3570K or 3770 non-K ?

[8bit]

Researching a new build atm, was set on a 3570K then had a look at the detailed specs on the Intel website. Now considering a non-K 3770. Here's some questions:

1 - the i7 3770 has 8Mb cache, the i5 3570K has 6. Is this likely to make a big difference? If not now then I guess it'll be a bit more "future-proof"?

2 - the non-K Ivy Bridge chips support Intel VT-d (support for IOMMU, allowing virtual guests in supporting hypervisors to have direct I/O to network, graphics etc). I like the idea of this, theoretically at least it might mean being able to play games under a Windows virtual machine so I could run Linux as my primary OS and not have to use a dual-boot setup. I know this question might be better off in a different forum section but does anyone have experience doing anything similar with the likes of VMWare workstation or Oracle VirtualBox?

Seems strange that the K variants don't support the VT-d but I guess they might not sell many non-K chips otherwise.

[MrJim]

Although some very basic games may run in a virtualised environment, it seems unlikely that modern games will, at least according to this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1869807

[KeyboardDemon]

I don't think that you would get the best performance from your games when running in a virtual OS implementation. I've only experienced using virtual XP through Windows 7 though and Linux might be able to do this more efficiently but I don't know if it will do it well enough.

[8bit]

Even using a CPU with VT-d (and presumably a VM platform that supports it) though?

[KeyboardDemon]

I tried it using Win 7 64 bit on an AMD Phenom II X4 965 I can try it again by installing a game on my i7 3770k but not until this evening.

What games are you planning to play?

[8bit]

Your 3770k doesn't support VT-d (it has VT-x but not VT-d) so you can't fully pass through PCI(e) devices to VMs. The non-K chips do have VT-d, so as long as your VM stack and your motherboard also support it then in theory you can have full 3D acceleration in VMs.

At the moment VMWorkstation doesn't support VT-d (it has it's own virtualised rendering stack up to DX9.0 levels) and Virtual Box claims it does but apparently doesn't work well yet. I did some research over lunchtime and it looks like I'd need to have ESXi as my main OS and install guests in there, or install Linux as the primary OS and use KVM or Xen to host the Windows guest. I have no ESXi skills and my Windows skills are out of date (I'm a Unix/Linux analyst by day) so I'm probably looking at the latter option there.

As for what games, Portal 2, Black Mesa, Carrier Command at the moment, just standard Windows games.

[KeyboardDemon]

When I tried it I think I managed to Counter Strike 1.6 working and I didn't try anything else as I wasn't impressed with the results. I've got a couple of games downloading now so I'll try them but after reading what you've posted I'm not expecting a good result.

[KeyboardDemon]

I tried installing a couple of games and neither of them would run, it was a friend who had this set up last time so not sure how he got it working or what he had done, it was the same trick that he pulled at Uni to get the PCs there to play CS1.6 even though they weren't supposed to allow us to install new software.

[8bit]

OK thanks for trying for me. Looks like this could be do-able with the right hardware, Linux distribution and hypervisor but I've got some more research to do.

[KeyboardDemon]

I spoke to the person that set it up for me on my Phenom II and he said he tricked me by using a remote desktop program and was actually running the game on his laptop. lol. I'd kill him, but it is quite funny.

[8bit]

Well hit him for me then

OK so having done some reading I've weighed it up and decided I want the VT-d features more than I want the unlocked multiplier so I'm going for a non-K version of an Ivy Bridge CPU. Question now is, do I get an i5 or i7 for the extra 2Mb cache?

[Domestic_Ginger]

Look into the Xeon e3 series too. Not sure if you need IGP or not as most do not come with them. those ending in 5 do.

Its funny; I ended up with a E3-1230 and am currently looking to sell it and move the other way to a k chip. quick sync and overclocking seem a bit more exciting to me than hyperthreading and vms.

[MrJim]

OK so having done some reading I've weighed it up and decided I want the VT-d features more than I want the unlocked multiplier so I'm going for a non-K version of an Ivy Bridge CPU. Question now is, do I get an i5 or i7 for the extra 2Mb cache?

Apart from the extra cache, the i7 processors include hyperthreading, which may or may not improve performance depending on the software you're planning to run.

[8bit]

I can always switch HT off, I'd probably do that anyway unless I do start running virtual machines or using software that can make use of it. I guess it comes down to how much benefit the extra cache is likely to be?

[8bit]

Just to update the thread, I ordered and received my i7 3770 last week, along with 16GB of RAM, Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 and the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard. All assembled yesterday. Had a moment of panic when I set it all up and hit the power button and absolutely nothing happened Turned out I just needed to clear the CMOS first. So the next few evenings will be spent reinstalling Win7 and apps and games...

[Domestic_Ginger]

Quick question; was a bit curious. Did you look at the Xeons and what made you decide on the 3770?

The 1230v2 is £170 odd and the 3770 is £230 odd with the only diffence being IGP and 100mhz on the clock.