best overclock for conversion?

[funsoul]

Hi Folks

Finally getting everything set in the new case and am wondering about the best overclocking for conversion. Mostly from video captured from DV (although some from vobs using gk) and encoding to mpeg1/2 and Xvid.

Am running 2x2.4/533 xeons with 4x512 ocz platinum rev2 on asus pc-dl (with vcore, vdimm and vio mods).

What would be the best balance between cpu clockspeed, fsb and ram timings? From what I've read/seen, all are important factors affecting conversion times.

For example, am currently able to run 15x @ 232.4fsb with ram 1:1 at 2-3-3-5. Would I see better (shorter) conversion times if I went with a lower fsb and higher clockspeed? How about higher fsb with looser ram timings? What about HT? For mpeg conversions, the speeds are much better with HT off. How about for XviD?

Anyway....would welcome feedback, comments, guidance, etc..

tia!
-funsoul

PS- Apologies if this is in the wrong section....wasn't quite sure

[INFRATOM]

check your bios see if your ASUS motherboard support overclocking that way it does everything in proportion for you by itself and go 5% at a time and check stability. Some cpu's are ok for overclocking some are not. mostly celeron is overclocked.
one question for you if your parts are new why did you make these choices 2.4 gighz .. eg you could have bought single cpu MB cheaper and got a higher cpu clock speed cpu with 800 FSB or higher. not many programs out there uses dual cpu, that configuration is ok for a server. Give us more info

[funsoul]

Hi INFRATOM

Thanks for your reply!

All the overclocking is essentially manual in the bios. The setup's a couple years' old at this point and for mpeg1/2 using tmpgenc it's very fast (ht off, cpu utilization after tweaking is around 95%). The 'new' parts are the case, watercooling, the raptor primary, ocz ram and the dvdr.

The 2.4/533 xeons are arguably the most overclockable of the xeons (the exception being the 1.6LV's that regularly see 100% overclocks). At 232.4, the system's at 930MHz (that's the number to compare against the 800MHz you reference). The cpu's have hit just under 3.6GHz but from what I've read, it's more about fsb and ram timings than absolute cpu clockspeed.

Tmpgenc is definitely smp-capable. So far don't know of any XviD encoders that are, though.

Basically trying to find the best balance among fsb, clockspeed and ram timings to minimize conversion times.

Please let me know if there's any more info that any of you need to help me optimize this setup.

-funsoul

[harley2ride]

The risk you are going to be putting your equipment to, isn't really worth the few seconds per dvd that you will be saving. I can do the same movie on my 3.2ghz and my 3.4ghz systems, and they are done at almost exactly the same time. If you already have your system up around 3.4ghz, it will be more than enough. As for ram timings, 2.2.2.5 is very fast. But I would rather have 1gb of slower ddr533, than faster timed ddr400. And it all depends on if your motherboard and fsb can handle those speeds correctly. I would suggest going with moderate tweaking, and try some actual performance tests to see if you are actually gaining any speed in the overall process, before running your system all out.

[edDV]

Further,

Encoding overclock is different than burst overclocking for games.

When you set a CPU rate for encoding it will be running at maximum rate for up to hours.

Cooling is important.

[redwudz]

These sites might give you the information you want:

http://www.hardocp.com/

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/

http://www.overclockers.com/

http://www.sysopt.com/systemdb/overclock/

http://www.tweaktown.com/

[funsoul]

Thanks for the feedback folks!

harley2ride- points taken. I think the best times will be with a high fsb and 2-2-2-5 ram timings. Soem quick tests are showing much faster runs using the pc3200@2-2-2-5 vs. my old pc3500@3-3-3-5.

