RE: motherboad for desktop

["David Christensen" <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

Francesco Pietra wrote:
> new [desktop motherboard] for the same service (running 32bit graphic
> scientific programs, besides office use, and establishing scp
> connection with my amd64 computing machines).  Absolutely no need of
> multicore, rather, a single fast processor would be of use for
> scientific purposes as parallelized codes are rare stuff.

See this for some background:

    http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2009/07/msg01216.html


I'm currently considering the Intel DG45ID motherboard.  It has everything I need, including Intel's best video chip (X4500ID):

    http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DG45ID/DG45ID-overview.htm


The DG45ID does not support the older generation Pentium processors (4 and D), which should tell you something.  Furthermore, this benchmark shows that modern Core 2 Duo cores are faster than any Pentium, past or present (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law ):

    http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

    Intel Pentium 4 3.80GHz           615/1 =  615/core

    Intel Pentium D 3.40GHz           900/2 =  450/core

    Intel Pentium E6300 @ 2.80GHz    1811/2 =  905/core

    Intel Core2 Duo E7400 @ 2.80GHz  1871/2 =  935/core

    Intel Core2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33GHz  2417/2 = 1208/core

The modern Core 2 Quad cores run at lower frequencies (heat?):

    Intel Core2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 3553/4 =  888/core

    Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz 4426/4 = 1106/core

But, the smallest i7 core is faster than any Core 2:

    Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz      5444/4 = 1361/core


If 3-D video is important, Intel's G45 doesn't compare against generation 9 and 10 NVIDIA cards:

    http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

    G45/G43 Express Chipset  191

    GeForce 9500 GT          376

    GeForce GTX 260         1719

(NVIDIA's drivers seem to work better now, but are still closed source.)


So, I'm also considering the Intel DX58SO motherboard plus an NVIDIA card:

    http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DX58SO/DX58SO-overview.htm

The DX58SO has over-clocking capabilities, if you're into that (I typically run my machines at specified settings):

    http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=262&Itemid=69&limit=1&limitstart=9


As always, benchmarks must be taken with a grain of salt (gram? gallon?).  If you have a specification application in mind and can map it to specific assembler/ compiler/ processor/ GPU features, disregard all of the above.  Also, recompiling/ redesigning your application for multiprocessing will allow for multi-core possibilities and beyond ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster ).


Surfing for prices and min-maxing a modest 32-bit motherboard + CPU + RAM [+ video] setup:

	~$300 for DG45ID/ Core 2 Duo/ 2 GB

	~$450 for DG45ID/ Core 2 Quad/ 4 GB

     ~$700 for DX58SO/ Core i7/ 3 GB/ NVIDIA PCIe x16


Give Page's Law ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page's_law ) and my personal usage patterns, I'd label the DG45ID/ Core 2 Duo as a "3+ year desktop" and the DX58SO as a "5+ year desktop".


HTH,

David