My Q6600 is a little slow - i7 or wait?

myjunk wrote in post #9280773
Here's my 2 cents (as usual right)

I got myself an i7-920 (Acer M7720-492 if not mistaken)
266Ghz (8 cores) (NO-Overclock. Don't know how w/ this motherboard)
6GB Ram
74G WD Raptor (for LR catalog)
640G Main HD w/ 20G for Camera Raw Cache
Win Vista 64 Home Premium (Just got the Win7 upgrade in the mail. Have not started to the upgrade yet)

I'm LOVING it...

Exports 400+ 18MP RAW image to full JPG w/ 240ppi in ~15mins. (that's ~2mins per picture)

Rendering of images when I use LR is also quick ~1sec for the image to be available for editing and the Sliders are very responsive as well. No more lags which annoys the heck out of me compared to my old Core Duo 1.8Gz machine

BTW : What programs do you guys use to check temperature and power utilisation etc? I'm new into this Windows Stuffs. (I'm a linux guy who uses Windows for photography only)

PS : Web surfing is also _very_ fast which is a surprise to me actually.

You can try Core Temp. It's compatible with the i7 chips.

http://www.alcpu.com/C​oreTemp/

Here's another one that's popular. CPU-Z is good for checking your overclocks on your CPU and memory.
http://www.cpuid.com/c​puz.php

Thanks Guys. Will take a look at them.

What about power consumption? I don't reckon those provides as well?

My recommendation is an overclocked i7 920 with a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R and 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 CAS8 or better. On top of that, grab a SSD - either an Intel X-25 or an OCZ Vertex. That combination will give you some fantastic results.

If you don't have the cash for all of the above, grab the SSD and maybe drop a Q9550 into your current board (depending on whether your motherboard supports it - might need a BIOS update).

EDIT: As far as power consumption, expect slightly higher numbers with i7 - an extra stick of RAM and a 130W TDP. I'd need to see the full specs of your current computer to know what else to recommend.

myjunk wrote in post #9280824
Thanks Guys. Will take a look at them.

What about power consumption? I don't reckon those provides as well?

Never tested power consumption ever but, I'm sure you can get external equimpment that tests that.

As for actual power consumption, my UPS readout says my i7 system consumes 317W idle and 400W under full CPU load with everything at stock speeds. Granted, I have an atypical system - water cooling, lots of fans, and two GPUs - so I'd subtract about 100W from idle and load as a rough estimate for your potential system.

Oh, and I recommend RealTemp for monitoring temperatures instead of CoreTemp. I guess either one's fine, but I find the large numbers and distance to TJmax more satisfying.

Realtemp you say. .Thanks.

Since you breached the subject of UPS. I have an UPS which is just making hell lot of noise and even shut down my system. (beeping noise signifying that it's supposed to be running on batt power)

The UPS is rated at 300W, and the Acer is rated at ~450W is not mistaken. Is this the reason why the thing is beeping franticly? Should I be getting a bigger UPS? How do I calculate what's needed for the UPS?

I have 2 system which will be on UPS.
A home server - Atom board (945GCLF) and the Acer.(i7)

Monitor and the rest can be on normal power, it's OK.

myjunk wrote in post #9280773
Exports 400+ 18MP RAW image to full JPG w/ 240ppi in ~15mins. (that's ~2mins per picture)

Interesting maths there! You're at 2.25 seconds per image, same as my Q6600 does

ELItheICEman wrote in post #9280853
My recommendation is an overclocked i7 920 with a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R and 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 CAS8 or better. On top of that, grab a SSD - either an Intel X-25 or an OCZ Vertex. That combination will give you some fantastic results.

If you don't have the cash for all of the above, grab the SSD and maybe drop a Q9550 into your current board (depending on whether your motherboard supports it - might need a BIOS update).

EDIT: As far as power consumption, expect slightly higher numbers with i7 - an extra stick of RAM and a 130W TDP. I'd need to see the full specs of your current computer to know what else to recommend.

