Intel Dual Core from £79 +VAT

smids · 26 Mar 2006 at 12:52

Damn, these chips are good. I've been trying to convince my parents that they need 2 computer and not one

- was gonna build one and have a little play

.

jeffa123 · 26 Mar 2006 at 13:58

I just added ASUS AI and benched it on 3DMark 03 and got over 27000 without any elaborate overclocking. I don't see the point in any case. but if you want a quick compare try this:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4698619

maddness · 26 Mar 2006 at 14:43

jeffa123 said:
I just added ASUS AI and benched it on 3DMark 03 and got over 27000 without any elaborate overclocking. I don't see the point in any case. but if you want a quick compare try this:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4698619

nice scores there, i thought it was 3dmark 01 for a second.

gota be a pair for gtx's in SLi no doubt

jeffa123 · 26 Mar 2006 at 17:46

yes Apair it is, but the cards are not overclocked. They are running at a standard 430 mhz and 1.12 Ram clock. The reason I went for SLI was the effortless work the cards make gaming and photographic art. I enjoy the relief I get by gaming apart from when I have intense photo work. When you have a Dual core Processor it makes life much easier on the brain. Concentrate on thegame rather than where the next glich is coming from, you have a much easier time playing.

Sparky191 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:55

jeffa123 said:
yes Apair it is, but the cards are not overclocked. They are running at a standard 430 mhz and 1.12 Ram clock. The reason I went for SLI was the effortless work the cards make gaming and photographic art. I enjoy the relief I get by gaming apart from when I have intense photo work. When you have a Dual core Processor it makes life much easier on the brain. Concentrate on thegame rather than where the next glich is coming from, you have a much easier time playing.

What improvements does SLI makes to editing photos?

jeffa123 · 27 Mar 2006 at 12:57

Apart from cpu updates done on the Dual core, the Graphics workspace adds to texture and you tend to see a true print onscreen. Providing you have your monitor calibrated correctly the effects are very transparent. Your prints bounce of the page once you have the finshed article. I use CS2 and Macromedia flash so my animations use realtime effects before transposing to code as well as graphics. An all round task mind-bender but it works. I remember the days of simple tweening but now you can get a whole sequence of realtime animation into the same size code and graphics architecture as we used to. Many things are faster if shared. Its a bit like the Dual core processor's ability to do two things at the same time. You find the tasks get easier to carry out. A bit like 2 people carrying a washing machine is quicker and easier than 1 person doing it on their own.

Amp34 · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:27

What temperatures are these cores running at? Both stock and oc.

Sparky191 · 27 Mar 2006 at 14:34

jeffa123 said:
Apart from cpu updates d....2 people carrying a washing machine is quicker and easier than 1 person doing it on their own.

Sorry but unless I'm missing something you've not explained how SLI helps with 2D? Doing 2D work hardly taxes most gfx cards even budget ones. I've seen very few 2D speed test these days, though some of the graphic design mags still do them occasionally and from what remember theres neligible difference between mosts cards in 2D.

3D apps and games fair enough, but 2D? :confused:

Raikiri · 29 Mar 2006 at 14:15

Well, Mine has finally been ordered along with the Asus P5VD1-X, all in all the system will cost me £214 as I already have a good case and DVD drive - W1nn0r!

Thats with 2x256mb ram (not enough, meh i'll use my Geil from here when I go 2gb)
120gb HD
Dual core 805
9600pro kindly lent/donated
Antec Super Lanboy I had already

jeffa123 · 29 Mar 2006 at 15:47

Sparky191 said:
Sorry but unless I'm missing something you've not explained how SLI helps with 2D? Doing 2D work hardly taxes most gfx cards even budget ones. I've seen very few 2D speed test these days, though some of the graphic design mags still do them occasionally and from what remember theres neligible difference between mosts cards in 2D.

3D apps and games fair enough, but 2D?

3D vector work places work on both the processor and GFX and because I encorporate High definition renditions the graphics cards in Sli mode make easy meat for the task. Vector animation through photographic work can be time consuming and very graphic intensive. Try using Myra! for example, that is the basic package use to produce films like SHREK. I use a similar program for the photographic genre which can transpose its work to the sort of similar effects given through Shrek. Light, depth, texture and realism. Except in my case I use the world we live in to create other worlds. I wish I could tell you the name of the package I use but I am under license not to because it is in Beta. But 2D is 3D when these software packages get to work.

