Intel G860 Dual Core Processor

officermartinez

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 21, 2006
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I don't see much info on the Intel G860 but I've recently acquired one. I've "donated" this processor to my son and he is really excited to be moving to a 32nm processor. He doesn't make much money at all but after "donating" a few dollars to him (hahaha), he bought an Asrock Z68 board. Obviously, he is not going to be overclocking the G860 but he is going to be running SLI graphic cards. He is strictly a gamer (and casual internet surfer). I figured this processor would fit the bill for what he does. After comparing it to a Core i3 2100, the only real differences I can see are:

G860 = 3.0ghz
Core i3 2100 = 3.1ghz

G860 = No hyperthreading
Core i3 2100 = Hyperthreading

G860 = Instruction set SSE 4.1 / 4.2
Core i3 2100 = Instruction set SSE4.1 / 4.2 / AVX

Other than that, they have the same cache, same number of cores, same thermals, same memory bandwidth and both of them are obviously 32nm processors. I know the 2100 has better on die HD graphics but for a gamer who is using dedicated video cards, that should have no impact. His Z68 board should arrive in a few days and I just don't want him disappointed. He plays some game called Rift. I know NOTHING about it other than its a MMORPG game (like World of Warcraft).

He is going from a 65nm Conroe 2.4ghz processor, 2gb's of DDR2 800 ram and a Socket 775 board.. He is getting the G860 32nm 3.0ghz processor, 8gb's of DDR3 1600 ram and the Asrock Z68 board.

I will be re-using his Western Digital Black Edition 1TB HDD and his XFX Black Edition SLI'd 216 core GTX 260's. After digging around for any info that I could find on the G860, I ran into this chart. Pretty interesting where the G860 is rated:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+G860+%40+3.00GHz

*EDIT* - Just ran the cpubenchmark for this G860 processor and scored a 3211. Pretty darn good score for a processor that cost under $100 bux!
 
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I don't see much info on the Intel G860 but I've recently acquired one. I've "donated" this processor to my son and he is really excited to be moving to a 32nm processor. He doesn't make much money at all but after "donating" a few dollars to him (hahaha), he bought an Asrock Z68 board. Obviously, he is not going to be overclocking the G860 but he is going to be running SLI graphic cards. He is strictly a gamer (and casual internet surfer). I figured this processor would fit the bill for what he does. After comparing it to a Core i3 2100, the only real differences I can see are:

G860 = 3.0ghz
Core i3 2100 = 3.1ghz

G860 = No hyperthreading
Core i3 2100 = Hyperthreading

G860 = Instruction set SSE 4.1 / 4.2
Core i3 2100 = Instruction set SSE4.1 / 4.2 / AVX

Other than that, they have the same cache, same number of cores, same thermals, same memory bandwidth and both of them are obviously 32nm processors. I know the 2100 has better on die HD graphics but for a gamer who is using dedicated video cards, that should have no impact. His Z68 board should arrive in a few days and I just don't want him disappointed. He plays some game called Rift. I know NOTHING about it other than its a MMORPG game (like World of Warcraft).

He is going from a 65nm Conroe 2.4ghz processor, 2gb's of DDR2 800 ram and a Socket 775 board.. He is getting the G860 32nm 3.0ghz processor, 8gb's of DDR3 1600 ram and the Asrock Z68 board.

I will be re-using his Western Digital Black Edition 1TB HDD and his XFX Black Edition SLI'd 216 core GTX 260's. After digging around for any info that I could find on the G860, I ran into this chart. Pretty interesting where the G860 is rated:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+G860+%40+3.00GHz

Other than the HTT (no real impact in Rift), in the uses you sketched out, there's no real difference (except price) between Pentium G and i3 - before MicroCenter started the series of "Vitamin K" bundles, I was considering the even cheaper G620 (at the time, used Q6600 was nowhere near the radar - or the sonar, for that matter).

With the G processor, he should start saving up for i5-K (post-IB) or even the i5-K version of IB (if the ASRock can swallow it) - four real cores is a definite (pun so NOT intended) game-changer.

