PENTIUM D 930-BEST CPU FOR £140?

[jay autopsy]

HI- QUICK QUESTION- I HAVE 140 QUID TO SPEND ON A PROCESSOR
THE 3.0 GHZ PRESCOTT AT £117 DOESNT SEEM TO GET A GREAT WRITE UP WHERE AS THE PENTIUM D 930 3.0 GHZ IS AVAILABLE AT 140 QUID- THE WRITE UPS SEEM FAVOURABLE AND IT OUTPERFORMS THE SIMILAR PRICED ALTHLON SINGLE CORE 64 BIT CPUS IN MOST OF TOMS HARDWEAR BENCHMARK TESTS. THE ENRTY PRICED DUAL CORE ALTHLON CHIP SEEMS TO HAVE A SLIGHT EDGE ON THE PENTIUM D BUT IS WELL ABOVE MY PRICE RANGE.

CONSIDERING MY BUDGET AND THAT I WANT TO RUN MULTI THREAD AUDIO APPLICATIONS LIKE CUBASE SX3 WITH NO OVERCLOCKING OR GAMING WOULD THE PENTIUM D BE MY BEST CHOICE?

COMMENTS GREATLY APPRECIATED

P.S THE CAPS LOCK KEY ON MY KEYBOARD IS BROKEN- IM NOT SHOUTING

 

[fenderbass86]

Hold down the shift key from now on then, or buy a new keyboard. If that's what you can afford then go for it.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

You are right in saying that the X2s are faster than the PDs

For £140 though you're not going to get an X2 so the PD makes sense as a budget alternative. The 900 series is also a fair bit quicker than the 800 series

 

[Minstadave]

You can get an X2 3800 for £190 inc vat and delivery, and pair it up with a cheap NForce 4 board, overall it might turn out a similar price to the 930 but it'd be a fair bit faster.

The 930 isn't a bad CPU though, and they overclock nicely, but the A64 x2s are just a better choice.

 

[FirebarUK]

Or even get a 920? They do overclock very nicely, good if your on a tight budget. Got mine at 4Ghz atm.
My plan was to spend some cash on nice DDR2-800, then keep that and ditch the board and CPU when it comes to conroe.

 

[smsmasters]

I have a pentiumd d 930 3ghz overclocked to 4ghz no problem! It is reallyyyyy fasttt!!!

 

[jay autopsy]

Thanks guys, at work now so no caps lock! Comments all greatly appreciated, this really is a very helpfull forum- thanks to everyone who has offered advice regarding my purchase!

 

[pcoltrane]

I second minstadave. Add up all the associated costs inc motherboard etc It may be just as cost effective to get an X2 an NF4 motherboard. If you pay for electricity don't forget that over a year the P4 could cost £30 or more extra on your electric bills!

Marc

 

[Bawbag]

Hey all,

I have the D 930 and am keen to oc it.

I am new to this oc'ing malarky so was wondering where can I find the best guide to do so for my particular CPU?

I had a quick search on the forum but the only thing I could find was people's results, rather than an actual "how-to".

Rig is as follows, if that will make a difference to how I should go about it (I would prefer to keep the heatsink / fan stock as I'm saving for a X1900):

Dell Dimension 9150
Intel D 930 3.0GHz Dual Core (w/ stock heatsink & fan)
2GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
256MB nVidia 6800 gfx card (stock card, overclocked to 400/800)
320GB SATA Western Digital HD (x2 160GB in RAID 0)
160GB IDE Icy Box External HD
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme sound card
Hauppage PVR-150 TV card
Logitech LX700 wireless keyboard and mouse
Dell 2.1 speaker system
Windows MCE 2005
32" Hyundai ImageQuest Q321 (main)
19" Dell E196FP (secondary)

Cant remember mobo of the top of my head, and I'm at work so cant check. I dont think it has temp sensors on it though, nor can I monitor / change fan speed if I remember correctly.

Also, there's a program on the cpuid website called ClockGen that can oc cpu's on the fly. Anyone used it and have any comments?

Any help is much appreciated.

TIA

Bawbag

 

[Mul]

Hey all,

I have the D 930 and am keen to oc it.

I am new to this oc'ing malarky so was wondering where can I find the best guide to do so for my particular CPU?

I had a quick search on the forum but the only thing I could find was people's results, rather than an actual "how-to".

Rig is as follows, if that will make a difference to how I should go about it (I would prefer to keep the heatsink / fan stock as I'm saving for a X1900):

Dell Dimension 9150
Intel D 930 3.0GHz Dual Core (w/ stock heatsink & fan)
2GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
256MB nVidia 6800 gfx card (stock card, overclocked to 400/800)
320GB SATA Western Digital HD (x2 160GB in RAID 0)
160GB IDE Icy Box External HD
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme sound card
Hauppage PVR-150 TV card
Logitech LX700 wireless keyboard and mouse
Dell 2.1 speaker system
Windows MCE 2005
32" Hyundai ImageQuest Q321 (main)
19" Dell E196FP (secondary)

Cant remember mobo of the top of my head, and I'm at work so cant check. I dont think it has temp sensors on it though, nor can I monitor / change fan speed if I remember correctly.

Also, there's a program on the cpuid website called ClockGen that can oc cpu's on the fly. Anyone used it and have any comments?

Any help is much appreciated.

TIA

Bawbag

It's a dell system. So unfrotunately you're unable to overclock your cpu.

Mul

 

[Bawbag]

Damn... well nevermind. It runs fast enough anyway, I just wanted to do it because I thought it was possible.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Teknodeamon]

I dont think it has temp sensors on it though

??

 

[Fulcrum]

It's a dell system. So unfrotunately you're unable to overclock your cpu.

Mul

I've never heard of that but I guess it wouldnt really surprise me. You could always replace the motherboard and clock it then

 

[ajgoodfellow]

I've never heard of that but I guess it wouldnt really surprise me. You could always replace the motherboard and clock it then

Yep you can't do anything with a Dell system really. You can just about change the sytem clock in BIOS and that's it

If you replace the motherboard you'll also need to replace the Case and PSU as these are non standard

 

[Teknodeamon]

thats insane lol

 

[GAMEfreak]

of course. they wouldn't want you to have a GOOD pc would they? . then again all major pc builders are the same. for example i have an emachines 420 here. case won't supports ATX motherboards, how silly eh?. also the motherboard mounting pins are in non-standard positions. so you need a case even if you get a m-atx board. i found this out to my dismay last week when i bought a new asus skt 478 board with both AGP and PCI-E on it. was so excited that i could use my 2gb ram at last and my new gfx card instead of integrated gfx, then i found it wouldnt fit -_-. unfortunate for some eh?