To Netburst or to Conroe...

[VivienM]

I currently have a majorly ancient 1.9GHz P4 Willamette that's badly in need of being upgraded. I was going to wait and get a Conroe this summer, but now comes the Big Massive Intel price cuts, and at the current prices (250CAD for a 930, 300 for a 940), it seems that a new rig today would cost several hundred less than a Conroe... (Wouldn't there be a certain irony to owning both the first and last NetBurst core, too?)

Thoughts? Advice?

 

[Stumps]

UMMM...it depends really, do you need an upgrade now or can you hold off till conroe is realeased...if you can hold off, go for a conroe, they smoke any netburst based CPU.

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: Stumps
UMMM...it depends really, do you need an upgrade now or can you hold off till conroe is realeased...if you can hold off, go for a conroe, they smoke any netburst based CPU.

Do they smoke netburst CPUs in performance per dollar, though, given the new netburst pricing?

It's looking to me like a 940 netburst would be least 30-40% cheaper than the conroe I'd buy (the cheapest with the 1066FSB and 4 meg cache)...

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: VivienM

Originally posted by: Stumps
UMMM...it depends really, do you need an upgrade now or can you hold off till conroe is realeased...if you can hold off, go for a conroe, they smoke any netburst based CPU.

Do they smoke netburst CPUs in performance per dollar, though, given the new netburst pricing?

It's looking to me like a 940 netburst would be least 30-40% cheaper than the conroe I'd buy (the cheapest with the 1066FSB and 4 meg cache)...

hard to say, since the conroe based cpu's haven't been released yet..

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: VivienM

Originally posted by: Stumps
UMMM...it depends really, do you need an upgrade now or can you hold off till conroe is realeased...if you can hold off, go for a conroe, they smoke any netburst based CPU.

Do they smoke netburst CPUs in performance per dollar, though, given the new netburst pricing?

It's looking to me like a 940 netburst would be least 30-40% cheaper than the conroe I'd buy (the cheapest with the 1066FSB and 4 meg cache)...

hard to say, since the conroe based cpu's haven't been released yet..

According to what was put out today, Conroe should be available in July. Netburst is basicly dead, and for a good reason. If you can hold off a little longer I would definatly go for Conroe over netburst anything. I have 3 netburst chips right now, and my X2 outperforms them in everything SMP aware and non-smp aware, while even my Dothan @2.4ghz can beat my netburst chips as high as 3.7ghz in non-smp aware apps. Even though the price is good on netburst chips, I wouldn't get another one. I have gone through 4 pentium-d's on 5 motherboards. The best I got is 3.7ghz and doesn't even remotly catch up to my X2 @2.6. The 9xx series do run pretty cool, but need an expensive motherboard to get good overclocks. The 8xx series run like flamethrowers, so I really wouldn't bother with netburst.

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
The 9xx series do run pretty cool, but need an expensive motherboard to get good overclocks.

Well, I'm not much of an overclocker at all, so... chances are, it'd be boxed Intel motherboard and stock speed for me (I've been quite pleased with my current Intel board from a stability POV, and I care about stability far more than performance)

Does that change the math?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: VivienM

Originally posted by: stevty2889
The 9xx series do run pretty cool, but need an expensive motherboard to get good overclocks.

Well, I'm not much of an overclocker at all, so... chances are, it'd be boxed Intel motherboard and stock speed for me (I've been quite pleased with my current Intel board from a stability POV, and I care about stability far more than performance)

Does that change the math?

Due to the heat issues with netburst most likely, my AMD system has actualy been more stable than my netburst dual cores, and at stock speeds, the 3800+ X2 outperforms the 940 in basicly everything.

 

[Geomagick]

I would definitely wait for Conroe.

When it comes out the prices of netburst chips will go down again, especially at the higher end. You can then make an educated purchase decision.

 

[VivienM]

And by then, it'll be late July at best...

*sigh* That probably means I'd have my rig all built-up right in time to go back to class... (and that point, why not wait for Vista and the 2007 Intel quad-core thing? )

(You can tell in what direction I'm leaning right now... the idea of spending the summer playing with a 940, 7900GT, 300 gigger HD, 2 gigs of RAM, etc instead of my 1.9/9800/etc is horribly tempting).

 

[Geomagick]

If you really do intend to buy earlier then so for an A64 X2.

