Conroe - Worth the wait?

Monstermunch · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:22

Just wanted to ask, from what i've read they appear to be about 20% faster than the FX60 (clocked). But the AM2 finished article I believe is still yet to be seen.

The main concerns I have about waiting for the conroe are the following:

Mobo's - twice the price of a good nF4
- Lack of support/competition of good ones

Ram - Stupid money for a fast latency DDR2 capable of 1000mhz!

At least with skt939 you know where you stand in terms of price and available equipment!

Jimi · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:41

I would be more inclinded to wait to see what happens instead of just jumping in and buying one as soon as they are released. I mean, for all we know, there could be a major flaw to it we haven't seen or haven't been shown.

If Conroe turns out to be amzingly fast and well ahead of AMD, then I'll be getting one. But I won't get one as soon as they're released, nor will I be getting one if they're not much better than AM2.

TooNice · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:43

I am not sure what you are saying. Your points are valid, but isn't this the same thing with.. well, every advancement?

Do we know how much a Conroe motherboard will cost?

Efaws · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:54

Conroe is worth it, until AMD bring out a new CPU (After AM2) AM2 is just a socket 939 running DDR2, their next core I imagine will be as good if not better than conroe, but it will be at least another 6 months wait I'd expect

Monstermunch · 7 Apr 2006 at 23:39

TooNice said:
I am not sure what you are saying. Your points are valid, but isn't this the same thing with.. well, every advancement?

Do we know how much a Conroe motherboard will cost?

All thing being equal I know new tech is always at a premium especially straight after it's release. I'm just looking at the current hardware support for pentium D's etc. Mobo's seem to start where the most expensive AMD boards stop!

Not just that but as I understand AM2 will only support up to 800mhz, whereas conroe will be 1000mhz - good speed ram at 1000mhz will cost a bomb!

Monstermunch · 7 Apr 2006 at 23:41

Efaws said:
Conroe is worth it, until AMD bring out a new CPU (After AM2) AM2 is just a socket 939 running DDR2, their next core I imagine will be as good if not better than conroe, but it will be at least another 6 months wait I'd expect

I agree that AM2 will just be basically ddr2 to start with but you need to look at the bigger picture. AM2 is basically being introduced to pave the way for quad core etc, it hasn't been developed just for DDR2.

TooNice · 8 Apr 2006 at 00:02

Monstermunch said:
Not just that but as I understand AM2 will only support up to 800mhz, whereas conroe will be 1000mhz - good speed ram at 1000mhz will cost a bomb!

We don't know how reliant the Conroe is on memory bandwidth yet. The Conroe beat the FX-60 using DDR2 @ 667. It may well be that the 1000mhz memory will be for people who demand the absolute best with the mean to afford it. The people who currently buy £200 premium memory hoping to get 1:1 at 300Mhz HTT on their pimped phase cooling Opteron. And the "bang for buck enthusiast" could still get 85-90% of the performance using cheaper 667-800 memory. Or not. But we don't know that yet.

Explicit · 8 Apr 2006 at 00:02

Anyone know whether AMD's 65nm/45nm processes will be based on socket AM2 or will they be using a new socket? (hmm, sounds like Intel)

Other than that, Conroe does seem worthwhile from the benchies that we've all seen. Just look at the threads over at XS...insane performance. If I can get a CPU that slaps and spanks the FX60 for £350 then I'll be the first in the waiting line. And surely Intel are not stupid to jack up mobo prices. They'll cater for all price ranges and segments of the market. They know that not everyone can afford a £200 mobo.

TooNice · 8 Apr 2006 at 00:07

Admitedly, £350 is still a lot for a CPU IMO. Yes I remember the old days when they easily costed that, and some, but spending £200 on an Opteron 165 that is almost an FX60 still put a dent on my wallet when I think of how much I spent on my 2500+ Barton. But if they can offer a £250-270 (say Opteron 170 cost) chip that is overclockable to their flagship product, then it'll be tempting indeed (but I think will stick with my Opteron for a while).

