Wolfdale Ramblings. . .

[Big.Wayne]

Well sure enough the new *Wolfdale* chips are the talk of the town so I figured we should have a thread for ramblings, waffle and general gibberings about these new cpus instead of the technical threads getting blocked up with non technical babblings.

The only rules of this thread is to have fun and be nice to your fellow forum members (no insults and no trolling please) and in some way your post should be related to the Wolfdale cpus. . .

Let the ramblings commence!

 

[Big.Wayne]

Mine is coming tommorow.

Couldn't ask for a better opening ramble there Tom!

Look forward to your blow by blow account of how you managed to miss the delivery guy when he comes!

I want them to go away!

Ah you don't mean that and besides you got a nice toy already, should last you at least another month or so by which time there should be plenty of Wolfdales for sale at a better price, you will just have to 'struggle' on with your Quad @ 4000MHz!

 

[Big.Wayne]

The INTEL desktop CPU range is mega confusing to anyone that doesn't live in these forums, I reckon a great deal of people don't know what CPU to buy and are 'steered' towards a certain product by various salesmen.

I think the man on the street will probably choose a quad core over a duo core Wolfdale if they are both selling at a similar price.

I expect INTEL will make certain CPU's EOL soon and tweak their products range down to a dozen different processors.

Anyone that remembers the days of Coppermine with the choices of an E, B or EB processors along with the Katmai range will probably see some similarities with the INTEL product line-up today.

Anyone know what chips INTEL plan to axe next or about any price cuts lined up for the Wolfdale chips?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Intel will NOT be selling the older Conroe chips cheaper. That isn't how they work. They introduce a new product line which performs better at a lower price point to cannibalize their older products; completely replace the lineup

I don't understand why they do this?

nVidia have effectively done a similar thing with the 8800GT being a faster and cheaper card than the older 8800GTS 640MB?

What is the logic in all this? Not that I'm complaining but I don't understand why INTEL have a superior product selling for less than an older and less powerful product?

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

£144.51 inc VAT


Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

£178.59 inc VAT

 

[Big.Wayne]

If they made the old stuff cheaper then no-one would buy the new stuff that they've spent millions on development and manufacturing processes.

They may have spent millions on R&D but that normally pushes the product price *Up* not *Down* as the higher price is warranted by the superior bleeding edge tech and the older product line should be discontinued or have a price drop (or both).

Since the G0 Dual-Cores have been selling longer you would have thought the E6550, E6750 and E6850 products have recovered their R&D costs so INTEL could afford to let the price down a bit?

Something about the pricing of these new Wolfdales isn't making sense to me?

Anyways for the same money a year ago you could have bought a E6400 (2.13GHz - 2MB Cache - 1066FSB) so an E8400 (3.0GHz - 6MB Cache - 1333FSB) for the same money is what I call progress!

 

[Big.Wayne]

Precisely the point of my 2nd ramble

You may wanna edit that *mahoosive* quote lol

I dunno as I already said I'm not complaining about the price but I just wanted to get my head around how the business of it all works, I mean its like going to Mc Donalds and having the choice between regular sized french fries for £2.00 or a large portion for £1.00?

 

[Big.Wayne]

going to resist for now I think

What chip are you running at the moment then Stelly?

I'm still using an E6300 and an E2140 and got offered an E8400 last week for about £120, reached for the wallet and then thought "Nah"

TBH I am really busy with work and stuff at the moment but if I had more spare time I think I would have probably snapped one up. I'm also just getting my new P35 platform sorted so that will give me something to do for a few weeks, I'm really hoping I can get my old E6300 up to 3500MHz or the E2140 higher than 3300MHz.

Apart from the overclocking potential of the Wolfdales I am impressed by their low power consumption, I wonder what the annual saving in the leccy bill would be over a Conroe? I have no idea could be £10 could be £100 or more?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Not much rambling going on here, guess this thread was a little late!

I just saw a picture of the new 'slimline' stock cooler for the Wolfdales, interesting that INTEL have reduced its size? I wonder is this a cost saving incentive?

