Intel seen gaining edge over AMD

[CrazyCrusher]

Well keep holding off and wait for the next big one that is always around the corner.... how did you ever advance past a Commodore 64 or Osborne?

And I rest my case, it was well worth holding off.

[pandaz3]

As long as you are happy that is all that really counts....

It looks as if AMD might have been preoccupied?

http://today.reuters.com/investing/f...D-UPDATE-2.XML

[bushmaster]

All to funny to watch this thread again and again over the years. AMD vs. Intel.....who gives a rats rectum. It all boils down to personal preference and what your wallet can handle. Just don't buy the latest and greatest because in two weeks it'll be legacy, and 30% cheaper.

[Rabbitrunner51]

I just got done answering a post about the advantage of dual core CPU's and was defending my X2 series by AMD.. but only about the graphics in general..., and am still happy with mine.., buit after reading up on the latest Intel offerings of the new duo core dual CPUs and esp. how much they cost I think I will get sick now...

Four times the cache i have... and much higher Ghz along with the archetecture, not to mention other attributes..and the equvilent ( Intel would still be faster ) , and I just lost another $160.00 in less than a half a year. OUCH!

I bought mine for like $318.00, a good deal at the time... and now it sells for like $160.00 or so??? Some places alot more i suppose.

Yeah, as much as i am happy with my little ole X2 3800, I would get the Intel for sure if choices wer made today... LOL ( read 'Toms Hardware' article on the new Intel duo core CPUs... ist article on top left of CPU section ) LOL

[BipolarBill]

Don't be silly. For all of those stated improvements in the achitecture of the Conroe, it should perform better than 40% faster.

I don't think that you would have gone Intel. The motherboards cost $200 and up and *require* DDR2 and a PCIe video card. That's a huge investment for some users. I, for one, can't justify the upgrade.

Get used to the march of technology. It's been this way forever and won't stop anytime soon. Everything is relative.

I can tell you one thing - I have never had a geek bully kick sand in my face because of my PC. It does what I need and more. That's the only measure that counts. The rest is ego.

[Rabbitrunner51]

DITTO! DITTO! DITTO! BPB... very well said. Overall I tend to agree wholeheartedly ( have always maintained one should always be happy with what they have in general )

Yeah one who is a consumer in this market is always going to lose monies.., its just the nature of the beast.. And what a beast it is...

[GrefMofovich]

I'm not sure what people mean by "the consumer loses". I've done nothing but win, ever since the classic athlon came out way back when! My choice is semi-arbitrary though - namely I liked the idea that I was kicking mr -inside in the jimmy by boycotting their products, which have *historically* been sold for gouging prices due to minimal competition. To explain more graphically, I'm like the ne'er-do-well in the crowd that runs off with the sweet loaf when a ruckus occurs, get it? That's me anyway. But now that intel woke up and instituted competitive - as opposed to exploitative - pricing, I love to shop them when I have a need. Phrases like "Extreme edition" that seem like they belong on a snowboard or a can of caffeine though, that's absurd, that's amusing! Just try to imagine the train of thought that their marketing departments must have gone through to arrive at that... The bottom line: it is our DUTY as techies to mock such antics mercilessly.

-GM

[Rugor]

The whole point of an advancing industry is that you get a better product if you buy it later. I'd go for a Core 2 Duo if I could get one now, and I just got a 3800+X2 about 3 months ago.

But it's not what was available when I was doing my upgrade. When it's time for the next one, that's when I'll compare AMD and Intel for what will work for me.

[MadPistol]

Don't be silly. For all of those stated improvements in the achitecture of the Conroe, it should perform better than 40% faster.

I don't think that you would have gone Intel. The motherboards cost $200 and up and *require* DDR2 and a PCIe video card. That's a huge investment for some users. I, for one, can't justify the upgrade.

Get used to the march of technology. It's been this way forever and won't stop anytime soon. Everything is relative.

I can tell you one thing - I have never had a geek bully kick sand in my face because of my PC. It does what I need and more. That's the only measure that counts. The rest is ego.

That is true. The motherboards and prices on low latency/high frequency DDR2 modules will definately drive the price up a good bit. To make things worse on Intel's end, AMD is making massive price cuts that will make them competitive. In essence, this is a processor price war, so everyone wins... Or do they?

Intel requires that you get either the 965 or 975 series of motherboards in order to get Conroe (Core 2 Duo) to run optimally in a system, and those boards are not cheap. While the processors themselves are "affordable" for their performance gain, the motherboards are not as friendly in price as the processors are.

At the same time, Conroe is still in its infancy on the market, and as we all know, new technology always draws a premium when it's first released.

Solution: wait a few months for wide availability and price drops on Conroe. Once this happens, though, it should become the solution of choice for everyone. Right now though, going AMD X2 may be the correct path. Either way, they are both very fast and very efficient processor lines.

