Putting the Core I7 through its paces

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Doing a gazillion things at once.

 

I have not loved a computer upgrade like the upgrade to 64-bit/12 gigs RAM/Core I7 since I got a Pentium with OS/2 years ago.

61,578 views 27 replies
Reply #1 Top

Thats what I'm saving my nickels and dimes for.I didnt realise just how pathetic my e-machines pc had gotten til I started making my first dream.

7 hour renders just to find out you did something wrong followed by 7 hour renders just to add motion blur followed by many,MANY video compression test...etc...

Then scrap the whole thing and start over because there was too much motion and it was too long to compress to 150mb...

 

I want one of these BAD! :drool:

Reply #2 Top

I made an offer last week for a customer who wanted several "powerfull workstations". So I offered him systems with:

  • 4 * Opteron 8384 "Shanghai"
  • 64 GB RAM
  • 2 * Geforce GTX 285
  • 4 * WD Velociraport in hardware RAID6

Ok, some people run demanding applications, but this is almost a supercomputer on your desktop...

Reply #3 Top

Me want.  :grin:

Reply #4 Top

Now where did I see specs like that before?.... https://forums.wincustomize.com/343658

Reply #5 Top

I love my i7 920. Asus P6T water cooled and running renders at 4073mhz 12 gigs o ram. They really are money well spent!

Reply #6 Top

that's pretty bad ass man...wish i could have one of those babies....i'd be in heaven

:dur:  :dur: :dur: :dur:

Reply #7 Top

I have an i7 920, and it's the weakest piece of hardware I have ever seen. Can't even build a desktop with it.

Reply #8 Top

Brad....am coming over in September....have that one boxed and ready....I'll leave space in my suitcase....;)

Reply #9 Top

I have one, sitting in a box at work! I am dying to get it up and running but since we have been burglarized three times in 10 months am afraid to bring it home! As soon as we get moved into our new place it will be set up before anything else gets done! I can't wait for the experience!

Reply #10 Top

All I need is 12Gb of ram - stuff everything else ;)

Reply #11 Top

They just released 16 gb DDR3 Ram sticks, so in a 12 slot motherboard...192 gb of RAM.  :D

Reply #12 Top

Quoting Excalpius, reply 11
They just released 16 gb DDR3 Ram sticks, so in a 12 slot motherboard...192 gb of RAM. 
End of Excalpius's quote

192 gb of RAM... all you need is... about 15,999,999,818 gb more RAM and you will be at the limit for what your Elemental 64 bit version can use!

Reply #13 Top

/me remembers his first Pentium 100 with 8 meg of ram ....nah....would never need more than that....

[always thought the XT with 640k was under done, tho]

Reply #14 Top

jafo is going to detroit in september?

Reply #15 Top

I'm on the fence with the i7 ... If I go this way, I'll need a new mother board,

DDR3 memory, 850w PSU and a full tower. It's also a major change if I go

with a AM3 CPU ... new mother board, DDR3 memory and PSU. Right now,

I've got a good system ... better then most ...  B) ..

MB: MSI K9A2 Platinum with a AMD X4 9850

Memory: 8GB

Drives: 1 Blue-ray, 4 500GB HDs

Video: 2 ATI 4830 setup in Crossfire

OS: Windows 7 ( latest build)

 

I have a few systems I us on a daily basis ... This system is used for testing ..

Most likely I'm going to wait for something newer to get released. As soon as

Windows 7 gets released ... I would say around Sept. time frame just in time

for going back to school ... :drool: ..   More likely RTM in Sept. and Oct 30,2009

would be the release party ... 

 

I might just get both around X-mas time and skip getting presents for the

family ...  ...  maybe not .. but I'm thinking about it .. <_<

 

Reply #16 Top

WOW! How does one max out an octo-core processor!? My dual-core processor is thankfully enough for now, it's the memory i need more of; few more gigs ram, and 64b OS to make use of it, i7 possibly in the distant future, when people react to it: "How about something NOT from the last decade" ;)

Reply #17 Top

damn nice , can't wait for the i7's to drop in price...

