What are the downsides of the Pentium D?

[Scott78945]

I am thinking about canceling my order for my P4 3.0ghz w/ HT and getting a P-D 3.0ghz. Any thoughts? Which do you think I am better off with? I know the P-D tend to overheat but I don't know what this does to the system.

 

[Markfw]

It may throttle down in speed, it takes a lot more power, and the extra heat can damage components.

 

[Scott78945]

So you would say that at this point in time I would be better off with a P4?

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

No, he is saying you would be better off with a X2

It is faster per equal family. In other words, the X2 3800 is faster (but more expensive) than the Pentium D 820, 830 (830 is about == 3800+ in price) in most (actually just about all) applications. Overclocks better and runs cooler than all the Pentium D's etc. The faster and more exensive X2's are superior to all the Pentium D's except in price. (Except the 840 Extreme Edition)

 

[Hacp]

No downsides. Cool as an ice cube, as fast as a rocket,and finally as power hungry as an anorexic girl.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Hacp
No downsides. Cool as an ice cube, as fast as a rocket,and finally as power hungry as an anorexic girl.

Not quite sure if this was sarcasm or BS...


Downsides are mainly seen in direct comparison to X2...

1) runs hot...it is made up of (2) 5xx series prescott core which were far hotter then the 6xx series P4's...

2) they consume more power versus X2's

3) they are slower pretty much across the board with even the lowest X2 able to even beat an 840 in many instances....

upsides:

1) cheaper by a bit (must way the performance side of it though)

 

[Hossenfeffer]

The question wasn't whether to go with a Pentium D or X2, it was which sort of Pentium chip would be lookin' better.

 

[Ronin]

And we're simply trying to explain that neither option is better in comparison.

 

[Pabster]

I'd go with the D 830 over a 630, depending on the price difference. If it is $100 or less take it.

 

[Markfw]

So he wants to know if he should bad bad or horrible ? I won't answer that.....

 

[sonoma1993]

another downside for the pentium d cpus, for the people that upgraded to the skt 775 with the 915/925 chipset, if they decide to go with a pentium d, they have to upgrade to a motherboard that has a 945/955 chipset for the pentium D to work.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Scott78945
I am thinking about canceling my order for my P4 3.0ghz w/ HT and getting a P-D 3.0ghz. Any thoughts? Which do you think I am better off with? I know the P-D tend to overheat but I don't know what this does to the system.

I assume you are stuck with a Dell contract and cannot choose an AMD X2...fair enough.
If money is an issue, I would stick with the single core. Either way, you will probably want to change again by the end of 2006 (whether it be to the Intel Conroe or the AMD X2, assuming that Dell has finally begun releasing them). By going with the single core, you will have a smaller amount of cash outlayed to write off when you upgrade...
As to performance, it depends on what you do. The Intel DC chips actually perform worse than their single core brethren in games (or any other single thread app), but much better in multitasking or multithreaded apps.

 

[ksherman]

I think that on the Intel side of the fence, it requires more than just a CPU update to get Dualies... I might be wrong though. If you have HT, and feel that your compy runs fine, then I'd stick with what you got. I am upgradeing my 3000+ to an X2 because I tend to multi task a lot...

 

[Scott78945]

Thanks all for the responses. I didn't mean to cause such a conflict with everyone. I know that everyone loves AMD over Intel but for this computer I am going with Gateway and they don't offer AMD, only Intel. When I build my own system I will definately look at the AMD processors. Thanks again.

 

[mechBgon]

If it's not too late to cancel the order with Gateway, you could check out the AMD dual-core desktops from HP real quick, and see if you can get a competitive deal.

 

[Duvie]

By the way what was wrong with the other thread you started about this same topic???? really should avoid starting duplicate threads when most of these same answers were given in that thread....

 

[n7]

There are upsides with P-Ds :laugh:?

 

[Duvie]

Yep price...If the X2s came down 50 bucks they would own that as well....

NOw ofcourse the 820's are sucking so bad as seen in countless ebay auctions selling them at 2/3rds their MSRP.....demand is apparently quite low outside of Dell users...

 

Ok I agree that an X2 is better, but I dont wanna get them because I cant find an ASUS (or or any other for that matter) which suports DDR 2 uptill 4GB. This might sound like a newbie, but speed of RAM is like PC3200 and then the RAM type is DDR or DDR2 right? Anyone ideas about motherboards

 

[Pabster]

You won't find any AMD boards that support DDR2 ... not until Socket M2 appears next year.

 

and on second thoughts the number of pins on RAM more the better right? Whats the effect of PIN on RAM

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: sk8er
and on second thoughts the number of pins on RAM more the better right? Whats the effect of PIN on RAM

No effect. Please read reviews. DDR2 is not as good as DDR or as fast.

 

WHat other hardware esp memory forums do u guys read? Could find none on Anandtech?

 

[mechBgon]

sk8er, you got the tail wagging the dog here. Get the CPU that you want, then get the mobo/platform that goes with that CPU, then buy whatever RAM is needed by the platform, and don't worry about whether the RAM has a 2 on the end of its acronym or not. DDR2 has nothing inherently wonderful to offer you.

 

thanks. however, the first computer I got years ago had a kick ass processor (accorindg to the back then standards ) and a crappy motherboard and RAM to the extent that the mobo did not even have AGP when everyone had AGPs. All, I was looking for a cheap expandability route in the future. my 2 cents..... but thanks for all the great advise. maybe they will come out with a new DDR2 in a year or something and I wont have to buy a new motherboard.