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Forums - PC - Advice on CPUs with lots of cores

Slimebeast on 13 May 2010

Yeah, just grab an AMD Phenom II X6.



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NJ5 on 13 May 2010
Soleron said:

AMD sells 8-cores starting at $266 (2GHz Opteron 6128) and 12-core Opterons starting at $744 (1.9GHz Opteron 6164 HE). Those are list prices. They are for sale, but not on Newegg except the more expensive ones, so look around a bit and they will be there. Google has a few shops listed:

Cheapest 8-core: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=opteron+6128
Cheapest 12-core: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=opteron+6168

Server boards that support them are relatively cheap, like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182230

If you need more cores than 12, then you can get 2P and 4P boards for the above, so up to 48 cores. And I believe Intel can do 8P 8-cores (so 64 cores) but for astronomic amounts of money.

 

As for desktop CPUs, neither Intel or AMD is going above six cores in 2010, but AMD now has some desktop 6-cores for quite cheap. A 2.8GHz 6-core Phenom II X6 1055T is $205 on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103851

Awesome. I'll look harder for that 6128 around here, it's really cheap for an 8-core.

However as ithis and others mentioned, I have to check whether I really want to get a server CPU... It would be much better if I could also use the PC for a desktop, games and all. If not, I'll probably settle for a Phenom II X6 unless I can wait.

From what I've seen there are motherboards with the G34 socket (for Opteron) which support PCI-Express too, so it's not like the Opteron can't be used for a desktop.

Thanks everyone!

HappySqurriel said:

I would say that it would really depend on the nature of the application and the price range you were thinking of ...

One option would be to pick up a dual CPU motherboard and, while they are not that common, there are a couple of these motherboards designed around the i7 core for enthusiasts; and they’re in the $400 range. While I don’t have many specifics available about them, I’m fairly certain you could take one of these mother boards, combine it with 2 quad-core i5 processors, and get a decent amount of memory for less than buying one of the high-end 8-core processors.

I'll check out the prices for dual-CPU motherboards too, but on the Intel side I thought you needed Xeon CPUs for a multi-CPU system.

 



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jefforange89 on 13 May 2010
Soleron said:
jefforange89 said:

For AMD's octocores and dodecacores, you're getting into server CPUs which cost a lot more than desktop ones.

That said, what I linked above was an 8-core server CPU and then a motherboard that together would be $531. Which is much cheaper than servers usually are.

This is true, however, that would also be getting a 2 GHz 8-core CPU, which isn't really practical for everyday use.  Even the lowest-clocked Thuban would be a lot better for general use.



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Soleron on 13 May 2010
NJ5 said:
Soleron said:

On the Intel side I thought you needed Xeon CPUs for a multi-CPU system.

You do. Some desktop CPUs will work in server motheboards, but only with a single CPU.

At mainstream price points, AMD 2P and 4P server parts do tend to be cheaper for the same performance, and competitive on power consumption.



Soleron on 13 May 2010
jefforange89 said:
...

This is true, however, that would also be getting a 2 GHz 8-core CPU, which isn't really practical for everyday use.  Even the lowest-clocked Thuban would be a lot better for general use.

Yes; I just meant if it was only for this project and not general use.

Since it is meant to be a desktop as well, the Thubans do seem like the best option.

 



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NJ5 on 13 May 2010
Soleron said:
jefforange89 said:
...

This is true, however, that would also be getting a 2 GHz 8-core CPU, which isn't really practical for everyday use.  Even the lowest-clocked Thuban would be a lot better for general use.

Yes; I just meant if it was only for this project and not general use.

Since it is meant to be a desktop as well, the Thubans do seem like the best option.

 

6 cores might be acceptable for now, as I can get access to servers with more cores for occasional testing.

It would be great if I could find a nice solution with 8 or more cores, but even having a 6 core CPU would be much better than my current CPU for testing and optimization (a dual core Intel E4500 2.2 GHz).

 



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Ail on 13 May 2010

Well the dual 3Ghz Xeon 5450 I have at work is great but it's definitly out of your price range.......
It does fit your description of being a desktop and not a server though........



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kennyrester on 13 May 2010

Just get one with one really big core instead



NJ5 on 13 May 2010

I've almost made up my mind to get:

- Phenom II X6 @ 2.8 GHz
- HD5750 or HD5770 (for gaming at 1680x1050)
- Asus M4A785TD or M4A79XTD motherboard (not sure if the cheaper one requires a bios update for this CPU).
- 4 GB RAM

Any thoughts?



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Soleron on 13 May 2010

Sounds good.

You may even be able to upgrade to AMD's 8-core Bulldozers in 2011, they should be socket compatible.