Anyone else still running Core 2?

[TurtleCrusher]

Obviously I do. For even BF3 it runs quite well. I've not had a game that didn't run well yet. I hoped to get 7-8 or so years out of the CPU. In a couple years it wont be in my main PC, but for research and office work, this computer might last over a decade!

This all is due to the emergence of smartphones, tablets and console games being used as internet and media devices. They have stifled the requirements for web pages, office and development applications.

 

[hoorah]

Heck, I just built 2 Pentium D Dual-core 775 machines from parts I picked up from a computer recycling center that had been thrown out. Unfortunately, they were a bit too old to accept core2 chips. They were both big improvements over the older single core desktops they replaced. One is an HTPC/DVR box running quite well, the other is a general office machine/browser/skype/itunes box. They work fine, and the users never complain about them being slow. If they can get by with a x2 pentium D, I imagine plenty of non-gamers have lots of of life left in core2s.

 

[crashtech]

Does the Xeon E5420 count? They are technically Core2 architecture. I recently picked up most of a system (dual 771 Supermicro mobo, twin CPUs, 8GB RAM) for $150. While it does tend to use a lot of power, once BSEL modded to 3.0GHz, performance is on par with an i7-2600.

 

[tweakboy]

I have afew core 2 duo Cpus in my closet.

I had a bunch of pent 4s i delidded them all tho lol.

nice OC hokiez.. What voltage you using for that clock speed. thx

 

[WT]

Intel e5200 @ 3.0 in my wife's PC. I keep looking at it thinking it would be a weekend project to update it but every time I consider it, I remember my friend's advice: If your wife's PC is working fine, just LEAVE IT ALONE !!

She uses it for email, web browsing and Quicken. My son plays Plants vs Zombies on it. I just think its wasted $$ to bother with it, but I would really like to ditch Win XP at the very least.

 

[Barfo]

Does the Xeon E5420 count? They are technically Core2 architecture. I recently picked up most of a system (dual 771 Supermicro mobo, twin CPUs, 8GB RAM) for $150. While it does tend to use a lot of power, once BSEL modded to 3.0GHz, performance is on par with an i7-2600.

wat? I find that hard to believe.

 

[crashtech]

wat? I find that hard to believe.

Maybe I should fudge it a bit and say "in league with," within a few percentage points in the CPU benchmarks I've run, but yeah, there are 8 full Penryn cores running at 3 GHz, as opposed to the i7's four SB cores using HT, so it may not be a fair comparison, but looking at dollar layout, its a smokin' deal, and it keeps me warm in the winter!

edit: I keep calling these Xeon 54xx series Penryns, when more accurately they should be called Yorkfield-6Ms, which betrays their relationship with the Core2 Quads.

 

[TylerS]

Yep. Still running Core 2. See sig. I'm working on pushing it a bit farther with the OC and right now I hope it'll get me another year before I need an upgrade.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Was there ever a server variant of Core2 family that had six real cores? Kind of like the Core2 equivalent of Thuban? That would really be something to own.

Dunnington or something?

Edit: Yes, according to Wikipedia, it wasn't just my imagination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#7400-series_.22Dunnington.22

 

[crashtech]

Was there ever a server variant of Core2 family that had six real cores? Kind of like the Core2 equivalent of Thuban? That would really be something to own.

Dunnington or something?

Edit: Yes, according to Wikipedia, it wasn't just my imagination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#7400-series_.22Dunnington.22

They do seem pretty cool, but I never found a board for them that would work for a practical workstation app, the criteria being ATX or EATX, and at least one PCI-e x16 slot. There are a lot of quad CPU boards for them in proprietary from factors.

 

[infoiltrator]

The value of a computer is : "does it do what I want."
You can find a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 745 with E6600 no operating system 160 GB HDD for $129.99 plus shipping.
From the easy to find Benchmarks E6750 beats Athlon II 255 which is a good basic computer.
I wonder, could a Dell OptiPlex 745 use Windows 8?

 

[Torn Mind]

The value of a computer is : "does it do what I want."
You can find a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 745 with E6600 no operating system 160 GB HDD for $129.99 plus shipping.
From the easy to find Benchmarks E6750 beats Athlon II 255 which is a good basic computer.
I wonder, could a Dell OptiPlex 745 use Windows 8?

Eh, many Optiplex 745s suffer from mobos that have bad caps. Sure, they'll work, but then suddenly freeze or shut down.

 

[infoiltrator]

Thank you, good to know. Another avoid list notation. I thought these were better

 

[lowrider69]

Eh, many Optiplex 745s suffer from mobos that have bad caps. Sure, they'll work, but then suddenly freeze or shut down.

I just worked on a Optiplex 320 for a client that went down due to a bad mobo. Worked one day, the next day it wouldn't post. Visually the caps looked fine but not all caps bulge and leak when they go. I kept getting beep codes pointing to the memory, the memory is fine the mobo is defective. I recall seeing several of these machines back in 06/07 that would do flakey shit like that.

 

[wpcoe]

Nice to see so many Core 2 Duos/Quads are still active!

I just (literally) dusted off an old e6750 system that I haven't used in years. I'm thinking of giving it to my 94-year old mother who uses her computer (an Athlon 2800 XP) mainly to check e-mail, order yarn samples online and sell things on Etsy with my sisters. Her WinXP Athlon with 768MB RAM takes several minutes to boot up.

I just tweaked the system with 4GB RAM by adding an old Kingston 64GB SSD to supplement the 500GB HDD and installed Win8.

Win8 goes from a cold start to a working Win8 desktop in about 35 seconds. Using BootRacer to time just Windows starting on a restart (by default a Win8 cold boot hibernates the kernel to speed things up) and it shows Win8 itself takes ~23 seconds.

Right now, the system is in a large, heavy LianLi case, and I want to down size that for her home. Probably a ~$30 uATX case, but I'm not sure what size power supply to get.

It seems to run just fine with the Core2Duo integrated graphics, so about the only power draws would be:

- Asus P5KPL-AM/PS mobo,
- the (stock-speed) e6750 & Intel HSF,
- 2 x 2GB RAM,
- a 64GB SSD and a 500GB WD HDD,
- an IDE/PATA DVD writer,
- floppy disk drive. and
- a couple case fans.

If, for any reason, we add a discrete graphics card, it would be some sub-$100 variant. However, for my family's use, I can't see the IGP not being adequate.

What would be an adequate power supply? Is 300w too small? I see some discount case/PSU units with those. Or, would 400w be needed? 500w?

 

[2is]

300 watts is more than enough. As is 250 watts

 

[VirtualLarry]

It seems to run just fine with the Core2Duo integrated graphics, so about the only power draws would be:

- Asus P5KPL-AM/PS mobo,
for my family's use, I can't see the IGP not being adequate.

The Core2 chips do not have an IGP. That is a feature in some mobo chipsets.

Edit: That's a G31 chipset. Should be adequate for non-gaming tasks. If she wants to watch 1080P videos, throw in a GT610/620.

 

[shady28]

Eh, many Optiplex 745s suffer from mobos that have bad caps. Sure, they'll work, but then suddenly freeze or shut down.

755s and 960s are much better. 960s in particular had the e8400 3ghz 6MB L2 cache C2D in them.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Was there ever a server variant of Core2 family that had six real cores? Kind of like the Core2 equivalent of Thuban? That would really be something to own.

Dunnington or something?

Edit: Yes, according to Wikipedia, it wasn't just my imagination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#7400-series_.22Dunnington.22

If only they made them for s775... Ugh!

 

[wpcoe]

The Core2 chips do not have an IGP. That is a feature in some mobo chipsets.

Edit: That's a G31 chipset. Should be adequate for non-gaming tasks. If she wants to watch 1080P videos, throw in a GT610/620.

Thanks for the correction. As I was reading the motherboard manual, I realized it was motherboard-integrated video. How quickly we forget!

I downloaded some 1080p YouTube videos and they played smoothly, so I think the integrated video is good enough for her use.

 

[SPBHM]

Thanks for the correction. As I was reading the motherboard manual, I realized it was motherboard-integrated video. How quickly we forget!

I downloaded some 1080p YouTube videos and they played smoothly, so I think the integrated video is good enough for her use.

the IGP doesn't really do much, but a core 2 is normally good enough for software 1080p playback...