How many cores can I really use?

For either chip, unless you plan on going extreme with the overclocking you don't need a top of the line motherboard. This board was reviewed here on the forum by Earth Dog and he liked it.

Ok. That a pretty good price. With that board and a 4670k it sounds like a good setup.

First I'll try to diagnose why my current setup keeps failing at any OC other than stock. Anyone have sugged tions on where to start? I've never dealt with this before.

That mother board should have zero issues with over clocking.

Potentially, if you are overclocking your, try underclocking it a little. Also, make sure your turbo and stuff like that are turned off.

heres a specific guide for your chip.
http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

GMdoubleG said:

First I'll try to diagnose why my current setup keeps failing at any OC other than stock. Anyone have sugged tions on where to start? I've never dealt with this before.

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I would expect the answer to that question to be pretty variable. First one would have to know if the system ever endured an overclock? Back when it was new and in vogue. What sort of voltages were needed to run X cpu speed?

The reason we look back at what was is to try and look at what has changed or gotten worse. If the original system took greater than normal voltages to overclock than was experienced by most other users, then likely the greater voltages have degraded something. Board or cpu are likely candidates for having degraded. But no longer allowing for "any" form of overclock it seems very finger pointy at the cpu. But that is using my line of thinking and reasoning.

Going back to square one as in the link "Bob" gave you and beginnig to overclock, might be the better route and see if any adjusting makes for any speed upclock. If not you are down to having to replace parts and you are thinking i7 4670Kish and might be time to update.
RGone...

I don't use the eight cores I have but these chips are soo much fun to oc
With intel just up multi and your done Boring
I feel better knowing that I have the cores if they are ever used in the future

I'd been driving a 920 for years myself, and just wanted something different, so I picked up a XEON L5639 off E-Bay for 80 bucks a couple months ago.

Low voltage and 6 cores, but it overclocks off the BLCK more than the multiplier, take a little work but pretty nice results even slower than a 920.

I bought a used P6T and have almost that same rig you're running sans water in the bedroom for a HTPC atm.

Some are even shelling out a bit more and getting 5650's or higher to mess with, I think someone is selling one here atm, but they go a bit more.

Just a thought if you're feeling froggy, I just had a bit of an itch myself and a lot laying around so bought one to play with on the main rig and built another for in here.

I'm pretty sure a P6T V2 upgrades to those.

*edit* actually was a X5675 for a bit more than I'd spend, I've done enough lately, but you get the idea.

Long thread I know but thought I'd through it out there.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636&highlight=l5639&page=40

Actually hadn't read many thing later in the thread and was reading it now, someone reported problems using a L5639 on a P6T, might not have been a V2, but he's running a X5650 fine.

This looks pretty good too. reading it myself atm.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2365971&highlight=cinebench+results+benchmarking

mtdewcowboy said:

With intel just up multi and your done Boring
I feel better knowing that I have the cores if they are ever used in the future

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That's why I haven't been so quick to upgrade, that and a lack of a toy fund since my son was born

My x5690 is 4 years old (maybe older ) and it still spanks pretty much anything AMD

freeagent said:

That's why I haven't been so quick to upgrade, that and a lack of a toy fund since my son was born

My x5690 is 4 years old (maybe older ) and it still spanks pretty much anything AMD

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After looking at your RAM I might have to make another profile and try these things a bit slower and put em in the 7's were they belong.



Just to mess with em.

That and I'm sure the x5690 does, he he.

GMdoubleG said:

Yes, the 6 and 8 cores would be a waste for me. I can't even use the four cores except for the minimal. Music coding I do for FLAC files. I've always been an intel guy but didn't want to immediately disregard the AMDs.

Are the intels i5s a dual core processor with two more virtual cores? Cooling won't be an issue. I've decided to stay with water cooling and just change up my loops.

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Don't ever say that 6 or 8 cores would be a waste for you. That's like saying extra clockspeed is a waste. Those extra cores are utilized in ways that aren't readily apparent. To me the goal is to get as much computing power as your budget permits. If a six core processor is only a few dollars more than a four core its foolish to buy the four core processor.

personally if just audio encoding i would go with a good quad core with a high clock speed. i dont recall the program i used last time for audio editing, ie fixing some mp3 files that had some quirks in them. it basicly saw i had 4 cores and split the mp3 up into 4 segments then encoded/fixed each one then made it back to one file. wish i could remember what that program was, been so long. unless your making really long flac files i dont think it would take that long to encode one with a good quad core with a high clock speed(like around 3.8ghz). one thing i do notice is that reviews dont show music encoding for newer cpus. that is unless im looking at the wrong sites, i normally stick to certian ones.

this gives something of an example.
http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/cpu/atom/
though when i encoded the MP3 using cmd line in windows XP, it was the same song 4 times. keep in mind the older Atom was in-order arch which means less efficent at work done per clock vs with HT or even a lower power Core 2 wich is out-of-order.

GMdoubleG said:

If I went with a 4670k or the 4770k cpu, what is a decent price point for the MoBo?

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You can get a good air overclocking motherboard from $130-$150