Reply #18 Top

jafo is going to detroit in september?
End of quote

Yes....just giving everyone advance-warning so they can organize their 'I'm washing my hair that day' appointments...;)

Reply #19 Top

GenBlood: If you have the money and want to spend them on something shiny for yourself then I'd say go for it. Personally I dropped around 3 grand on a new i7 rig about a month ago and it really does demolish every other cpus out there. Combined with some lovely sticks of ram in triplechannel and it's like night and day from my old e8500 (despite it being OC'ed to 3.8ghz).

A Core i7 920 can be overclocked to around 3.4ghz with the stock cooling as long as there's decent airflow in the rest of the case and you don't live in sahara, and at that point it will outperform a stock 965. Will go a lot further with some real cooling, of course.

 

ToJKa: A processor is always maxed out when performing a task unless another component is bottlenecking or you have artificial limiters in place, such as vsync turned on while playing a game. You could get a 965, toss it in a liquid nitrogen bath and overclock it to hell and back (pardon my french) and it would still be maxed out on something simple like compressing a large file archive. What changes is how fast you can complete the task at hand, which in this hypothetical scenario would be pretty damned fast.

Reply #20 Top

The sad part about all of us drooling over the i7.........Intel and AMD buy out all of the smaller companies that make processors so they effectively have a monopoly. The truth is, these companies have the capability of making processors much much better than the i7, but they introduce a little more power at a time just to make more money. Its a great sales strategy but I think its unfair that we don't get the best thing possible. 

 

(I still really want the i7.......)

Reply #21 Top

Quoting G3mpi3, reply 20
The sad part about all of us drooling over the i7.........Intel and AMD buy out all of the smaller companies that make processors so they effectively have a monopoly. The truth is, these companies have the capability of making processors much much better than the i7, but they introduce a little more power at a time just to make more money. Its a great sales strategy but I think its unfair that we don't get the best thing possible. 

 

(I still really want the i7.......)
End of G3mpi3's quote

 

You might want to have a look at IBM, VIA, SIS and TI. There's more manufacturers out there than AMD and Intel. Also, they're introducing quite a bit more than just "a little power at a time". Check out some benchmarking charts for the latest generations of cpus sometime and compare them to earlier ones. There's usually been a 50-100% increase between each new processor family if not more. Also, factor in the power consumption of today's cpus versus the ones used 5 years ago and you'll notice that they are in fact pretty darned impressive improvements. A brand new i7 has comparable power consumption to an overclocked Prescott, but performance is what, 10-20 times higher (I'm a lazy bum and haven't checked the exact figures on prescott performance relative to i7, but feel free to have a look)?

Reply #22 Top

Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache)

12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1600 Triple Memory Module

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 1GB

500 gig hd  with blue-ray player

should be delivered Monday. except for the reinstallation of programs, setting up my accounts, transferring my data and dealing with a new OS (vista 64-bit) I'm looking forward to this.

Reply #23 Top

Brad what OS is that? Does not look like Vista x64 ...but Win7???

Reply #24 Top

Jafo said he is coming in September Brad, but I will be up on May 3rd. I could take that system off your hands if you want.  ;)

 

(I might beat you to it Jafo!)

Reply #25 Top

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366
Intel Core i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz
12GB G. Skill DDR3 1600 Triple Channel
BFG Tech GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3
1 WD VelociRaptor 300 GB, 4 WD Caviar Green 1TB
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W
Antec Twelve Hundred (7 Fans)
COOLER MASTER V8 CPU heatsink/fan
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black
LG 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner
Hannspree HF259H 25" LCD Display @ 1920 x 1080
Gateway FPD2275W 22-inch LCD Display @ 1680 × 1050

Bought this setup back in late December/early January. Little over $4k but well worth it. These i7's rock like you wouldn't believe. I can encode a 2 hour avi to DVD in like 6-8 mins. Takes longer to burn the discs now than it does to encode. I'm transoding 1080p .mkv files to my Xbox 360 using Tversity with no playback problems. When I tried that with my old Athlon 5400+ rig would lock up and would get a still picture on Xbox. Haven't even attempted to overclock yet. I hear people have gotten the i965 up to 4.0 GHz  on just air.