Which conroe?

[Halo1Mike]

I've been looking at the Core 2 Duo E6400 & E6600. Is the E6600 worth the extra hundred dollars over the E6400? Thanks.

 

[wazzledoozle]

E6300 and spend the money you save on a better mobo, heatsink, and ram.

 

[Halo1Mike]

E6300 and spend the money you save on a better mobo, heatsink, and ram.

Since i can get the E6400 for only $30 more then the E6300, it's not worth it, but if the gap gets larger in the next couple of weeks before i order, then I will consider this. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Alec§taar]

Yea, that's right... tomorrow's the "big day", isn't it?



* INTEL Conroe CPU family release to general public for sale?

APK

P.S.=> I am waiting to see (mostly) how FAST those beasts can "cook up" a Folding@Home unit... I read/know that W2CHYK is after one, & it ought to be interesting in THAT regard! apk

 

[CjStaal]

They aren't out still at least at newegg... I'm going for a E6600

WOAH! I went on tigerdirect.com and it was a little laggy and I thought to myself "Yep they got conroes" LOL
AND THEY DO!
LOL
Search "E6600"

 

[W1zzard]

E6300 is best bang for the buck

 

[magibeg]

I kinda want the E6600 because it has the 4mb of cache as opposed to the 2mb. It is a little more expensive though

 

[CjStaal]

Yeah thats why I'm getting it

 

[Alec§taar]

I kinda want the E6600 because it has the 4mb of cache as opposed to the 2mb. It is a little more expensive though

How much are they asking for that one & the one W1zz is noting?



* Thanks for feedback/info.!

APK

 

[Chewy]

I see prices of $254 for the E6300 and $422 for the E6600. the differences are, 0.54 mhz and 2mb L2 cache.

Edit: prices are in Canadian Currency.

 

[mikelopez]

How much are they asking for that one & the one W1zz is noting?



* Thanks for feedback/info.!

APK

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2396&

That is the link to all their C2D's. They are all OEM's and check out this fine print:

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING OUR RETURN POLICY ON CPU'S: Please note that all processors may be returned only for defective exchange. You must purchase a compatible heatsink and fan on the same order as the processor in order to preserve your warranty or exchange privilege. We are not able to accept returns for refunds on processors under any circumstances. All processors will be inspected and tested upon return and any damage caused by poor packaging, overclocking, or other tampering with the processor will be cause for the return to be refused, and exchange denied.

 

[mikelopez]

When I posted the link to the E6300 here:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=14929

They were selling the retail PIB for $199 w/free shipping. Soon after, they sold out and relisted at $219 for preorder, which is what they have now. Mine is on a Fedex plane...

 

[CjStaal]

Yeha that means it's unlink AMD in which they freakin only say u can oinly use THERE heatsink... Tigerdirect has a warranty and saiys only a COMPATABLE heatsinnk

 

[W1zzard]

so you are paying like $200 more for 2 mb of extra cache which will not make $200 of a performance difference. better buy 2 gb of memory or a wd raptor with that

 

[mikeownage]

would the E6300 be better then my Intel Pentuim D 820 overclocked to 3.2 GHz?

 

[wazzledoozle]

would the E6300 be better then my Intel Pentuim D 820 overclocked to 3.2 GHz?

Much better.

 

[wazzledoozle]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2396&

That is the link to all their C2D's. They are all OEM's and check out this fine print:

VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING OUR RETURN POLICY ON CPU'S: Please note that all processors may be returned only for defective exchange. You must purchase a compatible heatsink and fan on the same order as the processor in order to preserve your warranty or exchange privilege. We are not able to accept returns for refunds on processors under any circumstances. All processors will be inspected and tested upon return and any damage caused by poor packaging, overclocking, or other tampering with the processor will be cause for the return to be refused, and exchange denied.

Tigerdirect sucks, just use a more reputable e-tailer.

 

[mikeownage]

well, i am not a rich person so how much performance difference would i see? like how much %?

 

[Alec§taar]

well, i am not a rich person so how much performance difference would i see? like how much %?

It depends on the applications you run & their demands really... I just stepped in here, & am assuming this is still about L2 cache levels, etc. & that's what I'll discuss/pursue here:

Gaming, you only see like 2% from what I have heard HERE, but @ other sites online they say 5% (on average from both, supposedly) but, if ALL you do on a PC is game?

Get a gaming console.

Still, nowadays, if you note? They too, use multi-cpu core construction & multithreaded OS & code designs as well! I wonder why that is... maybe because it produces overall gains there as well?

I imagine like anything else? This varies game, by game & how they are designed as well. Games DO pull a lot of screen refresh, data level loads, but they still have a main loop for animation & this imo, is WHERE you see the gain (instruction-wise, more than data-wise as far as caching is concerned). Quake 4 SMP however, shows that tremendous gain IS possible, again up to 87% has been illustrated as fact.

Office type apps gain by it typically, so if you use your computer in THIS capacity (home, work, or school) it can help.

Video or photo editing, afaik, is MOSTLY system-memory (your RAM chips on your mobo) bandwidth constrained though, but from what I understand, it GAINS via L2 cache being larger too (L2 cache IS memory after all).