Efaws · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:52

Whats the average overclock you reckon then? My mate got one and he put it on a 800 bus not a 533 by accident, but then he realised, it did 4ghz no probs on the stock cooler :eek:

with more headroom

Raikiri · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:55

Efaws said:
Whats the average overclock you reckon then? My mate got one and he put it on a 800 bus not a 533 by accident, but then he realised, it did 4ghz no probs on the stock cooler with more headroom

Seems to be the norm, some need a little bump in voltage and some don't. I think it is because they were designed to run at 800mhz bus anyway but they needed a lower end part.

Sparky191 · 29 Mar 2006 at 19:21

jeffa123 said:
3D vector work places work on both the processor and GFX and because I encorporate High definition renditions the graphics cards in Sli mode make easy meat for the task. Vector animation through photographic work can be time consuming and very graphic intensive. Try using Myra! for example, that is the basic package use to produce films like SHREK. ....

Never heard of Myra. Do you mean Maya? Thats what they used in Shrek. I can't find any hard data about SLI in professional apps. Theres some mention of it being slower do to the overheard of working in a Windowed OpenGL enviroment. But I can't get decent info on it. I do use 3D apps, but generally try to use low polygon models not high polygon ones.

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3321&page=3 Anyway I'm going off topic so I'll say no more about it.

Efaws · 29 Mar 2006 at 23:38

Raikiri said:
Seems to be the norm, some need a little bump in voltage and some don't. I think it is because they were designed to run at 800mhz bus anyway but they needed a lower end part.

Hmmm, could be right there, tempted to buy one, they seem absurdly cheap for a dual 4ghz P4

jeffa123 · 30 Mar 2006 at 00:08

Sorry I always tend to call it Myra but if you just call it Mental Ray I guess that would be ok too. But no there isn't a lot of talk or use of Sli in graphic processing but getting you own computer to do things is better than uploading to a server and waiting three days for the results. The sequence may only be several minutes long Max 5 minutes in each case. But soon it will be a multi-GPU and Multi-CPU market for users breaking into the business of animation and uttilisation of the professional chasis rather than just gaming. I believe we are finally beginning to grow up in the way of operating computer hardware with software and neither has to be denied. I am sure I am not the only one who finds the use of dual graphics architecture a benefit along with Dual-core CPU use. I have used a friend's Dual processor machine on and off for the last six months and have found that help me with which way to go.

Sparky191 · 30 Mar 2006 at 01:34

You're not making any sense to me mate. Dual processing, SLI isn't new. We had Voodoo cards and Pentium Pros a long time ago. Or the BP6 and Celerons! I remember running rendering farms across the network using 3D Studio 2 runing in VESA mode on DOS, over a Novell network. The advantages of splitting tasks across machines is the same as splitting tasks across cores in your CPU and SLI cards. The main problem with it is that its not cost efficient. Even if you have a maxed out workstation, dual cores and SLI, you are still going to render faster on a whole bunch of cheap machines. Anyone remember OcUK stomp monster for Seti?

I work in an office stuffed full of dual Xeon workstations with Quadro gfx cards. I can honestly say they only feel smooth/faster when multitasking. For the majority of intensive single process tasks like compiling, rendering or gaming a faster single processor machine is quicker.

This intel dual core is cool though, it reminds me of those BP6 days and celerons art 550mhz. I've very tempted to get one myself!

Lanz · 30 Mar 2006 at 10:09

Sparky191 said:
You're not making any sense to me mate.

hehe join the club.

GAMEfreak · 30 Mar 2006 at 10:20

just an offtopic question lol.

jaffa you said something about "High definition renditions ", do you mean HDR?
because HDR means high dynamic range dude...

Sparky191 · 30 Mar 2006 at 11:34

So tell me guys whats a good combo of MB, RAM, Cooler for one of these Intel DC's if I want to clock the brains out of it. But dirt cheap because thats more fun.

smids · 30 Mar 2006 at 11:54

Sparky191 said:
So tell me guys whats a good combo of MB, RAM, Cooler for one of these Intel DC's if I want to clock the brains out of it. But dirt cheap because thats more fun.

IIRC Conroe will work on Intel 975 chipsets so perhaps going dirt cheap isn't the best idea - as then you will be able to get the new batch of processors along with a very good chipset - however someone correct me if I am wrong.

EDIT: No, mobo manufacturers and Intel have screwed the consumer once again

arstechnica said:
If you're holding out for Conroe, you'll also want to hold off on a motherboard purchase. The current batch of 975-based motherboards will not work with Conroe, even though the 975 chipset itself is Conroe-compatible. Conroe will require an updated voltage regulation module (VRM), the specs of which haven't yet been released. Future motherboards with an updated, Conroe-ready VRM will be backwards compatible with existing processors.