Give me a reason to get a Phenom 9600...

[v8envy]

It's a SLACU (G0) X3210. The problem may not be the CPU, I'll spend some more time poking at it this weekend.

Anyhoo, $1000 for a quad is nothing special. You can buy an HPaq with a Q6600 for $750-800 any day of the week. I built two machines swapping parts back and forth, but one of the possibilities was:

$225 - X3210. Current price is $240, so a $255 Q6600 + $20 fan is the way go today.
$89 - DS3L. Can get an P35-E instead for $70 AR, making up the CPU cost difference.
$12 AR - 4 gigs of hpbate ram
$35 AR - antec EA 550
$25 AR - CM690
$206 AR - ECS 8800GT w/ accelero S1
recycled optical drives, let's call it $30
recycled hard drive. let's call it $100
Total:
$772

Now I doubt anyone will deny even a 2.6 ghz Xeon + 8800GT is a more macho setup than a 2.6 ghz phenom + 3870. Even throwing on a $49 vista home license (OEM from microcenter) and a $250 22" monitor I'm barely over a grand after rebates for a highly modern gaming rig. Approx. $250 tied up in rebates. Non-rebate parts would push the cost up another $50 by using different, slightly higher priced components.

Best mainstream overclocking scenario would have a 3.2 ghz Xeon (I still haven't given up!) facing a 2.9 ghz Phenom for the same budget. No contest by any metric.

OTOH batmang gets plenty of attention as being the only one with a different rig, and mine is very much par for the course. So hey, there's some value in being different. Everyone loves the underdog.

edit: post above has prices for the phenom rig. lower cost for that rig comes from no os, no hd, 3850 video, 20" monitor. so $850 intel vs $1000 phenom, roughly.
edit2: got the math right on $772 - HD + monitor.

 

[batmang]

Nice comparison v8, and thanks for the kudos for me being different.
Overclock the Q6600 and its a killing of a deal for sure. But we all know where I stand with my current AMD <3.
The main killer on my build was the motherboard cost. $179.99.
I could have gone with a much cheaper board but I wanted the 790FX chipset.
And yes, I did not have the OS in the build as I already had it prior. So tack on the Vista cost.

 

[v8envy]

n/m, I'm probably full of crap here.

 

[perdomot]

Power supplies are highly underrated in their importance to a rig and you should definately get a more solid PSU. There are plenty of good options listed in the PSU forum so I suggest you take a peek in there.

 

[batmang]

Here is a Q6600 SLi compatible build up, all from NewEgg MINUS a hard drive and OS. Its basically the same setup as mine except its all Intel and NVidia. It can do SLi, and NOT Crossfire(X).

Price shipped ends up being $1,046. $50-$60 difference between mine and the Intel NVidia build up. Not bad at all. And again, overclock and its not even close.

Heres the links:
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz - Q6600 Kentsfield - $275.99
Asus P5N-D NVidia nForce 750i SLi Motherboard - $159.99
XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB - $229.99
G.Skill DDRII 800Mhz - Four 1GB sticks - $93.98
Acer AL2016W - 20" Widescreen LCD - $189.99 shipped
Lite-On DVD+/- CD-RW - $22.99
HEC Case with 585W PSU - $46.99

$1,046 shipped. Not bad at all.

 

[v8envy]

Downgrade the video on the intel build to a 3850 and they're almost the exact same price. I'd also swap the nvidia chipset board for a P35 CF one as well (saving another 10-40 bucks in the process), since we're comparing apples to apples. Other than Rollo I don't know of anyone enthused about either SLI or the nv chipsets on Intel.

For me the NV card was mandatory because I intend to use it (even for gaming!) under Linux. SLI is simply out of the question. Otherwise I'd be all over the cheaper 3750 cards.

But for an apples to apples comparison I think we've proven that price isn't a major differentiator when shopping for quads on a budget. By the time you compare the pricetag on the whole enchilada the $20-50 CPU price difference is lost in the noise.

 

[batmang]

Very true. AMD or Intel, they will ultimately cost about the same when going with a quad core setup. I'm sure that will all change once the new 45nm quads come out. I would love to believe that the B3 Phenoms will be a whole new beast... but I know they won't. I'm staying optimistic though.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: batmang

Originally posted by: nerp
Quad for under $1000 is pretty sweet if you ask me and it's not like he built some Packard Bell. Once some new steppings are out and DDR3 is cheaper I'll probably go with Phenom.

Word.

As for me being a Fanboy... not true at all. I'm just going with my gut thats all. I like what AMD is doing, so I went with AMD this time around. I've built plenty of Intel machines so I'm not one sided by any means. I jumped on the 2.4C bandwagon and was running it at 3.2Ghz for well over a year, I absolutely loved that machine. Fanboy's bash on the oppposing competition. I know better than that. So no, I'm not a fanboy.

You have admitted the Q6600 is faster, you just don't want it. GOOD FOR YOU ! And I don't mean that negatively. I agree that You are not a fanboy, as you admit its a choice based on supporting AMD, and as a previous AMD supporter (before Conroe), I understand. I wish we had more people that would admit the real reason for their choice.

 

[batmang]

I'm glad you see what I'm going for Mark.

 

[batmang]

BTW, my machine is NOT stable at stock vcore @ 2.5GHz (200MHz). I'm not gonna bother overclocking until I get a better cooling solution, and I have one of the better steppings too.

 

[v8envy]

Have you tried clocking core #2 at a lower clock? Many Phenom users report a defective second core, where the rest of the cores can hit as much as 3ghz. It has little to do with cooling at that point.

Sometimes when OCing you gotta face the possibility that you got a bum part. Like my Xeon -- everyone else is hitting 3.2+ ghz on the G0 Xeons. Mine won't do it. 2950 373x8 is the best I could do. Running at only 2.664 with stock voltages.

 

[batmang]

Yeah. I tried clocking core #2 below the others and I got the same results. I could go all the way to 2.6GHz on the default vcore and it would randomly lock up.