Best Processor in your cpu career?

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tybert7

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In my history of processors, starting back to the dawn of my computer life in 1996...

5x86 (133 MHz) Cyrix chip ~ 1996-2000
PIII (800 MHz) Intel ~ 2000-2006 800.00 dollars
Opteron 170 (2.0 GHz per core) AMD ~ 2006-2008 400.00 dollars
e8400 Intel (3.0 GHz per core) ~ tomorrow 160.00 dollars



Based on my own personal list I think the clear winner is the PIII 800 MHz cpu, that thing lasted so damn long and still performed great in pretty much everything for freaking ever!

paid alot more for it, but got the most out of it. the PIII was the peak in price, do not remember the cyrix price as I did not buy the system, but it was alot less, and after the PIII the prices got steadily cheaper, but it also seems the upgrade time has accelerated, and not all of that is price, things seem to be getting faster... faster, and demands seem to be growing faster as well.
 
I don't judge my best processors as those I used for the longest time mostly because I went without upgrades for too damn long a couple of times. Otherwise, I would have to say my "best" was a 486SX 33. There's no way in hell I would consider that as my best.

The best I've ever had is probably my current Q6600s. Two out of the three I currently have run 3.6Ghz on air cooling with no trouble. A 50% overclock is definitely nothing to sneeze at especially considering that's on four cores and all for around $200. The other reason I would consider it my best processor is because of the amazing power of it between the IPC, the four cores and the clock speed. It's an amazing piece of technology for my DCing habit as well as the video encoding I do, some gaming and flawless multitasking. Not to mention I can do all of that at the same time if I wish to.

It will more than likely be a while before I'm able to build a new system and my Q6600s will easily handle everything I throw at them until I'm able to build another system.

 
Celeron 300A FTW.

50% overclock could be had just by moving the jumper from 66FSB to 100FSB. 90 bucks even when new (PII450=$$$)
 
P1- 200MHz included with a OEM
P2-400 $389
P3-1000 (Socket370) $250
P4-2.6C(HT) $238
P4-3.2C(HT) $203
E2160 $95
C2D E6750 $190


Best one so far is the C2D since it is the cheapest and has the most performance. The E2160 I only used for 6 months in a Microfly case as HTPC
 
E6300...

Went from 1.86ghz stock to well over 3.55ghz, a 90% increase in clock speed.
Also, it was the largest upgrade from a previous generation ever.
Everything was significantly faster compared to my old 3800 X2.
 
this i7 had better last 4 years, longest Ill have had a CPU without going insane. Had a P2-300 for a long ass time, but was going insane for most of it.
 
Celeron 300A

ran a stable 375mhz, a 25% overclock, and would run more, cept i did not notice that the fan on my heat sink had siezed, so it was running at 375 with passive cooling
 
I think the E6600 Conroe was the biggest, baddest jump in recent history...
I've got about 15+ years of CPUs...
 
the opty in my sig. :D

i am upgrading to i7 in the spring though, the main parts from this rig will be transferred to an htpc, so it will still be in use.
 
These aren't necessarily in order of what I purchased or used, but they are kind of close. Some were for secondary machines, others were in my main gaming rig.

My processors:

Intel 80286 12.5MHz
Intel 80386 SX 16MHz
Intel 80386 DX 25MHz
Intel 80486 SX 33MHz
Intel 80486 DX2 50MHz
AMD 486 DX2 66MHz
IBM Blue Lightning (486 DX2 equivalent I think.) (Still have it.)
Cyrix 486 DX2 80MHz
Intel 80486 DX4 100MHz
Cyrix 5x86 133MHz
Intel Pentium 66MHz
Intel Pentium 75MHz
Cyrix/IBM 6x86 PR166+
Cyrix/IBM 6x86 PR90+ (Purchased, and resold, never used.)
Intel Pentium 133MHz
Intel Pentium 150MHz
Cyrix/IBM 6x86 PR200+
Intel Pentium 166MHz
Intel Pentium 200
Intel Pentium MMX 200
Intel Pentium MMX 233
Intel Pentium Pro 150MHz x2
Intel Pentium Pro 180MHz x2 (I still have these overclocked to 200MHz.)
Intel Pentium Pro 200MHz
Intel Pentium II 266MHz
Intel Pentium II 300MHz
AMD K6 233MHz (Used in secondary machines.)
AMD K6 II 300MHz (Used in secondary machines.)
Intel Pentium II 350MHz
Intel Pentium II 400MHz
Intel Celeron 300A x3
Intel Celeron 366 x2 (On ABIT BP6)
Intel Celeron 533 x2 (On ABIT BP6)
Intel Pentium III 533MHz x2
Intel Pentium III 733MHz
Intel Pentium III 800MHz
AMD Duron 900MHz
AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1.0GHz
AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1.2GHz
AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1.33GHz
Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz
Intel Pentium 4 2.0A
Intel Pentium 4 2.4C
Intel Celeron 2.5GHz
Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz
Intel Pentium 4 3.0C x2
Intel Pentium 4 3.0E
Intel Pentium 4 Model 540 (3.4GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (130nm)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (90nm)
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Given to me for free, shot to death during target practice.)
AMD Opteron 246 x2 (Tyan K8SDPro)
AMD Opteron 254 x2 (Tyan K8WE)
Intel Pentium D 965 Extreme Edition (3.73GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Celeron 430 (Currently sits in a box)
Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7200 (Currently resides in my laptop)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (Currently resides in my girlfriend's gaming rig.)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Currently resides in my HTPC)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 x2 (Intel D5400XS)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Purchased for secondary machine.)

