Should I buy a P4 3.06?

[bfonnes]

I am thinking that Hyperthreading with the processor will be great. There are alot of applications that perform very badly when multitasking. Does anyone here consider it a mature technology, or should I wait? Of course, since it is an Intel processor, I think I will wait until prices go down a little.

Assuming I am going to buy it... What mobo should I get? I don't have much experience with Pentium systems. I do want something with DDR, because I have heard RDRAM has always had latency issues. I think that would annoy me to hell. The only thing that matters to me is basic support. I don't care about things like RAID, etc. Also, I don't really care for ASUS. Their support sucks if you happen to need any, but I would settle for it if it is the best board. Anyway, I really only care if you guys answer with your opinion about HT, and if you think later generations of the technology would offer better performance/etc.

 

[Shagga]

Personally, I would wait b4 you buy a P4 3.06GHz CPU. Mainly due to price and the fact that haven't got one. If you wait you will be able to pick up a Mobo that supports DDR II aswell.

In the meantime an ASUS P4PE with Serial ATA support would be my Motherboard recommendation.

 

[LukFilm]

Go for it if you have the money or if you can stand that in two months, it will be half the price

 

[Wingznut]

Should I buy a P4 3.06?

YES! Buy it NOW! Buy all of your family and friends one for Xmas!!!

There are alot of applications that perform very badly when multitasking.

Actually, the HT that will be in the 3.0ghz+ P4 has improved instructions and (as far as I know) no applications will show a negative impact.

As for the rest of your questions, Asus is my favorite manufacturer... But since you ruled them out, EPoX and Giga-Byte are next on my list.

When their motherboards built around the Granite Bay chipset (dual-channel DDR) come out, give those a look and decide which board to buy then. There's just no way to predict which make/model board will be the one for you.

 

If you want bragging rights, go ahead.
If you just need the power and Hyperthreading, wait a month or two and save a load of cash.

 

[bfonnes]

Thanks guys... I have a vid card that can display output on a TV at the same time as I am using my monitor. I like to use the additional TV to watch news broadcasts. I figure with a HT processor I should be able to watch the news and play games at the same time, but then again I could just get a longer coax cable, but also my cable doesn't have NN

 

[bfonnes]

Originally posted by: bfonnes
I am thinking that Hyperthreading with the processor will be great. There are alot of applications that perform very badly when multitasking. Does anyone here consider it a mature technology, or should I wait? Of course, since it is an Intel processor, I think I will wait until prices go down a little.

Assuming I am going to buy it... What mobo should I get? I don't have much experience with Pentium systems. I do want something with DDR, because I have heard RDRAM has always had latency issues. I think that would annoy me to hell. The only thing that matters to me is basic support. I don't care about things like RAID, etc. Also, I don't really care for ASUS. Their support sucks if you happen to need any, but I would settle for it if it is the best board. Anyway, I really only care if you guys answer with your opinion about HT, and if you think later generations of the technology would offer better performance/etc.

I am editting my post a little, because I don't want to get flames... Please do not respond to this edit The reason for not liking ASUS is that they have no technical support, and sometimes their web pages are difficult to navigate, and get info for in plain english. So, I just won't buy their products if I can help it

 

[Macro2]

bfonnes,

By all means buy a bunch of them.

Want OS are you using?

 

[fkloster]

Does anyone know what the GB Asus board is gonna be called? (besides the obvious: EXTREMELY FAST!!!)

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: bfonnes
I am editting my post a little, because I don't want to get flames... Please do not respond to this edit The reason for not liking ASUS is that they have no technical support, and sometimes their web pages are difficult to navigate, and get info for in plain english. So, I just won't buy their products if I can help it

It's ok... Everyone has their preferences, for whatever reason. There generally isn't a clear-cut "best" board. Go with the manufacturer that you prefer.

Originally posted by: fkloster
Does anyone know what the GB Asus board is gonna be called? (besides the obvious: EXTREMELY FAST!!!)

Asus P4G8X

Check out this article at HardOCP. It's a few months old and I haven't actually read it... So, I have no idea how accurate it is.

 

[Athlon4all]

Wait til tommorw (right, the 14th 3GHz p4 is being launched correct?) to see whether the "new" HT is any better than the HT on Xeon's right now.

 

[Ilmater]

Honestly, I go with AMD for price/performance reasons, but I wouldn't buy the latest and greatest AMD or P4 EVER! IMO, it's a complete waste of money. Either wait until a couple of procs come out above it (The 3.2 and 3.4? I don't know what's next in line) and then get it. Right now, for instance, buying the 2.8 over the 2.53 would cost you a $172 premium. Is that worth it to you? Good lord I hope not.

Stupid Intel and their ridiculous prices.

