thoughts of upgrading my computer

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

You're right -- an i3 would be plenty for what you need. Christenson has at least one i3 pointed out in his post. If you want anything more, it's a question of how much you'd be willing to spend on P95/pari/whatever throughput. That seems to be the only unanswered question.

my budget may change but right now I have more than enough for almost any i3 as far as I know I've already said the amount that I have, it may come down to which of the ones below the i7 system have the most performance increase versus the price increase for an example if I did try to go with the i7 (I'm trying not to) it's priced around 1100 plus tax 10 times the price of a computer with a relatively similar processor to the one I have ( another sub type of Pentium D) so if I can't get 10 times the performance out of it for that price it may not be worth the money, because I could buy a farm of the lesser processor ( not going to happen just hypothetical) and get more results turned in ( though it might also raise the cost of electricity (which my mom won't like)).

[Dubslow]

Ummm... I think I understood what you are saying. i7 systems are closer to $800-$900 -- with a $1700 budget, you could two of them, but we already have discounted this in multiple ways.

As for performance, I think the mersenne.org benchmark pages are the best place; most other modern benchmarks used in CPU reviews weren't even written in the time of Pentium D.

2.8 GHz Pentium D
Current i5
Current i7

Looks like a roughly 2-2.5 per core performance increase with twice the cores, so 4-5x throughput. Also note that the i5 has roughly the same performance as the i7, for generally quite a bit less money; the i5 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy for Value (the i7 didn't). If you're aiming for best throughput/price, I'd say go with an i5 system. I believe Christenson pointed some out at around ~$600?

Originally posted by: Tom's Hardware

If there was one Sandy Bridge-based SKU that I’d personally recommend to friends and family building new PCs, it’d be the Core i5-2500K. Its performance relative to AMD’s lineup and the rest of Intel’s stack is noteworthy—especially given its price tag just north of $200. ...this is only the second time in two and a half years that I’ve dusted off the Recommended Buy award for a very deserving processor...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,2833-22.html

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Ummm... I think I understood what you are saying. i7 systems are closer to $800-$900 -- with a $1700 budget, you could two of them, but we already have discounted this in multiple ways.

As for performance, I think the mersenne.org benchmark pages are the best place; most other modern benchmarks used in CPU reviews weren't even written in the time of Pentium D.

2.8 GHz Pentium D
Current i5
Current i7

Looks like a roughly 2-2.5 per core performance increase with twice the cores, so 4-5x throughput. Also note that the i5 has roughly the same performance as the i7, for generally quite a bit less money; the i5 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy for Value (the i7 didn't). If you're aiming for best throughput/price, I'd say go with an i5 system. I believe Christenson pointed some out at around ~$600?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,2833-22.html

really for the i5-2500K 4 cores the cheapest one is about 790 + tax right now, and can only be bought online and is sold out.

[bcp19]

Originally Posted by science_man_88

my budget may change but right now I have more than enough for almost any i3 as far as I know I've already said the amount that I have, it may come down to which of the ones below the i7 system have the most performance increase versus the price increase for an example if I did try to go with the i7 (I'm trying not to) it's priced around 1100 plus tax 10 times the price of a computer with a relatively similar processor to the one I have ( another sub type of Pentium D) so if I can't get 10 times the performance out of it for that price it may not be worth the money, because I could buy a farm of the lesser processor ( not going to happen just hypothetical) and get more results turned in ( though it might also raise the cost of electricity (which my mom won't like)).

Your comment on electricity is spot on, while a system costing 10X what your current system costs may only produce a 5x gain, I have a feeling it would run on about 1/5 the electrical power of 10 systems. I did some checking with a killawatt device and my i5 2400 was sitting at around 300 watts with P95 and 2 instances of mfaktc running the GPU at 99%, but without the GPU it was around 200-210 watts with all 4 cores running P95. My old P3 by comparison was using 110 watts running P95 (single core) and my old Core2 Duo was about 140 watts with both cores on P95.

Originally Posted by science_man_88

really for the i5-2500K 4 cores the cheapest one is about 790 + tax right now, and can only be bought online and is sold out.

I would suggest you look at a 2400 vice the 2500K. The K is an unlocked CPU that with a good cooling fan/heatsink can be overclocked to higher GHz. Someone not up to building their own system would not need an overclockable CPU.

[Dubslow]

The 2500 also comes in a non-K variant, but otherwise the point is valid. My brother's school recently purchased a 2400S Mac.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the CPU's mentioned above are all 95W TDP (I believe your P D is 125W), while the S variant is 65W TDP. If power is important, take a look at S variant Intel CPU's. (Or T, which is like 35 or 45W, but of course with an even bigger performance hit.)

