I have been offered a Skulltrail setup, it is the Intel board with 2X QX9775 processors, but no ram is included.

I see these CPU's are still £1000 each, but alas at stock speed quite a bit slower than an i7.

The guy wants £800 for the board and two processors, says they easily overclock to 4ghz.

So the question is, should I drop £800 on this setup and then fork out for ECC ram, or just go with an i7 Setup for about £500. I do convert lots of files, particularly videos for about 3 hours a week spread over the weekend usually. I have a Core 2 Quad 45nm right now running at 3.5. If I could cut the editing time down to an hour, I would be chuffed.

£800 seems like rather a lot. Those chips are expensive but they are aimed at a different market and they are based on the old Core architecture. I'd put £500 down on an i7 CPU setup personally.

Skulltrail will give you 8 threads for your video conversions, so will the i7 - 4+ hyperthreading. The 1366 socket is getting a 6-core chip soon and who knows what afterwards.

If you really want to speed up your encodes, a GPGPU solution would help...

Thanks for the input. I have been using TMPGenc which says its uses Cuda, but it still soundly thrashes the CPU and comes up with this box that says something like, '2% Cuda, 98% CPU' or something pointless when its doing conversions.

Is the Core i7 940 worth getting over the 920 ? Currently my video card is a GTX280 Asus TOP so probably won't need to replace that as I suppose its similar the the 275.

Also bear in mind that Skulltrail will need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, if you're taking the Win7 route. Home Premium doesn't support dual CPU setups, so that could add to the overall cost.

I figured the only other way of getting cheap 8 cores was buying a used Mac Pro, but I'd be inclined to get the newer Nehalem ones rather than the older Core architecture, although Skulltrail is obviously Core it can be overclocked. However Nehalem Mac's are too new/rare to pick up second hand. I see that the 8 Core Nehalem Mac Pro is in fact just 2.26 clock speed per CPU, so I imagine a Skulltrail running overclocked, albeit Core architecture would be quicker, but use more power.

But possible a Core i7 running at 4ghz using SSD's (in the future) would have the edge over any of the aforementioned machines ?

£800 seems steep for a motherboard thats almost 2 years old now and an obsolete cpu.

Had a quick look and FB-Dimms are around £120 for 4Gb so that pushes the price over the grand mark.

Remember you will also need a case capable of taking an EATX motherboard and a power supply that has 2 x 8pin power leads along with usual 24-pin.

My gut reaction is nice rig but too costly to get fully up and running. Better bet would be socket 1366 mobo and probably i7 920 to tie you over until 6-core cpu's come out early 2010.

As for the 920 or 940 choice, the i7 overclocks so easily, you'll easily get a 920 up to the speed of the 940 and beyond. The only reason for going above the 920 in price is to get an extreme with an unlocked multiplier, but they are silly prices.

As for GPU conversions, as it is a Nvidia GPU you have, try badaboom. I use it and the speed boost compared to handbrake is impressive...as long as it is MP4's you want.

I assume that LGA771, like 775, is end of life, so no upgrade path is available.

If you're going to spend £800, get an i7 with a decent board, plenty of RAM and an SSD (or a Spinpoint F3 at the very least). As JohnSheridan says, by the the you've factored in the cost of the FB-Dimms, you're looking at at grand.

If you have that kind of cash floating around, get a couple of SSDs and raid them; or buy a nice watercooling kit, and clock the nuts off your i7. I'd be willing to bet that an i7 @ 4GHz will be more than a match for 2 x QX9775s at the same clock.

Thanks, John, Gav and Spreadie for the info. The power draw of 'Skull is also quite poor for the end performance now also I have been reading. My case is a HAF922 and I'm not sure if that does E-ATX either.

Might go to Overclockers later and pick up some bits, I like to go in person as if anything doesn't work, I wade back in and get a replacement, even they can't refuse that if its within the alloted time and in person.

P6T Deluxe....920 CPU and what ram is ok, I'd go with 6 to start with ?

I'd go for a P6T Delux V2, 920, Fenrir Titan & as much RAM as you can afford.
I'm running 12GB in mine with the cpu at 4GHz and it flies through video conversions (especially using the GTX280 & cuda)

Thanks Saspro. Cooler wise, can save some pennies, I already have a Corsair H50 which came with an LGA775 and LGA1366 bracket so don't need a cooler, although some people don'e like this cooler, I put two fans on the rad and have it blowing outwards, saw temps drop 4-5 degrees on the cores under load this way, that is in a HAF922, I expect the standard fan setup caters for cases that aren't that breezy and needing cool air to be drawn from the outside.

What speed memory do I need 12800 ? What would be the drawbacks of going with 10666 ?

Is this a good choice (its there cheapest 6GB kit)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=1389

That should be fine, I use the XMS3 sticks and they look the same specs.

1600MHz RAM means you can run the RAM at it's full speed when OC'd to 4GHz

Thanks for the info, just going to get some spare time and go and buy.

Is there any other boards (like cheaper) worth considering though....sorry for all the questions fellas...

The P6T SE is a very good board if you don't need SLi

P6T SE is out of stock at overclockers, but it got very good reviews.

This one, perhaps?