Is the cheapest Conroe still likely to be faster than the fastest AMD?

silversurfer · 15 Jul 2006 at 20:29

So how fast can it process a dvd, less then 5 minutes?

FrankJH · 15 Jul 2006 at 20:36

easyrider said:
I think you are missing the point here,

Its not about clock speed and gaining 800 mhz over my 2.8ghz opty lol

Its completely different architechture.

At 2.4ghz the conroe is faster than the opty @ 2.8ghz and thats the conroe running 400 mhz slower.

so its not a gain of 800 mhz in real terms is it?

Its a massive jump in performance.If the conroe is faster at 2.4ghz imagine how much quicker it is at 3.6ghz!

The upgrade to conroe cost around 100 quid after I sold my opty,mobo and ram.

Iam just stating fact after all the reviews - you wont see that much difference in games - fine you do encoding (which was always AMD's weak spot) and you will see massive bonuses in that and so it works for you

All I was saying is that for £600 (for a gamer) it seems ridiculous

Everyone knows that encoding is always weaker on AMD, but all the reviews point to small percentage gains if that in games

And the only way it cost you £100 is if you ripped your buyer off (imo) for a second hand opty, ram and mobo I cant see how its worth £500 - or unless you were able to buy with american prices or something in which case thats different.......but typical pricing compared to new conroe in UK Stirling, it just doenst work out

Kamakazie! · 15 Jul 2006 at 22:20

Explicit said:
I will attempt to answer your questions.

etc. etc.

thanks for the post. it was informative and makes a change from the
"conroe ownzorz everything blah blah blah" usual rubbish.
so we can conclude that the E6300 is a flippin bargain!

Dolph · 15 Jul 2006 at 22:39

rayb74 said:
Sorry if a little off topic:

So Dolph,
If say in about six months time when newer faster graphics cards are out the gap between the FX62/Conroe should start getting larger at higher resultions?

Thus the Conroe is more future proof and much better value for money than an FX-62.

Yes, that's the idea. When things change so you become limited by the CPU performance, rather than the GPU performance, A conroe system will be faster than an FX-62 system.

You can see this effect with the current low res or low detail benchmarks (which are limited by CPU speeds not GPU speeds) or if you use SLI benchmarks you see the same effect as these are more CPU bound rather than GPU.

P.S. On a lot of the high res gaming benchmarks I have seen the Conroe DOUBLES the MINIMUM frame rates when compared to FX-62. For this reason alone I will be purchasing one the rest is a nice bonus. This is where it matters to me most.

Definitely, consistant frame rates is in many ways better than large peaks and troughs, irrespective of average.

Slam62 · 15 Jul 2006 at 22:54

well in my opinion your all correct in different ways, the conroe is a very attractive piece of kit price/perf/power amd are going to have to do something fast or they're going to be stuck with a load of chips and the old end of year figs wont look too good.

So, conroe are going to sell like hot cakes and amd are either going to have to do some slick marketing and drop prices like a stone, which is ace news for everbody apart from those who just bought a brand new chip.

i have an x2 but its really exciting reading the reviews of these conroes they look mega

so amd will fight back and normally its price so let the prices tumble....

Explicit · 15 Jul 2006 at 23:11

Kamakazie! said:
thanks for the post. it was informative and makes a change from the
"conroe ownzorz everything blah blah blah" usual rubbish.
so we can conclude that the E6300 is a flippin bargain!

No probs mate, I always find your posts about AMD helpful (e.g. all the K8L info you posted) so I thought I'd return a favour.

And yup, E6300 is a bargain when overclocked!

skullman · 16 Jul 2006 at 00:20

idoru66 said:
Not for real-world gaming:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEwOCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

FX62 and top of the line Conroe deliver basically identical performance...

Only because the performance is restricted by the gpu. As cards get faster the gap between the fx62 and conroe will increase.

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 01:58

Kamakazie! said:
thanks for the post. it was informative and makes a change from the
"conroe ownzorz everything blah blah blah" usual rubbish.
so we can conclude that the E6300 is a flippin bargain!

You have been given every angle...and you still post :rolleyes:

good grief

silversurfer · 16 Jul 2006 at 03:38

Explicit said:
No probs mate, I always find your posts about AMD helpful (e.g. all the K8L info you posted) so I thought I'd return a favour.

And yup, E6300 is a bargain when overclocked!

On a budget system I think 6400 is the better choice unless you allready have the 400fsb ddr2 and capable board waiting

WJA96 · 16 Jul 2006 at 09:41

About 4 weeks ago, I was arguing very hard that the true upgrade cost was very much higher with Conroe than to upgrade your exsisting AMD system as you need to buy DDR2 and a new, expensive motherboard. I was arguing that you could soon buy a cut-price FX-62 to slot into your existing motherboard. It was very quickly pointed out that, in fact, to upgrade from a S939 chip to an FX-62, you also need to buy an AM2 motherboard and DDR2 RAM, so the upgrade cost is effectively just the cost of the processor.

