To be or not to be

gam3r · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:16

If you see my sig in my spec, im owed a huge upgrade.

Now whats holding me back is 1) I have a limited budget and 2)

should i wait for AM2 or just go with an X2 3800?

Thank you

Ender · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:19

am2 has little increase over 939, if your gunna wait then conroe looks promising

gam3r · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:21

will conroe rape my wallet?

WJA96 · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:23

Anything new will rape your wallet, it's just how it is.

Soul Rider · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:28

How big a limited budget are we talking about?

m3csl2004 · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:34

if you owed a huge upgrade then i dred to think what my specs considered Oo

i would go with an x2 personally, am2 not worth the extra wait/cost - and conroe would - but are you willing to wait

locutus12 · 25 Apr 2006 at 18:40

Ender said:
am2 has little increase over 939,

source: ?

tomos · 25 Apr 2006 at 19:01

locutus12 said:
source: ?

anandtech, tomshardware. XS forums.

hopefully will improve in the future but for now....

anyways its no biggie. i mean when 939 came out, afaik it was a drop in performance compared to 754 wasnt it? it obviously improved a lot since then

gam3r · 25 Apr 2006 at 19:53

I got an unbelievably tight budget so bang for buck gets me. Im freakin' skint

.

I could raise 500 quid and im thinking X2 3800+ in a month or two..probably one of those Saphire x1800xt's as well..Not forgetting i need ram and a new mobo.

X2 3800 is look attractive, i hope prices decreases.

monkeypants · 25 Apr 2006 at 20:42

To be honest, get yourself a second hand NF7-S V2 or NF7 V2 or something that supports 200Mhz FSB, some ram, so you have a decent ammount, value stuff will do. Then just bump your CPU to 3200+ speeds (200*11) and overclock your 6800GT using coolbits or something. That'll last you until prices fall and there are reviews of the new stuff.

thefranklin · 25 Apr 2006 at 21:14

Yes, the only thing you really would need is more ram.

mctrials23 · 25 Apr 2006 at 21:59

im in the same boat, not sure whether to wait for conroe or to just get an x2 and 2gig of DDR.

rxmac · 25 Apr 2006 at 22:22

Personally im not a big fan of new chips like AM2 etc when they first hit the shelves, i like to wait 6 moths to a year before buying into stuff like that, gives any initial hiccups a chance to be ironed out. So i say go for the upgrades now, or soon after the new stuff comes out and upgrade again in 12 months or so when its all stable and calmed down a bit.

No matter when you buy new stuff its going to be superceded in a few months so why rush into it.

Just my 2p.

trojan698 · 25 Apr 2006 at 22:40

The boards for the conroe are estimated to cost in the region of £150-£200, cant remember where I heard it though, might be making it up.

garyh · 25 Apr 2006 at 23:07

trojan698 said:
The boards for the conroe are estimated to cost in the region of £150-£200, cant remember where I heard it though, might be making it up.

For the high-range 975XBX motherboards perhaps (aimed at the overclocking enthusiast) .. there is however the 965 range which will be for the mainstream market and will be priced alongside AMD counterparts.

Yet more Conroe rumors trying to put people off purchasing something that is, from what's been seen so far, more superior than anything AMD have to offer.

trojan698 · 26 Apr 2006 at 08:30

Most people in here are overclocking enthusiasts though

garyh · 26 Apr 2006 at 09:43

But what you're forgetting is that the Intel Conroes wipe the floor with the highest AMD CPU at stock

- Yes I agree £150 - £200 is extreme to pay for a motherboard.. I'm just pointing out, there will be cheaper alternatives that will be just as feature packed just minus decent overclocking facilitys.

tomos · 26 Apr 2006 at 09:57

so if you spend £150 on the mobo itself that can clock well, some good DDR2 ram then you only need the CPU at that point dont you? (assuming you have a PCI-E graphics card etc.

DDR2 is something i have no idea about the price for at the mo and which is good etc, but a quick gander at ocuks selection doesnt seem too bad cost wise.

have there been any *realistic* leaks about the poss prices for the various tiers of conroes?

garyh · 26 Apr 2006 at 10:16

Yep, the full pricelist is available here

Basically the major two chipsets are the E6600 which will be about £180-£220 and the E6700 will be £300-£350 - give or take.

The E6700 performs better than an AMD FX62 (FX60 overclocked to 2.8Ghz) at stock, and chances are will have HUGE overclocking capabilitys considering that the lower E6400 (2.1Ghz) overclocks to 3.1ghz on the stock HSF :eek:

TBH no reason not to go Conroe until Q1 2007 at the earliest.

tomos · 26 Apr 2006 at 12:26

i wont jump straight to conroe. i'll wait till quad cores out from both players and see which is best for my needs

2 X2's will do me till then