There's a very significant difference in times when going from 2.4 to 3.4 but getting an extra 100mhz is not going to save much of anything.

edDv- The hardware can take it without really breaking a sweat...full-load temps max out at 41/41/55 (cpu1/cpu2/vrm). Will continue testing (for example, superpi) to make sure everything stays accurate at those speeds.

redwudz- thanks for the links! Some are known but a couple are new to me....will check them out

[Cobra]

Moving you to the Computer Forum / Cobra

[smearbrick1]

I realize TMPGENC supports dual cpus, but is it really worth it. I mean how cost effective is it to buy 2 2.4 ghz Xeons w/ 533 fsb and all of the associated hardware when you could purchase one HT 3.2 or 3.4 P4 and a single socket MB? From a time management standpoint, it isn't really worth the extra time spent tweaking your system settings and running the risk of entire system meltdown...

To each his/her own I guess.

[funsoul]

hi smearbrick1
Picked up stuff a couple year's ago (just upgraded memory)....at the time there were no 3.2/3.4 p4's out yet and the stock performance (ie- non-overclocked) still blows away either of those chips.

I do a pretty fair amount of encoding and don't have a ton of free time so anything to speed up the process is much appreciated.

Also...sure...massive overclocking can shorten the lifespan of components (mild o/c-ing if properly cooled has negligible effect on lifespan) but how many of us keep the same setup for more than 5-7 years anyway?

Anyhoo....you're right....smp and/or overclocking are a personal preference but it's nice to get the most out of whatever system fits one's budget.

[rallynavvie]

I'm assuming those are the M-0 stepping revision 2.4 Prestonias, those are the overclockers candidates and something studtrooper somewhere around here knows more about.

With such a rig disable HT. You already have 2 processors there isn't any need to divide that to 4 logical CPUs. Besides most apps aren't SMP aware anyway so may as well get the work out of those CPUs.

As far as raw encoding clock speed is everything. Bus speeds will help immensely when doing editing and other such work though. I can't recall what the standard OC is on the PC-DL with the BSEL mod done. The overclocking seems simpler on my DH800, just isolate a pin and bridge two others and a Prestonia will boot at 200+ no problems. Of course I can also run Noconas/Irwindales in mine without mods too, but the 3.2 Noconas I had seemed to run worse and hotter than the Prestonias I've got in there now.

I'm loathe to overclock my system. I'm sure it could 3.2/800 without even a hiccup but since I'm doing this for hire I don't want anything going wrong. One glitch in an encode session could set me back days. Plus I get to retain my warranty so if something does go wrong I can RMA the parts which has saved me several hundred dollars. However if you're doing it as an enthusiast go nuts. Out of curiosity what sort of cooling are you running on that thing?

[funsoul]

hi rallynavvie!

First off....thanks for your reply! Been tough to find clear answers to the overclock/clockspeed/fsb/latencies for encoding thing.

So...it's all about clockspeed, eh? Bit easier than fsb/latency tweaking. Am up around 3.5/930 atm so will work from there. Yeah...speeds are much better non-HT.

Running a pair of C1's (got them nice n' cheap). Downside is that they can't seem to hit 3.6 (for the BSEL 18x200 thing)....maybe after more burning in (just moved the whole setup to a new case and added watercooling and new ram).

Running the swiftech 600x (6002 i think...can't recall atm...1/2" barbs) waterblocks, dual heatercore from a bonneville (with shroud and 2xpanaflos), a swiftech mcp-350 pump that I modified (flowrate went from ~108 to ~ 188), tygon tubing.

I certainly understand your shyness about overclocking. That's the difference between doing this stuff for fun vs. making a living

Thanks again for the feedback rallynavvie...will search for some of studtrouper's posts

[studtrooper]

As others have pointed out, a higher clockspeed is usually more important than a super 200+ high FSB. A special place 100% dedicated to ASUS'es Xeon consumer mobos (PC-DL, PCH-DL, and the NCCH-DL) you should check out is www.datamine.tk . I've had my PC-DL for around 14 months now and it's been an interesting experience.

Quite personally, I miss having the simplicity of a one-socket mobo. My experience would have probably been better if the PC-DL didn't have a complete bitch of a BIOS (no voltage regulation, no 200fsb without some extensive modification, etc) and VERY tight space around the Xeon sockets (DAMN CAPACITORS!)...

