Hard decision - AM2 or C2D ? Which Board?

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Q-racy

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Oct 22, 2006
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7
Hi,

my girlfriend is going to get a SFF, mainly for working, surfing, sometime a little bit gaming.

What is clear:

It should be a SG01 with NT06,
energy-efficient,
low-noise,
small, cool CPU,
1GB RAM,
Absolut no OC,
Very stable and reliable.


I thought of the Sapphire PE-AM2RS485, with an Single Core EE CPU, if it should be an AM2 System.

Otherwise maybe the
Gigabyte GA-945GM-DS2
Foxconn 946GZ7MA
with E6300. I dont know if a 965 Board would be a little bit to hot? Maybe the Intel 965OT?

Any recommendations or other ideas?

Thanks a lot!
 
AM2 3800+ might be a good choice...get the 65w 65nm one and it will be cool and quiet and cheap.
 
Thanks,

I think I would choose the Intel Board, if it will be a C2D. Since I had problems in the past, i don't like Asus anymore.

I also thought of the 3800+ 65W. But will it be a good combo with the Sapphire Board?

Has anyone experiences with the Sapphire Board?
 
dont get that board. Get the NF-M2 nView

Intel is not going to be cheaper...the mATX boards for intel are normally higher.
 
^ If you factor in performance it sure is.

Gigabyte and ASUS have merged, so if you are going to exclude boards, you might as well exclude their boards as well. I can understand that position though.

Recommendations:
-Biostar i945GZ-M7
-Get 2GB of RAM.
-e4300

There is no reason not to overclock, especially if you are going to waste money on an expensive cooler, when a $4 fan controller and stock heatsink would give you the same noise level. Unfortunately, if you don't buy ASUS/Gigabyte, the Biostar will only take you to 2.7GHz.

Alternatively, the ASUS P5L-MX will give you a solid overclock with an e4300 chip and it is reasonably priced.
 
The problem with Core 2 Duos right now, there still isn't a great mATX motherboard. Even the E6300 and E6400 give some of the higher-end AM2s a run for their money.

I'd grab a cheapo C2D motherboard and wait on a better one to come out.
 
Overclocking an intel matx is not as necessary to be competitive as it is for AMD.

I went from a DFI RS482 with an Opt165@2700 and 2GB PC4000 to an Asus P5B-VM E6300 and 2GB PC6400 and the intel setup is on par even with the AMD setup at least in terms of gaming. I did not do benchmarks but seat of the pants the intel seems snappier.

Just my experience and opinion FWIW.
 
Cbl12886 said:
How far can you get the e4300 with the Asus P5L-MX?
Click to expand...

I don't know any particular figures for that board, but Anandtech got the E4300 up to 375FSB on stock cooling with minimal voltage. They also said they expected it could have gotten much higher on aftermarket cooling.

375FSB is a 93.75% overclock, so I'm sure the E4300 will hit the (current) mATX board's ceilings far before it will hit its own.
 
If you're going stock ONLY. Do C2D. AMD is cheaper but if you don't mind spending a bit more Intel is the way to go.
 
Cbl12886 said:
How far can you get the e4300 with the Asus P5L-MX?
Click to expand...
Depends on how much you value your video card… :cool:

P5L has no voltage control, so it will probably max out at 3.2-3.3GHz. You have to keep raising the PCI-E bus to compensate. Above 120 is not safe, which is about 350fsb. 350 x 9 = 3.15GHz, which is pretty close to the max and on top of that, C2D is about 25% faster than an A64.

The P5LD2 gives you voltage control, but you probably would not get much higher, because your SATA drives would have problems. Someone else here maxed out around 365.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
If you're going stock ONLY. Do C2D. AMD is cheaper but if you don't mind spending a bit more Intel is the way to go.
Click to expand...

I think the key here is recommending what the person wants. Performance is obviously not an issue but cool and efficient is. This leaves AMD as the only choice. If performance were key then C2D is the way to go.
 
Definitely get the core 2 duo! It pwns amd, benchmark proves it. If I were you I would wait till q2 that is when the e6420 comes out 2.13ghz 4mb cache for $183 not sure if it will be released in q2 or q3 though.
 
am2.. much better mobo's, cheap price at the moment, plus, you can drop in a am2 quad core barcelona in there when they come out. ^_^
 
w1retap said:
am2.. much better mobo's, cheap price at the moment, plus, you can drop in a am2 quad core barcelona in there when they come out. ^_^
Click to expand...

Everyone is fired from recommendations :p

The requirements are:

"energy-efficient,
low-noise,
small, cool CPU,"

for: "working, surfing, sometime a little bit gaming"

This doesn't even require a dual core processor.

in fact, MoDT might be a good option. But yeah, the 3800 EE SFF is a good choice because it is energy efficient for small spaces and is a cool CPU which will make for low noise. It will provide for working, surfing net, and a little bit of gaming. Quad core and C2D 6600 or whatever are just crazy overkills when no OCing is required.

I guess it is the thought that counts though :D
 
Well I could only find a single core Sempron to compare, which would make a poor gaming chip, but the difference is only 14w.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/623-9/intel-core-2-duo-test.html
Sure on a straight wattage comparison, it’s about even, but once you factor in performance per watt, C2D is the clear choice. Compare the fastest single core AM2 chip 3800+ @ 2.4GHz, vs the intel e6600 @ 2.4GHz x2, the wattage is about the same, but you would get about 2.5x the power! Even if you disabled a core, it would still hold a 25% advantage.

Yes a single core chip is a lot less expensive now, but you can by a lower model e4300 with effectively double the performance for less than double the cost and probably lesser power consumption. Plus with Vista, that second core is going to be utilized a lot more.

If you love your girlfriend you will get a C2D. :p
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Well I could only find a single core Sempron to compare, which would make a poor gaming chip, but the difference is only 14w.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/623-9/intel-core-2-duo-test.html
Sure on a straight wattage comparison, it’s about even, but once you factor in performance per watt, C2D is the clear choice. Compare the fastest single core AM2 chip 3800+ @ 2.4GHz, vs the intel e6600 @ 2.4GHz x2, the wattage is about the same, but you would get about 2.5x the power! Even if you disabled a core, it would still hold a 25% advantage.

Yes a single core chip is a lot less expensive now, but you can by a lower model e4300 with effectively double the performance for less than double the cost and probably lesser power consumption. Plus with Vista, that second core is going to be utilized a lot more.

If you love your girlfriend you will get a C2D. :p
Click to expand...

Just get the EE AMDs like I have been saying

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/25/green_machine/page4.html
 
I would give serious consideration to a MotD board. The board itself is a little expensive but the CPU's can be found at pretty reasonable price, especially the T2*00 series. They'll be nice and quiet but still bring considerable performance.
 
Q-racy said:
Hi,


What is clear:

It should be a SG01 with NT06,
energy-efficient,
low-noise,
small, cool CPU,
1GB RAM,
Absolut no OC,
Very stable and reliable.
Click to expand...

If this is the criteria, then I gotta agree with Steeeeve on this one. AMD is the brand choice. If you want best (as in highest) performance (wether stock or overclock) then Conroe.
 
Tom's of all places... well if you look at just about any other review, the difference is not so extreme. Compare the e6600 to the 4600X2 at the same speed, intel chips are superior in both absolute and performance/watt: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2889&p=3
One exception is gaming, but the performance/watt difference is even greater.

intel's first ULV chips came out on the 18th, but are not yet available, are for 479 and will probably be expensive. L7400 @ 1.5GHz. That's equivalent to about a 1.875GHz AMD.

AMD's EE SFF should be good as well, but the EE, in this case again stands for extremely expensive:
http://www.excaliberpc.com/AMD_Athlon_64_X2_DualCore_EE_3800/ADD3800IAT5CU/partinfo-id-567158.html
I don't know if they have migrated Turion to 65w yet, but that's an idea...
 
this guy hasn't responded much but I think MoDT might be a good choice or go with the EE (if you can find a cheaper one)

Perhaps a mobile C2D would be ok.
 
Brisbane. But egg forcing to buy that dumb board. Seems it's even more EE than the 3800 x2. If he's not OCING maybe even the cheaper Abit might do him well.
 
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