Im going with AM2 ?

[zsdersw]

Maybe he is like me? hate the craps we hear on the net and decided to just flush any Intel's down the toilet.

Lunacy incarnate.

 

[Cali]

Originally posted by: mhahnheuser
Cali why burn your wallet to get a faster pc by buying the most expensive products on the market at the moment?
A shift to Conroe platform will cost a mint and that 6600 GT won't let that platform rise to the max anyway. I'd keep the GPU, RAM and your current CPU, buy a realy nice 939 nForce 4 SLI mobo and a matching 6600GT and go for SLI. You will get an immediate result in FPS in games, and your CPU will hardly battle with 2D software anyway. You've got a nice OC there you may as well get the most out of your system before you quit it. "Oh!" and when the 939 X2 prices drop, how about droping in a neat 4800+ dually just to make you feel good. Neither todays AM2's or any conny is going to blow you away on todays performance numbers.

But if i do that then i cant keep my processor, its a socket 754 and id have to upgrade it to a 939. Any recommendations?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: OcHungry

So you have bought E6300 and overclocked it to 2.8ghz and did prime 95 for 12 hrs at least and all on stock cooling, no temp or stability problem, and you did some benchmarks to prove it is faster than any AMD?
WTF?
idiots are now talking crap.
Maybe he is like me? hate the craps we hear on the net and decided to just flush any Intel's down the toilet.

No, but the Anandtech reviewers got 3.4 ghz off an E6600 on the stock cooler, and several XS overclockers have gotten their E6300s to 2.9 ghz on aftermarket cooling (and in those instances, the E6300s were limited by FSB more than anythign else).

Logic dictates that the E6300 could hit 3-3.4 ghz on stock cooling unless the stock cooler for the E6300 is significantly worse than the E6600, though the E6300 will be FSB-limited. This ain't rocket science. I recommended plenty of X2-3800+ processors to people in here without ever owning one. I was right to do so, too.

If you don't want to buy Intel chips, it's your loss man. I'm just trying to give the OP useful information. If he's willing to drop $400 on the CPU, he can get an E6300 or E6600 and smoke anything AMD has to offer. AMD will be competitive in the low-cost segment after price cuts, but in the $300+ CPU segment, they will lose badly.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Cali

But if i do that then i cant keep my processor, its a socket 754 and id have to upgrade it to a 939. Any recommendations?

Ah, I just realized you have a s754 rig. That makes a drop-in s939 CPU an impossibility.

If you really need a new board, processor, and memory, I will again recommend that you look into getting an E6300. It's only going to be around $180-$220 once they become available, which falls into your stated CPU budget. You can pair that with an overclocking board which will run you $200-$250 if current price trends continue and will allow you to upgrade to better Conroe processors and Kentsfield processors in the future. At worst, you're looking at $470 for CPU+board which, again, falls within your stated budget.

After overcloking, it will be faster than anything you can get from AMD for the same price.

However, you really don't need a CPU/board upgrade to play Counterstrike Source. Maybe a vid card upgrade would help. Beyond that, I can't see any reason to upgrade for Counterstrike Source.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Pederv
Reasons to choose an AM2 setup over a Conroe setup:
1) K8L dual core may equal or surpass Conroe

Only in apps that can feed four seperate cores simultaneously. Even current apps aggressively coded for multithreading have a hard time doing this when accomodating the needs of a single user. Go read Duvie's 2p dual-core Opteron benchmark if you don't believe me. The guy's playing Counterstrike Source anyway, so quad-core isn't going to help him much.

2) A quad core is supposed to just drop in

As has already been stated in this thread, 975x chipsets are Kentsfield-ready (Intel's quad-core coming out late this year).

3) Intel may require another platform change to go quad core

Bzzt.

 

[n19htmare]

You do know that you're not gonna benefit a darn thing by getting a new CPU and keep that videocard(GeForce 6600gt PCI-E) when it comes to gaming. Your graphics card is prolly already the bottleneck for your current system.
here is my HONEST advice and i think it's very reasonable.
I'm not even sure how much other tasks you perform on your machines but so far you've only mentioned gaming.

