Is Hyper-Threading really that important?

"Jonathan" <Jonathan@NoSpam.not> wrote...
>
> What would you consider a good board would and what other features might be
> available? I asked the supplier for HD and was told I only need an HDMI cable.

Take a look at the Gigabyte DS4 and DS5 series MoBos. The DS4 comes in P35,
P45, X38, and X48 chipsets, and I just saw the X48-DS5 on their web site. The
DS4 series are high-quality, mid-range boards that have virtually all the bells
& whistles you need. In any case, get a board that uses DDR2, since DDR3 is
much more expensive with little practical advantage. The X38 and X48 have 2
true 16X PCIe slots if you need them for Crossfire dual GPUs, but cost more than
the comparable P35 and P45 models.

HD is a function of the graphics and audio, not necessarily the motherboard.
Though many MoBos have HD audio chips onboard, many people who want best audio
performance get add-in audio cards.

An HDMI output will normally be found only on a TV tuner card, because HDMI
includes audio + video. Most graphics cards have DMI output, which is the video
equivalent, and can connect to HDMI cables with adapters that are usually
included with the cards. Add digital audio (optical or coax S/PDIF), and you
have full HD capability. For my home A/V system that does not include a
connected computer right now, I found that optical audio connections are the
easiest to manage for 5.1 digital audio where HDMI is not available (e.g., my
cable box).

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:qv85b4ptrmoqotj7sp56r84goobi35f148@4ax.com
> On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:11:56 -0400, "Jonathan"
> <Jonathan@NoSpam.not> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
>>news:jen3b4h363tnovjiobdoht2h6ciqnnqffm@4ax.co m
>>> On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:19:57 -0400, "Jonathan"
>>> <Jonathan@NoSpam.not> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>"Rarius" <rarius@rarius.co.uk> wrote in message
>>>>news:1219588054_251@pro-front01.com
>>>>> "Conor" <conor_turton@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:6hd2lkFkodnnU1@mid.individual.net...
>>>>>> In article
>>>>>> <2Mask.7284$lU5.6347@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.veri o.net>,
>>>>>> Jonathan says...
>>>>>>> Thanks for the clarification. Is there any
>>>>>>> significant differences between
>>>>>>> the Duo and Quad Core CPUs that would make it a good
>>>>>>> idea to choose one over
>>>>>>> the other? How about going with 4 Gigs of ram rather
>>>>>>> then just 2?
>>>>>> Not at the moment as most software is still not
>>>>>> designed with SMP in mind.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Conor
>>>>>
>>>>> I would disagree. Maybe it is just the software I
>>>>> use, but I have noticed a distict improvement since
>>>>> upgrading to a quad core.
>>>
>>> BUT was all else equal? Was the quad core supposed to
>>> otherwise have the same speed per core as the dual core
>>> or higher clockspeed? Quad can definitely improve
>>> performance in some areas but in others a faster dual
>>> core (at about the same price) will have higher
>>> performance so it's really a question of the jobs ran
>>> vs. the budget. If it weren't for these factors, sure 4
>>> cores at the same speed as 2 cores would obviously be
>>> better.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> I
>>>>> tend to do quite a lot of graphics (rendering and
>>>>> video editing) so my experience may not be typical.
>>>>> My Q6600 does give me better games performance
>>>>> than my mates' E6600 even though his graphics card is
>>>>> better.
>>>
>>> Certainly many rendering and video editing tasks will be
>>> faster with more cores, but it is very rare for games to
>>> benefit as much from more than 2 cores as from higher
>>> clockspeed cores, unless you had other apps running in
>>> the background that consumed a significant amount of
>>> processor time while most people's systems aren't
>>> consuming but a couple percent from background apps
>>> while gaming.
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> More and more software and games is being written for
>>>>> multi-core (ie more than just two) and I think it
>>>>> would be a false economy to
>>>>> buy a DualCore just because you won't use a QuadCore
>>>>> fully right now.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Q6600 is very good value for money right now too!
>>>>>
>>>>> Rarius
>>>>
>>>> I think I might as well go for the Quad in that case. I
>>>>plan on using MasterCam X and editing large photographic
>>>>files.
>>>
>>> I'm not familiar with MasterCam X, nor do we know what
>>> you're editing the photos with. It is not the type of
>>> application that benefits or doesn't necessarily, it's
>>> whether you are using software specifically optimized
>>> for more than 2 cores. You should research this if you
>>> need to be certain, per title and version.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>No gaming so I would guess
>>>>that the Duo would be sufficient but no harm in over
>>>>kill I guess. Even RAM seems much cheaper than a few
>>>>years ago.
>>>
>>> Yes, on a mid-grade or better system you might as well
>>> install the full 4GB the board supports. Yet, on a
>>> mid-range or better system you might consider a more
>>> full featured motherboard, one with more than 4GB/2
>>> memory slots on it, and while the intel integrated
>>> video is sufficient for typical 2D tasks, it is not so
>>> good for HD movie playback and from the off-angle
>>> picture I saw of the board it appears to only have
>>> analog video output which could be significant if
>>> you're using a higher resolution monitor.
>>>
>>> By today's standards that motherboard is pretty low end
>>> from a feature standpoint, a bit outclassed by the CPUs
>>> you're considering. That doesn't make it a bad board if
>>> it has all the features you're wanting but a basic
>>> Foxconn (their manufacturer) board like that usually
>>> costs less per similar or has more features at it's
>>> typical price-point.
>>
>> What would you consider a good board would and what
>>other features might be available? I asked the supplier
>>for HD and was told I only need an HDMI cable.
>>
>>Jon.
>>
>
> It doesn't do any significant HD acceleration. With a
> quad core CPU you have some extra margin to do the
> decoding but it still seems mismatched to me, that only
> the cheapest systems/budget tend to go with the slowest
> integrated video instead of a typical (need not be
> expensive since you're not gaming) video card. Then
> again, that's just me - you might prefer buying a faster
> processor with the money saved by not getting a video
> card, especially if you're looking to minimize power
> consumption as much as possible as a separate card woth
> having tends to increase power consumption by roughly 20W
> or more, maybe a little less for a basic card without any
> 3D gaming.
>
> You have to decide for yourself what is worth more money.
> I had the impression you might be buying a barebones
> bundle so if that's the case you may have to settle for
> what options are available. Some basic features I'd want
> are more memory slots, more PCIe slots and/or PCI
> depending on what cards you have. A more robust CPU VRM
> power supply circuit on the board (though on this I'm
> thinking more from the perspective of an overclocker, at
> stock speed it may not matter so much for a number of
> years vs longevity). One good option is to go to a
> website like http://www.newegg.com where you can use a
> "Power Search" feature to select the feature combinations
> you're wanting vs price.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/PowerS...280&GASearch=3
> I tend to prefer boards made by Asus, Abit (though these
> days their future as the same company they were in the
> past is subject to speculation), Gigabyte and MSI. Other
> brands seem more hit-or-miss, you'd really need to read a
> review of anything you're considering if it's a less
> popular brand... though this also comes back to issues
> more important to overclockers as some boards do fine as
> intended, just have better quality components as it would
> effect the ceiling clockspeeds only an overclocker or
> someone wanting it to have longest lifespan possible (at
> an extra cost) would care about.
>
> Another nice thing about Newegg is on the more popular
> boards there's a lot of owner reviews where you can focus
> on those who had any problems to determine if their
> problems would impact your intended use and/or
> combination of parts desired.
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ue=727%3A10689