(While I was saving up - both money and time - for my upgrade to i5-K, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with what I was leaving behind; I may *buy* used at times, usually in extremis, but I typically don't sell my used hardware - instead, I pass it down, usually to a relation even worse off than me, if it's usable at all. In this case, it's Mom - she is currently driving a refurb HP DC7600 - the Prescott P4 model in LGA775. I still had her old ATX case and PSU, which are more than adequate to drive Mighty Mouse - even with the Q6600 - so what to do with the leftovers has been solved. Her refurb has integrated Intel G31 graphics - Mighty Mouse ups the onboard to G41. Fortunately, both have PCIe x16 slots, so she need not necessarily stay there, which will come in handy if I can manage to pull the trigger on the XFX HD6850 currently on sale at MC Fairfax - she would then get the HD5450 I'm currently pushing.)
 
Thanks for the reply! Well, I'm glad to hear Rift doesn't take advantage of hyperthreading. I recall reading somewhere that 95% or 99% of the games out there do NOT utilize hyperthreading. I'm not sure if that's true but never-the-less, it's good for his soon to be "new" setup. As for saving up for a K processor, he will NOT be able to do that. As I mentioned previously, he does not make much money at all.

What you don't know and on a more personal note, my son was involved in a tragic accident during the summer of 2010. He was mowing our front lawn and fell backwards over a flower garden. When he fell backwards, he held on to the lawn mower and pulled it over his foot. Our lawn mower severely mangled and mutilated his foot. Several surgeries later he doing well, but has a partially decapitated foot. His medical bills are astronomical and there is simply no way for him to buy high end computer parts.

That's why I "donated" my G860 processor to him and "donated" some cash to him for his Z68 motherboard. I love my son dearly and I'm excited that he has a new found interest in computers (and computer gaming). As you can imagine, losing a foot devistated him. He was extremely depressed. He is still on his road to recovery so I would hate to see him sadly disappointed on his "upgrade" from the 775 socket to the 1155 socket.
 
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I'm sorry to hear about your son's terrible accident. I hope he continues to recover.

He'll be very happy with the upgrade you are helping him with!
 
Thanks.. he appreciates the words of encouragement! He is excited that he is getting updated to the 1155 socket.. I'm trying to talk him into registering with Hardforum instead of just browsing this site as a "guest".

:D
 
Heck yeah, tell him to come on in and join the [H]orde - if he's a lurker, then he already knows he's more than welcome!
 
Yeah.. He's pretty much been lurkin' for a while now.. LOL. I'm trying to sell his DUAL XFX black edition GTX 260's. He is wanting a current 500 series card.. His GTX 260's are priced well so we shall see if I can make that happen for him.
 
One more difference between the Intel® Core™ i3 and the Intel Pentium® G860 is the IGP (Integrated Graphics on Processor) on the Intel Pentium G860 is at a lower performance level then the Intel HD 2000 graphics on the Intel Core i3-2100.
 
One more difference between the Intel® Core™ i3 and the Intel Pentium® G860 is the IGP (Integrated Graphics on Processor) on the Intel Pentium G860 is at a lower performance level then the Intel HD 2000 graphics on the Intel Core i3-2100.

Thanks for the info, IE - but OfficerMartinez has stated in the very first post:

I know the 2100 has better on die HD graphics but for a gamer who is using dedicated video cards, that should have no impact.

...since his son will be utilizing either SLI'd 260's or a newer GTX 500 series to play games which will likely demand way beyond the capabilities of any intel IGP currently offered, be it Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, or i7.
 
Thanks everyone for your input. My sons equipment arrived today. Just the look on his face was priceless and Dad almost got a little teary eyed.. ok, maybe it was a little more than just "a little".. hehe. Tomorrow is my first day off so he and I are going to sit down and build his computer, father and son. It's the beginning stage of passing the gauntlet from me to him.
:)
 
That's pure awesome. I can hardly wait until my kids are old enough that I can do the same with them.
 
