Intel Dual Core from £79 +VAT

AWPC · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:26

Any Intel mobo which conforms to the 05A Platform Compatibility Guide & or has a bios update to allow it to work properly should be ok.

Cheapest on ocuk is Abit @ £130ish. Also with regards to ram do not think you can get DDR2 @ 533/133 so you will be underclocking the ram @ a ratio of less than 1:1 as even though you can get DDR2-533 (533/266) the CPU/Chipset automatically internally quadruples it to 1066FSB. Lowering the CPU multiplier and running with a 1066FSB on this CPU could give good results for the price.

As your overclocking probably not an issue as you can tweak away every single aspect of volts, fsb, pci-e etc etc on these 955X mobos.

If you do decide to get a 955X mobo pay the extra £16 for the Asus P5WD2Premium as it has loads of connectors/features more than worth the extra few £.

maddness · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:28

Defcon5 said:
so am i! needs 955 chipset though

should be fine with the 945's

valerian · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:34

ajgoodfellow said:
For games the Venice will be a huge amount faster

The Venice 3000+ outperforms even a 3.4GHz P4 in games let alone a 2.6GHz P4

how is it that lots of you who have AMD's constantly dig at others with intels,
im quite happy with my intel thank you

i like my ddr2 also

it smacks of underdogitis

much like stoke and vale (ha ha)

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:43

I got one of these today. Currently installing windows, I didn't think the 925xe and 945 chipsets were much different! obviuosly I was wrong. I should be up and running in about 20mins.

ajgoodfellow · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:48

valerian said:
how is it that lots of you who have AMD's constantly dig at others with intels,
im quite happy with my intel thank you

i like my ddr2 also

it smacks of underdogitis

much like stoke and vale (ha ha)

I had a 2.8Ghz (533fsb) P4 before and I noticed a huge boost in performance with my Opteron

If you look at benchmarks etc you'll see that the X2 outperforms the Smithfield P-D by a fair margin

Raikiri · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:49

Capt Doufos said:
I got one of these today. Currently installing windows, I didn't think the 925xe and 945 chipsets were much different! obviuosly I was wrong. I should be up and running in about 20mins.

What chipset are you using?

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:50

945. 945/955/975 all support dual core.

Raikiri · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:53

Capt Doufos said:
945. 945/955/975 all support dual core.

excellent

Let us know how you get on

maddness · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:56

get it clocking!

Things change I've changed · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:13

Edit: Lowrider considering they cost £50 less a 15fps lead is excellent, and it is kicking it's butt

I agree It certainly is beating it but not nearly as much as I thought it would, its just that I think that too many people often exagerrate the difference in performance when it come to comparing Intel and AMD cpu's, instead of stating what the actual differences are they just say "AMD will whip it's butt maaan", when you have both Intel and AMD systems running side by side in the same room you can see theres really to a big difference.

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:15

Straight in at 166 FSB 3.3ghz no problems.

Going to see where the limit for getting into windows is.

Raikiri · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:18

lowrider007 said:
I agree It certainly is beating it but not nearly as much as I thought it would, its just that I think that too many people often exagerrate the difference in performance when it come to comparing Intel and AMD cpu's, instead of stating what the actual differences are they just say "AMD will whip it's butt maaan", when you have both Intel and AMD systems running side by side in the same room you can see theres really to a big difference.

I guess it depends what the percentage is, if it is 45 rather than 30 then the dif is massive. although 165 instead of 150 makes no diference

Capt Doufos said:
Straight in at 166 FSB 3.3ghz no problems.

Going to see where the limit for getting into windows is.

Thats quite impressive, stock volts I take it?

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:19

Stock volts now 3.6ghz 180mhz fsb. Still stock volts.

AWPC · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:21

Capt Doufos said:
Stock volts now 3.6ghz 180mhz fsb. Still stock volts.

What ram do you have?

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:23

Crucial Ballistix, but this FSB won't even tax it.

*edit 3.8ghz, but I have had to up the volts a little.

*edit 3.9ghz, same voltage.

Raikiri · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:40

Capt Doufos said:
Crucial Ballistix, but this FSB won't even tax it.

*edit 3.8ghz, but I have had to up the volts a little.

*edit 3.9ghz, same voltage.

great, wanna do some benchies/stability testing?

Oh and what cooling is that on?

AWPC · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:46

Capt Doufos said:
Crucial Ballistix, but this FSB won't even tax it.

*edit 3.8ghz, but I have had to up the volts a little.

*edit 3.9ghz, same voltage.

Thats good but proceed with caution. Try a little stress testing and watch for thermal throttling issues as getting into Windows is one thing but I usually find Intel CPUs corrupt windows & or your Bios when you stress test if the OC is too much for the CPU to handle under heavy load.

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:48

Raikiri said:
great, wanna do some benchies/stability testing?

Oh and what cooling is that on?

Air and I just upped the volts to get 4.01ghz. I have a 5x120mm fan watercooling setup behind me as well.

Just getting some screenies together, just did a 1M superpi at 4ghz got 33s, but the ram is set to be slow. I think it will be a real shame the fsb is still only 200mhz. Shame there is no way to lower the multipler like you can on my 3.4ghz Presscott.

Any idea on the max voltage? I think it was 1.55V for single core.

Raikiri · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:59

5x120mm, that the thermaltake symphony?

Capt Doufos · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:00

Nah, it's an xspc 6x120mm (3 each side) rad mounted in the top of a lian-li PC75b.

Couple of sisoft screenies at 3.8ghz, 190FSB: