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Best processor for an average machine

Well I suppose you can have a forum where everyone but people with a lot of posts are automatically banned (and expect anyone who isn't to know instantly the difference between your excellent level of knowledge and someone who just says stuff like that to sound important and can have just the same post count as those who know), or you can demonstrate evidence they can share in. As you now have.

Myself I like links and information that people who have researched select as being useful to those who know less (which is why I read and read before and believe that Conroe will indeed by the way to go when things are slightly better established).

Perhaps I am simply under the impression that being new on a forum isn't like what one might imagine it would be like having a highly contagious social disease.
 
Witcher said:
Well I suppose you can have a forum where everyone but people with a lot of posts are automatically banned (and expect anyone who isn't to know instantly the difference between your excellent level of knowledge and someone who just says stuff like that to sound important and can have just the same post count as those who know), or you can demonstrate evidence they can share in. As you now have.

Myself I like links and information that people who have researched select as being useful to those who know less (which is why I read and read before and believe that Conroe will indeed by the way to go when things are slightly better established).

Perhaps I am simply under the impression that being new on a forum isn't like what one might imagine it would be like having a highly contagious social disease.
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I was in the position of many when I joined, but did I ask them to link me to reviews of the XP-M I was suggested? Nope, I did it myself.

If we say Conroe, and want to see why, Google, search. Its not like we are going to do the work for you (although we have by pointing you in the right direction :p)

In september after my holidays Im gonna spend a week looking at OcUK/XS/google to find my next system. I might post a thread about it if I can't make my mind up. We found the info, so you can too. :)

CR.
 
I am quite capable of finding the information and have already read a fair amount.

But there is no substitute for the advice of those who can assess it better than one can oneself. I am an expert, if you like, in my own field, but I don't expect to be able to fix my own car as a result, nor do I actually want to take a degree in motor mechanics simply to enjoy driving. Of course I'd pay for someone to help me in that case and here one must rely on effective charity - if you don't want to give it that's no sweat, its your choice not a moral duty.

Fortunately, when I was building my most recent system other people here took a different view than 'go and find it all out for yourself' and instead helped with advice and finding ones way through the information jungle and I have a better system as a result. Thanks to them I know there are people about who take the time to unmask complexity for those who don't need to be experts but merely want to be a little less in the dark.
 
Witcher said:
I am quite capable of finding the information and have already read a fair amount.

But there is no substitute for the advice of those who can assess it better than one can oneself. I am an expert, if you like, in my own field, but I don't expect to be able to fix my own car as a result, nor do I actually want to take a degree in motor mechanics simply to enjoy driving. Of course I'd pay for someone to help me in that case and here one must rely on effective charity - if you don't want to give it that's no sweat, its your choice not a moral duty.

Fortunately, when I was building my most recent system other people here took a different view than 'go and find it all out for yourself' and instead helped with advice and finding ones way through the information jungle and I have a better system as a result. Thanks to them I know there are people about who take the time to unmask complexity for those who don't need to be experts but merely want to be a little less in the dark.
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But as I'm sure you are aware, there is a multitude of threads on this topic so perhaps the 'search' function might have been utilised.
 
But as I'm sure you are aware, there is a multitude of threads on this topic so perhaps the 'search' function might have been utilised.
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Yes I'd definitely agree with that.

I think it is often better to ask for clarity from a basis of a certain amount of research, if only so you can make better sense of the answers.

The gap between that research and those who have done the lot is however, as in any research, going to be pretty wide. Some questions that are based on a little knowledge will still sound pretty stupid to those with a lot. I can understand that being annoying (in a different context I might be annoyed myself) but its one of the pitfalls of knowing stuff I suppose.

Anyway it wasn't my question, so I should remove my oar from the water.
 
We gave our educated answers to be told they want links.

Well, why couldn't you do that in the first place. Isn't these forums for help and advice (which we gladly do - but we will not go looking for things you can find quicker than actually reading the review!)

"Search" is often muttered on these forums, and luckily I haven't IIRC had it aimed it at me... yet :p

Oh well, we have sorted it now. Conroe is better.

