there ain't no substitute for cubic inches

[deadrats]

for anyone familiar with car racing, there's an old adage that goes one of two ways:

there's no replacement for displacement

or

there's no substitute for cubic inches

what it means in a nutshell is that if you want to go faster you can't beat a bigger engine. the same seems to hold true for the number of cores. i originally had a core i3 2100 and swapped in a core i5 2400 and x264 encode times with most sources and under most conditions were cut in half.

well microcenterpc is running a promo were you can get a x6 1045t for $100 and get a free motherboard, so i decided it was too good a deal to pass up:

http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

i have to tell you guys i am pretty surprised by how much faster the 1045 is over the 2400, especially once i crank up the quality settings with x264, with some 1080p encodes it's almost half an hour faster and the pc stays more responsive. i can't help but think that amd dropped the ball not simply rebadging the magna-cores 8 core opterons as desktop cpu's and selling those as "bulldozers".

if anyone is thinking of picking one of these puppies up, i strongly recommend that you get yourself an after market "quiet" cooler, because the one that comes with this processor just isn't up to snuff, under load this thing sounds like a hair dryer.

[fritzi93]

Wow, that's tempting, even though I don't really need another six core machine right now.

Yeah, if x264 encoding is one's top priority, that's the business. Core count.

As to the stock cooler, reviewers will often liken it to sounding like a hairblower or even a jet engine when under load. A bit of an exaggeration, but it's loud alright. I haven't replaced mine since it doesn't bother me (much). It *does* cool the processor adequately, even when mildly overclocked.

Anyone wanting to do a cheap, powerful build ought to seriously consider the offerings at the link.

[hech54]

As to the stock cooler,

Injection is nice, but I'd rather be blown?


Just keeping the car/racing slogans going.

[fritzi93]

Hey, that's it. When an encode kicks in CPU usage/fan speed shoots up fast. It sounds like a turbo blower spooling up, if you've ever heard one. Well, not really, but a little. Just going along with the race engine thing.

[EDIT] Good joke.

[ranchhand]

I took my "airplane engine" CPU fan and swapped for a liquid cooler setup; computer runs quiet now, and I disabled two of my case fans because they weren't needed any more. Only unknown factor is that I have an AMD quad (see my stats) and you have a 6-pack so I am not sure how the cooling would be affected with two more cores. Anyway, look into those pre-made water coolers, they are reasonably priced, quiet, and do a great job.
side thought: any of you guys remember the Chevy Malibu SS396 HO from the 60's? That was my dream car as a kid.

[fritzi93]

side thought: any of you guys remember the Chevy Malibu SS396 HO from the 60's? That was my dream car as a kid.

My brother-in-law had one, back in the day. He got another one some years ago meaning to restore it. Then came divorce and forced early retirement, so no progress on that, last I heard. What a pity.

Anyway, yeah, I remember it well. A college friend had one, and one day he said to me: "jump in, let me show you what it'll do". Scared the hell out of me. It was the Chevelle Super Sport 396 actually, now that I think of it, but pretty much the same thing as the Malibu. Same engine and chassis, minor differences in the body work..

[Verify]

Ah the ignorance of youth - in my day (late 40s), the hot rod trade had several related expressions:

"If it won't go chrome it." and when boring an engine "If in doubt, go larger."

Now get off my lawn

[redwudz]

I've been very happy with my six core AMD. I do a lot of H.264 encodes, and it is quite a bit faster than my previous quad cores. I also love the Corsair H50 water cooler. The PC is silent, even OC'd to 3.7Ghz under 100% load. I had tried several 'monster' air coolers over the years and I wasn't impressed with any of them.

OT but 'Real' HP: 500CI, 8000HP @ 8200RPM, 1/4 mile in four seconds @ over 300MPH from a standing start.

[misterbill]

It's now 1000' in under 4 seconds, over 300mph.