 

[VivienM]

The X2 is a bit more money, though... and having had excellent luck with every Intel CPU/chipset combo I've owned (the P4/i850/Intel board, a Deleron/i865PE/Abit IS7, some Dells, etc), buying another is quite tempting...

I'll research the X2 option a bit more, though... but... 3800+ vs 940... time to find some benchmarks.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: VivienM
The X2 is a bit more money, though... and having had excellent luck with every Intel CPU/chipset combo I've owned (the P4/i850/Intel board, a Deleron/i865PE/Abit IS7, some Dells, etc), buying another is quite tempting...

I'll research the X2 option a bit more, though... but... 3800+ vs 940... time to find some benchmarks.

Here is a good place to start..

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: VivienM
And by then, it'll be late July at best...

*sigh* That probably means I'd have my rig all built-up right in time to go back to class... (and that point, why not wait for Vista and the 2007 Intel quad-core thing? )

(You can tell in what direction I'm leaning right now... the idea of spending the summer playing with a 940, 7900GT, 300 gigger HD, 2 gigs of RAM, etc instead of my 1.9/9800/etc is horribly tempting).

Probably much later than that...They plan on shipping in July, but that means that OEMs get theirs then. We probably won't see them in retail until September at least.

 

[zephyrprime]

I just upgraded to a 805D. Yeah, conroe is nicer but the 805 + MB + Ram is so cheap. Keep in mind that when conroe first comes out, the motherboards will probably be quite pricey. I'll probably pick up a conroe or K8L within a year.

 

[BrownTown]

I wouldn't expect the 965 chipset to be that expensive.

 

[imported_Questar]

We probably won't see them in retail until September at least.

Looks like Viditor is still on his FUD Campaign.

You have no idea when chips will be in retail.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Questar

We probably won't see them in retail until September at least.

Looks like Viditor is still on his FUD Campaign.

You have no idea when chips will be in retail.

Viditor has been a very good contributer to these forums, and is very knowledgable. You on the other hand I have seen nothing but fud from. If you really understand how things work, you would realize it is very accurate that the OEM's get the parts before they are available in large quantities on the retail market.

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
I wouldn't expect the 965 chipset to be that expensive.

My worry about the 965 is that ICH8 will apparently drop PATA, so that means needing to find SATA optical drives... (or buying a non-Intel mobo with an add-in PATA controller)

 

[dguy6789]

I would highly suggest that you hang in there and wait until Conroe comes out. In all probability, it will have no competition for some time.

 

[Mogadon]

Personally, if I were you, i'd probably succumb to temptation and pick up an X2 3800+ now (and overclock it). As you said you'd get to enjoy it for the summer and, while Conroe will undoubtedly be superior and have probably have no competition for a while, there's always bigger and better round the corner no matter when you buy.

Oh yeh, to take my reply at face value you should probably know i'm all about instant gratification ... .

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: stevty2889

Originally posted by: Questar

We probably won't see them in retail until September at least.

Looks like Viditor is still on his FUD Campaign.

You have no idea when chips will be in retail.

Viditor has been a very good contributer to these forums, and is very knowledgable. You on the other hand I have seen nothing but fud from. If you really understand how things work, you would realize it is very accurate that the OEM's get the parts before they are available in large quantities on the retail market.

Now you've gone and made me blush stevty...cheers, m8! :beer:

Questar has some grudge against me that I have yet to fathom...but he is right in so far as I don't know with absolute certainty. However, as you (and many here) know, it's a safe bet that Sept is about right...

 

[Link]

If I were you, I'd go with Conroe.
When Conroe comes out and see that it runs cooler and faster than Netburst, you'll be only half happy that you got a new setup at such a low price.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: VivienM
I currently have a majorly ancient 1.9GHz P4 Willamette that's badly in need of being upgraded. I was going to wait and get a Conroe this summer, but now comes the Big Massive Intel price cuts, and at the current prices (250CAD for a 930, 300 for a 940), it seems that a new rig today would cost several hundred less than a Conroe... (Wouldn't there be a certain irony to owning both the first and last NetBurst core, too?)

Thoughts? Advice?

I would agree with the majority here...

If you can wait and you prefer to go with Intel, then the Conroe would be well worth the wait (keeping in mind that it will most likely be closer to Fall than Summer). If you can't wait, the X2 is probably a better option. In either case, it makes less sense to go with Netburst...even at the lower initial cost.

 

[SunSamurai]

How would that even remotely resemble irony?

 

[SunSamurai]

How would that even remotely resemble irony?