Thanks DejaWiz. We got up this morning around 8 am.. I had a cup of coffee and off we went.. Just finished building it and installing all of the drivers about an hour ago. Wow, we were BOTH amazed about how under estimated the 1155 "Pentium" line is (when it comes to being simply used as a gaming rig processor). His game play is much improved over the 775 socket setup. Plus, I was able to upgrade him from 2gb's of ddr2 800 5-5-5-15 (2T) to 8gb's of ddr3 1600 Black Ripjaws at 7-8-7-24 (1T). We didn't sell his XFX GTX 260 Black Edition video cards but never-the-less, he is ripping through his games MUCH faster than his previous setup.

The two games we did a before and after "test" with was Rift and Global Agenda. He really likes both games.

775 setup on Global Agenda (average FPS 31)
1155 setup on Global Agenda (high 50's to low 60's maxed out graphics)

775 setup on Rift (average 20 - 30 FPS depending) and would get booted often.
1155 setup on Rift (50 - 60 on high settings).

How is it that we are pulling NIGHT and DAY frame rate differences? Is it because his PCI-E lanes are a vast improvement over the PCI-E lanes on the 775 chipset? Is it because he he has 4 times the amount of RAM (not to mention it's much faster than DDR2 800)? Is it because the 1155 architecture is a much improved process over the older 65nm 775 socket? A combination of ALL of the above? We are using the same HDD and graphics cards. Just the over all improved quality of the game play is amazing.

We are totally happy with the way it turned out. What he DOESN'T know yet is Dad has his "secret" Christmas present waiting for him on Christmas Day. I picked him up a little Newegg Special HDTV.. It's not the latest / greatest of course but for him, it is going to be a huge improvement. He has a Soyo 24" monitor. He wants a bigger monitor because he see's me gaming on my 55" and my 42". Well his desk is small and would probably not fit a 42". So, I picked him up a Westy 32" 1080p monitor / HDTV. We haven't hooked that up obviously but I am patiently counting the days until Christmas. I'll probably "accidentally" get something in my eyes that will cause them to water up a little, when he opens his "secret" present.. lol!
 
Thanks DejaWiz. We got up this morning around 8 am.. I had a cup of coffee and off we went.. Just finished building it and installing all of the drivers about an hour ago. Wow, we were BOTH amazed about how under estimated the 1155 "Pentium" line is (when it comes to being simply used as a gaming rig processor).

How is it that we are pulling NIGHT and DAY frame rate differences? Is it because his PCI-E lanes are a vast improvement over the PCI-E lanes on the 775 chipset? Is it because he he has 4 times the amount of RAM (not to mention it's much faster than DDR2 800)? Is it because the 1155 architecture is a much improved process over the older 65nm 775 socket? A combination of ALL of the above? We are using the same HDD and graphics cards. Just the over all improved quality of the game play is amazing.

What he DOESN'T know yet is Dad has his "secret" Christmas present waiting for him on Christmas Day. I picked him up a Westy 32" 1080p monitor / HDTV.

It's sad just how little talk there is about the new Celeron and Pentium 1155 architectures - and their amazing performance.

It is definitely a combination of everything. The new 1155 architecture, the vastly superior IMC and PCI-e connection, the increase in RAM, etc etc. I upgraded my wife's system from an old Athlon64 3000+ Venice with 2GB of memory to an i3-2100 with 4GB and the performance increase is mind-boggling. I reused everything except the HDD - I upgraded her system from a Seagate PATA 200GB to a SATA3 640GB WD Black. If it wasn't for my GTX 570, her system would be faster than mine at anything and everything.

Man, I can't wait until you post what his reaction is come Christmas morning when he sees what his dad got him and uses it for the first time!
 
It's sad just how little talk there is about the new Celeron and Pentium 1155 architectures - and their amazing performance.

It is definitely a combination of everything. The new 1155 architecture, the vastly superior IMC and PCI-e connection, the increase in RAM, etc etc. I upgraded my wife's system from an old Athlon64 3000+ Venice with 2GB of memory to an i3-2100 with 4GB and the performance increase is mind-boggling. I reused everything except the HDD - I upgraded her system from a Seagate PATA 200GB to a SATA3 640GB WD Black. If it wasn't for my GTX 570, her system would be faster than mine at anything and everything.

