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[drdoom]

I have been thinking about how to best optimize my 720BE. Since I don't have a lot of extra time to be doing a lot of benchmarking I was wondering of any one had a suggestion as to the best place to start. I know for general daily computing it makes no difference. I think I saw an article on Anandtech that said most games max out with 3 cores and adding a 4th doesn't really help much. Obviously, the high the clock the better. My 720 unlocked the 4th core without any problem though I have not really stress it. I assume if the 4th core is flaky pushing up the clock speed might cause some instability. So you guys think running a higher clock with 3 cores would be better or lower with 4?
I will be gaming and doing some audio/video encoding. I know part of it will depend on the specific software I use but I have not gotten that far. Thanks.

[Squirrel Meat]

Well I would try to see how high you could push it at X4 first. Gaming is going to like a faster clock speed so if you can push the x3 pretty high I would go with that. As far as encoding goes, the 4th core will be a big boost. Kinda got yourself in a bind there. Like I said, push it as hard as it will go @ X4 and see where you go. If you can get 3.4 or so out of it then you will be golden for both =)

[Learux]

For gaming go with the higher clock.

[kpxgq]

since most people dont encode video while playing games i would just switch back and forth (3core - 4core) depending on what your using the computer for.... encoding video is pretty much the only place i would see an added benefit for most people with 4 cores

[gkline]

drdoom: As you can see from #2 rig I just bought a 720BE and the Asus M477TD with 2 gigs ddr3 to replace an aging A8N5x with a 939 X2 4600. I can run 4 cores but have to play around too much with voltage etc to get a high clock speed. I can run the 720BE triple core at 3200Mhz ( I manually set the multiplier to 16 gotta love these Black Edtion cpus) and it runs prime95 forever without any other tweaks. I set this as my target. I overclocked my 965BE to 3700 without any tweaks so both are solid. Keep the tri-core at 3200 for gaming and let it run quad core at stock setting for encoding. Have fun.

[gkline]

I've now added 2 more gigs ram, a Zalman 9700 Heatsink and Windows 7 Home Premium 64. I've also used the ACC on the MB to unlock all 4 cores at 3200. It runs solid and cool - running Prime 64 over 8 hours solid.I've done many stability tests and it's solid. Temps on prime64 full load at 46C

[drdoom]

I have an arctic cooler. I have unlocked all 4 cores but have not run them at 3.2ghz yet. I just have not had the time to test it.

[gkline]

I just got done playing @2 hrs of BF2BC on rig 2 below and the temps for the cpu never went over 38C. When I ran prime64 on it for over 8 hrs never exceeded 46C. Solid overclock for a 720 from tri-core 2.8 to quad core 3.2. YES!!!!!!!!!!

[Learux]

Those temps seem a bit low, what are you using to read them?

Nevermind, that 9700 seems like a good cooler.

[fluffmonster]

gkline, what are you using to get temps off the cpu? my unlocked PhII 550 doesn't seem to want to give temp data when the other cores are unlocked.

[gkline]

I'm using Asus probe. It is designed by asus and unlike Everest it does give info on temps with the 4th core unlocked. Try it.

[fluffmonster]

unfortunately, asus probe seems to demand an asus mobo. thanks anyway. the search continues. maybe gigabyte has somethin similar.

[gkline]

Perhaps. Many mb manufacturers make a seperate temp utility.