Conroe E6300 and 939 X2 3800+

[elty]

I am planning to upgrade my Athlon 1000 (YA) as the computer is giving me a headache.

I have an AGP AIW 9800 Pro, and 1 GB of DDR400 Ram. If I go to 939 route I can save some money by reusing the ram and video card. If I go for the Conroe I will need to sell my old card and ram to get new one. Not to mention new boards for Conroe will be most likely more expensive than a Asrock 939 Dual.

The E6300 seems to perform somewhere between a 4200+ and 4600+. It is (officially) only a bit more expensive than X2 3800+. Another problem is the 939 is a dead end platform, and run hotter. The VT thing is not a big concern, but nice to have nonetheless.

Given the situation, which one would you pick? I estiamte it will cost me at least $120 more for me to pick the Conroe, and that excludes a video card upgrade. However it will be faster and hopefully cooler, and upgradable.

Also, anyone know if the quad core can be used on the initial bench of Conroe board?

 

[meksta]

the new Intel motherboards won't be cheap. It is not known what the i965 chipset mobo will cost but I assure you it'll be more than a Asrock. You'll also need some DDR2 memory.

I have read that Intel boards have a FSB wall of about 400fsb. The E6300 has a multi of 7x so you should be able to OC to about 2800mhz (give or take). the 3800+ will OC to about 2.6-2.8ghz.

So for about $120, you'd be getting about 15% performance increase from the X2. You'd get a newer pci-e mobo with upgradable parts. Besides if you were thinking of going AMD, I'd go AM2 before thinking of about 939.

 

[Griswold]

Make a clean cut and compare a core2 rig to a AM2 platform if you're so concerned about upgrade path and also take the upcoming price cuts into account. With AM2 you'll definitely will be able to enjoy 65nm parts - not sure if they trickle down to the existing s939 platform before its completely phased out.

At any rate, wait until core2 is available and then compare and calculate.

Btw, the "runs hotter" is not really an argument. No matter what route you go (core2, S939 or AM2), you wont have to worry about the "coolness" of your processor.

 

[Howard]

The E6300 should be able to make it to 2.4GHz, where it performs almost exactly the same as the E6600, and the E6600 either beats or holds its own with dual core FX CPUs.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Griswold
Make a clean cut and compare a core2 rig to a AM2 platform if you're so concerned about upgrade path and also take the upcoming price cuts into account. With AM2 you'll definitely will be able to enjoy 65nm parts - not sure if they trickle down to the existing s939 platform before its completely phased out.

At any rate, wait until core2 is available and then compare and calculate.

Btw, the "runs hotter" is not really an argument. No matter what route you go (core2, S939 or AM2), you wont have to worry about the "coolness" of your processor.

Eactly...Too early to say one way or not since we dont know how much the chips will actually cost at the retailers, dont know how much decent mobos will cost, and basically haven't seen very thoprough tested reviews by trusted sites....not saying the few test we have seen are not trusted, but the testing has been suspect on some, and there has not been a thorought test suite that I have seen yet to show me how it will run in all different applications

Should wait....

Also should note we haven't seen fully what will the price on the price cut Am2's as well....Very likely the demand on those will be high and we may see smoe mark up as well....

 

[CyborgNinja117]

conroe.

 

[essasin]

If AMD really cuts their prices or anywhere close to the mobile chip days. I am in for one am2.

 

[Keysplayr]

The E6300, according to the Matbe.com benches, seems to be either on par, or much faster than a X2 4400. The only bench it seems to lose to a 4400 is ScienceMark Primordia. In most other benches, the E6300 is either dead even with a 4400 or beats it.

 

[evenmore1]

Won't Intel make a Conroe mobo that has both AGP and PCI-Express based on the Via chipset or something? IMO you should get the Conroe. The cheapest mobo will be <$60 I believe. I'll try to look for a link.....

edit: right here on anandtech: Anand article

Looks like it is under $100. Also in a different article Biostar is offering a $45 Conroe/PCI-E mobo soon.It seems almost too cheap, but if you're on a budget you may consider it though.
so you should wait, if possible...

 

[Markfw]

First, as Duvie pointed out, we need to see actual price and availability. My gut tells me that it will be a substancial price increase for YOU specifically since you need ram, video, and an exspensive motherboard. Also, how long can you wait ? It may be months before you can even get a conroe.