Man, I can't wait until you post what his reaction is come Christmas morning when he sees what his dad got him and uses it for the first time!

Hahaha.. I know whatcha mean on her having an almost faster computer than yours. I did that to my wife one year.. I had Q6600 and she had a QX6700. I had a 8800GTX and she had a 8800GT. She even had more ram than me.. LOL.

I am soooo going to have my camera on stand-by.. LOL. It will be a Kodac moment, for sure! I just re-ran the windows index thing (not a huge fan of, but that's for another discussion).. On the 775 socket, his dual GTX 260's registered a 7.0. On the 1155 socket, it registers a 7.8? ...What gives? His G860 processor registers at 7.0.. His ram registers at 7.9 and the weak link (his single SATA3 1TB Western Digital HDD) registers at a 5.9. Not too shabby for a "budget build".. It looks like Intel got it right with the budget Pentium Sandy Bridge processor line.


(SIDE NOTE - I can only guess the Celeron and Pentium 1155 socket processors are plenty of power for today's home theater PC setups. I have a few i3 2100's floating around in my house but if the "budget" processors are every bit as capable, that's a good way to stay current on today's technology and remain budget friendly).
 
The 2100's are nice for sure, but if no software is being run that utlizes HT, then there's almost no reason to spend the extra $25+ over the Celeron/Pentium offerings and instead put that savings towards more RAM, a HDD, GPU, or whatever else.

I would have bought my wife a Celeron or Pentium had they been released at the time I purchased the parts for her upgrade, however the 2100 was the cheapest 1155 at the time. Wish I would have been able to get her a G620 or G840 and then put that extra money in 8GB instead of 4GB of RAM. Oh well, she's happy, so I'm happy.
 
Well good deal.. Very true about the extra $25 bux! That's just extra money that can be thrown at a good video card, more ram or a new keyboard. Oh, ran into our first "hiccup". The computer froze after almost 2 hours of straight game play. Went to the event viewer (no help) and then opened up HWMonitor. We started a video game up and let HWMonitor log the temps. I noticed both of his GPU's were tipping high 70's and spiking around 85c! ..Yikes! But I also noticed his GPU fans were not going over 40%. So, I manually changed the fan speed to a (louder) higher setting around 72%. Viola.. hasn't had a crash since and his temps have yet to exceed 58c!

*EDIT* - 3 1/2 hours into a gaming session, he peaked at 70c on the top card.. the other card card is still comfortably at 58c. But I am guessing 70c is still within the norm for an SLI setup?
 
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Well it looks like my son has his GTX 260's sold. So, for the time being, I gave him one of my GTX 580's. As soon as Kepler is released, I plan on buying myself a couple of them and giving him my other GTX 580. It helps to have a dad who is a [H] computer nut! ..haha!
 
Well it looks like my son has his GTX 260's sold. So, for the time being, I gave him one of my GTX 580's. As soon as Kepler is released, I plan on buying myself a couple of them and giving him my other GTX 580. It helps to have a dad who is a [H] computer nut! ..haha!
I'm so glad no one of my fam/parents are geeks, nerds, gamers or [H] readers :D
 
It's sad just how little talk there is about the new Celeron and Pentium 1155 architectures - and their amazing performance.

It is definitely a combination of everything. The new 1155 architecture, the vastly superior IMC and PCI-e connection, the increase in RAM, etc etc. I upgraded my wife's system from an old Athlon64 3000+ Venice with 2GB of memory to an i3-2100 with 4GB and the performance increase is mind-boggling. I reused everything except the HDD - I upgraded her system from a Seagate PATA 200GB to a SATA3 640GB WD Black. If it wasn't for my GTX 570, her system would be faster than mine at anything and everything.

Man, I can't wait until you post what his reaction is come Christmas morning when he sees what his dad got him and uses it for the first time!

It isn't that the 1155 Celeron-G/Pentium-G architecture is *bad* - any more than the Celeron DC/Pentium DC architecture (in LGA775) was *bad*- the issue (in both cases) is the sheer performance (and affordability) of the *higher end* CPUs (i3, i5, and especially i5-K in LGA1155, and the E6xxx/E8xxx/Q6xxx/Q8xxx/Q9xxx - all in LGA775).