I know I'm probably forgetting some.

Out of these, the highlights are the Pentium Pro 180's, the Opteron 254's, The E6600, Q6600 and QX9775's. The Pentium 4 Model 540 was another good one. That one overclocked to hell and back. The ones I remember best I either used for a really long time like the Pentium 4 2.0A, or I remember them as outstanding overclockers. Most people would remember their Celeron 300A's fondly. I do not. They were always quirky for me and it took me three tries to find one that would run at 450MHz.

The Pentium 4 2.0GHz (Northwood "A") was the one I probably ran the longest as I ran it for about a year. My favorites are probably the dual Pentium Pro 180MHz CPUs I ran in my gaming rig that eventually turned into my server for several years. They were overclocked to 200MHz and still work today. They were paired up onboard an Intel PR440FX "Providence" motherboard.
 
Wow, that's an impressive list of processors. Over the last 16 years I've owned maybe 12-15 different processors and I thought that was a lot.
 
The first time I upgraded a CPU and was like WHOA! was when I went from a 533 celeron to a 1ghz PIII. Nothing else changed, so it was huge.

I also noticed this type of improvement when I upgrade from a 2.4ghz p4 to a 3.06p4 w/ht. It was noticeably faster in multitasking and opening/closing windows. Plus gaming was a lot better.
 
The MOS 6501 CPU 1Mhz in my Commodore 64. Had it for 4 years, and never missed a thing.

It couldn't multiply, but regardless of that, it entertained millions of kids, and taugh a lot of us to program things from scratch. :)

Nowadays, I do prefer my Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz :)
 
My last rig IMO had the best processor configuration for it's time of any of the rigs I've ever built.

I made it back in 2003, and ran with two 2.4Ghz Prestonia Xeons (Northwood in Xeon form basically), using one of the very few Xeon boards that could overclock, and ran them both at 3Ghz. So back when a 3Ghz P4 was basically the fastest processor out there, I had two of them working together. They also both had hyperthreading, giving me Virtual quad core years before most people even considered the idea. I used that for nearly 5 years until I built my current rig, and even toward the end it still felt fast.
 
I think I'd have to say q6600. Still after a rather long time I dont feel the need to upgrade the CPU quite yet, ofc a core i7 would be nice but a q6600 @ 3.3 Ghz is still ok for me :)
 
My current Q9550 gave me the easiest overclocking experience I've ever had with a CPU. Although I'm unable to hit 4GHz with it, I've had it running at 3.8GHz almost since the day I built this machine and it's been running without a hitch ever since. Overall, this rig has been the most trouble-free one I've ever built.

My second-place chip would have to be my old P4 Northwood B 2.4GHz though. That thing did 3.2GHz easy, and was a great chip back in its prime. I eventually replaced it with a 2.6GHz Northwood C for its HT capability and higher FSB, but I couldn't get that chip to overclock any better.
 
Hmm...The one that had the biggest impact on me was my very first multi core (E2180) which I had for a wile, the best I had before that was in an old laptop P4 1.6GHz, as my job was all about being mobile then. The jump to the E2180 was night and day, but I can say the same thing about my new Q9550, and has by far been the easiest OC I have ever had. Once I have time to do a reformat I will be seeing what it takes to get a stable 4.25GHz, once I hit that, I will be happy.
 
tybert7 said:
In my history of processors, starting back to the dawn of my computer life in 1996...

5x86 (133 MHz) Cyrix chip ~ 1996-2000
PIII (800 MHz) Intel ~ 2000-2006 800.00 dollars
Opteron 170 (2.0 GHz per core) AMD ~ 2006-2008 400.00 dollars
e8400 Intel (3.0 GHz per core) ~ tomorrow 160.00 dollars



Based on my own personal list I think the clear winner is the PIII 800 MHz cpu, that thing lasted so damn long and still performed great in pretty much everything for freaking ever!

paid alot more for it, but got the most out of it. the PIII was the peak in price, do not remember the cyrix price as I did not buy the system, but it was alot less, and after the PIII the prices got steadily cheaper, but it also seems the upgrade time has accelerated, and not all of that is price, things seem to be getting faster... faster, and demands seem to be growing faster as well.
Click to expand...

