Made to switch to Intel SB -WOW

[guskline]

Well, as a dedicated AMD fan (go back to the 386DX40!) I have always tried to buy AMD and have two 965BE rigs OCd to 3700. HOWEVER, the Bulldozer debacle, coupled with the fab reviews of the Intel SB chips made me switch SO ....... here are my specs. I used a video card from my AMD rig.

MB - ASROCK Z68 Extreme 4
CPU - Intel SB 2500K@4400
HS - CoolerMaster Hper212+ (added a 2nd 120mm fan)
Case - CoolerMaster 912
PSU - CoolerMaster GX650W
Mem - Gskill DDR3-1600 ( 2 4 gig sticks)
HDDs - OS on Crucial 300ssd-64 gig SATA III; data on WD Black 500g
Video - XFX 5850 BE
SNdCard - Asus Xonar DX PCI-E

Mother of Mary does this CPU overclock well. AND the ASRock MB is loaded with features. Gaming has improved markedly.

After the first day of playing around (Ran Prime95 and at load @52C!) this chip blows the AMD chips out of the water.

Unless the Bulldozer markedly outclasses this, AMD chips have really fallen behind. This from a guy who happily replaced his Intel 386DX33 chip with an AMD 386DX40!

I'm pleased as punch!

 

[KingstonU]

Congrats on the upgrade and it's good that it is actually noticeable. Even an AMD fan like myself can't deny that they've fallen so far behind. But for the sake of us consumers I do hope they get back into a competitive position at some point in our lifetimes, lol.

 

[dx11101]

I used AMD chips since the k6-II came out. I had a 486DX and a pentium 120 before that. Made the switch with my laptop being a core2duo and my desktop being a 2500k. You are not alone in your switch. I remember when I had my 1333Mhz Thunderbird and it was the "Fastest CPU on Earth". So yeah you are not alone in your decision. Seems like AMD is working on burning its customer loyalty with consecutively sucky product. Bad in the long run. They might be going down the same way Cyrix did where they cant compete on the top, and then cant compete midrange, and then just cant compete at all. And yes I still have my Cyrix PR-200+ which was actually only 150MHz.

 

[Zap]

Mother of Mary does this CPU overclock well.

You didn't think it was a bunch of lies spread by Intel fanbois, did you?

Seriously though, the 32nm Intel CPUs overclock pretty well. This includes all Sandy Bridge (2500K/2600K only) and Clarkdale (all socket 1156 dual cores, easy BCLK overclocking). This is probably why overclocking is now locked except on certain, more expensive CPUs. There's obviously just too much headroom in these CPUs!

 

[SparkyJJO]

What Bulldozer "debacle" are you talking about? Isn't even released yet, nor do we really know performance either?

 

[Mopetar]

What Bulldozer "debacle" are you talking about?

Probably the internet getting really excited and imagining impossible performance and an early release based on almost not substantial information and then practically rioting when it isn't out yet and might not be twice as powerful as Intel's offerings.

The same thing will probably happen around the time IB is about to be released.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Probably the internet getting really excited and imagining impossible performance and an early release based on almost not substantial information and then practically rioting when it isn't out yet and might not be twice as powerful as Intel's offerings.

The same thing will probably happen around the time IB is about to be released.

OK. That's what I figured.

 

[BD231]

Probably the internet getting really excited and imagining impossible performance and an early release based on almost not substantial information and then practically rioting when it isn't out yet and might not be twice as powerful as Intel's offerings.

The same thing will probably happen around the time IB is about to be released.

Exaggerate much?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Somebody just told me in the CPU/OC'ing thread that "You must have a lot of money to throw away" because I chose to lap my i7-2600K IHS and $80 Noctua heatsink-base.

Not that I wanted to, but I skipped socket-1366. Wouldn't it be nice if you could "keep up" with every socket and CPU generation that comes along?

It would also be nice to win the lottery. Then you wouldn't need worry that you might miss the latest thing.

The OP has the ASROCK Z68 board. I bought the ASUS P8Z68-V-Pro. Might as well have been the standard "V" (without the "pro") board, but the prices aren't that different.

Saw an article in Maximum PC earlier this year reviewing a flight-sim for the A-10 Warthog "tank-buster." Noted that it came with a 600-page manual, which was actually worth having. And that it would take you months -- maybe years -- to learn how to "virtually" fly the A-10, while the features were so detailed and faithful to the real thing that the software was a marvel.

