Upgrading from a P4 660 3.60 to a Conroe 6600/2.40

[CorCentral]

I just want to know if the upgrade will be worth the $550.- $600. to upgrade the MB and cpu.
Figuring the MB (975 or whatever is available from Intel) cost at around $250.00 and the CPU around $350.00

If I upgrade, what do you think my APPROXIMATE overall % boost will be by keeping all other components?

Operating System: Win 2000Pro
CPU: Intel P4 660 3600MHz
Motherboard: Intel 955x
Memory: 2048 MB of Crucial pc2-5300 ddr2 667 Ballistix 3-3-3-12
Video Card: EVGA 7800GTX 256mb
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74.0 GB
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi


10%? 20%? 50%?????
NAME THAT TUNE!

 

[F1shF4t]

In games NONE.
Why upgrade? Unless ur not happy with ur current cpu performance.
Sure the coroe will be faster but with ur card, just net and game will be almost the same.

In encoding i would say it would be a hell of alot quicker, being dual core also.

 

[NoStateofMind]

In games NONE? Are you kidding me? This benchmark:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/0...ntel_conroe_performance_preview/1.html

Shows a better processor than the OP has, Yet we see with a Conroe chip, it does up to 60% better in GAMING.

OP, I hope you enjoy your new CPU and MOBO

 

[DrMrLordX]

Going from a single-core Netburst CPU to a Conroe should yield staggering performance gains, depending on the application. You're looking at a CPU about equivelant to a 2.88 ghz X2 w/ 1 mb l2 cache. Considering the fact that your P4 3.6 ghz is about as fast as a single-core Athlon 64 3500+-3700+ in single threaded apps (both of which are 2.2 ghz CPUs) you're looking at maybe a 30% performance increase in single-threaded apps, and that's a conservative estimate. In multithreaded apps or when running multiple CPU-intensive apps, you should see a much stronger improvement in performance.

This will vary from app to app. Gaming performance should be much improved, especially at low resolutions where you won't be as bound by GPU performance.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
In games NONE? Are you kidding me? This benchmark:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/0...ntel_conroe_performance_preview/1.html

Shows a better processor than the OP has, Yet we see with a Conroe chip, it does up to 60% better in GAMING.

OP, I hope you enjoy your new CPU and MOBO

Would u like to read what gfx card he has???
Its a single 7800gtx, belive me he will be gfx limited WAY before the cpu will play effect.
In the review they use x1900xt crossfire.

In other tasks i did say he will get a hell of an increase, so my point still stands.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
In games NONE? Are you kidding me? This benchmark:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/0...ntel_conroe_performance_preview/1.html

Shows a better processor than the OP has, Yet we see with a Conroe chip, it does up to 60% better in GAMING.

OP, I hope you enjoy your new CPU and MOBO

Would u like to read what gfx card he has???
Its a single 7800gtx, belive me he will be gfx limited WAY before the cpu will play effect.
In the review they use x1900xt crossfire.

In other tasks i did say he will get a hell of an increase, so my point still stands.

Would you like to see what you stated? You stated "In games NONE" ...and thats simply not true. I don't care that he has a 7800GTX. A Conroe will up his performance! Your point is true with apps, but man come on...you cannot tell me there will be NO performance gain LOL

 

[homestarmy]

Six Billion.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
In games NONE? Are you kidding me? This benchmark:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/0...ntel_conroe_performance_preview/1.html

Shows a better processor than the OP has, Yet we see with a Conroe chip, it does up to 60% better in GAMING.

OP, I hope you enjoy your new CPU and MOBO

Would u like to read what gfx card he has???
Its a single 7800gtx, belive me he will be gfx limited WAY before the cpu will play effect.
In the review they use x1900xt crossfire.

In other tasks i did say he will get a hell of an increase, so my point still stands.

Would you like to see what you stated? You stated "In games NONE" ...and thats simply not true. I don't care that he has a 7800GTX. A Conroe will up his performance! Your point is true with apps, but man come on...you cannot tell me there will be NO performance gain LOL

Well your picky arent u . Conroe will not magically give u more FPS, sure the loading times will improove and u will be able to do something else while playing. Otherwise there will be no major gains in games. Some games will run smoother but thats not the gain from conroe but from dualcore more. In the end upping changing the cpu will not allow him to play at reso and settings which he could not play before.

I went from a 3200+ to a x2 at 2.7ghz, loading times are much better, games are more smoother cause all the cr@p in the background does not slow it down, otherwise the performance is the same. My GFX card is whats limiting me.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Conroe can magically give you more FPS in FEAR and Oblivion. This may hold true in other games as well.

 

[evilbix]

It'll improve, but it's not worth the upgrade unless you live on your computer. I'd just wait it out until AMD releases what their apparent "ace up their sleeve' is. Then decide on what to buy, you should be in no rush to get a new system. Yours is fine as it is

 

[meksta]

for 600 bucks....that would get you a nice SLI setup too. If you are concerned about games.

depends what your uses are. If you run heavily cpu intensive programs like video encoding then it's a huuuuge difference. otoh, if you are using it to launch firefox and listen to mp3s then you'll be sorely disappointed.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
I just want to know if the upgrade will be worth the $550.- $600. to upgrade the MB and cpu.
Figuring the MB (975 or whatever is available from Intel) cost at around $250.00 and the CPU around $350.00

If I upgrade, what do you think my APPROXIMATE overall % boost will be by keeping all other components?

Operating System: Win 2000Pro
CPU: Intel P4 660 3600MHz
Motherboard: Intel 955x
Memory: 2048 MB of Crucial pc2-5300 ddr2 667 Ballistix 3-3-3-12
Video Card: EVGA 7800GTX 256mb
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74.0 GB
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi


10%? 20%? 50%?????
NAME THAT TUNE!

