Starting to build a system to upgrade from Xpress Pro.

I need to decide on buying a fast Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz Socket 775 4MB Cache 1333MHz FSB  or a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair).

The 3Ghz sounds a faster processor for 'one programme' use and has a faster FSB.  It also costs about £30 quid more but has two processors less???  Does dual channel RAM compatibility have any impact on the decison here?

Any ideas chaps as I'm sure someone else has been here!?  Gonna be using it with a Nvidia 1500 Quadro I just got from e-bay for well under £200 :)

Thanks for any advice.

D

Word is that - since the upcoming version 3 makes smarter use of CPU's - one should get as many fast cores as possible to get the best performance.

Veeeery interesting Mr Burg!  Thanks

D

I am currently building my own Quad core workstation. I have assembled it last week and now I am thoroughly testing it with MC2.8.3/QT7.3.1 nVidia driver 91.85. So far the test runs show no hick-ups and MC runs like a breeze.

Specs for the new system are:

Intel Q6600 Quad core overclocked from 2.4 to 3.0GHz, FSB overclocked to 1330 on an Asus PK5-e Mobo with 4GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 Dual chanel, nVidia Quadro FX1500, 2x Seagate Barracuda HDDs 160GB striped (RAID 0) as system drive, 4x Samsung 500GB HDDs in a 4 way stripe (RAID 0) as media drives, Panasonic DVD+-RW. All in an Antec P182 tower with 3 main fans, a Zalman VGA cooler plus Scythe Mine CPU cooler.

All of the above for about 1.000.- GBP.

Yesterday I had the system under full load for 8 hrs (all 4 cores maxed at 100% and the RAM over 1.7GB with PRIME95), and no BSOD!

IMHO the Q6600 has the best value for a Quad with loads of headroom for overclocking. 

I hope this answers your question of which CPU to go for.

Great reply - many thanks.

My thoughts are very similar to you in system build, so that reassurance and actual specifics are really great to get.

Could you recommend a supplier too maybe - I have a basket full of stuff from E Buyer at good price points, but they cant do the GFX card.

Thanks again

D

 I got all my stuff from eBuyer too and got the quadro from Amazon. Don't forget to throw in a pci firewire card, as Avid doesn't like onboard ones and you may get difficulties with recognising the firewire port when you try to control a deck or camera. I use a Startech card (cheap and does the job) also available from eBuyer.

I'm, getting bamboozled researching motherboards, so decided to copy you!

I did find this http://forums.ebuyer.com/showthread.php?p=246335 that suggests you may have problems with that RAM (although remember I am bamboozled!).

I was thinking of a motherboard  that runs at 1300MHZ FSB as the CPU can handle this but the motherboard cant in this isntance?  I'm not quite clear on the implications, but it seems to match the CPU to the motherboard better?

Thanks for the help here - its only my second system build, but they makes you a better person!

D

Check out out latest DIY 6: Quad Core article .

We are running MC 2.8 great and looking forward to checking out MojoDX on it when we get our hands on one!!

Gary

Great write up Gary!

I hear during my research trawls that chip runs at 3Ghz no problem!

Can I ask why you settled on just 2Gb RAM when there is a patch in MC to run 3Gb?  Does it screw up the 2 channel thing having 3Gb (or even 4Gb)?

Also the FSB on the processor @ 1066 is slower than your RAM speed and motherboard speed @ 1333MHZ?

I may be talking nonsense, but its the only way I learn!

Cheers

D

Your  memory question is a good one. We did'nt want to invest in any memory sticks under 1GB, and you need to add memory in matched pairs. So we considered going with 4GB and just accepting the fact that 1GB was going to be mostly idle.  We decided to wait for Vista64 support (MC 3.0) and jump all the way to 4 or more Gigs of RAM!

Gary

Faster FSB is better but you have to make sure your latency is as good or better than your slower clocked RAM. If not all that bandwidth is wasted waiting for your RAM's cycle.

So if you are using a 4-4-4-12 1066 sticks your 1333 sticks should be 4-4-4-12 or better. Lower latency sticks usually means more expensive sticks so be careful. It is better to reach or go a little over the recommended RAM (even if it is a slower RAM) than barely making it with faster RAM. Disk swapping is a big penalty!

I don't think the firewire card's going to be necessary any more, or am i wrong?

siencs:

I don't think the firewire card's going to be necessary any more, or am i wrong?

If you're buying the new hardware, no, a FW card isn't really needed.  But if you're sticking with Adrenaline or Mojo (analog or SDI) you should have one.

Aquapix - I have all the bits and have bolted them together  to POST's satisfaction:)  I want to have an OS stripe pair and a data stripe pair of my 4 identical 500Gb disks.  This of course means  doing a SATA RAID config B4 OS install.  Can I get XP to load the RAID driver from FDD during OS intall?  Can I heck!!!  How did you install the RAID driver for Windows ( I see no way to do it in DOS, BIOS or via the ASUS utilities disk).  I am using a USB FDD to load the drivers at the XP F6 prompt and have tweaked BIOS to seem to make that A: drive suitable.  Now although I can get it to churn I dont think data is moving (aS THE FDD LED BARELY LIGHTS) as the OS install cvant progress.  How did you do yours?

Also a side question, can I have two OS boot partitions on stripe disks 1 & 2?  This means that I can have a separate boot for general cluttered use (maybe gameplay ;) ) withouit cluttering up my fast MC3 anticipated setup on the primary partitions of HDD 1&2 stripes).

Cheers (said he getting nowhere on the ASUS forum)

D

 Hi DIESELE, getting the drives striped is a bit of a mission. I used a small program called nLite (freeware, just do a google search) to include the RAID drivers that come on a CD with the ASUS MOBO in my XP installer disk (as I have no FDD!). Just run nLite on another computer and burn the RAID drivers onto a new XP installer disk. nLite will pull all the necessary data from your original XP disk. Once you have created the new XP installer disk use it to boot from it. Before Windows installs you'll get a menu that will allow you to stripe your disks and create partitions.

Just make sure that you plug the 2 system drives into the black SATA ports on your MOBO and the 2 (or 4 in my case) media drives into the red ports. Your MOBO is actually using two different SATA controllers to controll the drives. It is also important that you have your BIOS configured so it will try to boot from the right RAID drives!

My system drives are relatively small compared to the 4 way stripe of the media drives and for a good reason. You should only install your OS on them including Avid and all the other neccessary programs you need for editing, so not much space needed. You must NOT store any media on them! All the media should only be stored on your media drives or you will run into difficulties.

You can also have a dual boot system on your SYSTEM drives if you wish, though I have not done this before. My workstation is just for editing, not for gaming.

I have overclocked my processors (Q6600) now from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz without problem (very stable, no BSODs even after 12 hours full load on the processors and the memory. PM me if you want and I'll let you know how to do it safely.

BTW I am running MC2.8.3 without ANY problems so far.