Torn between platforms

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: hans007
apparently the way jedec designed the ddr3 standard made it so it is not a lot of circuitry to implement a controller than can do ddr2 and ddr3

I heard this too, and it makes sense to me of what little I know of the electrical specs for DDR2 and DDR3 so I am inclined to give in to my hopeful side and agree with you all.

BTW given this, do you see any reason why Intel would make their i5 (Lynnfield and Havendale) be strictly DDR3? Seems like for a mainstream cost-conscience consumer platform they would want the ram to be mainstream cost-conscience as well...and that means DDR2.

Originally posted by: hans007
that said, you should wait till february. if your budget is around a q6600 , then you probably can also afford say a q8200 or q8300 which are about the same or a phenom 920 with the price cut.


but if you wait until february the phenom II am3 8xx and the 910 will be out which should be even cheaper and still overclock well. and you can buy a better motherboard with SLI and all that fancy stuff.

+1

I see the OP already chose to buy the 920...but IMO this was some of the best advice he got in this thread. With the AM3 chips right around the corner there is going to be another round of price cuts within a month or two on the current AM2+ only Phenom II's just to clear the inventory.

 

[JMapleton]

If you're going to overclock, I would almost always go with Intel.

You could slowly build an i7 system, start off with 2GB ram and small psu.

 

[SChow]

Couldn't really wait to build a new system, my current one is knocking on deaths door, RAM is borked and the PSU doesn't have much left, the fan went a couple of days ago.

The Q8200/8300 would have made a horrible purchase, IMO. The Ph II 920 is only $17 more than the 8200 and outperforms it, it is $27 cheaper than the 8300 and outperforms it -- and this isn't even taking overclocking into account. With the high FSB and low multi you're not going to get much of an OC out of either.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: SChow
Couldn't really wait to build a new system, my current one is knocking on deaths door, RAM is borked and the PSU doesn't have much left, the fan went a couple of days ago.

The Q8200/8300 would have made a horrible purchase, IMO. The Ph II 920 is only $17 more than the 8200 and outperforms it, it is $27 cheaper than the 8300 and outperforms it -- and this isn't even taking overclocking into account. With the high FSB and low multi you're not going to get much of an OC out of either.

:thumbsup:

Congrats on your purchase and I would have made the same exact choice after researching it this past week.

I don't over clock any longer so the Q8200 and Q8300 look even weaker for those that don't over clock their systems. I have been recommending Intel exclusively for the last year and a half because they won on every point. I am glad to see AMD competitive again.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Duvie
List me your motherboards you chose? I spec'd one out and i didn't see it being 75 bucks for the whole platform....The Q9400 was about equal to the PhII 940...like 5 bucks more...the 920 was 40 bucks cheaper....

I basically got a wash with the motherboards....so sorry I dont see the 75 bucks....

and again that was with a Q9400...

A Q8300 is only 5 bucks more then the 920.....

It is sooo damn close it is just a matter of preference....is 25-75 worth 10% more if they clocked the same with their overclock? 15+% more if the quadcore INtel hits 4ghz on air....AMD or INtel...cannot go wrong either way....

I dont see going to AMD until they have the superior architecture or a screaming deal that I can OC the chip to outdo anything INtel has to offer....unfortunately that doesn't seem to be true on either fronts...If the AMD Oc'd routinely to 4ghz plus or about 10% higher then the Yorkfield with the savings I would do it....That doesn't seem to be the case either.

I went A64 when it was clear the A64 was superior to the prescott....I stayed X2 when it was clear intel's dual prescott core heaters were a dud....Before that I was Intel P4 northwood when it was clearly better then the XP Bartons....Now I am back with INtel and Core 2 architure.

Fanboys scream price when performance comparatively isn't there. I dont see the big price difference to go with the lower performer...

Why bother, since no matter what I post you are going to pick it apart anyhow. The point I have been making is the best overall quad core value is the Ph II 920 right now no matter how you slice it when compared to Intel CPU' s in the exact same price range which excludes the Q9400 entirely. The Ph II is just a hair slower than the Q9400, but is $35 cheaper.

For people on a budget there is no better choice. (Even if you could find a comparable motherboard for less than $100 that has firewire and will over clock. The AM2+ mobo I chose when comparing is this one to any Intel board at the same price level lacked firewire and would not support up to 16 GB of RAM.) To get a equivalent board from Intel I finally found one at around the $100 mark. That is a $55 difference in price between platforms when comparing it to the Q9400. (The price difference between CPU's themselves was even higher when I made those post the other day.)

You call me a fanboy (Don't let my sig confuse you, I have been recommending Intel for some time now. Don't believe me, then research my post history!) yet you keep saying nothing but Intel will do and ignoring when I said equivalent features at the same price. There is no point in name calling when I was being nothing but civil to you. You have been coming across as the fanboy in this thread, not I.

 

[djnsmith7]

Congrats on your purchase...I'm in the same boat you were with my brother...He & I are thinking about upgrading his 3 year old rig & there are some great options out there with the recent price cuts...I'm curious to see what kind of OC you get out of that 920...Have fun...