terbinator]

If he can shaft the board and buy a new one and a decent cooler holding fire would probably be the best option.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think they ditched the CPU as well IIRC.

[scaryjim]

I think they ditched the CPU as well IIRC.

Yeah, I've had a quick read through of the other thread and it seems they did. Terrible move IMNSHO, but nothing to be done about it now.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I still would wait and see how well the FX8320 and FX8350 do TBH,although the Xeon E3 1230 V2 does look a good option IMHO,as they could use a cheaper motherboard and have more RAM in the build. The Core i7 3770K is £84 more,plus you need an overclocking capable motherboard and a reasonable quality cooler too. That would mean at least £100 more than a Xeon E3 1230 V2 based build.

[holygamer]

I've revised my build and posted in a more appropriate section here.