In a year - and on the same motherboard - I've gone from E1200 (Conroe-based Celeron DC) to E3400 (Wolfdale-based Celeron DC) to Q6600 (Kentsfield-based Core2Quad), with each jump offering a performance increase over the previous. The last jump (from E3400 to Q6600) increased the number of cores, cache available per core, and total on-die cache, which is why performance overall generally doubled (in some cases more than doubled) despite not only changing no other hardware, but having a clock-speed drop (2.4 GHz for Q6600 v. 2.6 GHz for E3400 - both are stock). That says that even Kentsfield - despite being the oldest of Intel's quad-cores - is one mighty efficient sumberditch.

Efficiency since the days of Conroe/Kentsfield has gone nowhere but up (as Wolfdale/Lynnfield proved, and as Sandy Bridge proved once again) - and that's just the mainstream.
 
Another happy budget S1155 cpu owner, I love it. I will be upgrading to a I5 quad when I get the spare cash but so far I am very happy with my celeron G530 cpu.
 
My g530 performed good with a 8800gt, can't wait til I get my gtx260 this week and see how it does
 
Wow. Your son is lucky to have a great dad like you.

To be able to Rock ANY 500 series video card is a nice gift.

Recently upgraded to a 560 myself, and night and day difference between that and the old 8800gt
 
I'm glad a few others have experienced what we've only recently learned. The 1155 Pentium / Celeron line is actually a really decent solution! At 3ghz, it is like NIGHT and DAY for my son. I felt a feeling of pride watching my son playing with his new setup for the first time. His big never ending smile was simply priceless! The G860 actually impressed me so much, my sister wanted to upgrade her s775 E4300 setup. Looks like she is going with a MSI mATX board and a G860 (and talked her into getting 8gb's of ram as well). I usually give credit where credit is due and the G860 is no exception. For us (and our needs), the G860 Pentium line has really worked out!

Aside from just using this processor for gaming, I can also see those in the market who need a solid HTPC processor.. this would be an excellent choice!
 
Just an update on this thread. My son has since aquired ONE of my GTX 580's. So, I decided to run a little test. His setup vs one of my HTPC setups.

His Budget Gaming Computer:
Intel Pentium 1155 socet G860 @ 3.0ghz
Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 ATX motherboard
8gb's Gskill DDR3 1600 (7-8-7-21)
Western Digital 1TB Black HDD
Sparkle GTX 580 reference card, not overclocked

My HTPC:
Intel Core i3 2100 @ 3.1ghz
Asrock Z68 Pro3-M mATX motherboard
8gb's Gskill DDR3 1600 (9-9-9-24)
Western Digital 1TB Black HDD x2 in RAID0
Sparkle GTX 580 reference card, not overclocked

*The monitor we used is the one that is hooked up to my HTPC. It's a LG 42LH30 42" 1080p HDTV*


I was quite surprised that the actual GAMING experience was virtually identical. I figured that the hyperthreading of my i3 2100 + running a RAID0 setup would really show in game when testing our frames per second. His setup was consistently within 2 FPS of mine at all times. A lot of the time, we ran neck and neck. My PSU is a Corsair AX750 and his is a XFX Pro750w XXX edition. Both PSU's are decent midrange power supplies and supply enough power for a single GTX 580. Since his motherboard is an SLI board, I was curious when Kepler comes out, if I would give him my other GTX 580? His power supply would not handle both GTX 580's (but that's no biggie.. I have an Enermax Galaxy 1K PSU laying around). So, after reading and reading and reading on the impact(s) of gaming with an i3 2100 (paired to a GTX 580), the first thing I was interested was bottlenecking. We did get a chance to run though some benchmarking programs but as everyone knows, it's not really a good way to judge real world in game performance. Still, I added the few score that we were able to run. As much as you hear how good hyperthreading is, there is not much difference between a 3.0ghz NO HT vs. 3.1ghz HT processor when it comes to benching. Yes, the HT processor does perform faster but not by much (atleast that was the case in the few benching programs that we tested).