 

[Wolfsraider]

lol i guess all you buy is older cars too

 

[bfonnes]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
Honestly, I go with AMD for price/performance reasons, but I wouldn't buy the latest and greatest AMD or P4 EVER! IMO, it's a complete waste of money. Either wait until a couple of procs come out above it (The 3.2 and 3.4? I don't know what's next in line) and then get it. Right now, for instance, buying the 2.8 over the 2.53 would cost you a $172 premium. Is that worth it to you? Good lord I hope not.

Stupid Intel and their ridiculous prices.

Actually I wouldn't care if the difference would be 500 mhz or 1000. It's the hyperthreading I want. Besides, we all know Intel is all hyped up. Moore's Law, etc., etc. I prefer to look at it this way... It wasn't until the 486 that the CPU could even process instructions while it was reading the computer's memory. Then after that we had to wait until the Pentium before it could process more than one instruction per clock, and it was still only 2 per clock. And now we have the P3 and P4, and still the CPU can only take instructions from one thread, ie. one application at a time. So, it hasn't been until the 7th-8th generation of Intel processors that we can even take full advantage of a multi-threaded OS like Windows 95! Now we have to wait for the software developers again Hopefully, they have written their programs to take advantage of multiple processors to begin with, and only have to recompile, but I am sure that is just a pipe dream.

There was another post on this same subject with some really helpful info that was very informative on HT.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=909638&highlight_key=y&keyword1=hyper
Bfonnes

 

[Macro2]

If you want hyperthreading you can get the P4 3.06 or a Xeon. That's about it until either Intel includes it in some lower speed P4s or AMD incorporates it.
Personally, I think hyperthreading will be even more of a dud than MMX was.
Will be a great marketing tool though.

 

[Wolfsraider]

Originally posted by: Macro2
If you want hyperthreading you can get the P4 3.06 or a Xeon. That's about it until either Intel includes it in some lower speed P4s or AMD incorporates it.
Personally, I think hyperthreading will be even more of a dud than MMX was.
Will be a great marketing tool though.

Kyle seems to show performance gains accross the board. Sometimes large gains. Looks like Intel has a winner here. Free performance for everyone!!!

Well....GB is good, I'll say that much. It's not HT-good though...

from here

hth
mike

 

[John]

3.06 HT @ Googlegear

 

[bfonnes]

Originally posted by: Macro2
If you want hyperthreading you can get the P4 3.06 or a Xeon. That's about it until either Intel includes it in some lower speed P4s or AMD incorporates it.
Personally, I think hyperthreading will be even more of a dud than MMX was.
Will be a great marketing tool though.

Ummmmmmmmmm... I think this post speaks for itself. Dumb! Ok, I had to comment on it. How can something that takes one of the major bottlenecks out of a CPU (ie. the fact that it can only process one thread/instruction per clock cycle) be a dud? That is just like saying that L2 cache on a CPU was a dud idea! Look at those old Celerons that had no cache. Comparing HT to MMX is like comparing a P4 to a Pentium IMO.

Bfonnes

 

[bfonnes]

Originally posted by: bfonnes

Originally posted by: Ilmater
Honestly, I go with AMD for price/performance reasons, but I wouldn't buy the latest and greatest AMD or P4 EVER! IMO, it's a complete waste of money. Either wait until a couple of procs come out above it (The 3.2 and 3.4? I don't know what's next in line) and then get it. Right now, for instance, buying the 2.8 over the 2.53 would cost you a $172 premium. Is that worth it to you? Good lord I hope not.

Stupid Intel and their ridiculous prices.

Actually I wouldn't care if the difference would be 500 mhz or 1000. It's the hyperthreading I want. Besides, we all know Intel is all hyped up. Moore's Law, etc., etc. I prefer to look at it this way... It wasn't until the 486 that the CPU could even process instructions while it was reading the computer's memory. Then after that we had to wait until the Pentium before it could process more than one instruction per clock, and it was still only 2 per clock. And now we have the P3 and P4, and still the CPU can only take instructions from one thread, ie. one application at a time. So, it hasn't been until the 7th-8th generation of Intel processors that we can even take full advantage of a multi-threaded OS like Windows 95! Now we have to wait for the software developers again Hopefully, they have written their programs to take advantage of multiple processors to begin with, and only have to recompile, but I am sure that is just a pipe dream.

There was another post on this same subject with some really helpful info that was very informative on HT.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=909638&highlight_key=y&keyword1=hyper
Bfonnes

Another web page link on HT. You have to have Windows XP to use it...
http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm

 

[cmdrdredd]

I could buy one, but what can it do that my CPU at 2.55Ghz cannot now? (2.26 overclocked)

 

[bfonnes]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I could buy one, but what can it do that my CPU at 2.55Ghz cannot now? (2.26 overclocked)

Well, I'll leave that up to you, but it can sure as hell do alot more than my Celeron 633 @ 900 Mhz

Bfonnes