E.G.-> Applications like SETI@Home & probably Folding@Home, L2 cache levels can change things radically from what I read on the SETI forums etc. (which is a large part of WHY I went w/ the CPU I have (larger amounts of L2 cache onboard CPU)).

There are other apps (server-side types) that gain by larger L2 cache onboard the CPU as well, but if you are only into gaming on your rig? Then, you may wish to go with lower L2 cache bearing CPU types... or again: Just get a gaming console.

MOST of today's games (Quake 4 SMP being a HUGE exception, again 87% gains are noted in it vs. its older singlethread designed early design) may not show a benefit, but the games of tomorrow, will!

(A lot of talk here centers around being "future-proofed" & imo? You DO get that on SMP/DualCore rigs due to multithread program design being more & more prevalent (taskmgr.exe shows us all this for Win32 GUI apps (usermode threads iirc), & kernels today have re-entrant code & do multithread design as well (kernel mode threads, needed for SMP afaik))).

L2 cache is really good when you have a set of program code &/or data that repeats itself constantly, so if you have apps you use a great deal of THAT type of nature - you gain.

Still, most ANYTHING gains by it, to some degree (again, it varies depending on the application) because above all, you have to remember it is FAR FASTER RAM, than your system motherboard RAM chips are AND, "nearer" to the CPU core itself!

(Due to "less travel time/latency" typically & the CPU has a faster internal 'bus' speed as well, so does its cache iirc vs. that of the system RAM on the mobo, HyperTransport memory controller designs or not + DMA (they do help though), notwithstanding))...

& thus, the MORE L2 cache you have?

The more data &/or instruction code you can keep cached in it, for ANY application that repetitively executes the same instructions &/or data over and over repeatedly (which is what caching is largely about & it is a PROVEN concept - albeit, somewhat imperfect in certain conditions, better than not having it done @ all overall. In Windows VISTA, Microsoft is working to improve L2 cache efficacy & imo, based on what is in my P.S. below).

APK

P.S.=> There is an effect known as "cache pollution" that CAN be 'offset' to a large degree & help improve L2 cache efficacy (I've written about it here before in the Folding@Home thread in the GENERAL SOFTWARE section), & the way to do that? Use Taskmgr.exe "processor affinity" settings BY PROCESS, to stop new code from entering into a particular CPU core's L2 cache, upsetting a process' cache purity (for lack of a better term here) & its already cached data &/or code resident there...

You can get more info., validating my statement above, here:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/3873/3873.html

& here (more technical in nature):

http://www-jcsu.jesus.cam.ac.uk/~cam84/osIIsI.txt

"Processor Affinity - Each process saves which processor it was run on last and if it is possible the same processor will be used for it's next scheduled CPU time to help cache locality."

That's done typically in STRICTLY explicitly coded SMP programs, via API calls like Win32's "SetThreadMaskAffinity" after detection of 2-N actual CPU's present... on multithreaded code, the OS process scheduler manages this & is being improved upon by MS in VISTA especially, & imo, in regards MOSTLY to cache pollution stoppage...

apk

 

[Halo1Mike]

The rig im planning is mostly for gaming, but i will also use it for some school work. What I'm trying to find out is where the extra 100 bucks i have in the budget should go. I heard quite a few people say into the processor, but would it be better spent there or on something else. Thanks

Planned rig
Intel Core 2 Duo
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Sapphire Radeon X1600XT Crossfire
Seagate Barracuda 80 GB SATA HD
Rosewill 550W Power Supply
Dynapower Blackwidow Case
G.Skill 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2 800
all the other crap (cooling, drives, ect.)

 

[wazzledoozle]

The rig im planning is mostly for gaming, but i will also use it for some school work. What I'm trying to find out is where the extra 100 bucks i have in the budget should go. I heard quite a few people say into the processor, but would it be better spent there or on something else. Thanks

Planned rig
Intel Core 2 Duo
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Sapphire Radeon X1600XT Crossfire
Seagate Barracuda 80 GB SATA HD
Rosewill 550W Power Supply
Dynapower Blackwidow Case
G.Skill 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2 800
all the other crap (cooling, drives, ect.)

Get a 7600GT rather than a X1600XT, maybe even a X1800XT or 7900GT

 

[mikeownage]

The rig im planning is mostly for gaming, but i will also use it for some school work. What I'm trying to find out is where the extra 100 bucks i have in the budget should go. I heard quite a few people say into the processor, but would it be better spent there or on something else. Thanks

Planned rig
Intel Core 2 Duo
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Sapphire Radeon X1600XT Crossfire
Seagate Barracuda 80 GB SATA HD
Rosewill 550W Power Supply
Dynapower Blackwidow Case
G.Skill 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2 800
all the other crap (cooling, drives, ect.)

i'd saya bigger hard drive storeage is a must in todays world of games useing 4 gb's

 

[Halo1Mike]

Which would be better, the x1800xt or two x1600xt in crossfire?

 

[wazzledoozle]

Which would be better, the x1800xt or two x1600xt in crossfire?

X1800XT by far.