Is my motherboard 64bit capable

[Gabriel Knight]

Hi all, I have a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 ver F5 motherboard and an intel core 2
quad Q9550 CPU @ 2.83GHz I know the CPU is able to handle 64bit as from this
site:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_2/Intel-Core 2 Quad Q9550 EU80569PJ073N (BX80569Q9550).html

but is the motherboard able to handle 64bit too? I am looking to install win
7 but only if the motherboard is able to. I will also like to overclock the
CPU from 2.83GHz to about 3.3GHz and use a dual boot for 7 and
"blenderbuntu" (a ubuntu os built for Blender) for nothing more than using a
program called Blender 3D and unity but will I see a big difference using
blenderbuntu with the overclocked CPU in rendering times or should I leave
the CPU at stock settings?

Thanks all, GK.

 

[Paul]

Hi all, I have a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 ver F5 motherboard and an intel core 2
quad Q9550 CPU @ 2.83GHz I know the CPU is able to handle 64bit as from this
site:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_2/Intel-Core 2 Quad Q9550 EU80569PJ073N (BX80569Q9550).html

but is the motherboard able to handle 64bit too? I am looking to install win
7 but only if the motherboard is able to. I will also like to overclock the
CPU from 2.83GHz to about 3.3GHz and use a dual boot for 7 and
"blenderbuntu" (a ubuntu os built for Blender) for nothing more than using a
program called Blender 3D and unity but will I see a big difference using
blenderbuntu with the overclocked CPU in rendering times or should I leave
the CPU at stock settings?

Thanks all, GK.

If your processor is 64 bit, you're ready to install that 64 bit OS.

The only thing that might stop you, is missing drivers.

(Note - I'm running Win8 X64 on this motherboard, which is also
X48 based, and it runs fine. No problems, clean Device Manager.
You just need a not-too-ancient video card.)

*******

While I could spend five minutes, pretending to analyze the
processor characteristics, in the end the right answer is
to get someone else to benchmark Blender for you, and make
your decision based on those results.

Arm-chair analysis ("should be faster") is no substitute
for a real benchmark. I've been wrong enough times now,
to say "just do the benchmark"

Using 64 bit compilation, can be up to twice as fast.
The best speedup I've seen personally, is 1.7x running GMP
arbitrary precision arithmetic code. I compiled that in both
32 bit and 64 bit, and the 64 bit code ran 1.7x. Big improvement.

GMP in that case, does tons of integer arithmetic, where the
register width is put to good usage.

Other program types, you're lucky if the program is 5% faster.
YMMV.

Paul

 

[philo]

Hi all, I have a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 ver F5 motherboard and an intel core 2
quad Q9550 CPU @ 2.83GHz I know the CPU is able to handle 64bit as from this
site:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_2/Intel-Core 2 Quad Q9550 EU80569PJ073N (BX80569Q9550).html

but is the motherboard able to handle 64bit too? I am looking to install win
7 but only if the motherboard is able to. I will also like to overclock the
CPU from 2.83GHz to about 3.3GHz and use a dual boot for 7 and
"blenderbuntu" (a ubuntu os built for Blender) for nothing more than using a
program called Blender 3D and unity but will I see a big difference using
blenderbuntu with the overclocked CPU in rendering times or should I leave
the CPU at stock settings?

Thanks all, GK.

Yep, 64 bit OS would be the way to go...
but I would not take the risk of over-clocking.

However...with the 64 bit OS you can use plenty of RAM
and you might as well use 8gigs

 

[Joe]

However...with the 64 bit OS you can use plenty of RAM
and you might as well use 8gigs

At least total 16Gb ram - ram is cheap as chips.

 

[Joe]

At least total 16Gb ram - ram is cheap as chips.

just a correction your board takes DDR2 ram that's a bit more expensive
than DDR3 ram.

I had the earlier boards than this 35 and 45 both ran x64 bit OS the x48
came later. They had 8gb ram.

Times have moved on with the hardware being a lot cheaper now, you may
think of making a newer PC because you will never get yours up to speed
even if you spend the money.

 

[Wolf K]

just a correction your board takes DDR2 ram that's a bit more expensive
than DDR3 ram.

I had the earlier boards than this 35 and 45 both ran x64 bit OS the x48
came later. They had 8gb ram.

Times have moved on with the hardware being a lot cheaper now, you may
think of making a newer PC because you will never get yours up to speed
even if you spend the money.

+1

FWIW, I've decided not to build my next machine. I'm not a gamer, so I
don't need the screamin' speed of high-end hardware, and new "low end"
machines twice as powerful as what I have cost less than half what it
cost to build this box fours years ago. The only mods would be to max
the RAM, and move the data drives into the new box.

HTH

 

[charlie]

+1

FWIW, I've decided not to build my next machine. I'm not a gamer, so I
don't need the screamin' speed of high-end hardware, and new "low end"
machines twice as powerful as what I have cost less than half what it
cost to build this box fours years ago. The only mods would be to max
the RAM, and move the data drives into the new box.

HTH

If you have DDR2 Ram on the existing MBD, going to a new MBD with DDR3
memory can really increase the RAM speed. Plus, an inexpensive MBD with
DDR3 memory may cost less than "filling up" the old DDR2 MBD with RAM.
As to what to expect from Windows - -
A new win 8 desktop with 8G DDR3 1600-2000Mhz RAM, an FX-8350, and an
SSD boot drive Will usually show a windows index of about 8.1 for
everything but a run of the mill HD7770 video card. (7.4-7.5)

But, if the existing machine shows about 7.4 or so, and 5.6-5.9 for the
HD, I'd leave it alone, since you are not a gamer. This 2009 desktop
uses 4G DDR2 RAM and a Phenom IIx4 CPU, win 7 32, and with dual HD7770
video cards, does fairly well with 1920x1080 and the more popular games.

 

[Ken Blake]

At least total 16Gb ram - ram is cheap as chips.

How much RAM you should have for good performance depends on what apps
you run. I run some pretty big apps, and almost always have several
open at once (at the moment, Excel 2013, Outlook 2013, WordPerfect X6,
Maxthon 4, Agent 6, Quicken 2013, Times Reader, Evernote, and 16 or so
small background programs). But my 64-bit Windows 8 computer has only
6GB of RAM, and almost never has more than 2/3 or so of it in use
(exactly 66% right now). So regardless of how cheap it is, for most
people 16GB would be significantly more than was needed.

 

[Gabriel Knight]

Thanks all for the posts I dont have the money to upgrade to a new
motherboard and CPU so I will put another 4gig of ram in maxing out the
motherboards capacity to 8GB then Win 7 64bit with 64bit blenderbuntu since
blenderbuntu has a 64% speed increase than windows 7 stated on their site so
overclocking will likely not be needed plus overclocking will reduce the
life of the CPU and anything overclocked I dont mind this much as long as my
pc doesnt burn out in a year or two.

Thanks all, GK.

 

[philo]

Thanks all for the posts I dont have the money to upgrade to a new
motherboard and CPU so I will put another 4gig of ram in maxing out the
motherboards capacity to 8GB then Win 7 64bit with 64bit blenderbuntu since
blenderbuntu has a 64% speed increase than windows 7 stated on their site so
overclocking will likely not be needed plus overclocking will reduce the
life of the CPU and anything overclocked I dont mind this much as long as my
pc doesnt burn out in a year or two.

Thanks all, GK.

sounds reasonable