Help me build a qx6700

[SeanFL]

A year ago this board helped me build a great X2 4800 system (DFI lanparty ultra d, ocz d400 memory, etc) ...I've been very pleased. Now I'm thinking of building a QX6700 system for high end (hd) video editing. Can you lend a hand?

I might try to overclock a bit...nothing extreme. So what MB and memory would you suggest? Midrange memory is ok with me (would budget work?). I will never do dual video cards, so no sli concerns. I have the DVD covered by my benq. 2 gig's of memory should be fine for now.

I read quite a bit about this processor just before it was released and some of the preliminary motherboard reviews...I haven't read anything lately if it's come out. Thank you for any assistance.

Sean

 

[Duvie]

The QX6700 is a bit overpirced right now...

However that being said...

Th QX6700 has a 10x multiplier so iti sunlikely you will OC the FSB that much...YOu could get 2gb of good cas 4 latency (I think there is even some cas 3) PC5300 or 667ddr2. If you wnat more bandwidth drop the multi down to 8x400 and get 2gb ofsome cas 4 DDR2-800....You will want a minimum of 2gb and perhaps 4gb.....


I would probably get one of the Asus 975x chipsets

 

[themisfit610]

Dude, quad cores aren't that great for gaming... Save a buttload of cash and spend it on an 8800gts and a c2d, good ram and board, then overclock the snot out of all of it

It's 4 cores can only really be fully taken advantage of when using well threaded applications. Games are not well threaded applications (yet). Stuff like Photoshop, database applications, video encoding, and 3d rendering are. Look at anand's reviews - a lot of times the E6700 beats the qx6700 for games.

~MiSfit

 

[m21s]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Dude, quad cores aren't that great for gaming... Save a buttload of cash and spend it on an 8800gts and a c2d, good ram and board, then overclock the snot out of all of it

It's 4 cores can only really be fully taken advantage of when using well threaded applications. Games are not well threaded applications (yet). Stuff like Photoshop, database applications, video encoding, and 3d rendering are. Look at anand's reviews - a lot of times the E6700 beats the qx6700 for games.

~MiSfit

Did you even read his thread title?

He said "Help me build a QX6700 for pro video & audio editing"

How did you get gaming from that?

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: m21s

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Dude, quad cores aren't that great for gaming... Save a buttload of cash and spend it on an 8800gts and a c2d, good ram and board, then overclock the snot out of all of it

It's 4 cores can only really be fully taken advantage of when using well threaded applications. Games are not well threaded applications (yet). Stuff like Photoshop, database applications, video encoding, and 3d rendering are. Look at anand's reviews - a lot of times the E6700 beats the qx6700 for games.

~MiSfit

Did you even read his thread title?

He said "Help me build a QX6700 for pro video & audio editing"

How did you get gaming from that?

didn't you know. all things mentioned in AT forums (yes even the YAGT threads) have gaming as their focal point.

 

[sdsdv10]

Originally posted by: Duvie

The QX6700 has a 10x multiplier so it is unlikely you will OC the FSB that much...

Does the QX6700 have an unlock mulitplier? If so, could he lower it and be able to bump the FSB up a little more?

I'm curious as I would like to build a similar rig next year, although with possibly higher OCing than the OP.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: sdsdv10

Originally posted by: Duvie

The QX6700 has a 10x multiplier so it is unlikely you will OC the FSB that much...

Does the QX6700 have an unlock mulitplier? If so, could he lower it and be able to bump the FSB up a little more?

I'm curious as I would like to build a similar rig next year, although with possibly higher OCing than the OP.

Yes it is unlocked down only...9x,8x,7x,etc.....My ES is unlocked up and down

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Duvie

Originally posted by: sdsdv10

Originally posted by: Duvie

The QX6700 has a 10x multiplier so it is unlikely you will OC the FSB that much...

Does the QX6700 have an unlock mulitplier? If so, could he lower it and be able to bump the FSB up a little more?

I'm curious as I would like to build a similar rig next year, although with possibly higher OCing than the OP.

Yes it is unlocked down only...9x,8x,7x,etc.....My ES is unlocked up and down

QX6700 is unlocked both up and down, yes? I've scene plenty of screenies with folks using 12 and 14 multi's on the quads. Could have sworn that at least. Is it not true?

 

[sdsdv10]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: Duvie

Yes it is unlocked down only...9x,8x,7x,etc.....My ES is unlocked up and down

QX6700 is unlocked both up and down, yes? I've scene plenty of screenies with folks using 12 and 14 multi's on the quads. Could have sworn that at least. Is it not true?