Why not spend the money on a graphics card... ? wait for the AMD price cuts and then drop in a X2 later on. Don't get me wrong, Conroe is a damn good CPU and so are the AM2s but either one you get, that 6600gt is not gonna take you anywhere.

upgrade your card, and wait for Conroe prices to settle down and then make the shift later on. by then Conroe would have settled down, AMD would have Price Cuts, DDR2 will flood the market lowering prices..

In your case, a jump to a more powerful cpu will only hold you back on your gaming.

 

[Pederv]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX

Originally posted by: Pederv
Reasons to choose an AM2 setup over a Conroe setup:
1) K8L dual core may equal or surpass Conroe

Only in apps that can feed four seperate cores simultaneously. Even current apps aggressively coded for multithreading have a hard time doing this when accomodating the needs of a single user. Go read Duvie's 2p dual-core Opteron benchmark if you don't believe me. The guy's playing Counterstrike Source anyway, so quad-core isn't going to help him much.

2) A quad core is supposed to just drop in

As has already been stated in this thread, 975x chipsets are Kentsfield-ready (Intel's quad-core coming out late this year).

3) Intel may require another platform change to go quad core

Bzzt.

I didn't say the will require a new chipset, I said they may require it. Since Intel is also in the chipset making buisiness, I can see them coming up with some reason for desktop systems to require a new chipset to support quad core.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Pederv

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX

Originally posted by: Pederv
Reasons to choose an AM2 setup over a Conroe setup:
1) K8L dual core may equal or surpass Conroe

Only in apps that can feed four seperate cores simultaneously. Even current apps aggressively coded for multithreading have a hard time doing this when accomodating the needs of a single user. Go read Duvie's 2p dual-core Opteron benchmark if you don't believe me. The guy's playing Counterstrike Source anyway, so quad-core isn't going to help him much.

2) A quad core is supposed to just drop in

As has already been stated in this thread, 975x chipsets are Kentsfield-ready (Intel's quad-core coming out late this year).

3) Intel may require another platform change to go quad core

Bzzt.

I didn't say the will require a new chipset, I said they may require it. Since Intel is also in the chipset making buisiness, I can see them coming up with some reason for desktop systems to require a new chipset to support quad core.

Pederv. Kentsfield has already been run on the Conroe chipset. Take a walk on over to XtremeSystems site. There is a GINORMOUS thread on it. You certainly seem to be down on anything Intel. Wassup?

 

[Pederv]

keysplayr2003,
I know, I've already been over to XtremeSystems site. The 975X chipset may work with Kentsfield, now, during the development stages. But buisness is buisness, nothing is stopping Intel from announcing a new chipset at the Kentsfield launch and only it "officially" supports Kentsfield.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Pederv
keysplayr2003,
I know, I've already been over to XtremeSystems site. The 975X chipset may work with Kentsfield, now, during the development stages. But buisness is buisness, nothing is stopping Intel from announcing a new chipset at the Kentsfield launch and only it "officially" supports Kentsfield.

So pretty much, the basis of your entire "why to go AM2" repertoire, is pure speculation?
Put down that magic eight ball and read some more reviews. I'll tell you this, you certainly have your work cut out for you. But, the green team definately needs it's cheerleaders. Competition is grand. Just look at all the falling prices. Wunderbar!!!

BTW. Coolaler used an MSI 975 board for that Kentsfield. But Maverick just posted that the new ASUS 965 board performs exceptionally with a Kentsfield.

Looks like AMD is getting into the groove with their marketing skills. I just bore witness to several dozen small billboard that run along a railroad line. And check out what their sloagan is: AMD - Scorching performance, without actually scorching!!
Obvious dig at Prescotts and Preslers. Thought it was funny.

 

[Pederv]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Pederv
keysplayr2003,
I know, I've already been over to XtremeSystems site. The 975X chipset may work with Kentsfield, now, during the development stages. But buisness is buisness, nothing is stopping Intel from announcing a new chipset at the Kentsfield launch and only it "officially" supports Kentsfield.