[funsoul]

hiya studtrouper!

Yeah...wanted to clear up my confusion. The datamine site is outstanding and I'm out there quite a bit. Difficulty is that there are very few videofolks out there (only 1 that I've seen and they do mostly editing with the final encoding being a relatively minor part). Most stress the importance of high fsb's.

Have had my pc-dl for a couple years now and, yes, quite a bit of modding to be done but all are pretty easy (with the exception of the advanced vcore mod).

I love smp (but have a couple single cpu rigs)...yes...single socket jobs are somewhat easier (and the lack of smp support in most apps is a hassle) but that should improve as dual-core becomes more widespread. Also, on a $/horsepower basis, smp is fantastic (2x2.4@3.5ghz=7ghz...tough to do singlestylee).

I'm actually hoping that my next major upgrade (to replace the old p4 1.4ghz) will be a dual-cpu, dualcore number (willing to wait 12-24 months for mobo availability and cpu price drops for that upgrade, though).

Anyhoo....thanks for your comments....I appreciate the feedback!

[edDV]

So can one or more of you overclockers report some benchmarks for known MPeg2 encoders (e.g. Mainconcept, CCE, TMPGEnc, etc.)?

Let's compute from a 1 Hr. uncompressed capture to a MPeg2 encoded file at 8000 Mb/s CBR and LPCM audio to make it easier to compare.

[funsoul]

Hi edDV!
If someone wants to get the test files and host them somewhere, I'd make a go of it. I don't have a 'real' capture card in this pc atm...been doing most stuff via dvpassthrough.

studtrouper....running the videohelp vcd benchmark, came up with some weird results:

stock (133x18): 0:48
overclocked (238x15): 0:32
=============
0:16 saved = 33% performance gain

Overclock = 48% (2400>3572)

Where do you think I'm losing that 15% clockspeed gain???

Ram timings stock are 2-2-2-5, overclocked are 2-3-3-5. Tried it at 18x198(3564) and finished in 0:33 so the multi has no effect

Something seems weird...any ideas or suggestions?

[rallynavvie]

I've already got a project going for benchmarking on TMPGEnc, it's stickied to the top of this forum.

As for price/performance ratio an SMP rig is NOT where it's at. Consider that for, let's say double the performance of a single CPU station, we're paying roughly twice as much for the board, and then almost twice as much on each CPU. So now for the basics we're up to 3x the cost of a single CPU machine for only double the performance, and that double really only kicks in when you're using the right applications.

For instance gamers would be far better off spending their cash elsewhere. The reason I've invested in them is I make money from them so I can justify the cost. Plus I enjoy the smaller SMP community. I built my first, based on the infamous Tyan 2460, about 5 years ago. The recent one was one of the first DH800 machines in the US, right from the manufacturer the day after their initial release. They both get used pretty hard, even when I'm not home. Batch encoding and RDP are wonderful things 8)

[edDV]

I've already got a project going for benchmarking on TMPGEnc, it's stickied to the top of this forum.

As for price/performance ratio an SMP rig is NOT where it's at. Consider that for, let's say double the performance of a single CPU station, we're paying roughly twice as much for the board, and then almost twice as much on each CPU. So now for the basics we're up to 3x the cost of a single CPU machine for only double the performance, and that double really only kicks in when you're using the right applications.

For instance gamers would be far better off spending their cash elsewhere. The reason I've invested in them is I make money from them so I can justify the cost. Plus I enjoy the smaller SMP community. I built my first, based on the infamous Tyan 2460, about 5 years ago. The recent one was one of the first DH800 machines in the US, right from the manufacturer the day after their initial release. They both get used pretty hard, even when I'm not home. Batch encoding and RDP are wonderful things 8)

I just rely on side machines (cheap ones) to number crunch during a project, sometimes 10-24hrs at a time. Works great for MPeg2 encoding. I haven't gotten Vegas distributed effects networking working that effectively yet. Effects editing results in long periods of looking for something else to do.