That's how I feel about the UEFI-BIOS on my ASUS board. And after a couple not-so-great experiences with ASUS, it appears that they finally "did it right." But that might not have happened were it not for the real evolution of the Z68 from two other chipsets.

And -- yeah -- too bad you can't much OC the bCLCK with this socket, but the unlocked 2600K chip really makes up for that shortcoming -- if you can call it that.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Seems like AMD is working on burning its customer loyalty with consecutively sucky product.

 

[bntran02]

My last two builds (across 6 years) have been Intel CPU's because they are just so far ahead

 

[Mopetar]

Exaggerate much?

I don't think there was any more hyperbole in my post than you could find in the most extreme examples of the "BD will be the best thing ever" or "BD is going to be terrible and doom AMD" posts. If you look back far enough you'll find posts where people thought BD was going to be released this March and completely blow away anything Intel was offering and then you'll find posts where people think BD is going to be delayed until next year because the performance is so poor it can't even begin to compete with Intel's $200 chips. The rational statements are usually passed over for the sensational ones which continue to echo down through the threads, getting picked up and repeated by people who don't have the full context of the discussion.

 

[Vesku]

Shame I don't like most of the Intel motherboards price/feature ratio. Otherwise I might not be waiting to compare BD with the 2xxxK SB series. Still crossing my fingers that they will be able to deliver 8 cores with each core being similar to a Nehalem of a bit lower frequency. If it's just 8 Phenom II-ish cores they better run very high frequency without being a space heater.

 

[evilspoons]

They might be going down the same way Cyrix did where they cant compete on the top, and then cant compete midrange, and then just cant compete at all. And yes I still have my Cyrix PR-200+ which was actually only 150MHz.

I don't ever remember a Cyrix that was competitive, haha. My neighbour had a stupid PR200+.

As for this "loyalty", I just buy whichever product is faster for whatever money I have on hand.

That resulted in me owning: an AMD 386 DX40, an Intel 486 DX2/66, a Pentium 120, a K5 ~150?, a Pentium 233 MMX, several K6-IIs, a K6-III 450, a whole bunch of K7s (Duron, Thunderbird, etc), some Athlon 64s, and now a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and a Core i7 2600K.

Show me a faster AMD chip when I want to replace my i7 and I'll be there. It's not like it's a religion.

 

[996GT2]

Shame I don't like most of the Intel motherboards price/feature ratio. Otherwise I might not be waiting to compare BD with the 2xxxK SB series. Still crossing my fingers that they will be able to deliver 8 cores with each core being similar to a Nehalem of a bit lower frequency. If it's just 8 Phenom II-ish cores they better run very high frequency without being a space heater.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

$145 buys you a Z68 board that will take any 2500/2600K to at least 4.5 GHz, supports SLI/Crossfire, has SATA 6 Gbps/USB 3.0/Firewire ports, and lets you use the onboard IGP for video transcoding.

What more could you ask for? Looking at Newegg prices, AMD 990X/990FX boards start at $150, so how can you really call that a better price/feature ratio than the Intel Z68 boards?

 

[Vesku]

990FX motherboards for the most part have a more flexible PCI-E configuration and more SATA 6Gbps ports. Also, I would be surprised if the mainstream 990fx boards don't start dropping a bit in price after BD actually launches. If we don't see any price reductions then I think the Z68 boards are near parity, at least in the entry level.

 

[notty22]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

$145 buys you a Z68 board that will take any 2500/2600K to at least 4.5 GHz, supports SLI/Crossfire, has SATA 6 Gbps/USB 3.0/Firewire ports, and lets you use the onboard IGP for video transcoding.

What more could you ask for? Looking at Newegg prices, AMD 990X/990FX boards start at $150, so how can you really call that a better price/feature ratio than the Intel Z68 boards?

I agree, that mistaken belief, that AMD boards are 'cheaper' is generally not true. For the most part, if you buy a board with more o/c hardware/heatsinks its in higher price tier and offers additional features.

