Is there an Intel chip I'm missing?

I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as
possible within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core,
hardware virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU
which provides that. I didn't see any new announce which has all this,
and it starts to look as if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

Did I miss something?

--
-bill davidsen )
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

Bill Davidsen wrote:
I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as
possible within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core,
hardware virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU
which provides that.

Desktop/workstation or server? Dual core + HT is already limiting you to
either the Extreme Edition chips or Xeons (if DC Xeons are actually shipping
yet -- doesn't look like it to me.)

I've been consistently unimpressed with HT even for servers except for some
very specific applications -- even with some very heavily threaded code, the
2P Nocona-based systems we had a couple of jobs back performed better with
HT turned off. And for desktops, any responsiveness advantage of HT would
already be beaten by going dual-core or to 2P.

I didn't see any new announce which has all this, and it starts to look as
if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

It looks like the 955EE would fit the bill exactly. Any of the D 9x0 series
would fit the bill, except for HT; frankly, I couldn't see paying $400 extra
(or $700 extra over the 930 which looks like the sweet spot to me) just for
HT, although the 1066 FSB might be enough to tempt me is money was
relatively no object.

Put differently, you can get 2 Opteron 270s (and will probably be able to
get two lower-end DC Xeons) for about $900; the $100-120 you save would
cover a good part, though not all, of the motherboard price difference.

--
Nate Edel http://www.cubiclehermit.com/

"What's the use of yearning for Elysian Fields when you know you can't get
'em, and would only let 'em out on building leases if you had 'em?" (WSG)

Hyper-Threading has been dropped from Intel CPU's.

--
DaveW

----------------
"Bill Davidsen" wrote in message
. com...
I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as possible
within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core, hardware
virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU which provides
that. I didn't see any new announce which has all this, and it starts to
look as if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

Did I miss something?

--
-bill davidsen )
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

DaveW wrote:
Hyper-Threading has been dropped from Intel CPU's.

It lingers on in the existing processor series; "dropped" applies only to
future series like the upcoming desktop version of the Core Solo/Duo.\

AFAIK, the about-to-be-released dual-core Xeons are still supposed to have
it, making them probably the last processors to get it.

--
Nate Edel http://www.cubiclehermit.com/

"What's the use of yearning for Elysian Fields when you know you can't get
'em, and would only let 'em out on building leases if you had 'em?" (WSG)

Bill,
Only the Extreme Editions and the Xeons have all of what you are looking
for. Each costing quite a buck. The 3.73 GHz extreme edition CPUs are
quite fast if you look at Toms Hardware's latest benchmarks. It's dual
core, 3.73 GHz, with hyperthreading, and of course EM64T. I think they have
hardware virtualization as well. About as fast as you are going to get in a
CPU for some benchmarks.

Judd


"Bill Davidsen" wrote in message
. com...
I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as
possible within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core,
hardware virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU
which provides that. I didn't see any new announce which has all this,
and it starts to look as if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

Did I miss something?

--
-bill davidsen )
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

DaveW wrote:
Hyper-Threading has been dropped from Intel CPU's.

See specs from Intel... no one told them. The 955 seems to have
everything but EM64T.

--
-bill davidsen )
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

Bill Davidsen wrote:
DaveW wrote:
Hyper-Threading has been dropped from Intel CPU's.

See specs from Intel... no one told them. The 955 seems to have
everything but EM64T.

Sorry, everything but the virtualization... For that I need to go to
core-duo, which doesn't have HT... and that's why I asked, hoping some
new Xeon or something had it all.

--
bill davidsen
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com

Judd wrote:
Bill,
Only the Extreme Editions and the Xeons have all of what you are looking
for. Each costing quite a buck. The 3.73 GHz extreme edition CPUs are
quite fast if you look at Toms Hardware's latest benchmarks. It's dual
core, 3.73 GHz, with hyperthreading, and of course EM64T. I think they have
hardware virtualization as well. About as fast as you are going to get in a
CPU for some benchmarks.

I would love to be wrong about the virtualization, the Intel spec sheet
doesn't have a VM feature even listed. The EE (955) does indeed seem to
be the best solution, with HT and large cache. Solves most but not all
of my testing needs.

I confess that the core-duo seems to have a lot more performance for a
given clock, but the spec says 32 bit only currently.

Thanks for the response.

--
bill davidsen
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com

Nate Edel wrote:
Bill Davidsen wrote:
I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as
possible within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core,
hardware virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU
which provides that.

Desktop/workstation or server? Dual core + HT is already limiting you to
either the Extreme Edition chips or Xeons (if DC Xeons are actually shipping
yet -- doesn't look like it to me.)

I've been consistently unimpressed with HT even for servers except for some
very specific applications -- even with some very heavily threaded code, the
2P Nocona-based systems we had a couple of jobs back performed better with
HT turned off. And for desktops, any responsiveness advantage of HT would
already be beaten by going dual-core or to 2P.

Determining the benefit of HT is part of the mission. Single CPU it help
a LOT for some loads. All testing will be Linux based, and HT can buy
20% (I've seen 30% on real loads) typically.

I didn't see any new announce which has all this, and it starts to look as
if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

It looks like the 955EE would fit the bill exactly. Any of the D 9x0 series
would fit the bill, except for HT; frankly, I couldn't see paying $400 extra
(or $700 extra over the 930 which looks like the sweet spot to me) just for
HT, although the 1066 FSB might be enough to tempt me is money was
relatively no object.

Put differently, you can get 2 Opteron 270s (and will probably be able to
get two lower-end DC Xeons) for about $900; the $100-120 you save would
cover a good part, though not all, of the motherboard price difference.

Someone else is doing the AMD server, comparative performance will be
one of the things determined. I'd like to avoid getting a separate
machine for VM use, but the hardware virtualization seems the best way
to go for testing Linux, BSD, Windows, Solaris performance. And if we
run on a Mac we can probably run OSX under OSX without violating any
copyright or whatever. That may be the 32 bit platform of choice.

--
-bill davidsen )
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

I think I can now safely go with a 955 chip, there really doesn't seem
to be something with any better fit. Hardware VM will have to wait for
another test cycle.

Bill Davidsen wrote:
I'm looking to build an Intel based system which is as capable as
possible within the budget and specs. I would like to have dual core,
hardware virtualization support, EM64T and HT, and I don't see a CPU
which provides that. I didn't see any new announce which has all this,
and it starts to look as if the 955 chip is as close as I'm going to get.

Did I miss something?



--
bill davidsen
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com