AMD announces 6- and 12-core Opterons

[S. Starbuck]

No intels over here either, and no plans on getting any.
Go AMD!

[Brucifer]

How about AMDBashers?

?????????????

[vaughan]

Once upon a time I was a dedicated one. But thanks to AMD, I'm not anymore, unfortunately. Maybe we need a new team, like the "Historic AMD_Users Team" or the "Wannabe AMD_Users Team."

Sometimes I even feel bad about it, but then I look at the output of the systems and I don't feel so bad anymore....

I still have a few AMDs running but they just don't cut it compared to the Intel quads. I considered getting a Phenom 9950 but it is too expensive compared to one of the Intels and loses on the performance side but the killer is the amount of heat it would put out. The computer room is currently at 29.2C with the air con on full blast 24/7, the three single core boxes are turned off. At 30C its time to start powering down some of the dual cores.

Hopefully we'll get a cooler change in the weather this weekend.

[Jason1478963]

I am proud to say I have not purchased an Intel chip for any of my systems. I have 2 Quad core AMD machines one is a 9850 and the other is a 9950. The rest of the machines I have are AMD dual cores. I'm happy with what the quad cores are doing. I believe they are doing over double my athlon x2's of a similar ghz. Replacing 2 dual cores with one quad could save you on your electric bill. I can get a 9850 for less then an intel q6600 at newegg. The 9850 conusmes 125 watt compared to 105watt for the q6600. I don't think the AMD is that far off in performance per watt. The motherboard differences alone could eat up that 20 watts or a CHEAP power supply that is less then 85% efficient.

I am interested to see what AMD will be able to do with the 45nm tech. I'm sure as soon as they meet the demand of the server market we will see some good desktop chips for upgrading our AMD pharms.

[Brucifer]

Well I have to say that I have moved on to the dark side as viewed from the AMD-User's perspective. The main motivating factor was and still is cost. I have knocked my monthly electrical bill in half in converting over to a majority of q6600's, and have more cores running now than I did with the AMD's. So as others have done, I intend to move on as its just not the same anymore. The points will all stay here that have been crunched while here. It was fun. But now it's like being on the Ford racing team and driving a Chevy...

[Bender10]

Your 'Ford and Chevy' analogy is great. Because it hits on 'the way things are...'

Computer (CPU's) technology, like cars, has changed. AMD started out as the mighty Underdog, and gained a hugh following (even now). But their advances have fallen out of step with the market. I still prefer AMD. But I don't see anything bad about Intel. CPU's, as with cars, is a personel preference. I have bought Chevy and Ford (I still have 1 of each). But, I bought each one because it served a purpose for me. I buy my vehicles (and CPU's) by what will do the job for ME. Not by who made it. Maybe I should 'test out' an Intel quad...

Now (here comes the good part) to me, the CPU dosen't make the 'cruncher' or 'crunchie' (as in user). Every 'crunchie' has their comfort zone. I found mine here. And I would bet that if I sold off all my AMD's, and started using some other CPU (there are only a few to choose from ), I would still be here having fun.....

HEY!! You Kids, Get the H#LL Off MY Lawn!!!

.....because I enjoy computing (here). I don't have to work at liking it. And sometimes I fit in here, sometimes I don't.

That's life.

I hate to see anyone leave here. But it sounds like you have this figured out, which is better than just falling off the planet, never to be heard from again. Stop in when you can, and be well.

[vaughan]

Hopefully we'll get a cooler change in the weather this weekend.

Well the weather is kind with 16C on Saturday and still cold today. I was able to turn off the air conditioner and two box fans and open the window. With every computer running at 100%, yes even the old laptops and the Athlon 2800+ crunching Malaria Control Test project the room temp was below 25C all day and night.

Time to crunch off the remaining 3x+1 tasks and start the transition to PrimeGrid.

Anyone know when the Dragon CPUs will be in the retail channel?