Let take the best case scenario(available July 24th at advertized price):
E6300 $210
motherboard (from what I know is compatable) $250
memory for 1 gig $100
video card comparable $175
= $735 (minus what you can get)

or
X2 3800 @ current estimates for am2 $165
motherboard ($65-$75, there are many, split the diff) = $70
for $235 and about 80% of the performance or more.

Even if you get $200 for your video card and memory, you would need to spend $300 more for that 20%. And thats a BIG assumption that you can get a E6300 on that day for that price.

 

[imported_inspire]

$250 for a Conroe mobo? That's incredible!

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: inspire
$250 for a Conroe mobo? That's incredible!

Well that is what the cost is on the only conroe ready 975x I can find....the BaD Axe or something....


I would hope for around 150 for a non SLI or Crossfire mobo....

 

[o1die]

As for cheap conroe boards, the asrock 775 dual vsta looks interesting and only costs about $65. It has an agp and pci-e slot, and 2 ddr plus 2 ddr2 slots. This board isn't for overclocking, so it won't appeal to some folks. But I need a board with ddr support. I don't want to change memory.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: o1die
As for cheap conroe boards, the asrock 775 dual vsta looks interesting and only costs about $65. It has an agp and pci-e slot, and 2 ddr plus 2 ddr2 slots. This board isn't for overclocking, so it won't appeal to some folks. But I need a board with ddr support. I don't want to change memory.

We have that board arriving tomorrow and a review should be ready on launch day.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: o1die
As for cheap conroe boards, the asrock 775 dual vsta looks interesting and only costs about $65. It has an agp and pci-e slot, and 2 ddr plus 2 ddr2 slots. This board isn't for overclocking, so it won't appeal to some folks. But I need a board with ddr support. I don't want to change memory.

We have that board arriving tomorrow and a review should be ready on launch day.

AT reviewer?? tell me more about the E6600 and the asus p5w dh deluxe overclocking!

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: o1die
As for cheap conroe boards, the asrock 775 dual vsta looks interesting and only costs about $65. It has an agp and pci-e slot, and 2 ddr plus 2 ddr2 slots. This board isn't for overclocking, so it won't appeal to some folks. But I need a board with ddr support. I don't want to change memory.

We have that board arriving tomorrow and a review should be ready on launch day.

So you are saying that the board is compatable with Conroe ????? That would make a huge difference to many people, even without overclocking. (unless the performance sucked)

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: o1die
As for cheap conroe boards, the asrock 775 dual vsta looks interesting and only costs about $65. It has an agp and pci-e slot, and 2 ddr plus 2 ddr2 slots. This board isn't for overclocking, so it won't appeal to some folks. But I need a board with ddr support. I don't want to change memory.

Good luck . . . there might be some i865 chipset Conroe boards out there eventually, or so I've heard, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[zsdersw]

That board (asrock 775 dual vsta) is for sale right now on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092

 

[evenmore1]

looks good. Too bad the PCI-E doesn't look like it is full 16X but rather 4X

 

[DrMrLordX]

Weird, I didn't know any 775 boards supported DDR. Interesting. The review should be equally interesting . . .

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
First, as Duvie pointed out, we need to see actual price and availability. My gut tells me that it will be a substancial price increase for YOU specifically since you need ram, video, and an exspensive motherboard. Also, how long can you wait ? It may be months before you can even get a conroe.

Let take the best case scenario(available July 24th at advertized price):
E6300 $210
motherboard (from what I know is compatable) $250
memory for 1 gig $100
video card comparable $175
= $735 (minus what you can get)

or
X2 3800 @ current estimates for am2 $165
motherboard ($65-$75, there are many, split the diff) = $70
for $235 and about 80% of the performance or more.

Even if you get $200 for your video card and memory, you would need to spend $300 more for that 20%. And thats a BIG assumption that you can get a E6300 on that day for that price.

lol, your assuming a price premium of 30US basically over the released pricing charts of 183US for Allendale E6300, while as well your assuming X2 3800+ will be cheaper then the advertised price of 169US from the released AMD pricing charts. :disgust:

Great. That's nice. Not to mention your assuming you will have to get a 975X derivative, there will be P965 Series mobos as well, as they are launching too to coincide with Conroe.