I also read some posts where people are suprised how hot these chips run once you start overclocking, isn't that a side effect of the chips being produced on a smaller micron, less space inside and everything cramped up?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Funnily enough I was just reading about the new (Yorkfield?) Quads, they slapped two Wolf's together right? and a big fat 12MB cache, they look awesome for the folks who dabble in Video Editing and 3D-Rendering!

Question is, can a new Yorkfield Quad core at 3200MHz-3600MHz compete with an older Kentsfield Quad clocked at 3600MHz-4000MHz?

 

[Big.Wayne]

E8400 vs E2160 'Bundle'

Which basket makes more sense to you?

If you think the E8400 then state your reasons, try and keep them as real world as possible (i.e *not* better Super-PI times or increase your frame rate from 180fps to 240fps).

If you prefere the E2160 bundle also state your reasons why?

 

[Big.Wayne]

grrr

Yup that's getting expensive now although I'm sure people will pay it for the latest *wonder* chip

 

[Big.Wayne]

Interesting

I am looking for some 'real world' descriptions of why and how the money is better spent on an E8400. Once you deal with people outside the forums who don't know much about computers I can't think of any good way to convey why they should spend an extra £100 on the new tech.

I suppose if you take away the overclocking and just run the chips the way INTEL designed them at stock speeds then an E8400 (3000MHz/6MB/1333MHz-FSB) really does perform a lot better than an E2160 (1800MHz/1MB/800MHz-FSB).

I dare say it wouldn't be too hard to make an E2160 perform better than a *stock* E8400 but not sure how much clockspeed can make up for the Wolfs 6MB of cache.

I think I answered my own question there, once you take overclocking out the equation everything makes a lot more sense!

I think another area I am a bit fuzzy on it onboard cache, would like to see which games/bench/applications etc really thrive on the added cache of the E8400? I think Super-PI does right? not sure what else?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Nice price increases!

 

[Big.Wayne]

Well I got 2 E8400's, saw them at a price too good to miss and grabbed them before it was too late.

I find it interesting what you say there 'before its too late' almost as if the Wolfdales are limited edition and if you don't snag one they will disappear from the face of the planet forever!

I've had a wolfie in the old shopping basket a couple of times myself thinking along the same lines but then I realise thats the hyperbole at work!

I think the nVidia 8800Gt launch was very similar, in envoked a sense of 'panic' buying amoungst the consumer.

I wonder if had there been plenty of stock of the E8400 would you have still bought two?

 

[Big.Wayne]

i dunno what i should do now, cuz i dont really need an upgrade badly yet

No probs,

just sit it out for a while, find something else to keep u amused and wait for production of the Wolfdale to ramp up, then they will be cheaper and with a bit of luck clock a bit better.

 

[Big.Wayne]

pushed into purchasing an item

Your quite a good example of this Hesky regarding Quad-cores as in the grand scheme of things you were quite late to the G0 Q6600 party, you must have been bombarded by hype for months about the quads before you finally got yourself set-up with one, now even though you are months behind the pack (so to speak) you are happy as larry and you probably got a better chip than the guinea pigs!

Another purchasing 'hook' I found interesting was a comment by Will Hub a few weeks ago, he was worried that if he didn't snap up an E8400 on release he wouldn't get a good clocking chip? like only the good clocking chips are the first ones released?

I always thought the longer a chip was produced the better it got? sure you will always get some weeks that don't produce ace clockers but on the whole it seems the norm that more recent steppings chips tend to be better chips?

Looking back to the last big thing, the INTEL Quad Cores, when that hit these forums people went Bonkers (must have, must have). It kept them amused for a good few weeks/months until the G0 stepping arrived and suddenly B3 quads were 'ditched'! In this scenario I reckon it would be fair to say early adopters got a raw deal, the folks who hid their credit cards and sat it out for a month or two were rewarded with a better quad core!

I must admit its very hard to resist the 'BUY NOW' button when new hardware is released but I think its prudent to wait a month or two for prices to settle down and any bugs to be ironed out.

I am reading that the current E8400 has bugs with the DTS? I wonder is this is true? not that INTEL would admit it mind. . .