[MadPistol]

The whole point of an advancing industry is that you get a better product if you buy it later. I'd go for a Core 2 Duo if I could get one now, and I just got a 3800+X2 about 3 months ago.

The Core 2 Duo's are fast, don't get me wrong, but I think you made a good choice, given your options. The X2 3800+ overclocks really well for an AMD chip (if you're even into that), but the industry is at a turning point. Socket AM2 for AMD and the Core 2 Duo line for Intel seem to be the next big thing for each one.

Don't be displeased with your purchase though. That's still a very nice chip you've got. Besides, Core 2 Duo is really drawing a premium from everyone.

On Dell's site, the XPS systems that they have say that you have to pay a $1000+ price difference to go from a Pentium D 3.0Ghz to a Core 2 Extreme 2.93Ghz. That's pushing it considering that the price of a 3.0Ghz Pentium D Presler is $193 and the Core 2 Duo is supposed to be around $1000. In otherwords, Dell is going to be making a very healthy profit on anyone that buys a Core 2 Extreme on one of their systems.

I've said this once, and I'll say it again; WAIT! Do not buy Core 2 Duo right now. The prices are inflated due to demand, and if no one were to buy the chips at those premium prices, they would fall back to MSRP. If we wait a few months to buy those chips, prices will fall, and the consumer will have the advantage.

[Rugor]

I'm perfectly happy with my X2, I got a good deal on it at the time. It does overclock very well (2.4GHz up from 2.0GHz with no fuss at all and less than 5C increase in temps if that). It's got 2GB of fast RAM and a 7900GT and I'm sitting pretty.

I still need a new sound card, but I'm waiting for a sale on the x-fi, in the meantime I can live with the onboard.

I made the best choice for my needs at the time.

Also, much as I like the Conroe, I don't care much for the platform choices. I think it was stupid to completely remove native IDE support from the chipset before the vast majority of optical drive makers have realized SATA exists.

[Rabbitrunner51]

May be stretching the post thread here...., but since i read from just about everybody who has the X2s ( I have the same one as you Rugor X2 3800 ) , Most seem to OC like yourself and 2.4GHZ sounds about right on. I really have no need to do any more ,since its a dual core and it is fast anyways...

Since i loaded a new freash install, i lost my bookmarks from the sites i visied about doing an OC.., and it wouldn't be a problem for me but This of course is a whole new platform for me.. ( had an Intel and Asus 865PE mobo ) Now I've got this ASRock Dual Sata 2 board and the bios has alot of things you can manually change unlike the older Asus board which was setup for auto OC and just two things like bus speed and voltage might be changed...ect..

I am only running 1GIG of ram but its like very good ram ( Corsair Platinum TwinX 2-3-2-6 timings ), but a cheaper 520 watt PSU , which is stable enough but very unsure if it can handle an OC. ( its an Aspire.. been very good so far for over 1 1/2 years ).

Given that mostly all one has to do to OC is change like acouple of things... Can someone give me some clues as to what they are..llike bus speed ( think im at 200 right now ), and maybe the voltage thing and anything else to meddle with.

It should be no biggie as if it does not take with my ram or whatever..I an always go back and set the bios for default. Boy I wish I had bought 512 sticks instead of 256MB sticks because I have to either get a whole new set of ram ( 2GB ) or remove 2 sticks and put 2 512's in to toal little over 1.5 GB total. I am running it at DDR400 now in dual channel mode with the 2000MHZ bus speed. Either way, its always a trial and error thing as with most of you to get it like the speed you like.

[Rugor]

Luckily for you Rabbitrunner51, I not only have the same chip but I also have the same board. It's a snap to OC. Go into the bios then: Advanced=>CPU

Set overclocking to CPU, PCIe Async. (lock the PCIe and other busses)
Set the CPU to 240, the PCIe to 100.

Go down (in the same section) to Memory and set it to DDR333
Save and reboot.

Instant 2.4GHz with RAM in spec.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Rugor.. Thanks so much for the info... I am generally not an OC fan.., but since i finally have a CPU that is worthy.. I thought i would give it a try.

Soo.. your saying that if i change the ram to default ..( which is DDR333..as i had to manually change it..) then it would be faster at that ram at 2.4GHZ? ) In truth I know from all I have read that DDR33 is just slightly slower but not noticable..so it makes sense that the higher GHZ would up it a good bit.

If not for these forums ..alot of us would be lost... I am so appreciative to all of you for the help you give us...

Still... in my minds eye , I could spend the next fifty years studying computer knowledge and never get it all.. just goes on and on.... LOL

[Rabbitrunner51]

Yippee! Rugor.. WORKED LIKE A CHARM... NO PROBLEMS..

CPU: X2 3800 : sys. bus @ 240MHZ
RAM: DDR333