A quick run through a few familiar benchmarks show how close our setups are:

3dmark Vantage (My HTPC): P27201
3dmark Vantage (My Son's): P26002

3dmark11 (My HTPC): P4857
3dmark11 (My son's): P4772

Heaven 2.5 (My HTPC): 35.9 FPS
Heaven 2.5 (My Son's): 35.0 FPS


Anyway, I've been trying to find a few good unbiased threads on Core i3 / GTX 580 sli setups but I haven't really found any. I've run across just a few but they don't explain much in detail about any potential bottlenecking issues. Almost ALL of the threads I've read give statements such as: "yeah.. it'll bottleneck", "no.. shouldn't bottleneck too much", "it might bottleneck, just depends", etc.. I haven't found any factual proof one way or another.. just opinions.

I'm very aware that a 2500K, 2600K or 2700K would pair nicely to a GTX 580 sli setup but I'm not interested in hearing about those. I have a 2600K GTX 580 sli setup and YES, it does JUST fine.. I think I maybe one of a few (if any) who has an Intel G860 / GTX 580 sli setup! ..haha. If anyone knows of such a setup, I'd be VERY interested to hear about it. Remember, this is my SON'S computer. He has NO budget and everything he has, has been "hand-me-down's" from dad. He (nor I for that matter) have no plans for investing MORE money for another processor. His G860 was "FREE". His GTX 580 GPU(s) are "FREE" hand-me-down's" from me. His soon to be Enermax Galaxy 1K PSU will be a "FREE" hand-me-down from me as well. This is JUST a gaming computer. It is basically nothing more than just that.

:D
 
Did you see the new article on Toms Hardware? http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-10.html

The G860 beats the Phenom II 955 and all the Bulldozer cpus tested at Skyrim. It also did just fine in BF3.

Actually, I have NOT seen that article. Excellent source of information pgaster! That's exactly what I needed to see. So, even though you just don't see any G860's + GTX 580 sli setups out there, the processor should atleast be pretty competent. It's not going to win any awards for being a speed demon but the (2) GTX 580's should do as good as one can expect (especially considering the AMD offerings).
 
I'm kinda mad I didn't get one a while back. A few of the sites selling them had, "Sign up for a card and get $30 or $50 off your purchase" deals. I was looking around today for the same thing and couldn't find any. These 1155 Pentiums would put a hurting on my C2D E6300 at 2.8. I'd also have a nice platform to wait for a good deal on an IB.
 
Yeah the pentium 860 would net you a big gain from your current cpu considering a celeron G530 is equal to a E7500 and that is only a 2.4ghz dual core with less cache then the 3ghz pentium
 
The G530 I had was a pretty good cpu, I only upgraded to the I3 2100 because I got in on the MC deal and only paid $10 for my mobo. It is nice to see intel finally has cpu's under $100 that are awesome.
 
RAID does absolutely nothing for game performance. The only thing it does is speed up load times.

As for the BF3 thing, it has been noted many times that while single player performance is fine with a dual core Sandy Bridge, it is absolutely not fine in multiplayer. Hyperthreading, extra cores, and overclocking dramatically improves BF3 performance in multiplayer. Overclocking a 2500k to 4+ ghz really improves framerates, as testing was shown here on [H]. And honestly, who plays BF3 for the single player mode? With an SLI 580 setup, upgrading the CPU is almost a requirement. I believe an overclocked Phenom II x6 processor will outdo your G860 in multiplayer gaming.

And as noted by Zero82z, 750 watt power supplies are plenty for SLI 580 setups. Your 1000 watt is enough for tri-SLI 580s.

Also, in general, the reason why you don't find Pentium/SLI 580 setups is because generally, those who have enough money to spend on 580s also have enough money to spend on top-end CPUs, so who would pair their high-end GPUs with low-end CPUs?
 
Yeah the pentium 860 would net you a big gain from your current cpu considering a celeron G530 is equal to a E7500 and that is only a 2.4ghz dual core with less cache then the 3ghz pentium

Not that I doubt you, but I've been looking (without much success) for a good way to compare my ancient CPU to the new stuff. I was using the E4600 on Anand as an equivalent to mine, but that seems like I'm selling myself short.

