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Recommend a new CPU (not for unRAID)


Rajahal

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I don't think I can keep this one storage-related, so I won't try.

 

I've been thinking about upgrading my desktop's CPU, and I would like to be ready to jump on a Black Friday deal if I see one.  I've spent so much time on these forums researching low power CPUs, I haven't kept up with the other end of the spectrum!  I believe that Intel's iSeries is the best right now, and while I would love to go all-out and replace the whole thing with an i5 or i7, but I can't really justify that to myself at the moment.  Although maybe you guys can convince me...  I don't really have time to read a bunch of CPU reviews, so I'm hoping you guys can help me narrow it down to a few choices.

 

Here's what I've currently got:

 

- GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G (my only complaint with this mobo is the number and placement of SATA ports)

- AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz (I'm actually not 100% sure that is the CPU I currently have, but I at least know it is a dual core 2.8 GHz AM3)

- CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit (running at 800 mhz because I could never get the 1066 speed to work)

- Nvidia QuadroFX 4600 (an absolutely ridiculous video card, but I got it for cheap, not great for gaming but kills at CUDA apps)

- OCZ Agility Series OCZSSD2-1AGT60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (boot drive)

- Some old Seagate 500 GB 7200 rpm (data drive)

- CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W

- various other stuff.  DVD-DL drive, multi-card reader, etc.  Case is an Antec p180.

 

I'm running Windows 7 64 bit.  My day to day tasks are browsing the web, running hundreds of torrents in uTorrent (although I will migrate all my torrents onto my unRAID server as soon as the official unRAID 5.0 torrent add-on is released), and syncing multiple mp3 players, cameras, and other devices.  Obviously I don't need a better CPU for any of that stuff.  However, I do also play the occasional game (Starcraft II, and lately a bit of Fallout: New Vegas), I occasionally encode video with Handbrake, and also rip/convert music with dbpoweramp.  I also do a bit of audio and video editing from time to time.  I'm also getting into photography, so I'll be doing more and more photo editing with photoshop and gimp (I prefer gimp), probably some RAW editing also.

 

I'm basically just looking for my computer to feel a bit faster.  I've already got an SSD and 4 GBs of RAM, so I figured my CPU was the weakest link.  Thoughts?

 

I'm tempted by some of the sub-$100 AM3 quad cores currently available, but I've read some bad reviews that have dissuaded me.

 

Finally, I'm considering building a second computer specifically for audio editing and to run my DJ software.  My hardware above would probably be perfectly adequate for that purpose, so that's one point towards just building myself a new desktop based on an i5 or i7 and repurposing my current hardware.

 

Do the i5 and i7 have the same low power consumption when idle as the i3 does?  I leave my desktop on 24/7 (to seed torrents, so not sleeping either), so that could be a consideration as well.  I'm also wondering if an i3 might be enough of an improvement over my current CPU that I don't need to bother with the i5/i7 (and avoid paying that premium).

 

I don't really have a set budget right now, but of course I want to save money wherever possible.  If I'm just upgrading the CPU and keeping the rest of my hardware, then let's keep it under $200.

 

By the way, I'll be traveling all next week (actually from 11/12 to 11/22), so I may not respond much during that time.  I'll be visiting New Orleans, somewhere near Galveston TX, Austin TX, and possibly San Antonio TX if anyone wants to buy me a beer ;D

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Do the i5 and i7 have the same low power consumption when idle as the i3 does?  I leave my desktop on 24/7 (to seed torrents, so not sleeping either), so that could be a consideration as well.  I'm also wondering if an i3 might be enough of an improvement over my current CPU that I don't need to bother with the i5/i7 (and avoid paying that premium).

 

For what I understand of that piece of technology, when it comes to idling around,

all i3, i5 and i7 should perform about the same.

These CPUs are split into a CORE an unCORE (like in unRAID, isn't that nice from Intel  :D) part.

All CORE parts have speedstep and sleep-state features, which should "run" them at 0W when idling.

The unCORE part should idle around 3-5W, depending of the "size" of this part, like how many lanes a controller

has got and such.

 

When you are looking into power efficiency while being NOT idle, the 32nm lithography processors are the most efficient.

Also Turbo-Boost features seems to be killer, energy-saving wise.

For approx 4% of performance gain, energy consumption raise for more than 30% on some processors.

So plan/go for a CPU without that feature or where you can afford to disable it in the BIOS.

Here's a nice review (but in german language I'm afraid).

 

 

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I leave my desktop on 24/7 (to seed torrents, so not sleeping either), so that could be a consideration as well.

 

I use an old laptop computer (ASUS netbook with atom processor) as my "leave on 24/7" Usenet download machine.  I try to minimize household power consumption as much as possible so I was concerned about leaving my main Core i7 based desktop PC on 24/7. 

 

The netbook is much more power efficient than my main PC so I don't feel too bad about leaving the netbook running all of the time.  You wouldn't want to create videos or play resource hungry games on the netbook - but it's perfect for basic web surfing and Usenet/Torrent downloading.

 

Just throwing this idea out there for you since this solution allowed me to build a more powerful desktop without worrying too much about the power consumption of a rig that is left on 24/7.

 

You should be able to find a cheap, used netbook or laptop on eBay if you decided to try this.

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