Is it worthwhile to buy a Conroe

[us3rnotfound]

I'll probably have just 2 gb of ram, I don't do anything that involves the cpu, just play a lot of games.

Otherwise, I was just thinking about getting an amd x2 3800/4200 for about $200. Does that sound like a better plan?
thanks

 

[imported_wicka]

At this point in time that would be wise, because there is absolutely no hurry to vastly upgrade, and you can wait and see how the platforms pan out later on down the road.

 

[us3rnotfound]

exactly my thought, and plus If i rushed to buy the overpriced intel stuff now, in another month i'll be kicking myself for not waiting. I'll see what next year brings, and just go the old familiar amd route. But I'll wait a couple more weeks before my final decision.

 

[orangat]

If you are buying from scratch - yes.

Because you can get a faster and cooler running conroe for almost the same price.
Even if you won't find a significant performance in games (compared with a 4200+), the conroe is significantly faster all across the board especially in some encoding apps.

But if you are upgrading from a 939 pc, then you have to weigh whether the cost of a new mb and ddr2 ram is worth it.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Originally posted by: orangat
If you are buying from scratch - yes.

Because you can get a faster and cooler running conroe for almost the same price.
Even if you won't find a significant performance in games (compared with a 4200+), the conroe is significantly faster all across the board especially in some encoding apps.

But if you are upgrading from a 939 pc, then you have to weigh whether the cost of a new mb and ddr2 ram is worth it.

this is from scratch-I have no ram/motherborad ATM.

 

[Lord Banshee]

It depends..

If you use a small screen then your CPU will be the bottleneck. But like me, 2405fpw, the GPU will always be the bottleneck.

Also what componets do you have now other than a 7800GT?

If it is only going to cost you 200 buck to get a decent X2 dual core and ram, and cost you 600 dollars to get a conroe, well i would go with the the AMD. But seriously only you can decide if a faster overall computer is worth the extra 400 dollars. Also overclocking will help with either CPU you get, so if you wish to overclock you have the delight of buying a cheaper CPU.

*edit* i see you have no mobo or ram.........

get a conroe , you can get the 6300/6400 if you can't afford the 6600 and overclock.

 

[us3rnotfound]

the only components so far are sound blaster x-fi, 7800 GT, and a 500 w psu. What kind of ram should I get for the AM2? What about if I went the Conroe route?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound
the only components so far are sound blaster x-fi, 7800 GT, and a 500 w psu. What kind of ram should I get for the AM2? What about if I went the Conroe route?

Dude, if you're doing this from scratch, the only thing that will cost more on the Conroe side is the mobo. Gigabyte has a real nice 965 board for about 140 ish.

Other than that, both platforms need DDR2 so that cost will be the same. You can probably get an X2 3800 for between 149.00 and 169.00 starting tomorrow or Monday, but why would you do that if an E6300 would flat blow the doors off of it for a little more.
It does not make sense to go AM2 over C2D for a ground up installation. The performance/price ratio is a landslide in Intels favor. If you already had a 939 platform, then I would say AMD is the best way by just a CPU upgrade after the price drops.

 

[us3rnotfound]

what kinda ddr2 should i go for? 800? 667?

 

[Viditor]

For the DDR2, I'd go 667...you're not overclocking, and the difference in price for 800 isn't worth the difference in performance.

 

[Keysplayr]

Yup. 667.

 

[Bobthelost]

Hold it, you don't do anything CPU heavy other than gaming and you're going to be sticking with your current graphics card?

Don't do it!

First of all dual core doesn't make much difference for gaming, overclock your current CPU or get a faster single core. A 3800 runs @ 2.4Ghz, 20% faster than a 3800X2 @ 2.0Ghz and since the most improvement seen from dual core in current games (i know of) is 5% in oblivion you'd be getting less performance with dual core. Either way you're not CPU limited with that graphics card.

CPU only becomes an issue when you're at the very high end of the GPU scale. You're not there by a long shot. If you think you are limited by your CPU then overclock it to 2.4Ghz or buy a 3800/4000 instead. Fast enough, cheaper than dual core and doesn't require a complete rebuild for negligable improvement.

 

[RallyMaster]

Bobthelost: OP has sold his mem, motherboard and CPU as well (2GB of Kingston Value, some mATX mobo, and Winchie 3200+). His entire plan is to buy Conroe.

OP: You're a dumbass. You don't need that much power. I've already told you this (this is Doug BTW). Buy an X2 3800+ and get it over with. Why the hell did you sell your mem and mobo in the first place? I can see why you would get rid of the 3200+ but the other stuff is just plain idiocy/waste of money.

 

[misanthropy]

Rally--everyone has been over this already. from his position, starting from scratch, with no AMD mobo or CPU, regardless of the reasons which brought him there, he is better off not getting an X2 but an Intel Core 2 processor.

 

[CyborgNinja117]

Nvidia will be releasing a 590 chipset that supports SLI in around august

 

[Bobthelost]

Rallymaster: Whoops, missed that

If it's running at stock settings then AMD is still competitive, at the medium to low end at least (once the price drops kick in)

*rubs hands at bargain basement priced HTPC time*

If it's been sold then stick up the budget to work in, find the best AMD option and Conroe options that will fit in the budget and see what the benches say. If all is equal then go with whichever company's colour scheme you like more. You won't need anything more than an AM2 Single core, or a conroe single core, but they aren't around for a while i think.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
Bobthelost: OP has sold his mem, motherboard and CPU as well (2GB of Kingston Value, some mATX mobo, and Winchie 3200+). His entire plan is to buy Conroe.

OP: You're a dumbass. You don't need that much power. I've already told you this (this is Doug BTW). Buy an X2 3800+ and get it over with. Why the hell did you sell your mem and mobo in the first place? I can see why you would get rid of the 3200+ but the other stuff is just plain idiocy/waste of money.

pwned

 

[Maethor]

Actually for gaming the performance boost is actually really nice for dual core in many games and for MMORPG gamers the dual cores recieve a huge performance boost as they can use the entire single CPU and put other programs they use such as teamspeak vent and fraps on the other.

 

[Zebo]

Conroe is defintely fastest, but not worth the upgrade for dual-core S939/AM2 users. You have spend to at least $500 to gain 20% increase per clock speed over existing 939/AM2 setups.

This reminds me a lot of Northwood C days after Athlon 64 was released. I similarly advised people to save thier Northwood setups because the margins did'nt justify upgrading. Save your money women like big Diamonds.

If your are buying today you can't get a conroe and AM2 prices have not dropped to thier Conroe reactive levels yet so I can't answer.

 

[misanthropy]

Comparing the E6300 to a 3800 from purely a power stand point is unfair. it comes closer to a 4400 or 4600 in a speed sense, plus it is cheaper than both. If you are going to say spending the extra cash (in intel's case not being much $ from a price/performance stand point IMO) for a CPU faster than the 3800 is unnecessary, that would apply to any AMD CPU beyond x2 3800 as well....