Explicit · 8 Apr 2006 at 00:12

TooNice said:
Admitedly, £350 is still a lot for a CPU IMO. Yes I remember the old days when they easily costed that, and some, but spending £200 on an Opteron 165 that is almost an FX60 still put a dent on my wallet when I think of how much I spent on my 2500+ Barton. But if they can offer a £250-270 (say Opteron 170 cost) chip that is overclockable to their flagship product, then it'll be tempting indeed (but I think will stick with my Opteron for a while).

It's the E6700 (2.67Ghz) that I expect to be around the £350+ mark. There will be plenty of choice ranging from the E6300 (1.86Ghz) to the E6600 (2.40Ghz) and a few in between. Hopefully they will all clockvery well.

Monstermunch · 8 Apr 2006 at 00:20

Explicit said:
Anyone know whether AMD's 65nm/45nm processes will be based on socket AM2 or will they be using a new socket? (hmm, sounds like Intel)

Other than that, Conroe does seem worthwhile from the benchies that we've all seen. Just look at the threads over at XS...insane performance. If I can get a CPU that slaps and spanks the FX60 for £350 then I'll be the first in the waiting line. And surely Intel are not stupid to jack up mobo prices. They'll cater for all price ranges and segments of the market. They know that not everyone can afford a £200 mobo.

Yes AM2 is/was planned for 65nm by Dec '06 with the Quad core being in sight shortly afterwards. They are then talking about 8 x core in late 2007/early 2008 when the 45nm is available.

Regarding the prices of the mobo's etc, it just annoys me to think that in most respects the rd580 and the nF4 boards are more complex than current intels as I understand, but the intel boards are still £50-£100 more.

If the conroe will be £350ish (which I seriously doubt) then I may consider providing mobo's and ram are sensible, otherwise with system cost I may aswell have bought an FX60!

Pr0t0c0L · 8 Apr 2006 at 13:57

i think your a bit off the mark with your summary

EE6600 = £220~ 2.4ghz 4mb cache

Mobo = £80-£130 mainstream/performance £170 top top end fatlity

Ram is getting cheaper, and have you heard of a Divider??!

conroe will make am2 look like a celeron D

and none of you complained when X2 came out with the prices between
£400-£700, dont care if mobo costs £80 X2 was overpriced and now your
complaining about conroe

R B Customs · 8 Apr 2006 at 17:48

so is it confirmed that the conroe will run on an intel 975X express chipset?
like the asus P5WD2-E Premium ?

james32 · 8 Apr 2006 at 18:27

R B CUSTOMS said:
so is it confirmed that the conroe will run on an intel 975X express chipset?
like the asus P5WD2-E Premium ?

no
needs an updated version to fix voltages so current 975 are worthless

intel chipset 965 will be the chipset for xtreme versions of conroe
will also have 6 sata 2 10 usb

R B Customs · 9 Apr 2006 at 05:10

james32 said:
no
needs an updated version to fix voltages so current 975 are worthless

intel chipset 965 will be the chipset for xtreme versions of conroe
will also have 6 sata 2 10 usb

say what !?!
oh dear

can this be doen with a bios you rreckon ? or is it a simple case of... NO

m3csl2004 · 9 Apr 2006 at 11:30

it COULD have been done, but to save money i think asus (among others) left out some capacitors that were in intels design spec allowing for conroe voltage support?

think i heard that on xs

Pulseammo · 9 Apr 2006 at 12:23

Weren't the initial tests run on some sort of 975X? But yeah, they aren't full compatible and the 965 will be what conroe will run on.

m3csl2004 · 9 Apr 2006 at 13:09

and the new version of 975

james32 · 10 Apr 2006 at 01:12

its always the same, manufactures jump on a new chipset without giving a toss
if it's going to take a new cpu 2 or 3 months downline

thats why never buy into new motherboards until there proven to
work with newer processors down the line

asus mabaye ahead with technology but the last few boards they built are worthless

just look @ that Asus P5WDG2-WS £200, the marvel controler cant even do raid, the 2nd lan is tied to 1 of the PCI-X so cant been seen till you put a raid card in it, to enable 2nd Lan

bigredshark · 11 Apr 2006 at 00:16

chances are it will run on the intel 975x board but no guarentees and really nobody will know until they turn up. asus (and other) boards are missing a few capacitators (cost cutting) that are necessary for conroe.