I was very excited when I boot-legged a Commodore 64 into a 128, that is until they introduced a 128 six months later and my parents still thought I was crazy.
Actually, the be best is the newest one that I just purchased. It will probably stay the same for years to come. Now, if only GPU's could make the same leap! Just my 2 cents!
Enjoy life while you can and CPU's.
 
brons2 said:
Celeron 300A FTW.

50% overclock could be had just by moving the jumper from 66FSB to 100FSB. 90 bucks even when new (PII450=$$$)
Click to expand...

These were the good olde days...

I remember I replaced an K6-2 350 or whatever to get one of these because the 300A BLEW the k6-2 out of the water gaming wise back then.

I think my Best cpu was probably my Dual Athlon MP though. I really loved that machine even though it had so many stability issues. It was just so cheap and grand at the time of no dual cores. Just remember having 2 delta fans on those bad boys, people would die now a days if they heard this thing going. Like a jet in constant flight.
 
Centrino 1.7Ghz. My first mobile processor and after using a 700Mhz P3 it was godly. The Sony S360P video card was wrecked but that processor was amazing.
 
My CPU history is not as long as some of yours, but I'll play:
Intel 486DX-66
Intel Pentium 100
Intel Pentium Pro 200
AMD Athlon 850
AMD Athlon64 3400+
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+
Intel E6600
Intel Q6600
Intel E8400/E8500

Of all those, the Pentium Pro 200 was the most expensive CPU I ever owned, cost me over a grand. Considering I wouldn't spend over $300 on a CPU now, I don't know how I allowed myself to spend that much considering how little money I was making back then! But I think I got six years out of it.

The Athlon 850 was my favorite, mostly because it just worked and worked well for everything I needed it to do, right up until I retired it. The only reason I replaced the thing was I got bored with it.

My sort of recent upgrade from the E6600 to the Q6600 was like, meh? Don't really notice any difference for most of what I do (games and internet). Playing around with an E8400 and an E8500 right now, just want to hit 4.0ghz for the hell of it, even though 3.2ghz on the Q6600 is good enough for every game I play.
 
I started with an Apple IIe lol, I don't know what chip it had. The biggest improvement has to be going from a single core to quad core, I skipped the dual core generation.

Desktop P4 2.0 to Q6600. Even at stock speed, it is amazing.
Laptop PM 2.13 to QX9300. Equally amazing.

I think these quads will last me quite a while.

CPU ownership history:

1983 Apple IIe circa, no clue what chip it had, probably a white hamster.
1993 486 33hz Black and white IBM laptop woohoo.
1999 Pentium III 450, later upgraded to 650. Gateway 9300 laptop.
2001 Pentium 4 1.7 first desktop I rolled.
2005 Pentium M 1.7 later OCed to 2.13 on Dell 9300 laptop.
2008 Q6600 2.4 desktop, the good people here helped me select.
2008 QX9300 2.53, quad core in a laptop HP HDX18T.
 
My History:

386SX: 25Mhz (First PC, 1991-1996)
Pentium Pro: 200Mhz (Sep/1996-Sep/2000)
Pentium III: 450Mhz (Jun/2000-May/2003)
Athlon Thunderbird: 900 Mhz (Sep/2000-May/2003)
Duron: 750 Mhz (Feb/2001-Mar/2003)
Athlon XP 1700+: OC'ed to 2.1Ghz (Jun/2003-Nov/2005)
Athlon XP 2500+: 1.8Ghz (Jun/2003-Feb/2008) - Former Windows Server 2003
Athlon 64 3400+: 2.4Ghz (Nov/2005-Jan/2008)
Q6600: 3.4Ghz - (Jan/2008-Present) - Man Gaming Machine
E2180: 2.0Ghz - (Jan/2008-Mar/2008) - Currently unused. Going to be my sister's CPU.
E8400: 3.6Ghz - (Feb/2008-Present) - LAN Machine
Phenom 8750: 2.4Ghz - (Aug/2008-Present) - Current Windows Server 2003
T8300: 2.4Ghz - (Dec/2008-Present) - CPU in my Macbook


XP 1700+ (Paid ~$75) vs. Q6600 (Paid ~$270). Both are/were amazing overclockers given the right stepping/lot. I remember running circles around my cousin's P4 with my 55db Delta Fan Fan + Thermalright HS setup (noise levels be damned) back then.

The Q6600 has been the most solid PC that I've owned in terms of stability and performance. When I take the Core i7 plunge next year, it will undoubtedly find its way to a LAN friendly case and replace my current LAN box. In order to get my current OC, i didn't have to resort to putting a blow drying in my case to keep it stable. With that said, I would give this chip the nod as being the best that I've owned.
 