Can be have a addition to the forum title? "CPUs - CONROE IS THE BEST DAMMIT" :p
 
Concorde Rules said:
"Search" is often muttered on these forums, and luckily I haven't IIRC had it aimed it at me... yet :p

Oh well, we have sorted it now. Conroe is better.

Can be have a addition to the forum title? "CPUs - CONROE IS THE BEST DAMMIT" :p
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a) use the search

b) conroe is so yesterday, bring me kentsfield :rolleyes::D

c)conroe

:p
 
*Ahem!*
These people aren't lying to you, it really is that good a processor, but it's best to take things into perspective and not be affected by "Cpwnroeism";)
While I would agree with most posters that any given Conroe CPU will currently outperform any other Intel or AMD CPU at the same price point as said Conroe CPU, I believe that if you were to go for one of the low-end A64 chips (whether AM2 or 939, I'd reccomend AM2 so you can potentially carry over any DDR2 RAM you buy to your next system, unless you've got 1-2GB of PC3200 RAM that you could use in her system in which case 939 would make more sense) you would end up with a system which would significantly outperform your current one and cost you quite a bit less than the chips you listed (under £60 for a 3000 Venice for instance). In addition, bear in mind that decent motherboards for these slightly older platforms (especially 939) will cost a bit less than a good Conroe-ready board.

In terms of future upgrade path, both Conroe and A64 will be futureproof. The least upgradeable platform would be 939, but even on that it's a LONG WAY UP from a £60 entry-level A64 to a top-of-the-line X2. We should be seeing new Conroe and AM2 chips for the next few years so you'll be able to upgrade cheaply by swapping to a faster CPU.

If you're prepared to pay £135, however, the Conroe is certainly the best deal in terms of price/performance ratio. In principle though (and I'm sorry if I'm spoiling your system-building/speccing fun here;)) I'd say don't upgrade at all unless she (or you:D) want to use the PC for a specific game for which it's inadequate.
 
lol.

Remember the blind cola tasting.

Was it pepsi, or was it coke.

Without benchmarks. Without an fps counter.

Blind test every one of those CPU's you mentioned. I reckon (without hard facts, just my humble opinion) that running office, browsing the internet, and playing the odd game (remember who the target audience is here) that it would be very hard to distinguish between them in real life everyday tasks.

I mean. Like now. My AMD 2600+ isnt breaking a sweat whilst I type this.
Even with my p2p in the background.

Personally I think the OP was going overboard with his request for hard facts and exact precision details of which chip is better considering the inteded use of the computer was for someone who isnt planning the overclock and isnt planning to be a hardcore gamer....

The cheapest would be the best. And buy her a present with the savings..
I bet she will be much happier with that than a couple of fps, or a 35 seconds of a lame mp3 encoding..

:-)
 
Vertigo, I have a more practical (rather than performance and benchmarking) based comment to add, hopefully which can aid your decision.

Pentium D is old technology. It's obsolete now, it's been around for years, and I don't see it has a future when buying a new PC.

AM2 is a decent solution, but perhaps doesn't offer as good performance for the money as Conroe (I'm trying to stay out of that side of the argument and hence have generalised greatly ;)).

Conroe offers the latest technology and is very reasonably priced and proven to perform excellently.

BUT, the final straw is upgradability imo.

Assuming that this PC is being built from scratch, if you buy a Pentium D then in 12-24 months time you have to start all over again and buy a whole new PC. With Conroe, starting with a 1.86Ghz you have plenty of headroom for a quick CPU upgrade, some more RAM etc. You will be using all the current technologies (DDR2, PCI-e etc) and have plenty of options to extend the life of the PC.

Of course, if you already had a s939 system that you could upgrade, then this would be a good time to boost the performance of that machine given the CPU prices atm. But like I say, starting from scratch Conroe makes sense from a 'future-proofing' perspective as well as a performance pov.

Remember not to get too obsessed with clock speeds as well. The Pentium D core wsa recognised as not being particularly efficient quite some time back, so Intel decided that the way to market and sell these things was by clocking it as high as possible and using the typical numbers game to sell. With Conroe however, things are back to reality with performance gauged on performance as opposed to ambiguous figures such as clock speed.

Hope this helps and hf shopping :D
 
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