SSD is still kinda pricey here, but I think could help responsiveness. When I get the new chip (now or in 12 months) i'll probably get one though.

myjunk wrote in post #9280967
Realtemp you say. .Thanks.

Since you breached the subject of UPS. I have an UPS which is just making hell lot of noise and even shut down my system. (beeping noise signifying that it's supposed to be running on batt power)

The UPS is rated at 300W, and the Acer is rated at ~450W is not mistaken. Is this the reason why the thing is beeping franticly? Should I be getting a bigger UPS? How do I calculate what's needed for the UPS?

I have 2 system which will be on UPS.
A home server - Atom board (945GCLF) and the Acer.(i7)

Monitor and the rest can be on normal power, it's OK.

I used to have a UPS, but it made an annoying high pitched noise so got rid of it.

@ tim - yeah, SSDs are very pricey still, but IMO the performance boost is worth every penny. Heck, I have 4x OCZ Vertex 30GB drives in RAID0 right now. My primary money pit is (and has been) my computer though.

@ myjunk - I think your 300W UPS is extremely underrated for your system. Mine is a 750W PSU, which equates to (I think) 1250VA. The beeping is most likely either the battery backup kicking in or its power supply rating is being exceeded by your system. I'd go for a new UPS if you need one on your computer, and send the 300W one to your Atom system. Always leave extra headroom if you can.

I recommend EVGA motherboards for anyone considering an i7 especially if you want to overclock. You can adjust every setting available in the BIOS for overclocking from within Windows on the fly with the included utilities.

tim wrote in post #9280979
Interesting maths there! You're at 2.25 seconds per image, same as my Q6600 does

ELItheICEman wrote in post #9280993
@ myjunk - I think your 300W UPS is extremely underrated for your system. Mine is a 750W PSU, which equates to (I think) 1250VA. The beeping is most likely either the battery backup kicking in or its power supply rating is being exceeded by your system. I'd go for a new UPS if you need one on your computer, and send the 300W one to your Atom system. Always leave extra headroom if you can.

Tim : hmm.. the way you make is sound like I spent excessively on the new i7 I'll go back and make sure I time my exports properly instead of giving ballpark figures.

Iceman : yep. I think youre' right. Hence, I actually yanked out the UPS and put in a normal Belkin Power surge 4 gang adapter instead. I'll see if I can afford a new UPS.

(spent quite a lot already these few months w/ the 7D + i7 system + the new U2410 [this is arriving in the mail by next week])

No to overclocking in Windows. Stick to the BIOS if you're going to overclock.

EVGA x58 boards are, on average, good - the Classified is of course the best. But for the price, I still stand by Gigabyte's offerings. The only reason to go with the Classified is to beat the 222 BCLK wall, which really only comes in handy when going for extreme (usually unstable) overclocks anyway.

With my setup, I've benched at 4.4GHz w/HT enabled - that's roughly my CPU's limits. That's at 21x210, which is well below the 222 BCLK wall. Long story short, your money's better spent on a good price/performance board.

PS - once again, I have water cooling. With air, good luck hitting anywhere close to 4.4GHz within the safe temperature range.

ELItheICEman wrote in post #9281039
No to overclocking in Windows. Stick to the BIOS if you're going to overclock.

I find it quite useful to be able to change the clock then immediately start running prime to see if it's stable. Having to reboot, go into the BIOS, then wait for Windows to boot, then finally start prime every single time I bump the clock/RAM/whatever is an absolute pain in the ***.

Obviously once I've found a stable overclock I'll enter it into the BIOS so it's there on every future startup.

What graphics card are you using? I have a hunch that you might need to upgrade your graphics card.

Speaking of SSD, the Intel X-25 series is pretty much the best you can buy. A cheaper alternative would be to buy 2 1TB drives, short stroking, then running them in a RAID 0 array. It may not be as fast as an SSD but it's a lot cheaper than an SSD; cheaper and even faster than running Velociraptors in RAID.

Why would you think a new graphics card would make any difference? I have a card supported by CS4.