I would say 150US should be more then fair for a Conroe compatible 965 Series mobo.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: coldpower27

Originally posted by: Markfw900
First, as Duvie pointed out, we need to see actual price and availability. My gut tells me that it will be a substancial price increase for YOU specifically since you need ram, video, and an exspensive motherboard. Also, how long can you wait ? It may be months before you can even get a conroe.

Let take the best case scenario(available July 24th at advertized price):
E6300 $210
motherboard (from what I know is compatable) $250
memory for 1 gig $100
video card comparable $175
= $735 (minus what you can get)

or
X2 3800 @ current estimates for am2 $165
motherboard ($65-$75, there are many, split the diff) = $70
for $235 and about 80% of the performance or more.

Even if you get $200 for your video card and memory, you would need to spend $300 more for that 20%. And thats a BIG assumption that you can get a E6300 on that day for that price.

lol, your assuming a price premium of 30US basically over the released pricing charts of 183US for Allendale E6300, while as well your assuming X2 3800+ will be cheaper then the advertised price of 169US from the released AMD pricing charts. :disgust:

Great. That's nice. Not to mention your assuming you will have to get a 975X derivative, there will be P965 Series mobos as well, as they are launching too to coincide with Conroe.

I would say 150US should be more then fair for a Conroe compatible 965 Series mobo.

Even if I take your statments as fact, thats still more than the conroe system. My point was, we don't know squat until they are actually available, then we can really quote prices. Right now its all just guesses.

 

[golem]

Are you talking about a AM2 system? If so, your pricing doens't seem to make sense. For the conroe system you price in memory and Vidcard at 275 (even that's not exactly right, a 9800AIW is not worth 175), but leave it out of the AM2 system. These items would be needed for the AM2 system also (tho. not a s939 system).

And if you're gonna guess, use the same standard to guess. Don't overprice on one and underprice on the other.

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: coldpower27

Originally posted by: Markfw900
First, as Duvie pointed out, we need to see actual price and availability. My gut tells me that it will be a substancial price increase for YOU specifically since you need ram, video, and an exspensive motherboard. Also, how long can you wait ? It may be months before you can even get a conroe.

Let take the best case scenario(available July 24th at advertized price):
E6300 $210
motherboard (from what I know is compatable) $250
memory for 1 gig $100
video card comparable $175
= $735 (minus what you can get)

or
X2 3800 @ current estimates for am2 $165
motherboard ($65-$75, there are many, split the diff) = $70
for $235 and about 80% of the performance or more.

Even if you get $200 for your video card and memory, you would need to spend $300 more for that 20%. And thats a BIG assumption that you can get a E6300 on that day for that price.

lol, your assuming a price premium of 30US basically over the released pricing charts of 183US for Allendale E6300, while as well your assuming X2 3800+ will be cheaper then the advertised price of 169US from the released AMD pricing charts. :disgust:

Great. That's nice. Not to mention your assuming you will have to get a 975X derivative, there will be P965 Series mobos as well, as they are launching too to coincide with Conroe.

I would say 150US should be more then fair for a Conroe compatible 965 Series mobo.

Even if I take your statments as fact, thats still more than the conroe system. My point was, we don't know squat until they are actually available, then we can really quote prices. Right now its all just guesses.

 

[meksta]

Found some data points for a p965 motherboard. Using NewEgg and a PC shop in HK http://jumbo-computer.com/pricelist/pricelist.asp , the gigabyte p965 basic is about $150 (GA-965P-DS3), the xfire one (GA-965P-DS4) is about $200, and the super ultra xfire extreme one (GA-965P-DQ6) is about $240. Someone can goto gigabyte and look up the specs, but the p965 doesn't seem to be marketed as a mainstream board...quite high end.

Let's assume that you are going AMD AM2, and that ram and video etc will otherwise cost the same for both systems. AM2 mobo price I'll use will be: a nf 550 mobo ($75) and a nf 570 sli mobo ($120). <-- rough numbers. Also the cpus in question are priced : X2 3800+ ($169) and conroe E6300 ($183).

AM2 cpu + mobo = $244
conroe cpu + mobo = $333

AM2 cpu + sli mobo = $289
conroe cpu + xfire mobo = $383

Under 100 dollars difference. But $100 difference can make a big difference in your video card purchase

 

[Markfw]

I was talking 939, since he already has memory and video card.