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/914/3...ystem_setup_and_screenshots/index.html

Your very much in luck. They test the Pentium 4 661 with the Geforce 7800 GTX 256, which is basically as close as you can get to the system you currently own.

 

[secretanchitman]

i think you will see a lot of improvements. dual-core, core architecture, etc...it'll probably blow my p4 out of the water too.

 

[Trey22]

Eleventybillion.

/thread.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Conroe can magically give you more FPS in FEAR and Oblivion. This may hold true in other games as well.

Yes if ur playing at 640 * 480 or with sli or crossfire THEN u will get better performance.
He has a SINGLE 7800gtx, turn up the reso to 1280 * 1024 with a few AA and in games like oblivion u gonna get low fps cause the gfx card will be the limiting factor.

All this hype is crazy, if his comp is mostly for games then hes better off getting another 7800gtx for sli or a x1900xt.

 

[theteamaqua]

i think there will be diffrence in game, like me i have P4 660, too. Conroe 2.13Ghz or even 1.86GHz is on par level with AMD FX 62 (if u dont care about sis sandra memory nadwidth ) so yeah expect about 20% to 40% in EVERYTHING (which includes video game, and video encoding, the 2 things i care a lot about. To be honest i dont give a crap about science mark (which amd always win) and super pi (which conroe kick am2's a$$) )!!! i do have 7800 gtx sli 256mb, so my weakness is cpu, and after conroe its about to change .....

 

[cmrmrc]

10x faster LOL...10x660=6600..

so to be serious...pretty much alot in most apps...first it is dual core, so you'll see some good boost from multi-threaded apps and in single threaded, pretty much maybe 30%..?

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: theteamaqua
i think there will be diffrence in game, like me i have P4 660, too. Conroe 2.13Ghz or even 1.86GHz is on par level with AMD FX 62 (if u dont care about sis sandra memory nadwidth ) so yeah expect about 20% to 40% in EVERYTHING (which includes video game, and video encoding, the 2 things i care a lot about. To be honest i dont give a crap about science mark (which amd always win) and super pi (which conroe kick am2's a$$) )!!! i do have 7800 gtx sli 256mb, so my weakness is cpu, and after conroe its about to change .....

Well for u since u have a descent graphics setup there will be a diff in games, i can tell u it wont be huge. But everything else will fly, encoding etc will be much much much quicker.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

You would see a 33% decrease! Keep the faster cpu.

 

[theteamaqua]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake



Well for u since u have a descent graphics setup there will be a diff in games, i can tell u it wont be huge. But everything else will fly, encoding etc will be much much much quicker.

i agree, but in FEAR and Oblivion, the 2 games i play very often:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?s...9730c2aaa755417b&p=1784893&postcount=1

conroe almost double the opteron score, and yes i know. u gonna say "u cant compare that to AMD FX 62" different bandwidth blah balah .... (not to u dark cupcake lol, to AMD fans out there) well E6700 can do 4.1Ghz on air with tower 120 .... last time i check to acheieve 4Ghz in AMD SS cooling is required :

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58642

i have WC plus chiller, with E6600 i am thinking 3.9 Ghz assuming i can find good ram in frys (latency dont amtter that much, but if u care about super pi and such. memset can tweak rams in intel 975, 955 .. chipset, i saw something like a 4-3-2-1 ) i need ddr 900 or 1000 beter but a 800 is a must

 

[theteamaqua]

about e6700 do 4.1 ghz on air with tower 120:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=104484

this coolaler guy is insane!! notice this thing is super pi 32m stable, which force ur cpu to run at 100% for about 12 min

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: theteamaqua

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake



Well for u since u have a descent graphics setup there will be a diff in games, i can tell u it wont be huge. But everything else will fly, encoding etc will be much much much quicker.

i agree, but in FEAR and Oblivion, the 2 games i play very often:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?s...9730c2aaa755417b&p=1784893&postcount=1

conroe almost double the opteron score, and yes i know. u gonna say "u cant compare that to AMD FX 62" different bandwidth blah balah .... (not to u dark cupcake lol, to AMD fans out there) well E6700 can do 4.1Ghz on air with tower 120 .... last time i check to acheieve 4Ghz in AMD SS cooling is required :

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58642

i have WC plus chiller, with E6600 i am thinking 3.9 Ghz assuming i can find good ram in frys (latency dont amtter that much, but if u care about super pi and such. memset can tweak rams in intel 975, 955 .. chipset, i saw something like a 4-3-2-1 ) i need ddr 900 or 1000 beter but a 800 is a must

Yea those overclocks look sweet. Yea i see the benches, again they were done with SLIed 7900gts at gtx speeds. I guess we see how powerfull current top cards are, all they needed is more cpu speed.
Then again with my lowly 7800gt i doubt even a 5ghz conroe will make oblivion run any better for me.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Yea those overclocks look sweet. Yea i see the benches, again they were done with SLIed 7900gts at gtx speeds. I guess we see how powerfull current top cards are, all they needed is more cpu speed.
Then again with my lowly 7800gt i doubt even a 5ghz conroe will make oblivion run any better for me.

I disagree. Look at the Call of Duty 2 benchmarks. Call of Duty 2 is obviously GPU-bound even on a SLI setup. Somehow the Conroe manages to be a tad slower than the Opteron at 3 ghz.

Then take a look at the Source stress test. Again, the Conroe and Opteron scores are very close with the Conroe edging out the Opteron by about 4 fps.

Some games will benefit from a faster CPU and some not so much.

 

[theteamaqua]

on games like FEAR and Oblivion (the 2 most graphics intense games out there iMO) cpu matters a lot. u guy proly read anand's oblivion GPU/CPU performance article. Some games jsut require u to have best parts in both GPU/CPU department while others only requires good GPU