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Z68 could be useful for streaming, with Virtu, in that you can have enhanced processor igp handle the encoding while you are playing.
Lucid showed it was possible to do this via a demo a while back on an H67 board.
HOWEVER, I have not found any current reviews or articles that have touched on this and associated performance loss.
I encourage the gurus here to help find out as it may be a good a suggestion for many people here looking to stream.
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On May 12 2011 11:21 skyR wrote:Didn't really search any retailer for z68 boards =\ Reviews and Gigabyte themselves made it sound like z68 would replace the higher-end boards first and start trickling down to the budget boards near the end of the year. I'm genuinely impressed and shocked that Asrock is replacing their entire p67 lineup with z68 motherboards at the same pricepoint.
At first I assumed it was some strange newegg pricing, then I realized that the Z68 Pro3 actually is missing some power phases (not like it should matter for Sandy Bridge, if 4+1 phases are done well), a PCI slot, some bundled software, eSATA, and maybe some headers compared to the P67 Pro3. These aren't particularly things that most people would miss though, but it explains the cost being the same maybe.
I didn't bother comparing other Z68 / P67 changes.
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On May 12 2011 11:22 a176 wrote: Z68 could be useful for streaming, with Virtu, in that you can have enhanced processor igp handle the encoding while you are playing.
Lucid showed it was possible to do this via a demo a while back on an H67 board.
HOWEVER, I have not found any current reviews or articles that have touched on this and associated performance loss.
I encourage the gurus here to help find out as it may be a good a suggestion for many people here looking to stream.
Streaming software doesn't currently support Quick Sync or even most GPU-accelerated encoding, right? I guess it depends on the API and what's available. Real-time encoding for streaming isn't quite the same as transcoding videos. Anandtech has some info on Quick Sync through Virtu, but I don't think that's currently relevant.
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Heh I took a closer look and just realized only the Pro3 was at the same pricepoint while the Z68 Extreme4 has a $60 or so premium over its P67 cousin. Funny thing is that from what I can tell, the two boards are identical.
The ASUS Z68 boards also look identical to their P67 cousins. Looks like only Gigabyte made some changes to their Z68 boards by adding two more SATA ports (for a total of eight) and x8/x8 instead of x16/x4.
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On May 12 2011 11:39 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2011 11:22 a176 wrote: Z68 could be useful for streaming, with Virtu, in that you can have enhanced processor igp handle the encoding while you are playing.
Lucid showed it was possible to do this via a demo a while back on an H67 board.
HOWEVER, I have not found any current reviews or articles that have touched on this and associated performance loss.
I encourage the gurus here to help find out as it may be a good a suggestion for many people here looking to stream. Streaming software doesn't currently support Quick Sync or even most GPU-accelerated encoding, right? I guess it depends on the API and what's available. Real-time encoding for streaming isn't quite the same as transcoding videos. Anandtech has some info on Quick Sync through Virtu, but I don't think that's currently relevant.
it can be considered real time if the encoding fps is above the input fps. upon further reading, indeed, the quick sync api needs to be implemented in the software to allow for compatibility. currently, the only information i see is that xsplit does not support it, xsplit uses x264, and x264 will not support quick sync in the foreseeable future.
mainconcept has a h264 quicksync enabled encoder so it might be possible to use this with fmle.
otherwise yes, no point in Z68 at the moment.
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Hm well yeah, I was mostly thinking about Xsplit since that's what a lot of people use. I should have said "common" or "most" streaming software don't seem to support the Quick Sync API, though you bring an interesting point about Mainconcept.
I think the SSD caching on Z68 may be worthwhile, though it seems like maybe the incorrect chipset for it to be on. I guess we'll wait until 7 series chipsets for that to be available on the lower-end chipsets--it's a matter of Intel not having it ready in time for P67/H67/H61 rather than a policy of sticking it only on the premium chipset.
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What use would this caching serve?
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It's a mode whereby you pair a small SSD with a HDD such that it appears to the user as just a normal HDD (single drive letter in the OS). However, commonly-read data is cached on the SSD, so the things you read most often get read at SSD speeds. All writes are go to the SSD and then are transferred to the HDD whenever convenient. Thus, writes will be performed at the SSD's speed.
So you have a HDD/SSD combination that doesn't require user management in terms of manually putting what goes on what, but it has the write performance of the SSD and read performance of the SSD or the HDD, depending on if the data is cached in the SSD or not.
btw I checked and it looks like H77 will have this SRT (SSD caching) and so will Z77, but not Z75. So not all the consumer 7-series chipsets will have it, but more than just the top-end Z77.
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United States1655 Posts
I'm pretty sure the motherboard will downlock the 1600 memory to 1333 or 1066. Someone more knowledgeable though can correct me if I'm wrong.
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it will be able to use the memory but only at a max speed of 1333. you can contact asrock or look at their online motherboard manual to be sure. in my opinion it doesn't make much sense to be stingy with such a cheap motherboard and splurge on memory anyway - you should just buy regular memory.
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On May 12 2011 16:31 daglivewire wrote:it will be able to use the memory but only at a max speed of 1333. you can contact asrock or look at their online motherboard manual to be sure. in my opinion it doesn't make much sense to be stingy with such a cheap motherboard and splurge on memory anyway - you should just buy regular memory.
Since 1600mhz memory won't make a significant difference anyways, there's no real reason to get it. Main time it helps to have faster memory supported is in Bclk OC, like with i5/i7 8xx/9xx CPU, where it keeps you from having to downclock the memory.
H61 mobo isn't for OC'ing anyway.
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Yes, 1600MHz downclocks to 1333MHz. The reason why 1600MHz memory is always suggested is because these are the kits that go on sale.
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On May 10 2011 15:36 skyR wrote:@FearTheReaperMan You can purchase from NCIXUS and pay them $50 to assemble it for you. This build comes to $751: + Show Spoiler +
I was just about to purchase this comp, But they said they ran out of Mushkin 2x2GB 1333MHz. I was wondering if there were any other ones around for the similar price, I dont mind paying much more. Thanks
Btw- I asked this earlier but got no response, while the setup be able to run on ultra graphics? Thanks alot guys
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The RAM looks in stock to me. Or just get any 2 x 2GB DDR3 kit.
The bigger issue is that the Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Xtreme is out of stock (maybe forever?). Now you'll have to pay ~$20 more for something with a little worse performance, but still enough for ultra on SC2.
Here's a HD 6850 for $168: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=56261&promoid=1026
If this takes you over budget, you can get a i3-2100 instead if you don't need a quad core. The i5-2500 is now only $20 more than the i5-2300 for 500 MHz more, as another option.
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Or on the I3 with the rest of the setup would I be able to run sc2 on ultra?
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