cheapest 8 core computing - video encoding/editing/folding

hey all

just wondering what the cheapest/best solution is gonna be over the next few months for a multi core workstation.

some possibilities/thoughts i've looked at are either:

an overclocked core i7?

multi cpu option, a few cheapish opterons are coming out soon i think, the 6-series, but what price would i be looking at for motherboard. tried looking at the new opterons but they don't seem to be out properly yet and a bit confused by the chipsets/sockets etc.

any workstation products that dont require ecc memory, to save money?


overal cost is a major consideration. overclocking would be nice but not necessarily essential i dont think (?) kind of seems like we've been stuck on 4 cores for a while, just wondering what the next step is

The Core i7 processors under £400 are quad cores with HT. The six core Core i7 980x is over £800.

TBH,I would go with a Phenom II X6 if you want to save money. Many of the X6 1055T processors are hitting 3.8GHZ to 4GHZ and this processor can be had for under £160.

Phenom X6 - seen as you said 'cheapest' the 8 core Xeons are out of your budget, I'm afraid.

Agreed. Phenom X6. If you need to go to workstation levels of power then dual 6-core opterons is also a powerful value for money system.

Phenom X6

i've seen a few benchmarks (custom pc) that suggested that the x6 didn't compare well to the i7 9x0 in benchmarks, but i guess for encoding the more cores the merrier.

so regarding the new opteron dual sockets, when will they be available? scan confused me couldn't find the new g34 or c32 sockets

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Originally Posted by shbris

i've seen a few benchmarks (custom pc) that suggested that the x6 didn't compare well to the i7 9x0 in benchmarks, but i guess for encoding the more cores the merrier.

so regarding the new opteron dual sockets, when will they be available? scan confused me couldn't find the new g34 or c32 sockets

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CustomPC/Bit-tech are quite Intel biased so don't believe all of their AMD to Intel comparisons.

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Originally Posted by shbris

i've seen a few benchmarks (custom pc) that suggested that the x6 didn't compare well to the i7 9x0 in benchmarks, but i guess for encoding the more cores the merrier.

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http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...1918/22620.png
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/a...1918/22621.png

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so regarding the new opteron dual sockets, when will they be available? scan confused me couldn't find the new g34 or c32 sockets

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Why do you want a new socket? 6 core Opterons run on existing socket F.

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

CustomPC/Bit-tech are quite Intel biased so don't believe all of their AMD to Intel comparisons.

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I found that, one of the reasons I stopped buying it. +1 to what others have said - Phenom II X6 unless you're willing to spend a lot more.

What software are you going to use for video encoding and editing?

If the software is open sourced (i.e. no software license cost) then a multi-system approach will be cheaper and faster.

A pair of 1055T should be faster than any single 8-core setup when you can efficiently split your tasks across the systems.

haha i was about to argue that CPC wasn't that biased until i remembered that their whole hardware recommendation list is made up exclusively of intel, i3 i5 i7 for low mid high respectively

i use handbrake for encoding, does that support queuing over multiple systems?

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Why do you want a new socket? 6 core Opterons run on existing socket F.

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is that the case? ok i might look into a socket F dual. this isn't an urgent upgrade, more a project for the summer holidays.

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Originally Posted by arthurleung

A pair of 1055T should be faster than any single 8-core setup when you can efficiently split your tasks across the systems.

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And probably cheaper too.

Looking at them graphs its quite refreshing to see how well my 860 holds up against the X6 - perhaps more annoyingly is just how well the QX9770 performs, quite impressive really.

Considering the Phenom II X6 1055T is just above the price of a Core i5 750 at most retailers it really has impressive performance TBH in multi-threaded software. Remember this is a chip that can work in a relatively cheap AM2+ motherboard such as the GA-MA770-UD3!!

It seems the good old Core2 architecture is still giving the newer AMD and Intel chips some good competition! :)

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Originally Posted by Terbinator

Looking at them graphs its quite refreshing to see how well my 860 holds up against the X6

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Yeah the 8 logical cores is almost equal to 6 real cores in some cases. Just a shame it costs so much more.

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Originally Posted by shbris

so regarding the new opteron dual sockets, when will they be available? scan confused me couldn't find the new g34 or c32 sockets

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We'll have to clarify that next week then