I used to use the E6750 think that my .13Ghz made up for the improvements in the E6x50 series. Then I got Cinebench R10 and scored pretty close to the E4600 and despared. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/60?vs=64
 
Not that I doubt you, but I've been looking (without much success) for a good way to compare my ancient CPU to the new stuff. I was using the E4600 on Anand as an equivalent to mine, but that seems like I'm selling myself short.

I used to use the E6750 think that my .13Ghz made up for the improvements in the E6x50 series. Then I got Cinebench R10 and scored pretty close to the E4600 and despared. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/60?vs=64

Upgrading to a dual-core Sandy Bridge will be night and day in terms of performance. Not only does it have a clock speed advantage, but it also has a huge IPC advantage over the socket 775 CPUs. Depending on which Core 2 Duo you have, the Sandy Bridge dual-core at 3.0 ghz would be approximately equivalent to a Core 2 Duo clocked at 4.0 ghz or higher.

I think the best comparisons would be between Sandy Bridge and Phenom II processors. As I recall, Phenom II had similar IPC to Core 2 Duo processors.
 
Yes, it would.

Well, I certainly agree in one aspect and disagree a little in the other. Let me first say that I agree about 95% that a QUALITY 750w power supply will JUST get the job done. But that's really pushing it. So yes, I agree with your statement. I have definitely been known to push my parts to the extreme in the past and I have gone through MANY 700w PSU's (and have only lost one processor and a few motherboards along the way) when I used to do SUB-ZERO single stage vapor phase change cooling. The fact that his 750w PSU is JUST capable of running a GTX 580 sli setup doesn't mean it's a solid PSU solution. The added stress, heat and lower effeciencies are all by-products of pushing a PSU to its' limit. I'm aware that the XFX unit that my son has is actually built by Seasonic and is based on their M12D line of PSU's. Those are very solid units, that's for sure. I figured if I had a 1K PSU laying around, that would serve as piece of mind, lower the heat output and would be better suited for a more effecient delievery of his power requirements / needs. :D
 
Well, I certainly agree in one aspect and disagree a little in the other. Let me first say that I agree about 95% that a QUALITY 750w power supply will JUST get the job done. But that's really pushing it. So yes, I agree with your statement. I have definitely been known to push my parts to the extreme in the past and I have gone through MANY 700w PSU's (and have only lost one processor and a few motherboards along the way) when I used to do SUB-ZERO single stage vapor phase change cooling. The fact that his 750w PSU is JUST capable of running a GTX 580 sli setup doesn't mean it's a solid PSU solution. The added stress, heat and lower effeciencies are all by-products of pushing a PSU to its' limit. I'm aware that the XFX unit that my son has is actually built by Seasonic and is based on their M12D line of PSU's. Those are very solid units, that's for sure. I figured if I had a 1K PSU laying around, that would serve as piece of mind, lower the heat output and would be better suited for a more effecient delievery of his power requirements / needs. :D

Extreme overclocking and normal usage with moderate overclocking are two entirely different scenarios. Your extreme overclocking will increase power requirements by up to 50%, if not higher. That's why if people are doing watercooling setups with overvolting and overclocking, we recommend larger power supplies. Not to mention your sub-zero phase change.

For a regular 580 SLI setup, 750 watts is perfectly fine. It is a solid solution. There is no "stress limit" or whatever. Heat output would remain the same if the efficiencies are similar. Larger power supply does not equal more efficient.
 
That's exactly the scenario I see coming. Of course he will NOT be able to OC his processor but behind closed doors, I know in my hearts of hearts, he is going to OC the heck out of the GTX 580's. Everyone knows how power hungry overclocked GTX 580's can get. As for the larger power supply statement, of course, that's a given. Bigger doesn't always mean better by any stretch of the imagination. The PSU I have laying around is actually a tiny less effecient (up to 85%). The XFX unit he currently has is rated up to 88%. I'm just playing on the side of caution here (especially if he has the opportunity to snag a FREE 1k PSU.. haha). He might as well cash in on the FREE WAGON.. lol!
 
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