stay AMD or go PENTIUM

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 20:32

stay AMD or go PENTIUM?

i currently have the system in my sig. and i wanted to go dual core.. and want to know wether to get a 165 or POSSIBLY a 170 or go to a pentium system for the cheap overclockable dual cores?

sablabra · 19 May 2006 at 20:39

I would stick with your current 146 for a while

A2Z · 19 May 2006 at 20:40

wait for conroe

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 20:50

conroe. how much will this cost and when is it realeased... if its more than 3 month away i cant afford it. i need to upgrade soon (going on holiday in 4 month and need to save for that)

sablabra · 19 May 2006 at 21:18

StevenG said:
conroe. how much will this cost and when is it realeased... if its more than 3 month away i cant afford it. i need to upgrade soon (going on holiday in 4 month and need to save for that)

If you're going away for a long period of time, I would wait for after the holiday

. But seriously, [email protected] will be good enough a long time ahead. Conroe will be here around july/august

Biggles 266 · 19 May 2006 at 21:29

An overclocked Opteron 165 or X2 3800 will outperform an overclocked Pentium D. It'll also be cooler and use less power, meaning it costs less to run. So the extra outlay will pay for itself in time, and that's before you even consider the cost of a new motherboard and new RAM.

My suggestion if you want more power now is to stick with AMD. Buy an X2 3800 for less than £200 and get back £100 or whatever from selling your 146. Leaves you with a £50-70 upgrade to dual core and a lot less hassle. Sure, Conroe will be faster, but the likelihood is K8L will be faster than that, and Core 3 will be faster than that, and then there'll be K10 (whatever happened to K9 anyway?!) and then... you get my point.

Buy for today. If you're going on holiday, save the money. Conroe will cost you several hundred. Chips will probably have parity with current Intel high end parts, a decent new Conroe compatible motherboard will be the best part of £100. So the reality is that you are looking at £100 or so for dual core AMD, perhaps as much as £400 for Conroe.

Get an X2, enjoy the extra power, forget that some people will have computers that will bench higher than yours since yours will still do everything you need it to and is still really powerful and enjoy your holiday.

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 21:29

3800 it is then... what are the overclocks like atm?>

Biggles 266 · 19 May 2006 at 21:35

Nothing is guaranteed remember. I don't think I've heard of one that wouldn't do 2.4 GHz, a high proportion will do 2.6 GHz, lucky ones will do 2.8+ GHz. Last person I knew who bought one, a week or two ago, got about 2.75 GHz out of his.

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 21:42

id be happy with 2.4 on 2 cores

im gonna stick my CPU on the MM

utherpendragon · 19 May 2006 at 21:52

k9 = canine so they skipped it

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 21:54

okay... X2 3800 OEM & Scyth ninja OR 165? both arround the same price

speeduk · 19 May 2006 at 21:55

Silly upgrading to an inferior cpu (if you are gonna be gaming?) when conroe is just around the corner.

At 2.45ghz it will match your current cpu in games if they are dual core optimised.

And its not guarenteed to reach 2.6ghz.

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 21:59

i dont game. you have seen my sig and what cards i am running????

EDIT: my system is overkill tbh. i only use it to chat, internet, downloading and converting movies

A2Z · 19 May 2006 at 22:02

StevenG said:
i dont game. you have seen my sig and what cards i am running????

EDIT: my system is overkill tbh. i only use it to chat, internet, downloading and converting movies

what you need the dual core for anyway?

//edit

so its overkill and you're upgrading :confused:

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 22:04

lol i need it so i can convert and burn at the same time.. save me a lot of time

KizZ · 19 May 2006 at 22:06

Id say your whole rig is overkill for your purposes

FatRakoon · 19 May 2006 at 22:31

I got a 3.6GHZ Prescott and an Asus P5GDI-FM Motherboard that I bought in March this year, that I will happily swap you for your DFI Mobo & Opteron if you wish?

The CPU is apparently clockable as hell, but the Mobo isnt a clocker.

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 22:32

are you suggesting 3 screens is overkill??? and nearly 700GB of HDD space ??? these are essentials lol. i dont care it makes my life easy. having 3 screens

EDIT: i must admit ive never gone over 1GB of ram... hmmm overkill maybe

StevenG · 19 May 2006 at 22:34

FatRakoon said:
I got a 3.6GHZ Prescott and an Asus P5GDI-FM Motherboard that I bought in March this year, that I will happily swap you for your DFI Mobo & Opteron if you wish?

The CPU is apparently clockable as hell, but the Mobo isnt a clocker.

wouldnt i still need to buy DDR2 ram to go with that..

FatRakoon · 19 May 2006 at 23:12

No, its DDR.

I thought of that too, but its DDR not DDR2