enough with processors...

bratton

bratton

New Member
I've spent 45mins to an hour trying to find out what exactly Conroe is other than a multi-core processor and I give up. All I want to know, is if my usage is general office/homeowner use, with a current game here and there (such as WoW), and with no upper-level graphics settings required, am I going to find any REAL benefits between products? Currently I'm looking at a 3200+ for $100US. But, should I look into Intel? Or dual-core? And is it really necessary that I wait until price-drops from Conroe to look into a better processor?
 
i suggest you wait for the price drop
and also as you said office use.... that means multitasking so dual core processor will be better for you....
if you insist and you want to buy now
if you are much more of a gamer get the 3200+
if multi-tasking is your main purpose of the computer ... try looking at intel

anything else you want to know ?
 
I don't think I should have said office use, becuase by office use I really only meant excel/word processing/power point here and there. What the system will be used for 90% of the time will be internet/moderate gaming.

As far as multi-tasking, I'll have AIM, word processing, a browser, wmp, and a game running at the very most. Currently I'm plenty happy on a 2ghz intel p4 except when trying to open/close WoW (which sometimes required a reboot), and sometimes WMP, which may or may not be the processor. Price/adaquate performance is obviously where I'm heading.
 
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I dont think that is your CPU then. I have a sempron 2300+ that does all that just fine. What is your budget? I wouldnt get the 3000+, i would the A64 3500+ for a few dollars more.
 
For what you want to use it for why dont you just build a system something like mine. You dont need to get such a high end graphics card, the only reason I have the 7900gt is because I got it for under $200 on ebay.

I play some games and have no problem but mostly I use it for video editing and web surfing and downloading things like music and movies.

I can encode a video, listen to music and download movies and surf the web all at the same time without any lag.

You could probably get something like a 3.2 p4 with HT for pretty cheap and that would be just fine for you!
 
bratton said:
I don't think I should have said office use, becuase by office use I really only meant excel/word processing/power point here and there. What the system will be used for 90% of the time will be internet/moderate gaming.

As far as multi-tasking, I'll have AIM, word processing, a browser, wmp, and a game running at the very most. Currently I'm plenty happy on a 2ghz intel p4 except when trying to open/close WoW (which sometimes required a reboot), and sometimes WMP, which may or may not be the processor. Price/adaquate performance is obviously where I'm heading.
Click to expand...

There will be a price drop for the AMD CPUs: http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=48010&highlight=price+cuts

The 3200+ (Socket 939) is a fine processor I have one myself. Can play games just fine plus the price is droping soon. Perhaps you could even go with a 3500+ with the drops.

I'd wait for more dual-core supported games before getting a dual-core.
 
bratton


It's probably not your processor that's causing WoW to crash, it's probably a corrupt file.

Conroe is a new dual core processor from Intel that is expected to be released in about a week or so. The reason that there is so much talk about it is that Intel recently released a system to tech site testors that they configured sporting a Conroe; and in that test it beat AMD's flagship dual core processor the FX-60 by about 20% when the FX-60 was over clocked by 200 Mhz. When Intel released the systems it was under an agreement by the tech site testors that they not check out Intel's configuration. This stirred up a hornets nest among enthusiasts all across the web because it created suspicions that Intel had some how rigged the outcome. Especially since Intel had also configured the AMD system which used an ATI chipset instead of the faster Nvidia chipset.

My advice is to to wait a couple of weeks to see what turn up. Your P4 is fastly becoming an aging dinosaur that is nonetheless more than adequate for word processing and surfing the net but not much for gaming. If you need a new system then you should go for a dual core because in a year or so single core applications will have started to fade and then even a slow dual core is going to offer better performance than a fast and expensive single core in most uses.

Hoped that helped a bit.

Cheers.
 
Sophocles said:
Conroe is a new dual core processor from Intel that is expected to be released in about a week or so.
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Wrong. It's going to be released next month on July 23rd.

Sophocles said:
The reason that there is so much talk about it is that Intel recently released a system to tech site testors that they configured sporting a Conroe; and in that test it beat AMD's flagship dual core processor the FX-60 by about 20% when the FX-60 was over clocked by 200 Mhz. When Intel released the systems it was under an agreement by the tech site testors that they not check out Intel's configuration. This stirred up a hornets nest among enthusiasts all across the web because it created suspicions that Intel had some how rigged the outcome. Especially since Intel had also configured the AMD system which used an ATI chipset instead of the faster Nvidia chipset.
Click to expand...
I hope you know that independent enthusiasts have gotten their hands on the prerelease processors and have benchmarked them without any constraints by Intel.
 
