i7 2600 vs 2600k OC PPD opinions
 

I'm setting up a little folding project and I'm curious if the difference between a 2600 at stock speed and a 2600k at 4.8ghz is like night and day.

Is getting the unlocked version worth spending the extra money $40-$60?

Yes..

edit - Left you hanging with the short answer there for a bit. The long answer is that when completing work units with a bonus factor (which includes all bigadv and regular SMP units), the rate at which the points go up is exponentially inverse to TPF. As such, on faster machines, the difference between a few seconds of TPF can mean hundreds if not thousands of PPD. The difference between a stock 2600 and a 2600k at, say 4.5-ish would be significantly more than a few seconds in TPF.

Take a look at this thread for instance: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...d-numbers.html

A 2600k at 3.4 does about 30k PPD on a P6900 bigadv unit, whereas one at 4.5 does about 45k PPD. That's 50% faster. And that's definitely worth the extra smidge of coin.

If you were going to be using it for gaming I'd say it wouldn't be worth it as you'd barely notice the difference. Seeing however you want to use it for folding you will definitely see a difference with 8 threads folding away at a faster clock speed.

With DT's only little stats there, is 60$ worth an extra 15k PPD? It comes down to an extra 0.4 cents/PPD (60$/15kPPD), definitely worth it and his example is only at 4.5, you may be able to squeeze out another 2.5 to 5k ppd with the added 300MHz of speed you proposed running the chip at (if its stable)

Ummm...DT's example was 15000ppd difference...not 1500 (at least by my math)

Forgot to add an extra 0, my bad, gonna fix it

Alright I picked up a 2600k for my p67 b2 board. Definitely not for gaming, I have a rig already. This rig is going to be an open bench Ubuntu folder.

Collected a few parts really cheap from the BST forums over the last little while, here is the specs:

unit 1:
p67a ud3 (b2)
i7 2600k
gskill 2x2gb 2133mhz 9-11-9
noctua nh-d14
seagate 500gb 7200.12
XFX HD5850 (wont be folding, just what I have sitting around to get video output)
Corsair 430w builder series PSU

Unit 2:
h67 gigiabyte b2 board
i7 2600 (haven't purchased yet)
gskill 2x2gb 1333mhz 7-7-7
Xigmatech Thor's hammer HSF
seagate 500gb 7200.12
Onboard video out
BFG 450w PSU

Here I was thinking you might have gotten an extra dose of rads today. Either that you are trying to invent new math :biggrin:


@jibz- you going to use both of those to fold on? Just curious, looking at your first one is making me think more and more of turning the unfinished rig in my specs into a pure folder.

Both rigs are going to be dedicated open bench folding & winter room heating.

somewhat related to this, does the hyperthreading that the 2600K offers mean better performance than a 2500K?

It performs considerably better for folding. The more cores/threads the better.