So pretty much, the basis of your entire "why to go AM2" repertoire, is pure speculation?
Put down that magic eight ball and read some more reviews. I'll tell you this, you certainly have your work cut out for you. But, the green team definately needs it's cheerleaders. Competition is grand. Just look at all the falling prices. Wunderbar!!!

BTW. Coolaler used an MSI 975 board for that Kentsfield. But Maverick just posted that the new ASUS 965 board performs exceptionally with a Kentsfield.

Looks like AMD is getting into the groove with their marketing skills. I just bore witness to several dozen small billboard that run along a railroad line. And check out what their sloagan is: AMD - Scorching performance, without actually scorching!!
Obvious dig at Prescotts and Preslers. Thought it was funny.

Well the OP asked about upgrading to AM2. I only gave a few reasons why someone who is going to buy a motherboard, cpu and memory would choose an AM2. There's always price, but that's as uncertain as the other reasons I gave.

As far as the Kentsfield support, Intel could always come out and say "The new XXX chipset is designed to supply the Kentsfield with enough data so each core opperates at optimum performance." or something like that.
I work in development, we always use exsisting equipment to make sure the unit works. Then to get the additional bells and whistles to work, the supporting equipment is developed around the unit and fine tuned.

 

[Cali]

Originally posted by: n19htmare
You do know that you're not gonna benefit a darn thing by getting a new CPU and keep that videocard(GeForce 6600gt PCI-E) when it comes to gaming. Your graphics card is prolly already the bottleneck for your current system.
here is my HONEST advice and i think it's very reasonable.
I'm not even sure how much other tasks you perform on your machines but so far you've only mentioned gaming.

Why not spend the money on a graphics card... ? wait for the AMD price cuts and then drop in a X2 later on. Don't get me wrong, Conroe is a damn good CPU and so are the AM2s but either one you get, that 6600gt is not gonna take you anywhere.

upgrade your card, and wait for Conroe prices to settle down and then make the shift later on. by then Conroe would have settled down, AMD would have Price Cuts, DDR2 will flood the market lowering prices..

In your case, a jump to a more powerful cpu will only hold you back on your gaming.

Ok this is a good recommendation. Ok say i do wait for everything to settle down. I go out and buy a GeForce 7800 or 7900(PCI-E) right now . Then someime in the future I upgrade to an AM2 or a Conroe.

1st, will PCI-e be compatable will either system?(just to make shure, sry if it seems like a stupid question)

2nd, can i run a 6600gt and an 7800gt on the same board? or do they have to be the same videocards?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cali

Originally posted by: n19htmare
You do know that you're not gonna benefit a darn thing by getting a new CPU and keep that videocard(GeForce 6600gt PCI-E) when it comes to gaming. Your graphics card is prolly already the bottleneck for your current system.
here is my HONEST advice and i think it's very reasonable.
I'm not even sure how much other tasks you perform on your machines but so far you've only mentioned gaming.

Why not spend the money on a graphics card... ? wait for the AMD price cuts and then drop in a X2 later on. Don't get me wrong, Conroe is a damn good CPU and so are the AM2s but either one you get, that 6600gt is not gonna take you anywhere.

upgrade your card, and wait for Conroe prices to settle down and then make the shift later on. by then Conroe would have settled down, AMD would have Price Cuts, DDR2 will flood the market lowering prices..

In your case, a jump to a more powerful cpu will only hold you back on your gaming.

Ok this is a good recommendation. Ok say i do wait for everything to settle down. I go out and buy a GeForce 7800 or 7900(PCI-E) right now . Then someime in the future I upgrade to an AM2 or a Conroe.

1st, will PCI-e be compatable will either system?(just to make shure, sry if it seems like a stupid question)

2nd, can i run a 6600gt and an 7800gt on the same board? or do they have to be the same videocards?

Heh, did you miss my post? 13 posts up. I agree with Nightmare 100%.

