Reviews - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T: hexa-core computing for the masses

[kalniel]

Thanks for that - I'd understood that the AMD power saving (is it still called "Cool n' Quiet"?) was more effective than Intel's

It used to be (and yes, still called 'cool n quiet' )- but Intel improved to be roughly equal on a whole chip basis. Where Intel have pulled ahead though is in controlling individual cores with different load demands.

Kind of looks like my processor choice is going to be down to what's on special offer @ Scan ( ) - although they seem to be doing a really good price on the old i7-920's atm ...

The problem with the i7 920.. is that it needs the x58 chipset, which isn't very energy efficient due to the separate memory controller and triple channel RAM. The efficient Intel choice is to go for a lynnfield (ie i7 860 or i5 750) which use a p55/h55/h57 motherboard - the memory controller is in the CPU and it's only dual channel - ie, like AMD. With your highly threaded usage scenario the i7 860 might be your best bet.

[Lee H]

The problem with the i7 920.. is that it needs the x58 chipset, which isn't very energy efficient due to the separate memory controller and triple channel RAM.

I thought the memory controller was embedded within the CPU now on the i7 series.

[kalniel]

I thought the memory controller was embedded within the CPU now on the i7 series.

Oops yes you're quite right. It's the PCI-E hub that's not integrated.

[crossy]

The problem with the i7 920.. is that it needs the x58 chipset, which isn't very energy efficient due to the separate memory controller and triple channel RAM. The efficient Intel choice is to go for a lynnfield (ie i7 860 or i5 750) which use a p55/h55/h57 motherboard - the memory controller is in the CPU and it's only dual channel - ie, like AMD. With your highly threaded usage scenario the i7 860 might be your best bet.

Cool - I'll take a look at the Hexus b'marks - especially as I've been pretty impressed with the Core2Duo in my laptop. Rough check seems to show that the '860 has a larger cache per core than the AMD part - this might help what I'm doing.

I think I'll be keeping a close eye on Scan for a good deal on a Asus P7P55D-E LX (SATA-6 and USB3 out-of-the-box sounds like a good piece of future-proofing, and I only need a single PCI-E gfx slot).

Thanks again for the sage advice.

bob