Dan_D said:
. Most people would remember their Celeron 300A's fondly. I do not.
Click to expand...

Retail boxed were better than OEM. Retail 300A+Abit BH6=overclocking heaven.

After I ran mine for a while at 450, I even bumped it up to 504, rock solid all day long. I even ran XP on it for a while, then I got a 1200mhz Slot1 Coppermine kit from PowerLeap and I kept running the BH6 for another few years, alongside an Athlon XP 1600+.

Finally put the BH6 out to pasture when I got my XP3000+. It was maxed out at 768MB of RAM, and I wanted more. It still ran XP just fine though.
 
My CPU history isn't that extensive:
Intel 386SX 25MHz
Intel Pentium 75MHz
Intel Pentium II 350MHz
AMD Athlon 1.4GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (2.2GHz)
Intel Pentium M 2.0GHz
Intel Core 2 Q6600

However, I'd defnitely go for the Q6600. It's been my first multi-core CPU, and jumping straight from single-core to quad-core is a huge improvement. The ease at which it overclocks also far surpasses anything else, to the point that I run it at significantly less than it can achieve because I don't really need the extra power right now and would rather keep power/heat low.

The Pentium M was a pretty good performer though, and a welcome change from the two Athlons, both of which ran hot (especially the 1.4GHz Thunderbird, which was regularly at 70C).
 
Not my best but my favorite was my Duron 600. A friend gave me a phase-change setup and I was able to overclock that CPU to 1.25Ghz...quite a feat at the time.:D
 
pentium 4 2.4ghz northwood....

was a great processor from about early 2002 to late 2006 that could run just about anything, and really was the first "good enough" processor (northwood series), where even *today*, for a non-gamer, the processor represents pretty much no compromises...

edit: my cpu history, since everyone else is doing it...

486DX @ 33mhz
some cheapo "evergreen" processor 586 ripoff @ 133mhz (ran on my 486's motherboard... was a great upgrade)

pentium 2 @ 450mhz
*enormous jump in performance from my 486 system

athlon xp @ 1.4ghz

athlon xp @ 2.5ghz

pentium 4 northwood @ 2.4ghz, but OC'ed to 3.2ghz
*heavenly

wolfdale 2m @ 2.5ghz, but OC'ed to 3.3ghz
current system

the only real standout to me is the northwood
 
My CPU history:

Intel 486 DX2 66MHz
Intel Pentium 133MHz
AMD K6-2 450MHz
AMD Athlon 1.2GHz
Intel Pentium 4 2.26GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100
Intel Atom N270

Hmm, I think that's it, shorter than I thought, lol.

My biggest jump was to the 1.2GHz Athlon from the K6-2 450. Amazing boost in performance, I loved it. I was shocked how much CPU performance had improved in around 3 years.
 
Pentium Pro 200Mhz -- kept me going through the Pentium II era and faster than most of my friends' newer machines. Had a S3 Virge that was replaced with a Voodoo 3 3500 in this machine.

Athlon 1Ghz -- blazing, great gaming experience with an original Radeon 64MB DDR AGP card.

Athlon 64 3500+ S939 -- Fast, but probably my least favorite chip / build. Should've gone AM2, should've gone PCIe, instead when S939 and AGP. Regretted it for nearly three years.

E6420 -- Best OCer I've ever had. 2.13Ghz stock... up to 3.8Ghz under water, and on a 680i at that. Probably would've done even better on a P35 / X38 based board.

X3220 -- Got the quad core bug, and this is the result. Don't think I'll be replacing it any time soon.
 
Best Intel CPU was the 300 celeron back in the day. I had one running at 550 all day long for like 6 months. Beat the PIII at the same speed.
Next best is my Q6600 running at 3.6ghz air-cooled. It is the 2nd stepping of this vernerable design.
Still out on i7. Have 4 i7 PCs right now, 1-920 2-940 1-965. Will have to update this listing once I'm through testing...
 
Best for me was Opteron 170 and now Q6600. The most overclockable and stable chips out of all the ones I owned.
 
Desktops:

386DX 16
486SX 25
486DX2 66
Pentium 100
Pentium II 233
Pentium II 266
Pentium II 350
Pentium III 533
Duron 1GHz
Athlon XP 2400+
Athlon XP 2600+
Athlon64 3000+
Athlon64 3500+
Athlon x2 3800+
Pentium e2140
Athlon x2 5000+
C2D e6320

Notebooks:

P4-M 3.06
Core Duo T2050

That 2140 was probably my favorite..cheap and so damn much fun to tinker with.
 
Intel Pentium III 933mhz, ran it for a solid 4-5 years which was a huge improvement over my previous Pentium I 133 (If I remember right this was an OCed processor). Even now, running a P4 3.2ghz no OC. Still runs everything like a champ, though I'm starting to feel it fall out of date. Got my little money jar saving up for an i7.
 
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