I dont think you need a Conre, or much more then a AMd Semin(socket 754) but If you have the bugedt I would just get the AMD 3500+ for 111$ to be more feture roof then the sem.
 
Clutch said:
Wrong. It's going to be released next month on July 23rd.
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I think your the ones thats wrong, since many sites are saying that there shipping out Core 2 Duo's to customers on July 3rd.
 
Well, then. I didn't expect this much input.
thank you for clearing up the conroe indentity, as well as listing the amd price cuts (although i had seen them already :P ) But, the price cuts lead to another question:

when are those prices going to be effective for retail purchase (such as from newegg)? And are they going to be that extreme? If those are the price cuts that the average consumer on newegg will be recieving, then I will definitely go from a 3200+ to an X23800+ without any thought... if the price cuts are that effective

for another question, I have been told that amd dual-cores adaquately outperform intel dual-cores. It was some explanation that the amd cores can share the workload for a single program between one another, while the intel cores throw an application only onto one processor, meaning you would need to run multiple programs in order to see any benefits.
Now I've come to think that this may not be true, and that for the amd situation, the program would have to be multi-threaded. So, what's the real truth?
 
lol they make semprons for AM2.
i suggest you wait until conroe comes out and then wait for some overclocking results. if they overclock well then get a cheap conroe. if they dont, then get a cheap X2 processor. if you don't need the dual core then get a core 2 solo or athlon 64.
i but dont forget about the other parts in the computer. i highly suggest putting two sata drives in raid 0 or get a 10,000rpm hard drive because it helps the most in loading windows and/or games. its the stuff you notice.
also, get 1gb of ram if you get a single core... id suggest 2gb if you get dual core.
what type of video card do you plan on getting... anything special for games or just a regular movie watching video card?
 
right now i say stay away from processors, we are getting ready for ALOT of new technology (Kentsfield, AMD Chronic, Memron, Conroe, ECT)
 
bratton said:
Well, then. I didn't expect this much input.
thank you for clearing up the conroe indentity, as well as listing the amd price cuts (although i had seen them already :P ) But, the price cuts lead to another question:

when are those prices going to be effective for retail purchase (such as from newegg)? And are they going to be that extreme? If those are the price cuts that the average consumer on newegg will be recieving, then I will definitely go from a 3200+ to an X23800+ without any thought... if the price cuts are that effective

for another question, I have been told that amd dual-cores adaquately outperform intel dual-cores. It was some explanation that the amd cores can share the workload for a single program between one another, while the intel cores throw an application only onto one processor, meaning you would need to run multiple programs in order to see any benefits.
Now I've come to think that this may not be true, and that for the amd situation, the program would have to be multi-threaded. So, what's the real truth?
Click to expand...
The price cuts already happend on newegg. This is from a ebay i got from them a few weeks ago on the 2ed and

"AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail
· Flawless installation, great speed, nice bang for the buck
· Reviewed By: Rat, 5/29/2006 8:35:14 AM
Rated 5 Eggs
Your Price $185.99"


and it links here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=19-103-533&CMP=EMC-neemail060206&ATT=amd003
for 111$ and that is jsut one example with biggest price differnce.
 
im still saying wait about 2 months, maybe 4 more and you'll see some HUGE price drops, especially with Chronic
 
fade2green514 said:
i but dont forget about the other parts in the computer. i highly suggest putting two sata drives in raid 0 or get a 10,000rpm hard drive because it helps the most in loading windows and/or games. its the stuff you notice.
also, get 1gb of ram if you get a single core... id suggest 2gb if you get dual core.
what type of video card do you plan on getting... anything special for games or just a regular movie watching video card?
Click to expand...

I thought about raid for 5 minutes or so, because then I also thought about my luck. I don't want one harddrive konking out and taking the other with it. :P
I am planning on getting 1gb to start, and upgrading to 2gb.
I have a 6800xt to use. I don't need high settings on hi-res.

Now I think I'll be waiting for the price cuts just to see if the 3800 drops to 160 or so, if not I'll stick with the 3200 for now. I guess I forgot to mention this will be a strictly budget-based system with upgradability that I'll be upgrading as I go along (better processor...depending on which I get now, another gig of ram, better video card if I get more into gaming, raid or a 10krpm drive if I decide on that).

But while we're semi on the topic of speed, and no one has answered on the hdd board, :P how much difference am I going to see between a motherboard that allows 1.5gb/s sata vs a 3gb/s sata?
More specifically... http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=48175
 
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