 

[Cali]

yeah i did read it but the second part is what i was hoping could be answered

1st, will PCI-e be compatable will either system?(just to make shure, sry if it seems like a stupid question)

2nd, can i run a 6600gt and an 7800gt on the same board? or do they have to be the same videocards?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cali
yeah i did read it but the second part is what i was hoping could be answered

1st, will PCI-e be compatable will either system?(just to make shure, sry if it seems like a stupid question)

2nd, can i run a 6600gt and an 7800gt on the same board? or do they have to be the same videocards?

1. If it has a PCI-e slot, it will run a PCI-e card. Regardless of platform.

2. You can run a 6800GT and a 7800GT on an SLI mobo, BUT NOT in SLI mode. Each card will run on its own. A good way to get 4 monitors going at the same time. But you can't run a 6800GT and a 7800GT in SLI. They have to be the same video card model but not necessarily from the same vendor.

 

[Cali]

ok so If i upgrade right now to a 7800gt or higher, I have to buy another to run them in SLI mode. So i would have to get rid of my 6600gt PCI-e. Ok got ya

 

[aka1nas]

Keep in mind that you may also possibly need a stronger PSU than you currently have to run two high-end cards in SLI. I would just get something like a 7900GT or even an X1800XT or even X1900XT. To be honest, if all you play is CS:Source, the 6600GT probably can handle it fine unless you are playing it with maxed details at higher resolutions. Any of the three cards mentioned above will probably be a bit overkill even for that.

 

[Cali]

Ok settled im going to but a new video card!

SPECS: GeForce 6600gt PCI-E,ASUS K8N4-E deluxe, AMD athlon64 3200+2.16gh WD74g Sata,

What video card would you guys recommend? what brand? the price? i was thinking of a 7900gt

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cali
Ok settled im going to but a new video card!

SPECS: GeForce 6600gt PCI-E,ASUS K8N4-E deluxe, AMD athlon64 3200+2.16gh WD74g Sata,

What video card would you guys recommend? what brand? the price? i was thinking of a 7900gt

Sounds like a good choice. But let me ask you. Are you upgrading because you need to (framerates not high enough) or is this more of an itch? Because a 6600GT should be more than enough for CS:Source.

 

[Cali]

Id say both. I wanted to upgrade and you guys recommended that I should just go with a video card. I also want to get the best out of my gaming. 7900gt will give me better FPS and its time to step up my computer =)

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Cali
SPECS: GeForce 6600gt PCI-E,ASUS K8N4-E deluxe, AMD athlon64 3200+2.16gh WD74g Sata,

What video card would you guys recommend? what brand? the price? i was thinking of a 7900gt

7900GT is a great choice. Get whatever seems like a good deal and keep your eyes open for "factory overclocked" models. After you get it, sell off your 6600GT while it's still worth something.

My thinking is that end of this year, early next year will be the time to upgrade CPUs because the lower end Core 2 Duos will be out and we'll hopefully know a bit more about the K8L. Right now there's too much uncertainty, at MINIMUM wait until prices stabilize from the price drops and supplies of Core 2 Duos stabilize.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cali
Id say both. I wanted to upgrade and you guys recommended that I should just go with a video card. I also want to get the best out of my gaming. 7900gt will give me better FPS and its time to step up my computer =)

LOL, then by all means, have yourself a blast. If you ever thought for a minute that your 6600GT was fast, just wait. 🙂

 

[Cali]

OK thx for the help everyone. One last question...

So go with a (factory overclocked) 7900gt and get it SLI compatable(just in case)?

PS. where can i sell my 6600gt?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Cali
OK thx for the help everyone. One last question...

So go with a (factory overclocked) 7900gt and get it SLI compatable(just in case)?

PS. where can i sell my 6600gt?

All 7900GT's are SLI compatable. With another 7900GT that is.
Try BFG or XFX. eVGA has been a little sketchy lately and I think it was bad RAM. Although I have heard they have replaced the skew of the problematic model.

You can sell your 6600GT in the FS/FT forum here at AT. Just read the rules before you list anything there.

 

[Cali]

thx