Thanks for all that. I will take some time and review what you have posted.

Regards.

Jon

"JR Weiss" <jrweiss98155remove@remove.comcast.net> wrote in
message news:VIWdnao7ooRlVS_VnZ2dnUVZ_uednZ2d@comcast.com
> "Jonathan" <Jonathan@NoSpam.not> wrote...
>>
>> What would you consider a good board would and what
>> other features might be available? I asked the supplier
>> for HD and was told I only need an HDMI cable.
>
> Take a look at the Gigabyte DS4 and DS5 series MoBos. The DS4 comes in
> P35, P45, X38, and X48 chipsets, and I
> just saw the X48-DS5 on their web site. The DS4 series
> are high-quality, mid-range boards that have virtually
> all the bells & whistles you need. In any case, get a
> board that uses DDR2, since DDR3 is much more expensive
> with little practical advantage. The X38 and X48 have 2
> true 16X PCIe slots if you need them for Crossfire dual
> GPUs, but cost more than the comparable P35 and P45
> models.
> HD is a function of the graphics and audio, not
> necessarily the motherboard. Though many MoBos have HD
> audio chips onboard, many people who want best audio
> performance get add-in audio cards.
> An HDMI output will normally be found only on a TV tuner
> card, because HDMI includes audio + video. Most graphics
> cards have DMI output, which is the video equivalent, and
> can connect to HDMI cables with adapters that are usually
> included with the cards. Add digital audio (optical or
> coax S/PDIF), and you have full HD capability. For my
> home A/V system that does not include a connected
> computer right now, I found that optical audio
> connections are the easiest to manage for 5.1 digital
> audio where HDMI is not available (e.g., my cable box).

Thanks for another useful post. I will take some time to research what you
have offered also. I am not really concerned about HD from my system as I do
have that covered as does yours. A nice non-PC audio video entertainment
center but I am curious how a PC would look connected to a Sony HDTV, a Sony
BlueRay DVD desktop player, etc., but that would be another group
discussion.

Thanks.

Jon.