[Brucifer]

Your 'Ford and Chevy' analogy is great. Because it hits on 'the way things are...'

Computer (CPU's) technology, like cars, has changed. AMD started out as the mighty Underdog, and gained a hugh following (even now). But their advances have fallen out of step with the market. I still prefer AMD. But I don't see anything bad about Intel. CPU's, as with cars, is a personel preference. I have bought Chevy and Ford (I still have 1 of each). But, I bought each one because it served a purpose for me. I buy my vehicles (and CPU's) by what will do the job for ME. Not by who made it. Maybe I should 'test out' an Intel quad...

Now (here comes the good part) to me, the CPU dosen't make the 'cruncher' or 'crunchie' (as in user). Every 'crunchie' has their comfort zone. I found mine here. And I would bet that if I sold off all my AMD's, and started using some other CPU (there are only a few to choose from ), I would still be here having fun.....

HEY!! You Kids, Get the H#LL Off MY Lawn!!!

.....because I enjoy computing (here). I don't have to work at liking it. And sometimes I fit in here, sometimes I don't.

That's life.

I hate to see anyone leave here. But it sounds like you have this figured out, which is better than just falling off the planet, never to be heard from again. Stop in when you can, and be well.

Nice post there Mr. Bender10, lots of reality and food for thought. In the beginning I was the hard core AMD phreak, no if's, and's, or but's about it. Over time it all has evolved into a narcotic like crunching addiction. There's some good people here that I really enjoy, and that jump right in and help others when they have an issue. And as you point out, technology just changes before you can even know something has changed... LOL

If you have a project you are working on where the intel works good, as in LLRnet for instance, then give that intel quad a test.... I went out and bought a few of them, and got some cheap ECS motherboards, keeping the bottom line in mind you know. And they work just fine for crunching. Well as you know, I went out and was bitten by the GPU bug. And that has put the brain into another spin, as that changes the whole ballgame again. What I learned in that execise so far is that my el cheapo ECS boards don't function too well with the combination of Ubuntu linux and the nvida thing. So I had the gigabyte board with the Phenom, and that's where the GPU went. Well to keep speeds on everything rolling along, I now only use 3 cores for crunching, and leave one core just for housekeeping and feeding the GPU. And then there is the heat and current draw thing. So that has me reanalyzing the game again. I bought a second GPU to experiment with, and this time I put it on a low-power dual core system with the intent that the only purpose of the m/b and cpu was to just feed the gpu and in the process keep the power draw and heat generation as low as I could. And there is a very noticeable difference in the heat emanating from the cases between the two systems.

So now, it isn't just Ford and Chevy, we've got Chrysler added in there. LOL And while at the moment the gpu DC crunching world is the nvida cuda thing, at some point in the game, the amd/ati gpu's will enter into the mix also. So my stable isn't an AMD empire anymore, it's rather a Heinz 57 mix of stuff, and it's going to continue in that direction. I've enjoyed your and AMDave's help in seeing the light with the gpu's, and it's brought back some excitement into the game that was getting rather stale for me. So this "crunchie" is finind a new comfort zone here as the pastime/hobby continues it's evolving history. And you are 100% right that it isn't the CPU here, it's the friendships.

[Nflight]

Applause applause applause !

All three of you Bender10, Brucifier, and Vaughan hit the nail on the head. I can't say anymore because I am right there with you in my beliefs!

[plonk420]

well, when the 9x50s came out, phenoms were on a AMD-favorable price-to-performance .. uhm .. line with x264, the OTHER thing i do other than encode. however, i'm wanting to somewhat streamline the number of computers running (i really don't want to waste the spare cycles running a pfsense box, even if it's just an athlon xp running at 800mhz .. i'd rather ESXi it with a DCing box .. or attempt to run it on VMWare server).. then there's my main use box, and an HTPC.

for reasons of cost, while i was really really wanting an i7, i may have to pare back and get a phenom ii for my main box, and throw my 9550 into my AM2 (non plus) htpc.