Upgrading to an I7

[Stevie Blaze]

Hey Guys

My PC has been going strong for the past two year but i feel it is time for an upgrade. My current system is a Q6600 Oc'd to 3Ghz with 4Gb of 800Mhz DDR2 ram. I have really enjoyed using this system and will be sad to see it go. I will be using my PC for coding genetic and neural network algorithms, general c++ work, designing audio dsp systems (which eat cpu cycles) as well as gaming (mostly supreme commander FA).

I'm looking at two systems and would like some advice on which way to proceed. The bundles are pre overclocked by a company local to me so i don't have to worry if my chip will hit 4Ghz or not. The two bundles are this one -

Krypton Extreme Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz 2000MHz Memory OC H70 Bundle [] Overclocked Bundles Extreme - Krypton

Or this one -

Krypton Intel Core i7 970 3.20GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle [] Overclocked Bundles Extreme - Krypton

I am also considering getting one of Intels 80gb SSD for windows as well.

I have three main questions really. Firstly is it worth the extra for the bundle with the 6 core I7 970 in it, or is it a waste of cash? Secondly will either of these systems (with the SDD) be a big improvement over my old system? And finally should i wait a while and see if Intel are launching any new processors soon as i don't want to spend all this cash if there is something big on the horizon?

Many Thanks

[Stevie Blaze]

Anyone got any thoughts? Plus, i will plan to keep my same 650 watt corsair TX psu, will this be enough? Many Thanks

[Steve R Jones]

Firstly is it worth the extra for the bundle with the 6 core I7 970 in it, or is it a waste of cash?

I only looked at the price. One is almost twice the price of the other. Odds are it won't run twice as fast.


Secondly will either of these systems (with the SDD) be a big improvement over my old system?

It depends on what and how many apps you run at the same time...My main pc at home is a P4 and often times I think I'd kill for a new I series cpu...THen reality kicks in I remember my P4 does everything I need.


And finally should i wait a while and see if Intel are launching any new processors soon as i don't want to spend all this cash if there is something big on the horizon?

There will always be something newer coming out

[ShyguyXPC]

i'm limited to my typing but hopefully i can answer more later tonight or even tomorrow sometime, on supreme commander and some other points. (have one hand partially gimped up right now)

[thephilosophizer]

I'll say this first, that for that 930 bundle, I paid less in dollars for the same system (920 instead of 930, but same difference), then you would in pounds. I know tech stuff is more expensive across the pond, but that still seems high.
The 6 core would make a difference, but I find it hard to imagine it would be worth the cost, unless cost really just isn't a factor for you.
As far as the games, Sup Com as far as I recall is a pretty cpu dependent game, so you'll see some difference there, though the q6600 was a pretty high end chip when it came out, so you probably won't see much.
The other big factor there is the graphics card, which makes a pretty significant difference in most games.
There's also CUDA from NVIDIA in terms of being able to use the gpu for coding stuff, I honestly don't know much about it, but my impression is that it could be well suited for working on neural network algorithms and genetic coding. But I think the trick is that the program has to be written to use the gpu.
As far as the SSD. It'll make your boot time faster. It won't have any meaningful affect on anything else you do except to reduce launch time for programs installed on the drive.
So, ultimately you will see a difference switching to the i7, especially for apps that are multi-threaded (930 is 4 cores, and 8 threads, I believe the q6600 is 4 cores and 4 threads). As far as new stuff coming out. I haven't heard much about new architecture coming from intel in the new future. I know they are working at cramming in more cores, but at this point most software isn't written for such high performance systems. So I personally wouldn't worry about it all too much at this point.
The big game right now seems to be in the mobile space, and everything I'm seeing suggests that intel is putting its big guns behind atom and moorestown, and getting into the smartphone game.

[ShyguyXPC]

Yep SupCom, is CPU dependent, but also Heavily GPU when you have THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of units in the game, and crap exploding all over etc, in all out war.

especially in 4 or more player LAN or Internet games.

the 6 core should definitely help there, I know the original SupCom was programmed to take advantage of multi Core CPU's long before most other games were, SupCom, and its Spiritual Predecessor "Total Annihilation", both games had features in them that took advantage of tech that hadn't even been out yet, basically they were "Future proof" games so to speak.

