Tim you have two 6 core processors?

[Drarkan]

You mentioned it in a stream once, you have a double Processor board? Two 6 cores?

[jincuteguy]

No, he has just one cpu, the 980X

[Tim]

Jin is correct, I have the Intel 980x, which is a 6 core HT processor. HT is hyperthreading, which enables the cpu to virtualize 1 thread available state into 2, allowing the operating system the power to increase efficiency by doing thread assignments of 2 physical threads whereas the CPU virtualizes that into 1.

TLDR: HT is very worthwhile when running a lot of applications which all take advantage of multiple threads, however, if your app is single threaded, turning off HT would allow for better performance. I've tested both, and HT on, to show 12 CPUs in windows, far outperforms just 6.

Looks like my TLDR failed as its a paragraph anyway heh.

[Drarkan]

Ahh ok cause I saw some boards with two processor slots so I thought you had a setup like that. I had seen some with some PCI-E x16 slots so it looked capable of setting up as a gaming computer. Then could you immagine a dual 980x processor on a board like that, I think the board had something like 8-12 slots for memory too!

[Drarkan]

Ok just a quick prospect for a dream machine

EVGA Classified SR-2 Htpx Dual Xeon LGA1366 SLI CrossFireX DDR3 7PCI-E16 SATA3 USB3 Motherboard


Price: $620 CAD

Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 990X 6 Core LGA1366 Gulftown 3.46GHZ 12MB Processor Retail Box


Price: $1,100 CAD x 2 = $2200 CAD

I could have gone for the i7 memory kit but I don't know the significant difference between the two. So here's what I choose.

Corsair Dominator GT 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-2000 CL9-10-9-27 Intel XMP Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Fan

Price: $143.17 CAD x 6 (total of 12 memory sticks) $858 CAD

(currently the place where I buy my components has a rebate of a few bucks, but since its over at the end of the month, I'll keep the base price on it.)

I would do a little research into SSD drives too but don't have the time for that. So currently the sum total of dream system for me is

$620+$2200+$858=$3678 CAD

Thats without Video card, SSD Drives, or additional drives. I'll add those when I do some research in those fields as to the hottest hardware peice on the market that gets gamers drooling.

[Ualaa]

The newer Sandybridge processors, the i5 2500K and i7 2600K are probably the way to go.

K = unlocked multiplier, which costs a little more but can be overclocked a lot higher.

The 2500 doesn't have the hyperthreading, so if you're only playing wow on it, it is as good as the 2600 chips.
If you're doing video editing or encoding too, or anything that takes advantage of the extra virtual cores, then go with the 2600 for sure, its only $100 or so more.

But a 2500K/2600K are a third of the price of the 980/990 chips, can be overclocked just as high and are very comparable in benchmarks.
A little better in some, a little worse in others, but close enough to not say one is that much better than the other... plus available for a third the price.

[Drarkan]

Yeah I was wondering about that. I know it was discussed in Tim's stream and on the forums often, so yeah, I think for myself the 2600K will be the way for me. And keeping my eye on the dual processor board but I may settle for a single processor board with 6 slots for memory, but its very very very tempting!!!

[Ualaa]

Close to four years back, thereabouts anyway, I really got an absolutely killer system.

A Q6600, with 8GB of very low latency Patriot ram.
Had a strong video card, Sapphire Radeon 4870X2.
A Raptor 150GB hard drive, for the OS/Games and a massive 500GB storage drive.
Went with a 30" monitor.
Logitech Z5500 Speakers, Logitech G15 Keyboard, Logitech G5 gamer mouse, etc.
Opted for a Killer NIC, even... which for the miniscule ping reduction was not even close to worth it.

Was a very nice system.
But probably not worth the $2500 or $3000 I spent on it.

Since then, I've upgraded the motherboard, processor and ram once.
To an i7 920, 12GB of DDR3, Asus P6T motherboard.
Have added a Patriot SSD to the mix.
Had to downgrade the video card to a GTX275, as one of the new Motherboard/Processor/Ram did not like the ATI card.

I'm tempted to go with a 2600K soon.
But really the i7 920 does everything I want, so no real need to upgrade yet.

It is always the balancing act between wanting the newest toys, because they're the best and would be nice to have... vs. do we need the additional performance/power for what we're using the system.

I think this summer I'll restrict my upgrades a bit:
- A new video card, as mine is slowly dying.
- Possibly a larger SSD, newer generation, which will allow for OS & Games on the SSD.
- Possibly a 2TB drive, as I download a lot of movies and music and my massive 500GB drive doesn't seem so large anymore.