Modern Intel/AMD Chipsets

[Daniil]

DON'T BUY OEM AMD PROCESSORS IN ANY CASES !
I bought one today to built my new system. It was in dark polythene pocket. I opened it when I built my PC, tried to install it to socket, but it don't want to fall down into socket pins.
I turn it over, and saw that copper legs from one side was bent, and one of them was broken away.
I think it's because it was transported to store in that damn pocket, not in solid package. Also, it looks like it is no way to interchange it - I wrote the appeal letter to store, but I don't think it could help...
Damn. That was 250$.     

Brothers, If you ever buy AMD's OEMs, don't believe the good package - torn it apart and check the CPU... but the better way is buy BOX versions.

[scarface]

To daniil: this Is probably something You could have bought to retailers in your village, there must be at least one seller in St Petersburg. For fragile components, its better to go into a shop. That's what I did when I bought my hard drive (a borrough Is dedicated to computer shops in Paris 12) Anyway Im like Usman, I keep my device, even if its old and broken (screen Is dead, faulty contact in the power cable...) because I customized it (lot of ram, fast hybrid hd).
And you know, even if you had the money Usman, perhaps you wouldnt change your computer. Don't forget that "the things you own end up owning you". whats important Is not what you have but what you can do with it. Thats why Im not even planning to change my old laptop.
For information I also have an AMD, the old P320 2.1ghz (dual core). In 2010 it was already a cheap cpu.

[Daniil]

Thank you all for your understanding and support, brothers! I resolved the problem - after writing a letter and a voyage in the central office of reseller company, I get my money back, and buy the same processor in another shop.
Installed it, all works fine.

@scarface - I named this shop "a store" under effects of my emotions. In fact this is a shop - one of the shops of "Ulmart" shop network. Ulmart is one of 3 great computer/gadget shopping networks, presented in St.Petersburg (Here is "Ulmart", "KEY" and "Compumir" shops, which are selling computers, software, hardware and different gadgets like a smartphones).
I undestand you very good when you talking about keeping old computer "till it will be done". That's wise way, and I really agree with you (why change things which is working good? My cell phone for work is 5 y.o. Nokia1110 with black-and-white screen, and I see no reasons to change it). But you should also understand me. I don't "running after the trend". I have some tasks where my old dual Xeon wasn't so fast as I want. (That is Siemens PLM CAD system, Adobe Premiere, Blender and Unity 3D). Also, I'm enthusiast, I want to test AMD, I want to check my thoughts about architecthure and train my brain in optimising modern AMD system.

@Usman - I can repeat to you all I said to specialist Scarface. As about your question about logical cores - I'll answer it later.

[humbert]

All CPU's I've bought were boxed and with a cooling fan, even a warning that not using the enclosed cooling fan will void the warranty. The only "strange" one's I've bought say "black edition". I don't know what this means, but I do know I've never had a problem. Also, with the enclosed cooling fan I've never had an overheating problem, not even running the most processor-intensive apps. I've found that with AMD, only if you plan on some serious overclocking do you need to invest in a better cooling fan. Otherwise no need, my FX-8350 cost me $199 - fan included, no heat issues.

Here's a question. Some of you keep saying nothing supports 8 cores. Why then does Ultra Video Joiner in its menu prompt for the number of cores to use, and all 8 cores is one of the choices it gives me. If nothing supported all 8 cores, this program wouldn't even see them, let alone use them.

The time to upgrade a computer (or anything else) is when it can't do what you want it to do. If that's not the case, obsolencence is a state of mind. Mine hasn't reached that point yet.

[Shadow.97]

All CPU's I've bought were boxed and with a cooling fan, even a warning that not using the enclosed cooling fan will void the warranty. The only "strange" one's I've bought say "black edition". I don't know what this means, but I do know I've never had a problem. Also, with the enclosed cooling fan I've never had an overheating problem, not even running the most processor-intensive apps. I've found that with AMD, only if you plan on some serious overclocking do you need to invest in a better cooling fan. Otherwise no need, my FX-8350 cost me $199 - fan included, no heat issues.

Here's a question. Some of you keep saying nothing supports 8 cores. Why then does Ultra Video Joiner in its menu prompt for the number of cores to use, and all 8 cores is one of the choices it gives me. If nothing supported all 8 cores, this program wouldn't even see them, let alone use them.

The time to upgrade a computer (or anything else) is when it can't do what you want it to do. If that's not the case, obsolencence is a state of mind. Mine hasn't reached that point yet.

Black editions is easier/better to overclock I believe.

[Daniil]

"Black edition" is a processors with unlocked ratio. I.e., with extended ability to overclock. They also have better reliability, because they must survive after overheating and other overclockers activities.

@Usman
You can read about logical cores in wikipedia article "Intel's Hyper-threading". If to explain simplified, we can represent an HT CPU as an oven with two bakers near it. Oven produce bread only when baker puts a dough into it, but - baker can't put dough always (he must make dough, take out ready bread, sleep sometimes, and so on...) So oven brings profit only at half of its working time. A solution is - to hire one more baker. While one baker sleeps, other making bread.

Intel's HT CPU is the same. It have one real processing core, invisible to operating system ("an oven"), and 2 logical cores - visible to system "threading units" (an electronic devices, each of which can store a state of incoming commands and throw them into processing core when it reports that it is free). This cores is, in our model, "a bakers".

[humbert]

Does the OS address logical cores or hyperthreading units to do parallel processing, i.e., each one takes a part of the problem? I hope I'm making myself clear.

[Daniil]

@humbert

Does the OS address logical cores or hyperthreading units to do parallel processing, i.e., each one takes a part of the problem? I hope I'm making myself clear.

This is just partially correct, in this case this is quasi-parallel processing. Because physical core in fact is only one.

As I can understand from my expirience, this trick works fine only if we have high frequency CPU with low frequency RAM. For example, NetBurst-based Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz with slow DDR1 400 MHz RAM. I.e., when we have a big idle time between calculation tasks, provided by OS. In this case we can get up to additional 50% of performance. If the RAM is faster, an idle "gaps" between the requests of OS becomes shorter, and performance gain lowers.

@Usman
You're welcome, comrade! 

[scarface]

I need the opinion of the specialists (iih, shadow97...) : what do you think of the AMD Quad-Core A4-5000 (HP Pavilion 15-n253nf)?
You know that I have a very old computer. It's still working though, even if the screen is dead (a secondary screen is plugged in). Ive searched and the prices are higher than I thought. the Lenovo ThinkPad T500 is the cheapest I found, but it's a bit oudated. I think I'm going to wait.

[Vasudev]

you can buy it(web browsing,word,excel etc) or else buy  lenovo g500(I use) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G500-15-6-inch-Laptop-Integrated/dp/B00HR6U4DS

With HP u have dual gfx while g500 has intel hd 2500.