Hi all,
I am in the process of looking to update my CPU/Motherboard and was curious which component parameters are ultimately relevant. Until now I had only really considered the number of cores and the operating frequency of those cores to find the best CPU for my crunching needs. Should I be extending my search? Are threads relevant in terms of BOINC usage?

I was looking at updating from a i5-750 Lynnfield to an AMD FX-8150 Zambezi (including needed MOBO change). This would double my number of cores and increase my operating frequency but I have also heard that the FX-8150 is not a “true” 8-core system. Any help on clarifying what I should be looking for would be much appreciated.

Hi all,
I am in the process of looking to update my CPU/Motherboard and was curious which component parameters are ultimately relevant. Until now I had only really considered the number of cores and the operating frequency of those cores to find the best CPU for my crunching needs. Should I be extending my search? Are threads relevant in terms of BOINC usage?

I was looking at updating from a i5-750 Lynnfield to an AMD FX-8150 Zambezi (including needed MOBO change). This would double my number of cores and increase my operating frequency but I have also heard that the FX-8150 is not a “true” 8-core system. Any help on clarifying what I should be looking for would be much appreciated.

Okay so let's put this in perspective. The CPU is there just to feed the gpu, so it's not used for its compute capabilities. Having said that a high memory bandwidth usually helps. As we're using a gpu in a PCIe slot one with PCIe 3 would be faster than a PCIe 2. I personally have older intel i7 chips but keep the graphics cards fairly up to date. I leave one core free for feeding the gpu for my GPUgrid crunchers (on my other crunchers I don't bother). Probably doesn't help you too much but in order of what I'd look for would be:

1. PCIe 3 if possible
2. Faster motherboard memory
3. Fast CPU

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