Whats a Dual core P4/805 like?

[FatRakoon]

I have just been offered a PC for £300, but I also have to knock up a basic PC for him too...

The Basic PC he said he will be happy with a simple 500Mhz as he only does Emails and this one is simpy too OTT for him, so...

The specs seem to be fairly ok I suppose?

A P4 805 Dual Core CPU. Not sure of its MHZ, so I am assuming its 2.6
2GB RAM DDR2
An 80GB SATA and a 120GB IDE
However, its also got a 7900 GFX Card in it. Again, not 100% on which model, but there you go?

Now, let me make something clear here...

I used to have a 3.6Ghz Prescott and I will be perfectly blunt, but compared to my AMDs, while it did look good on paper, it also performed very well with benchmarks, when it came down to doing any real work, it was quite frankly, one of the biggest piles of crap I have ever wasted money on!

So, is this one going to be the same?

Its dual core, instead of that lie of an effort called HT so in some ways it may be better, I dont know?I was not overly blown awaywhen I took my main AMD to dual core to be honest, and in most cases I found they were no better TBH, so am I going to see the same thign with this?

The thing is, that he only wants £300 for it, its brand new ( less than 3 months ) full guarantees etc, and well... I dont know?

The GFX alone is worth half that isnt it?

Anyway, if you can throw me your honest opinions, I wouldbe very grateful.

Oh, my main PCs are ( for an "Is it worth it" comparison )

MSI Neo4 : x2 4400 @ stock : 2GB : X850
MSI Neo4 : x2 3800 @ 2.5 : 2GB : X800
MSI Neo2 : Winchester 3200 @ 2.5 : 1GB : 6800GT
DFI LP250UT : Newcastle 3000 @ 2.4 : 1GB : 6600GT
ECS NF3+ : Sempron 3100 @ 2.1 : 1.5GB : R9800Pro
NF7S : XP17 @ 2.7 : 1GB : R9800Pro
NF7S : XP25 @ 2.6 : 1GB : FX5900

The rest are neither here nor there.

How much does it compare to the above... I may ( if I have it ) be using the GFX on the 4400, I dont know?

 

[FatRakoon]

Hmm.. So then its not a bad un then?

He says he took it to 3.5 ?

So, in real-life terms then, if it does indeed go to 3.5, how would it fare against a Prescott at 3.6?

If I was to leave it stock, how is it against any of my current PCs?

I guess I will find out... He has Emailed me and said that I can nab it for the day tomorrow andgive him an answer tomorrow night after I have had a play about!

To be honest, if I do grab it, I will just rob the GFx for myself and use the nastiest pair of SLI cards I can find, just to play with SLI. and let the wife finally have a good PC instead of the Barton3200, or will that be yet another mistake in assuming that intels are any cop?

( I hate Intel obviously - unfair I know, but I have never had a bad AMD and never had a good Intel, so... )

 

[FatRakoon]

rubbish

Seriously?

But, is it worth £300?

I mean its pretty much £200 for the GFX alone isnt it?And then I get a Dual core Intel for like £100

At least thats how I am trying to look at it.

 

[FatRakoon]

Hmmm... Well, it'll have to go in with one of the the NEO4 PCs as the rest are all AGP.

Ok, I will be playing with myself tomorrow anyway, and I will also have that PC to test too!

Ahem...

See what comes of it yeah?

Half exited, half not really giving a to55

My best GFX is X800 @ X850 ( And a Stock X800 ) - Both bought in error thinking I could pair them up in my Mobo at the time...

 

[FatRakoon]

What an absolute pile of cack

Does this guy seriously consider that PC a fast one?

I got a couple of clocked XP1700 systems here that are absolutely killing it.

I took the HD out, put a fresh install back on, using a stock XP CD instead of the supplied bloat-ware one, and it was better, as expected, btu it was still really poor.

I ran AquaMark03, ( patched of course ) and I got 60K - That cant be right surely? I pretty much get that on a stock X800

It seems to me, that this PC is on par with a single cored XP2400, and even then, I think I am being generous.

I have no doubt that clocked, its quite possibly a much better CPU, especially if I get to 3.6 then it will probably be a little quicker than my ZX81, but I am not 100% on that.

To be fair though, my AMDs are no better... Not really.

 

[FatRakoon]

The Board is an NForce, so that will do it.

The RAM is Corsair XMS530 so that will do it.

Its currently running at 3.5 and its absolutel drivvel.

The GFX are Leadtek PX7600GT and not 7900 at all.

The HDs are 40+80 so a bit cack.

I ran SuperPI and the first run came up at 7 minutes and 48 Seconds.

Best I have had is 7M14S

However, AquaMark is now at 81K

Apps are poor at best. I created a new folder, and filled it up with various sized files of various types, and copied the folder to the other.

The AMD I used is the Newcastle 3000 ( I used this against the 3.6HT, so I am trying to get a clearer picture of the 3.6HT against this P4 too )

The newcastle zipped up the entire folder in 35seconds, the P4 took 9 minutes 12 seconds.

I thought this could be down to the HD simply being so poor, but the results were still 8 minutes 24 on a WD250 SATA!!

No, this PC should be able to be way quicker by a long way too, however, I simply dont think I will be having it... Its just too poor like this. Oh, and the Installation of XP is hookie too, so thats lost value already.

 

[FatRakoon]

Have you checked the temps? Is it throttling? There is no way it should be over 8 mins slower than your NewCastle at unzipping anything...

Oh crickey yes, its should be way more than that, I know, but it simply isnt.

CPU Temps are 63c @ 3.5Ghz

Chipset drivers?

Possibly. I have not checked the drivers as such, its fully setup according to the guy, and all the devices are in the DevMgr, except one of the USBs which a simple reinstall then put right.

This could go a long way to explaining that the Chipset Drivers are simply not installed and its running on whatever XP had to offer I suppose? - Will check on that tomorrow.

The Case is an iCute, and I have nothing against iCute as such, I have one myself, they are a lot better built than most cheapies, but its what? £30/£35?

The PSU is a dire X-Power 400w job, so a QTec will be an upgrade I recon.

With this kind of system, that might simply be too much of a drain on such a low PSU so that might also need replacing.

Coupled with the fact that its runing on a "Fixed" copy of XP, plus its been clocked on both the CPU and GFX, can only mean that its not worth the bother.

I have priced it all up now anyway, and I can built the same thing for £360 so I am not going to bother at all. Seen the GFX in action however, and I am a little miffed that I got the X800 really cos this card is way quicker, so I will get one of those to have a play for sure, but as for the rest of it, its a little awful I think?