 

[BD231]

I don't think there was any more hyperbole in my post than you could find in the most extreme examples of the "BD will be the best thing ever" or "BD is going to be terrible and doom AMD" posts. If you look back far enough you'll find posts where people thought BD was going to be released this March and completely blow away anything Intel was offering and then you'll find posts where people think BD is going to be delayed until next year because the performance is so poor it can't even begin to compete with Intel's $200 chips. The rational statements are usually passed over for the sensational ones which continue to echo down through the threads, getting picked up and repeated by people who don't have the full context of the discussion.

Just birds pickin away at crumbs really.

 

[richierich1212]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

$145 buys you a Z68 board that will take any 2500/2600K to at least 4.5 GHz, supports SLI/Crossfire, has SATA 6 Gbps/USB 3.0/Firewire ports, and lets you use the onboard IGP for video transcoding.

What more could you ask for? Looking at Newegg prices, AMD 990X/990FX boards start at $150, so how can you really call that a better price/feature ratio than the Intel Z68 boards?

That one says VGA required. So I'm not sure that board could be used for quick sync. And even then quick sync can only be used by certain software.

 

[996GT2]

That one says VGA required. So I'm not sure that board could be used for quick sync. And even then quick sync can only be used by certain software.

VGA required to use the computer because the board lacks a DVI/HDMI port, but Quick Sync still works.

And let's be realistic, nearly every enthusiast who buys an ATX Z68 board IS going to be using a discrete GPU anyway, so the lack of onboard DVI/HDMI port isn't really a loss.

 

[Dravic]

I don't ever remember a Cyrix that was competitive, haha. My neighbour had a stupid PR200+.

As for this "loyalty", I just buy whichever product is faster for whatever money I have on hand.

That resulted in me owning: an AMD 386 DX40, an Intel 486 DX2/66, a Pentium 120, a K5 ~150?, a Pentium 233 MMX, several K6-IIs, a K6-III 450, a whole bunch of K7s (Duron, Thunderbird, etc), some Athlon 64s, and now a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and a Core i7 2600K.

Show me a faster AMD chip when I want to replace my i7 and I'll be there. It's not like it's a religion.

I'm the same way - with a little weight added to what I've already passed down to the kids and wife extending my own internal tech echo system.

Intel 486DX 66
K6II's and K6III's
Duron, Thunderbird, Athlon (re-built a few dot com surplus $50 PII 400s for family around this time)
Athlon 64, x2 3800, x2 4800
PHII 955 , to current PHII 1050t in sig

I'm at the end of the road map for this combo, this x6 will eventually replace my Linux workstation (2 x Opteron 175), and I'll get to choose the best bang for the buck overclocker in the ~$200 processor, $150 mobo range.

The mobo price range has been whats has killed the Intel offerings in the past. You just couldn't get something like the am3 MSI GD70 feature set for less then $250. They seem to be correcting this now, but it was very apparent this last upgrade cycle, and really hurt the price/performance ratio on the Intel builds.

 

[Rifter]

I completly agree, i went from a AMD 940@3.6GHz to a i7 930@4.2Ghz and noticed a large increase in performance in most games, ususualy to the minimum framerate which is where its most noticable. I would only imagine SB is even better.

As to those of you still clinging to the AMD mobo's are cheaper you can give it a rest as intel boards with the same features have been the same price for years now, its not like it was years ago anymore where a intel board was twice the cost. I paid $180 for my current Asus 1366 mobo and at the time i purchased it a similer AMD board with all the same features(sata 6,SLI/CF/USB3/heatsinks for VRM's, etc)was around 180-200. And both offer low end boards for under $100 nowdays for the budget shoppers.

 

[Dadofamunky]

I remember getting a 386DX-40 back in the day. But then I had an AMD 286-20 for four years, and it eventually ran NetWare 3.11 without a hiccup. They made some great clone chips back in the day. Helped keep Intel at least slightly honest - when their crappy 386-16s cost over $1K and then they came out with that stupid 386SX.

 

[sangyup81]

As to those of you still clinging to the AMD mobo's are cheaper you can give it a rest as intel boards with the same features have been the same price for years now

I can get a free board with the purchase of a Phenom II X2 that can unlock it. If you want to spend the money for more features than those boards, then you should be getting a Sandy Bridge anyways.

 

[Rifter]

I can get a free board with the purchase of a Phenom II X2 that can unlock it. If you want to spend the money for more features than those boards, then you should be getting a Sandy Bridge anyways.

when are the ameicans going to figure out microcenter is not worldwide, hell its not even everywhere in the US either.