But I do very much believe that on a pound for pound basis, Core 2 Duo crushes the equivalent AMD processor and that will eventually lead to Intel being dominant in the marketplace for the immediate future.

Participant · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:05

Let's imagine one is starting from scratch in terms of mobo, RAM, CPU - you'd consider a cheap Skt939 solution as you could spend £300 instead of £600 on a Conroe, and have a system 90% as fast.

Dolph · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:21

Robbie G said:
Let's imagine one is starting from scratch in terms of mobo, RAM, CPU - you'd consider a cheap Skt939 solution as you could spend £300 instead of £600 on a Conroe, and have a system 90% as fast.

But you'd be buying a total dead end system. At least with AM2 or Conroe you're buying something that may have a future (I'd never guarantee it would remain, that would be foolish), by contrast a 939 system definitely has no future, it's already end of lifed, so when you upgrade again you will have to purchase the whole lot again, whereas you may not have to if you buy conroe or AM2.

It all depends on how regularly you upgrade though.

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:42

Kamakazie! said:
thanks for the post. it was informative and makes a change from the
"conroe ownzorz everything blah blah blah" usual rubbish.
so we can conclude that the E6300 is a flippin bargain!

And now you finally agree with what I have been saying all along.
BTW why is stating the experience \i have have with actually using a conroe,overclocking a conroe etc... rubbish?

trolling springs to mind tbh...

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:50

FrankJH said:
Iam just stating fact after all the reviews - you wont see that much difference in games - fine you do encoding (which was always AMD's weak spot) and you will see massive bonuses in that and so it works for you

All I was saying is that for £600 (for a gamer) it seems ridiculous

Face it everything is quicker with conroe,Games the whole computing experience.

A 7950GTX2 cost £400 is that ridiculous for a gamer?
NO

Again why try to justify AMD's old tech?

Everyone knows that encoding is always weaker on AMD, but all the reviews point to small percentage gains if that in games

the lowest end conroe shows performance in games of the high end AMD counterparts.....Deal with it.

And the only way it cost you £100 is if you ripped your buyer off (imo) for a second hand opty, ram and mobo I cant see how its worth £500 - or unless you were able to buy with american prices or something in which case thats different.......but typical pricing compared to new conroe in UK Stirling, it just doenst work out

Oh thanks for that.... :rolleyes:

OPTY 170
G skill ram
DFI expert

are still top end hardware and still command good prices as I sold before conroe's release.

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:51

silversurfer said:
So how fast can it process a dvd, less then 5 minutes?

yes easily

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:53

Robbie G said:
Let's imagine one is starting from scratch in terms of mobo, RAM, CPU - you'd consider a cheap Skt939 solution as you could spend £300 instead of £600 on a Conroe, and have a system 90% as fast.

We have already covered the fact that you do not need to spend 600 on conroe to get a nice overclockabale system.

DDR 2 is no more expensive than DDR 1
A 6300 conroe is cheaper than a x2 3800
and conroe mobo's can be had for around 50 pound

and you have a system that is faster for around the same money..
Plus you are not buying dead tech!

easyrider · 16 Jul 2006 at 10:55

WJA96 said:
About 4 weeks ago, I was arguing very hard that the true upgrade cost was very much higher with Conroe than to upgrade your exsisting AMD system as you need to buy DDR2 and a new, expensive motherboard. I was arguing that you could soon buy a cut-price FX-62 to slot into your existing motherboard. It was very quickly pointed out that, in fact, to upgrade from a S939 chip to an FX-62, you also need to buy an AM2 motherboard and DDR2 RAM, so the upgrade cost is effectively just the cost of the processor.

But I do very much believe that on a pound for pound basis, Core 2 Duo crushes the equivalent AMD processor and that will eventually lead to Intel being dominant in the marketplace for the immediate future.

Finally someone with sense. lol

londonbairn · 16 Jul 2006 at 12:11

i really don't understand "until death" brand loyalty, you buy at the time what gives you the best price/performance ratio, and that is Conroe.

Participant · 16 Jul 2006 at 12:24

rafster said:
i really don't understand "until death" brand loyalty, you buy at the time what gives you the best price/performance ratio, and that is Conroe.

And I don't understand autism, but no one has displayed either in this thread :confused:

Some people think rigorously covering all angles and discussing all options = fanboyism. Not so.

Easyrider - you make a fair point about dead technology, but despite the fact that you can pick up a reasonable Conroe system (mobo + RAM + CPU) for around £300, you can already pick up a system 90% as fast for only £200 (£100 CPU £50 RAM £50 Mobo).

Humate · 16 Jul 2006 at 12:26

i need 3 new computers for the business with a life cycle of 3 years max. There just for for running word and accounting software etc.

I dont know whether to buy the cheap amd. Money is no object anyway, but it may make me feel warm inside that i have maximised profits for the month.

OR alternatively, go with conroe and watch the employees faces beam with joy when they only have to endure 2 seconds for microsoft word to open rather than 5.