I saw a Huge difference in game play with SupCom going from a Core 2 Duo E6400 to a Q6600 quad.

but haven't tried the game in the last year since I got an i7 920, so not sure how it does, but would imagine with HT and more power and efficiency than the old Q6600, the 920 should show a noticeable improvement.

not sure if it can tap the extra cores of the 6 core, but either system should be great for SupCom.

Downside, twice the price for the 6 core and your only getting 2 extra cores, not 4.

as to your other work, if the software you use, can use multicore CPU's, the 6 core could easily provide a good 50% increase in work output. Theoretically...

not sure what GPU you are running, but that Corsair 650W is plenty of power for those systems.

[Stevie Blaze]

Thanks for the great replies guys. Just though i'd add that i currently have a Geforce 260GTX and was perhaps looking at upgrading that with a 460 GTX. Would the Corsair psu be able to handle it?



philosophizer - The bundle is quite expensive yes. Part of that will be the massive prices we pay for components here in the UK. Part of the price is due to the bundle being pre overclocked and assembled with a guaranteed clock speed of 4Ghz. This saves me alot of time and hassle! Although i did enjoy overclocking my current system i just don't have the time anymore. Your ideas on Cuda are also interesting, i will investigate further - many thanks! I have messed around with cuda before,making a delay plugin for cubase, and i suspect you are right in that all the cores would make light work off some of the genetic search based algorithms i run.

shyguy - Thanks for the input on SupCom. I play over a lan with my house mates so some of the 81km sq maps can get rather hectic and very laggy. Although this could be down to our lan connection rather than the Q6600. But it sounds as if either of the i7s would be a great improvement for the game.


So i am currently leaning more towards the 930 bundle and perhaps getting a GTX460 with the saved cash. Although 12 threads would be interesting...

[ShyguyXPC]

no, its laggy due to the amount of units and AI and all that, I've played a few 2 and 4 player LAN games against the PC in skirmish mode I think it was, with something like 20K units max, or something, and launching about 20 nukes at your enemy lags things down big time, or Massive Armada engagements between forces.

and thats with no LAN connection to another PC.

GTX 460 will run on that PSU, its not a HUGE step up from the GTX 260, but should be noticeable in many games.

for reference I was looking at the GTX 460 to replace my GTX 285 for my primary card, moving the 285 over for PhysX, for games with that, but when I looked up the Reviews for the 460 and compared to the 285, its only incremental improvements, and aside from the DX11 support and NVidia's Tesselation stuff with DX11, not worth it IMO.

from a 260 it may be worth it, if you go for the 460 get the 1GB model, as its the better model than the 768MB, the 768 is a slightly watered down version of the full main version, the 1GB model.

though if and when I can afford it my money is on a Radeon 5850 or if I can snag a refurb or open box model, a 5870 for upgrade from my GTX 285.


if you can afford it, if you go for the lesser of the 2 bundles, I'd look at getting a Radeon 5870 at least for the GPU upgrade. or even the GTX 470.

[Stevie Blaze]

Thanks for the response ShyGuy. So hopefully the i7 at 4Ghz should improve my laggy sup com games. Thanks for the heads up on the GTX460, the 470 is only around 40 pounds more so im sure i can stretch to that!

I will be out of the country now for the next two weeks so will pick this thread up once i get back. I'm currently thinking of getting the 930 bundle with a GTX470 and an intel SSD. If anyone has any other thoughts about the system, or has done any GA or NN work on cuda please post and i'll pick them up when i get back.


Many Thanks

[ShyguyXPC]

When you get a Chance, check out this CUDA stuff from Nvdia's site, might give you some leads on the other stuff you could be doing on your PC

CUDA in Action

[Stevie Blaze]

Well in the end i went with a 930. I bought all the parts seperatly so got some better Dominatior ram as well. It all came today so i will be building when i get back from work...might need some help overclocking so wish me luck!

[thephilosophizer]

Sounds good. I managed to keep my 920 at 4.0ghz for almost a year now, though recently tuned it down to 3.4ghz, which is the highest stable speed I could get on stock voltage (she had been running a little hot for my taste, especially given the record breakingly hot summer we've had).
What motherboard did you get, that will make a big difference in how to go about the overclocking?

[Stevie Blaze]

I got the Gigabyte GAX58A-UD3R board with the H70 corsair water cooler.

[Stevie Blaze]

Manged to get everthing up and stable, running 4Ghz at 32oC ide with a tiny increase in volts to the CPU. Must say i am very happy with the system!