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Q6600 and multi-tasking

Jon12345

Jon12345

Jon12345

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Joined
5 Feb 2003
Posts
365
I have a PC that runs mainly the following:

1. Win XP

2. Kaspersky Internet Security

3. Outlook 2003

4. SpamFighter

5. Some proprietary processes that number crunch stuff.

All run simultaneously, except for #5 that kicks in once every 10 minutes or so, for a couple of minutes.

If I go for a Q6600 processor, will 3 of the cores handle 1-4 and then when task #5 kicks in, then the final core handles it? I am trying to avoid the CPU hitting 100% and freezing up the system so other processes grind to a halt.

Can you allocate a program to a core so it has exclusive use of it?

If a program is not designed specifically for a multi-core machine, does that mean that when it runs, it can only use up the power of one processor?

Thanks,

Jon
 
A fast dual core will be fine for your needs. There is no reason to allocate CPU workload, Windows will do that for you. Those applications do not need a full use of a whole core, at most a few % each on startup, or more for anti-virus.

Think you've been swayed by high street "you need a quad core for notepad" advertising
 
Jon12345 said:
If I go for a Q6600 processor, will 3 of the cores handle 1-4 and then when task #5 kicks in, then the final core handles it? I am trying to avoid the CPU hitting 100% and freezing up the system so other processes grind to a halt.

Can you allocate a program to a core so it has exclusive use of it?

If a program is not designed specifically for a multi-core machine, does that mean that when it runs, it can only use up the power of one processor?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure exactly how Windows' task allocation works but you should never see a quad core processor reaching 100% load in anything other than a very intensive app such as Prime95.

If you wish to allocate a program to a core, this is very easily done - simply open Task Manager, go to the processes tab, and right-click on the process you want to modify. Then click 'set affinity' and unlick the cores that you don't want the process to run on :)

However, as Badbob says you don't need to worry about any of this really. Modern CPUs are very very capable of dealing with workloads.
 
Does it remember the settings when you click 'set affinity', even after a reboot?

badbob, Outlook is using up 100% of cpu as SpamFighter checks for spam and Kaspersky checks for viruses.
 
Does it remember the settings when you click 'set affinity', even after a reboot?
Click to expand...

Windows does the CPU sharing allocation, there is no need to set affinity.

badbob, Outlook is using up 100% of cpu as SpamFighter checks for spam and Kaspersky checks for viruses.
Click to expand...

I take it you have a single core CPU at the moment? My 2.2ghz dual core is rarely loaded out.
 
reflux said:
I'm not sure exactly how Windows' task allocation works but you should never see a quad core processor reaching 100% load in anything other than a very intensive app such as Prime95.

.
Click to expand...

I constantly see my Q6600 at work at 100% when encoding DV files and

rendering.
 
Jon12345 said:
I have certain mission critical applications on the PC that have to run full pelt when they kick in. So I would like to control this.
Click to expand...

The first four will be quite happy on a single core CPU, tbh.

You're going to be limited by the rate at which the computer access the hard disk, at a guess: with those three processes running and pinging through the various tasks, the hard disk is going to be going through quite a few access requests anyway.

When you load up your number crunching bits, that will place additional load on the HD controller/HD iteself. Save the money, buy a discrete RAID controller and build a separate array for your number-crunching bangles and baubles.
 
If you have the money, I can't see any reason why you shouldn't get the quad. If you're using a single core now, then a dual core would obviously be a big improvement also. I'd just go with the best you can afford.

To answer your previous question, windows will not remember the affinity you have set after a reboot, but like everyone has already said, it doesn't really matter. Windows is quite capable of evenly distributing the workloads amongst the cores.
 
mrthingyx said:
The first four will be quite happy on a single core CPU, tbh.

You're going to be limited by the rate at which the computer access the hard disk, at a guess: with those three processes running and pinging through the various tasks, the hard disk is going to be going through quite a few access requests anyway.

When you load up your number crunching bits, that will place additional load on the HD controller/HD iteself. Save the money, buy a discrete RAID controller and build a separate array for your number-crunching bangles and baubles.
Click to expand...

What he said, PC is only as fast as its slowest component under load.
 
We do data recovery that analyses file structures. Also, Kaspersky Internet Security seems to suck up lots of processing time. We have a web server on that PC too, so need it to be accessible and not slowed down by CPU overload.
 
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