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by bcp19

The K is an unlocked CPU that with a good cooling fan/heatsink can be overclocked to higher GHz. Someone not up to building their own system would not need an overclockable CPU.

good point, I was down at staples today even their acer ? miniature got better GHz than mine does with at least the same amount of memory. the one with the i7 in it I saw looked massive in size. apparently they can get norton and restore disk etc. on the computers but it cost extra money.

Originally Posted by Dubslow

Edit: Now that I think about it, the CPU's mentioned above are all 95W TDP (I believe your P D is 125W), while the S variant is 65W TDP. If power is important, take a look at S variant Intel CPU's. (Or T, which is like 35 or 45W, but of course with an even bigger performance hit.)

see you all know more about the wacky looking names than I do.

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by science_man_88

good point, I was down at staples today even their acer ? miniature got better GHz than mine does with at least the same amount of memory. the one with the i7 in it I saw looked massive in size. apparently they can get norton and restore disk etc. on the computers but it cost extra money.




see you all know more about the wacky looking names than I do.

found http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...r-numbers.html for intel processors.

[KyleAskine]

I may have missed something, but if your family is buying it, and you must have something preassembled, why not something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227378

You have the best processor per dollar, and a nice graphics card for gaming, and mfakto if you want.

You can grab a cheap monitor anywhere local.

Just trying to throw something concrete out there.

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by KyleAskine

I may have missed something, but if your family is buying it, and you must have something preassembled, why not something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227378

You have the best processor per dollar, and a nice graphics card for gaming, and mfakto if you want.

You can grab a cheap monitor anywhere local.

Just trying to throw something concrete out there.

most of my games are facebook games if i even go on facebook, don't do world of warcraft etc.

[bcp19]

Since you are not into games and not in need of a GPU, here is a group of 8GB machines of varying prices with GIMPS benchmark data.

The system you are running has this benchmark:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 2793 32.56 40.69 51.37 60.80 68.36 84.53 108.10 125.37 145.27 15.97
A powerful inexpensive system here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-...&skuId=2677303 has a benchmark around:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 3110 12.36 15.78 18.16 21.99 24.99 32.88 40.40 49.17 51.14 3.47
For under $500 you have nearly the speed of the i5 2400 though with only 1/2 the cores. This system has good computing capability, plenty of ram and would outperform your current system by around 3 to 1.
For an extra $100 you could go with http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+...&skuId=3155928 which benchmarks around:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 2848 12.65 15.46 18.78 22.78 26.48 32.98 39.38 47.36 55.12 3.69
Slightly less powerful than the i3 above, but nearly double the processing power with 4 cores.
The general powerhouse of the bunch http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=3558118 costs $800 and benchs at:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 3143 11.13 14.32 17.41 21.26 23.17 29.57 36.15 44.00 48.35 3.39
More than double the i3's capability and able to handle anything you are likely to throw at it.
Of the 3, my personal recommendation would be the Gateway for about $600. I realize that I am looking at US pricing and your cost in Canada would be different, but you can see from these 3 examples a good selection in terms of power vs price.

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by bcp19

Since you are not into games and not in need of a GPU, here is a group of 8GB machines of varying prices with GIMPS benchmark data.

The system you are running has this benchmark:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 2793 32.56 40.69 51.37 60.80 68.36 84.53 108.10 125.37 145.27 15.97
A powerful inexpensive system here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-...&skuId=2677303 has a benchmark around:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 3110 12.36 15.78 18.16 21.99 24.99 32.88 40.40 49.17 51.14 3.47
For under $500 you have nearly the speed of the i5 2400 though with only 1/2 the cores. This system has good computing capability, plenty of ram and would outperform your current system by around 3 to 1.
For an extra $100 you could go with http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+...&skuId=3155928 which benchmarks around:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 2848 12.65 15.46 18.78 22.78 26.48 32.98 39.38 47.36 55.12 3.69
Slightly less powerful than the i3 above, but nearly double the processing power with 4 cores.
The general powerhouse of the bunch http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=3558118 costs $800 and benchs at:
Windows64,Prime95,v26.6,build 3 3143 11.13 14.32 17.41 21.26 23.17 29.57 36.15 44.00 48.35 3.39
More than double the i3's capability and able to handle anything you are likely to throw at it.
Of the 3, my personal recommendation would be the Gateway for about $600. I realize that I am looking at US pricing and your cost in Canada would be different, but you can see from these 3 examples a good selection in terms of power vs price.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...3dfcbbe9faen02

http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/SearchR...Category=20213

http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/SearchR...Category=20213 are the best comparisons I could get on the data given in the ads onto the Canadian site.

is there anything special the numbers talk about in the processor name ? I get the letters mean stuff my first guess is the MHz of the processor. never mind I didn't look closely enough at the link I gave:

Processor Family Number Sequence System Type
Intel® Itanium® processor 9000 Multi-processor and dual-processor
Intel® Xeon® processor 7000 Multi-processor
Intel® Xeon® processor 5000 Dual-processor
Intel® Xeon® processor 3000 Single-processor