Per Duvie's comment, I presume you are looking at ES (engineering sample) CPU's and not retail. It is entirely possible the retail versions will only be unlocked down, again as Duvie stated.

 

[The-Noid]

Retails are unlocked up and down, it is an Extreme product. That is what the Extreme means.

 

[Tyhr]

I can't comment on the CPU other than the QX6700 is the best one to get for your interests (unless there's a Xeon version out).
From the benchmarks I've seen the Quad core can range as high as a 90% increase over it's dual core varient (when dealing with video rendering/codecs/etc). A 50% increase is a much more reasonable expectation in that area.

(Yes, and for ppl that don't read the thread title, you'd be lucky to see a 2-3% increase in games. Applications that aren't developed for multiple threads, etc don't benefit. "Most" popular "video" applications do take advantage of multiple cores however. No idea on audio.

I'm personally hoping to build something similar (VFX rendering and video editing - not audio), and am hoping the QX6600 gets released soon and at a relatively affordable price.

Only other comment I'd make is I'd recommend 1 physical drive for your OS, and your "scratch" disk on a different physical drive. (And no, 1 RAID-0 setup logically broken into 2 drives does not count).

Optimal: 1 OS drive. 1 RAID-0/5 drive for scratch disk. Another huge drive setup for file storage.
Minimal: 1 OS drive. 1 scratch/file storage drive.

RAID-0 IS FASTER, and disk access speed is very important for what you are doing. RAID-5 is better since you get the speed and redundancy, which is good when you don't want to lose all your work.

Before others reply, it's true that RAID-0 is "worthless" if all you do is play games. Get a single core single drive (or better yet a console) if you want to play games. But for video apps, I believe it's worth it as time is money.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
Retails are unlocked up and down, it is an Extreme product. That is what the Extreme means.

Yoxxy, thanks for confirming, should be taking delivery of my QX6700 on Monday along with a Striker Extreme. (finally, freaken out-of-stock everywhere...), can't wait to start playing.

 

[SeanFL]

Thanks to all... and thanks Tyhr, I was thinking of doing raid just how you suggested.

Can anyone guide me to the one or two motherboards I should be considering? As mentioned, I don't need SLI. I'll spend $200 or so to get a good board. What's a good pick for the qx6700? I don't want something that is really finicky that might give me a 2% benefit...going for a solid build.

Memory wise, I see something like the OCZ platinum pc2 6400 ddr2 800 cas latency 4. (4-4-4-15). Would that be a good choice? Someone mentioned pc5300. The 6400 would be better, right? Would there be any performance benefit to going 6400 over 5300? (the 5300 looks to be slightly less expensive).

Thanks again for helping a business guy that knows gamers are the ones pushing the envelope of technology.

Sean

 

[gwag]

Have you considered a mac pro? $2200 already has 4 cores already, can run XP great for video and not to expensive can house 16G of ram and 8 cores. bad things is fb-dimms are expensive and a little slower.

 

[orion23]

Get the DDR2 800mhz since it will help you with the overclocking part, and you'll be covered since it can run default (533mhz) or take you all the way up to 800mhz.
It's an investement thinking of the future (I guess), anyway, the price difference shouldn't be much. (best DDR2 800mhz RAM out there is the G.Skill PC2-6400 2GBHZ, $300)

As far as the motherboard, a good motherboard will cost you more than $200, think $250-300

Asus seems to be the leader out there when it comes to support and reliability. I would go with a Workstation motherboard such as the P5W64 WS Professional. ($300)

 

[SeanFL]

Thanks Orion.

What video card would people suggest? I'm doing video and audio work, but nothing that is heavy video card intensive. Last year when I built I went with the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 and was pleased. Is a NVidia middle of the pack card still fine?

Power supply wise, I used an ANTEC NEOHE 430 on my amd4800 build and it was enough. Is there anything else I should look at? I'm never doing SLI and believe the QX6700 will use the same (less?) power as the 4800.

I went with a LL PC 6077 case last time and it's great. It's just slightly too deep to go back into the enclosure that we had built into our custom furniture and have the door close over it. Anything else that is slightly smaller? Searching newegg it looks like most cases are set up to be about the same depth.

Thanks to all. Sean

Thank you. Sean

 

[atom]

Any middle of the pack video card should suffice. I would increase the RAM from 2GB to 4GB. Programs like Avid seem to like 4 gigs a lot.