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[Mr Skrunts]

I do lots of file transfers with backing up (Work and Photography etc) but notice while this process is active it kills the rest of the computer, even surfing the net.

After running Intel CPU's for quite a while I went back to try the 8 Core AMD FX8350 4.3Ghz plus 16GB ram running on Windows 7 Ultimate.  Running normally it runs everything I try.

Can different jobs be allocated to different cores?  Like the File Transfers to cores 7 & 8 for example or does windows just allocate as it as it goes.

Also I have opened the the resource panel and noticed it has classed at least 3 of the cores (CPU) as parked.

[Kevin Wood]

Most simple processes will only use a single core for the majority of their work, and the kernel will automatically be using all cores if there are enough active threads to keep them busy.

I'd suggest that, when doing file transfers, the bottleneck won't be the CPU anyway, most likely whatever I/O connects to your storage is getting completely swamped (be that network SATA interfaces, USB, etc). Since your browser will be fighting this while you're surfing the net, that's where the slow down happens.

Unless you're transferring the data encrypted, very little CPU resources should be required.

All I can suggest is to see if you have a transfer rate limit you can set on whatever tool you're using to make the backup.

[TheBoy]

Whilst you can set an affinity of each process, it ain't worth it, unless you have too many active threads (unlikely on a quad or higher core).

Windows Explorer file copies are single threaded, so other stuff should just happily run on other cores (as Windows will try to keep active processes on the original core to stop expensive changes). 

As Kevin Wood suggests, your bottleneck is likely to be elsewhere, esp with SATA drives.  AMD based systems tend to be less performance optimised on the I/O hub than Intel ones, and those poxy semi-software RAID setups make it even worse.

[Mr Skrunts]

Thankyou both for your help.

I agree about the AMD v Intel bit.  Started off using AMD CPU's for gaming years ago with the 300/500Mhz CPU.  Then moved on to Itel and stayed with them through the P2/3/4 on the the Dual core and even tried a Q6600.

But I think its now time to revert back to Intel.  I lost track with them for awhile whilst all the new socket configerations where tried.  Seems now the haslam Haswell1150 is the way to go and the prices have stabelised.  Just cant decide to go with the inbuilt video or not.

[Mr Skrunts]

Any one know what the Letters stand for on the Haswell CPU

No Letter
C
K = Video ( I believe)  Unlocked
S

[Marks DTM Calib]

Most mass data transfer should utilise DMA, this does however occupy the bus so is architecture dependent.

[TheBoy]

Most mass data transfer should utilise DMA, this does however occupy the bus so is architecture dependent.

With the PCIe lanes now implemented directly on the CPU, you have the double whammy of CPU + Chipset combo to get good throughput.