• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU Choice Dilemma

Dodge777

Dodge777

Dodge777

Associate
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
233
Location
Hampshire, UK
Hey all

Doing a PC upgrade in a month, so am starting to plan for it now. Currently running a P4 3.2Ghz Prescott (Socket 478 @ stock). Not been to chuffed with it to be honest. Temperatures have always been high! Doh. Anyways, reckon I'll make the move to AMD for a change. Not sure what CPU to go for though. I use computer for everything - work, multimedia and games. For a CPU I have around £250 to spend.

What do y'all recommend? I've read a lot of threads mentioning dual core. Is this the way to go?
 
ok if you can wait I would think about getting a conroe, or at least waiting for the benchmarks on it to see how fast its going to be...

if not then everyone rates the AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800... or a little more expensive 4400, if your looking to over clock your chip then then Opty 170 is a good choice....

but personally I would wait to see what Conroe is like :)

And as you can see duel core is always the way (in my opinion) ;)

dont forget if your changing to AMD means different socket, means a new motherboard...

Stelly
 
Dodge777 said:
Hey all

Doing a PC upgrade in a month, so am starting to plan for it now. Currently running a P4 3.2Ghz Prescott (Socket 478 @ stock). Not been to chuffed with it to be honest. Temperatures have always been high! Doh. Anyways, reckon I'll make the move to AMD for a change. Not sure what CPU to go for though. I use computer for everything - work, multimedia and games. For a CPU I have around £250 to spend.

What do y'all recommend? I've read a lot of threads mentioning dual core. Is this the way to go?
Click to expand...


Dual core will give you a massive boost in mulitasking and multithreaded apps.
But hold on for just a bit longer and see what the AM2 brings to the table along with the new intel offerings.
 
Unfortunately AM2 is just Skt 939 with a DDR2 controller... nothing has been been brought to the table performance-wise and AMD have even pretty much said that moving to DDR2 was to stay competitive with Intel in marketing terms.

Conroe is the CPU to go for until AMD's next offering I think, the many benchies around now show it to be coompletely kick-arse.

When can we expect to see Conroeat OCUK by the way... are we looking at late summer time?
 
Richdog said:
Unfortunately AM2 is just Skt 939 with a DDR2 controller... nothing has been been brought to the table performance-wise and AMD have even pretty much said that moving to DDR2 was to stay competitive with Intel in marketing terms.

Conroe is the CPU to go for until AMD's next offering I think, the many benchies around now show it to be coompletely kick-arse.

When can we expect to see Conroeat OCUK by the way... are we looking at late summer time?
Click to expand...

yes no gains in performance over s939 but might as well get the new socket if going AMD due to the new cpu's coming out on am2 socket.

I for one will be sticking with my opty s939 at fx62 speeds for some time to come.

I might dabble with a conroe system too but will have to see the pricing etc.. before I make any desicions.

My system now is as fast as the new am2 flagship chip so I'm still up there with the big boys lol :D
 
lol Intel really pulled off a bit of marketing genius. All the people saying to wait till Conroe. Ok they will loose lots of sales of P4 but not many gamers that are gonna spend big bucks have been going for those anyway and Dell will still sell as many as always.

If you want a CPU soon, get an X2. A socket AM2 when it comes out in the next month, if you are wanting to upgrade the CPU in the near future.
If your really can't wait a few weeks then get an Skt939 Opty 165/170 or X2 3800/4400 depending on budget.
 
Kamakazie! said:
lol Intel really pulled off a bit of marketing genius. All the people saying to wait till Conroe.
Click to expand...

Its not really marketing genius, they've just managed to get out a CPU that seems to really offer something over their last generation. Its not their marketing department thats got everyone talking about Core, its the benchmarks from the enthusiasts that have got hold of them.

In fact they've been pretty stupid in the marketing department, not only have they had this architecture developing since the early Pentium M days (even earlier than that, but this is when it started to look really impressive), they've been so slow bringing it onto the desktop that AMD have been gaining market share and a great reputation with the A64 parts. Asus had the great idea of their CT-479 adaptor, which really showed off Dothans potential.

Even now the Core architecture isn't being rushed to replace Netburst based chips, Intel are aiming for a slow phase out of their current offerings to be replaced by Core products.
 
Last edited:
Just read soime benchies on the Conroe and my word is it impressive! But most sites say it'll only be available toward the end of the year, and when they are, it's likely they'll carry a very hefty price tag. So I may upgrade to AMD now and then wait for a year until I endulge in a Conroe or whatever AMD brings.

Secondly, it seems all the AM2 will bring to AMD is DDR2 memory pretty much, and from what I've heard and read, DDR2 is... well... a bit anticlimactic.

What's are the temps like on the X2 4400? Am I going to need one hell of a cooling fan?!
 
Dodge777 said:
Just read soime benchies on the Conroe and my word is it impressive! But most sites say it'll only be available toward the end of the year, and when they are, it's likely they'll carry a very hefty price tag. So I may upgrade to AMD now and then wait for a year until I endulge in a Conroe or whatever AMD brings.

Secondly, it seems all the AM2 will bring to AMD is DDR2 memory pretty much, and from what I've heard and read, DDR2 is... well... a bit anticlimactic.

What's are the temps like on the X2 4400? Am I going to need one hell of a cooling fan?!
Click to expand...

TBH You can't go wrong with a solid s939 mobo and dual core cpu.Look at the opty 170's too great clockers and I have mine overclocked to 2.8ghz FX 62 speeds on silent cooling.
 
AMDs AM2 processors will be a boost over 939 on one condition, that memory manufacturers can get DDR2 latencies down, since thats the main performance credential for the athlon. DDR2 offers massive bandwidth at killer speeds but it has such loose timings, thats gonna kill AM2 in my opinion, this round is looking like intels so far as they don't have onboard memory controllers so latency is less of an issue
 
Dodge777 said:
Just read soime benchies on the Conroe and my word is it impressive! But most sites say it'll only be available toward the end of the year, and when they are, it's likely they'll carry a very hefty price tag.
Click to expand...
End of the year? Everywhere i've been reading has stated it will be available in July (ahem, 'Everywhere' = this forum btw ;) ) . Personally I really do hope you are wrong, as I was looking to upgrade in July. Im currently running a 3200xp+ (Antique ;)), and I need more gaming power!! If the conroe isn't available till the end of the year then 'meh':(
 
Well, I guess only the great peeps at OCUK will be able to tell us when they're coming in. If they've said July, then I guess they must be write. Maybe some of the articles I read were old and a bit pessimistic?
 
easyrider said:
TBH You can't go wrong with a solid s939 mobo and dual core cpu.Look at the opty 170's too great clockers and I have mine overclocked to 2.8ghz FX 62 speeds on silent cooling.
Click to expand...

Please care to show your spec and settings, as I would like to do a "silent" new build at these speeds.

Thanks.
 
As for hefty pricetags, the 'Official' prices for the mainstream 2.4Ghz and 2.66Ghz Conroes is the same as the current price for PentiumD 950, and 960, so around £200+vat, and £325+vat assuming there is not a major chip shortage.

Obviously the 3.3Ghz Conroe Extreme Edition will be Extremely Expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom