Help me pick out a Conroe setup!

J

jcll2002

2[H]4U
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Jan 28, 2006
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Im planning on selling my rig (the mobo, ram and cpu of it) and getting conroe setup. I thought this would be a good idea especially because of my watercooling.

I was hoping you guys could help me pick a good overclocking set for the cheapest (obviously).

I was looking at

e6400 $230
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 $140
and i have no idea about ram. I dont want to spend more that $200 or so.

Would this be a good overclocking setup? Can someone shed some light (or feel free to post whatever advice you have for any of this)
 
You've got a decent rig, hold on to it a little longer to see what happens in November.

I'm guessing when they release a quad core Xtreme Edition, they might release a normal E6800 (with out the unlocked multiplier) and everything may get pushed down one price notch. The motherboards will have matured (new BIOS's & Revs), so you'll have a better idea which mobo is definitely the best. Also, the chips will probably be overclocking better by then (possibly even a whole new stepping) so you will probably get a better chip.

With your rig, you should be able to hold out for a little while longer!
 
yeah, i can hold out for a while. Whats all this talk about there being bad chipsets? Is it true?

What advice do you have for the ram though? (and yes, i know prices will fall also)
 
chrisf6969 said:
You've got a decent rig, hold on to it a little longer to see what happens in November.

I'm guessing when they release a quad core Xtreme Edition, they might release a normal E6800 (with out the unlocked multiplier) and everything may get pushed down one price notch. The motherboards will have matured (new BIOS's & Revs), so you'll have a better idea which mobo is definitely the best. Also, the chips will probably be overclocking better by then (possibly even a whole new stepping) so you will probably get a better chip.

With your rig, you should be able to hold out for a little while longer!
Click to expand...
thanks for that post, it makes waiting easier :D
on the downside, by november the binning of the chips should have matured, possibly reducing the overclock potential.
 
drizzt81 said:
thanks for that post, it makes waiting easier :D
on the downside, by november the binning of the chips should have matured, possibly reducing the overclock potential.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt that.

You don't think Intel knows how to bin chips by now?! LOL
They have been binning everything they make (dram, cpus, etc) for the past 20 years, speed testing isn't something complicated.

#1
If anything, Intel at the beginning used as many good ones as possible for the X6800's b/c they wanted to make as much per chip as possible and they wanted to be sure there was as much inventory of the 6800's as possible b/c of the higher margin. So fewer good chips were left in the beginning if anything.

#2 processes mature and the chips clock higher & higher, thats why initial Northwoods (1.6a-2.0a) could rarely hit 3Ghz, then a few steppings later with the 800FSB (2.4C-3.4c) chips all hit 3+Ghz. Same with Prescott at first they struggled to get to 4Ghz with the 5x0 chips, later stepping 6x0 hit 4+Ghz easily. (not talking about 6x1 - CedarMill that was 65nm)

And yes the 965 motherboards seem to be a little finicky still. Somewhat less predictable at least from my experience. Intel motherboards were usually VERY easy to overclock and usually the chip crapped out before the board. This time around b/c Conroe has low multipliers/high FSB to start with, the motherboards are often limiting the OC's. Plus the slowest ram ratio with the 965 mobo is 1:1.

975 mobos seem to be overclocking better. Probably b/c they're more mature. And possibly they have better power supply circuitry since they were designed to handle the beefy 800-900 Pentium D requirements.
 
I agree with the other dude... wait.
Wait to see what the next gen chipsets/mobo's can do. Near the end of this year will be an insane time for gamers so don't be too hasty and upgrade too early, unless you have alot of money you'd like to spend.
 
psychot|K said:
I agree with the other dude... wait.
Wait to see what the next gen chipsets/mobo's can do. Near the end of this year will be an insane time for gamers so don't be too hasty and upgrade too early, unless you have alot of money you'd like to spend.
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Yeah for him, I'd say wait JUST a little longer, b/c things will pan out, but if I was YOU, with an XP 3000+, I'd probably be jumping already.
 
I would but my company gives me $1500 every year to spend on technology stuff, and that comes in January... so I'm waiting till then so I can get a free Conroe and DX10 card :p
 
Newsboys2004 said:
I wouldn't get Conroe in januarary... I'd get Kenstfiled and a r600
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yeah, i dont want to spend 1K on a processor though. Thats why im even considering conroe in the first place. if kentsfield was like $3-500 then i would just wait but thats not the case....
 
Newsboys2004 said:
I wouldn't get Conroe in januarary... I'd get Kenstfiled and a r600
Click to expand...

Yea but think how cheap conroe will be once kentsfield hits.
I agree with you on the R600 though.
 
psychot|K said:
Yea but think how cheap conroe will be once kentsfield hits.
I agree with you on the R600 though.
Click to expand...

If you continue to wait...you will always be waiting for the next gen. I think those with socket A's and maybe even 754 should be upgrading now. But the op has a opty which does not need to be upgraded until 2 more gens at least.
 
Yeah, I have a socket A board. Nvidia crush version one mobo and a Athlon XP 1800. Slugging away and looking for some great hardware to last another 5 years.
 
Nah, I'm not 'always' gonna wait.
Once I get my $1500 in January I'm gonna go out and buy the best of whatever is out there. I just don't think it's smart to buy now when next gen stuff is right around the corner.
 
next gen stuff as in quad core? I dont think ill be getting that since the price, but hopefully it will drive down conroe prices
 
jcll2002 said:
yeah, i can hold out for a while. Whats all this talk about there being bad chipsets? Is it true?

What advice do you have for the ram though? (and yes, i know prices will fall also)
Click to expand...

OCZ DDR2 667 2Gb kit on newegg is around 150 dollars after MIR. As for bad chipsets... there aren't any bad chipsets, there's just messed up bios's, ALTHOUGH, i'd stay away from the NF570 and NF590 chipsets (from nvidia) just because i heard they overclock like their previous gen (nf490s), meaning they oc'd like shit, lol.
 
Agreed.
I think the best option will be the RD600... unfortunetly it looks like the only place you'll be able to get one is from DFi, however that's not a bad thing cause IMHO they make the best motherboards.
 
when is that sopposed to be realeased?

it seems like theyll be able to charge whatever they want for it because theyre the only ones using it.
 
lol, DFI's boards look like crap though (the intel versions). I'm not sure about the performance, but i don't trust them fully. If they're the only ones out with the Xpress 3200 chipset, then I'll just go i975X chipset.
 
well, you don't have to wait. You can always get a mobo that's going to allocate future intel chips. You can bet on DDR2 for a lil while and the price of conroe/allendale cpu's are not bad. Stay on the lowend of the cpu spectrum while staying on the highend of technology.
 
If you get a e6300 allendale you can overclock it heavily...

the 6300 is calling you, answer the call
 
Don't hold out too long.

I was going to get a new CPU in spring, but waited for the AM2 CPUs. I found out that those were a waste of money so I waited for the conroes. Now I am not sure if I should wait for quad or not.
 
E6300 and E6400 are allendales just because they've only got 2mb cache. Conroe's have 4mb cache. other than that, there's practically no difference.
 
It seems like the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz is the best middle of the road proc to get because you still have 4MB L2 cache and it's $339 dollars. To jump up another 500 Mhz and pay more than double doesn't really seem necessary for the Extreme proc.
 
calikool said:
It seems like the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz is the best middle of the road proc to get because you still have 4MB L2 cache and it's $339 dollars. To jump up another 500 Mhz and pay more than double doesn't really seem necessary for the Extreme proc.
Click to expand...

E6700 and the X6800 have unlocked multipliers, which are valuable when overclocking, but you don't need to have them. the 4mb cache does almost nothing for performance anyway, giving 7% performance tops (depending on the application). I say the E6400 is most "worth it" processor. I first though E6600, but if you really think about it, an E6600 is pretty much just a reject X6800 with locked multipliers (because it couldn't stay at the clocks stable enough), which could explain why it can't overclock as well, but that's just my thinking.
 
I've been trying to decide on a conroe system for the past few days, I don't wanna spend alot of money, but I don't wanna get one and then regret it later. It's either the 6400 or the 6600. I heard the newer 6400's don't OC as well as the earlier ones as well.
 
StealthyFish said:
E6700 and the X6800 have unlocked multipliers, which are valuable when overclocking, but you don't need to have them. the 4mb cache does almost nothing for performance anyway, giving 7% performance tops (depending on the application). I say the E6400 is most "worth it" processor. I first though E6600, but if you really think about it, an E6600 is pretty much just a reject X6800 with locked multipliers (because it couldn't stay at the clocks stable enough), which could explain why it can't overclock as well, but that's just my thinking.
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What ? Since when does the 6700 have an unlocked multiplier?

I thought ONLY the X6800 has an unlocked multiplier.

And I hope you're not talking about 6-10x b/c thats only down for the 6700.
Where the 6800 has 6-14 available.
 
Do the Duos run 64-bit windows code? And I wonder if there is any advantage to running 64 bit windows.
 
calikool said:
Do the Duos run 64-bit windows code? And I wonder if there is any advantage to running 64 bit windows.
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Core 2 Duo's can run 64-bit. (Conroe, Merom, Woodcrest)

The Core Duo & Core Solo can NOT run 64-bit. (Yonah)

Not very much advantage to 64-bit unless your dataset is larger then 3 gigabytes. (technically 4Gb, but since 32 bit OS's limit you to like 3+Gb.
 
StealthyFish said:
E6700 and the X6800 have unlocked multipliers, which are valuable when overclocking, but you don't need to have them. the 4mb cache does almost nothing for performance anyway, giving 7% performance tops (depending on the application). I say the E6400 is most "worth it" processor. I first though E6600, but if you really think about it, an E6600 is pretty much just a reject X6800 with locked multipliers (because it couldn't stay at the clocks stable enough), which could explain why it can't overclock as well, but that's just my thinking.
Click to expand...

Speed is NOT the only way to "Bin Processors". They use Voltage as well. C2D might be able to run at 2.93 to 3.6GHz but if it can't do it at stock V-Core, it's down graded/moved to a slower bin until it can run at stock.

I got a couple of 2.6C from the very first batch. In fact, I still have one that ran at 3.32 or [email protected] until about Nov-05. I turned it into a my HTPC when I bought a 3500+.

To the OP. It depends on what you do with your PC. My bud's [email protected] overclocked is slower than my STOCK E6600 sometimes by 7%, some by as much 30%. If I overclock it any little bit, it ain't fair:)

There is another price cut talked about in Nov (By Black Friday) and I'd only say wait because that's next month. Don't expect large cuts unless you're buying E6600 or faster.

P.S. That's smaller cut in Oct and a larger one in Nov the weekend after Thanksgiving just to be clearer.
 
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thermaltake big typhoon.... runs @3150 @30c idle/50c load.. ram timing 4-4-4-12
boots right up no problems.. rock solid configuration.. got a geforce 7600gt to,my old radeon 9800aiw was agp.....i couldnt be happier it runs almost 3 times as fast as my old setup at least according to all of the benchmarks i've tried...not really that expensive considering the performance....well hope this helps great configuration and extremely pleased with the crucial ram......
 
Donnie27 said:
Speed is NOT the only way to "Bin Processors". They use Voltage as well. C2D might be able to run at 2.93 to 3.6GHz but if it can't do it at stock V-Core, it's down graded/moved to a slower bin until it can run at stock.

I got a couple of 2.6C from the very first batch. In fact, I still have one that ran at 3.32 or [email protected] until about Nov-05. I turned it into a my HTPC when I bought a 3500+.

To the OP. It depends on what you do with your PC. My bud's [email protected] overclocked is slower than my STOCK E6600 sometimes by 7%, some by as much 30%. If I overclock it any little bit, it ain't fair:)

There is another price cut talked about in Nov (By Black Friday) and I'd only say wait because that's next month. Don't expect large cuts unless you're buying E6600 or faster.
Click to expand...
interesting. ill wait until mid october until kentsfield is released then hopefully the e6400/e6600 goes down in price.
 
jcll2002 said:
interesting. ill wait until mid october until kentsfield is released then hopefully the e6400/e6600 goes down in price.
Click to expand...

I went back and edited my post;) The Oct cuts was said to be more of an adjustment than anything. Then the real cuts in Nov for Black Friday. I was told it had little to do with Kentsfield and was planned when KF was still set for Q1-07. KF will only afftect the higher end E6800 since there is a large gap between 6700 and 6800 already. Drop in price yes, large cuts for the 6600 and slower remains to be seen. Maybe something like $300 MSRP for E6600 or a Tray price of $285 or something?
 
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