Socket G34

[Dirk Broer]

While "Valencia" may be not for sale yet, our thirst for 6- and 8-core CPUs can be quenched by the new AMD FX CPUs.

But how's things on the high-end side of computing-land? Can you actually buy a 16-core CPU?
And the answer is: YES, WE CAN! (now, where did I hear that before?)
A 2.1 Ghz 16-core Opteron 6272 can already be bought for 536.34 Euro's, while a 2.6 Ghz 6282SE cost 1039.45 Euro's (Do I have to choose? gimmy two of them 6272s, please, and make it pronto)

And where do we stick it in? At the moment I seem to be able to choose between two SuperMicro boards, of which one does only support up to 8 sticks of RAM (a Supermicro H8SGL-F-O at 239.89 Euro) while the other goes to 16 (the Supermicro H8DG6-F, but it costs 601.90 Euro) and has place for two of those 16-cores. (drool)

Now before we rush to the store to spend our hard-earned money a word of caution: the Supermicro H8DG6-F might not fit your
A. budget (the Supermicro H8DG6-F is a wee bit expensive, especially with two CPUs plus memory in it)
B. case (the Supermicro H8DG6-F is E-ATX format, so only for real BIG towers or racks)

So we take the 'poor man's solution' and look at the Supermicro H8SGL-F-O. It is of normal ATX format (applause!) and not even as expensive as the top in AM3+ Mobo's, the Asus Crosshair V Formula/ThunderBolt, that comes at a whopping 282.49 Euro.

What does it offer?

• Up to 128GB DDR3 Registered ECC or 32GB DDR3 Unbuffered ECC/non-ECC 1600/1333/1066 SDRAM in 8 DIMMs;
• an onboard Matrox G200 16MB DDR2 (a WHAT? Why no HD 6550?);
• PCI-E/PCI slots: 1/1/1/3 PCI-E 2.0 x8 (in x16) / x8 / x4 (in x8) / PCI, meaning your HD 7970 can be placed as well. (Didn't you have one already? Crunching can not be done on a Matrox. Crunching-wise, Matrox s*cks. Excellent 2D performance though.)

You can even connect your old PS/2 mouse and keyboard!
Now for the lottery.........If I win it, a 1000 Euro CPU is the least of my worries.