X2 5600+ vs Core 2 DUO E6600

[Binky]

Buy the AMD - they need the money more than Intel!

 

[PinchyCM]

LOL. That's a good way of looking at it. LOL.

If the combos hold come monday morning, I'll be an AMD guy again.

 

[aigomorla]

Sorry unless its a barcelona AMD, which is still iffy since no independant tests were done on it yet:

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/aigomorla/FinalTemp.jpg

AMD has a very very very long way to go to catch up to my girl..

i think this says enough as it is..

 

[Cabville]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Yes, but we have seen tests where a 2mb chip was clocked at the same speed as the 4mb one, and the benchmarks show a clear advantage, varying from minimal (1%) to large (10% or more).

.......................................


Not mention that many X2s are only 512k x2 cache.

Can't find the specific cache article I was looking for, but this is pretty clear : both of these processors are clocked at the same Mhz, but the performance delta is between 0-16.2% depending on the app.

Let me reiterate to you the fact that the test results already include that level 2 cache. The level 2 cache was not removed for the purposes of those tests. They are already factored into the equation. And said test showed relative parity. Trying to argue that the level 2 cache somehow represent something more as a separate entity is completely fallacious. it is already addressed more comprehensively by other factors rendering the issue entirely irrelevant.

That said, you again misinterpreted your own data. There is a significant difference at times between different Intel CPUs. That is not true of AMD because the X2 architecture still holds some advantages over Core, one of which is superior memory architecture. And this is reflected in your own data. Different levels of level 2 cache on the X2 series are almost indistinguishable from each other. and because of this difference, level 2 cache doesn't compare across platform's. It's like arguing that the 5600 must be faster than the 6600 because it runs at higher clock speed. It's a fallacious argument.

E6600 is $309, a $39 premium for an undeniably superior product. There is a price difference, but not a significant one. It is about on line with getting a better product. I have more AMD boxes than Intel ones, but it's borderline insane to consider buying a current AMD product unless you're pinching every penny possible. The clock headroom alone is staggeringly different.

Spoken like a true lemming who hasn't been following this thread. The guy has stated repeatedly that he's not going to overclock. And with it, 95% of the argument you just made in that paragraph disintegrated. They are almost indistinguishable without overclocking.

Not only is there a $50 savings to the AMD side that could be invested in other components, but he will likely walk away with a motherboard of superior quality and lesser prices as well which is another appealing aspect of the AMD platform at this time. AMD motherboard usually have superior backward compatibility for the most part, so if he chooses in the future to upgrade his processor there is a higher chance of AMD that said upgrade would not require a new motherboard. Though he has not commented on that issue one way or the other

 

[Cabville]

Originally posted by: PinchyCM

this is true. pair that with the combo deals that newegg currently sports (they offer a tforce 550 for free for both the 5600+ and 6000+), and it's very very competitive in terms of bang/buck.

come monday (4/9), i think decisions will be a lot hard to make, since the 6000+ will be at ~180-190 price range. if they continue the bundle the tforce with it, you'd almost have to be crazy to not go for it.

Those combo deals are insane! I hadn't noticed them before you mentioned them.

clarkey01. if you haven't purchased yet, that's where I would go. Three of those combos offer $70 off!!! 5600 + good MB of your choice tough to beat at that price.

 

[PinchyCM]

looks like they just added a GIGABYTE GA-3PXSL to the 6000+ combo, and dropped the price to 320. let's see where it is on monday!

 

[PinchyCM]

it would appear that they've dropped the 5600+ down to 259 now as well.

come ooonnn drops!

will i be able to turn down the price cuts monday? oh boy, i dunno!

 

[hardwareking]

If u go the intel route now with a decent motherboard
u can get a quad-core Q6600 for $266 in the 3rd quarter of the year

I don't think AMD has a barcelona based processor in that price range

like i said earlier right now only reason to buy an x2 5600+ and motherboard is if ur on a budget
otherwise an E6600 + motherboard(with future inexpensive quad-core) is the better option

 

[Cabville]

pure speculation hardwareking. We dont know what the chip lineups or pricing is going to look like in q3. And i doubt highly that quad core will drop 70% in 6 months. If it did, im sure AMD will counter. Low end isn't their problem. Can they match the high end is the question.

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: Cabville
pure speculation hardwareking. We dont know what the chip lineups or pricing is going to look like in q3. And i doubt highly that quad core will drop 70% in 6 months. If it did, im sure AMD will counter. Low end isn't their problem. Can they match the high end is the question.

*cough*
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2027470

Pick up a nice 650i board now with an E4300 after the 22nd when its price drops to aroound $140-145. Then save up for quadcore in Q3 when there'll be one available for $300 or less.
($266 will be the volume price, so likely it'll sell initially for around $299 and then drop to $275ish.)

 

[PING]

Fry's is now selling AMD X2 5600+ with ECS mobo for only $188.99. It's very tempting to upgrade my X2 4200!

 

[harpoon84]

To Cabville, do you honestly believe an 5600+ is the 'equal' of the E6600 when it loses out in the vast majority of benchmarks? Even the 6000+ is slightly slower than an E6600. I actually agree with your view that not all X2s are inferior to C2Ds, especially in the lower end, but surely, after interpreting the data, how can you be convinced these two chips perform the same?

The following link has performance index and price/performance charts that will take effect after pricecuts from both camps have taken place (currently only AMD's price has dropped, Intel prices will drop in 2 weeks). As you can see, at the same prices it's actually quite even between AMD and Intel, it's just that you've been arguing that the X2 5600+ is the equal of the E6600 which is clearly not the case. It's almost identically matched to the E6420 though.

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/dualcore-roundup_8.html

The E6600 ($224) has a performance index of 1.68.
The X2 6000+ ($229) has a performance index of 1.62.
The X2 5600+ ($179) has a performance of 1.53

The closest Intel CPU to the X2 5600+ is the E6420 ($183) which has a performance index of 1.52

I think these numbers show clearly where each CPU stands in regards to performance. The E6600 is a step above the X2 5600+ in both performance and price.

 

[wwswimming]

this is a great thread. if i was a marketing manager at AMD or Intel i'd
be reading it.

anybody want to buy my Pentium Pro ? it runs NT4 and has a 5 1/4"
Seagate SCSI (47 GB) that plays a great bass.

 

[clarkey01]

Well Iv searched high and low for comparisons and read what you?ve all posted ( Cheers by the way) . I?ve decided to go with the core 2, seems to have it (just) and with everyone talking about the ease of which overclocks our obtained I may look into it ( Havnt overlcoked in years, last time it was an FX 5600 ! ). I am a bit of amd fan if I?m honest but the last Intel product I owned was a P1 233Mhz ( years ago), think it times I gave Intel a try, glad there were no flames ? was slightly scared when I posted, I remember some years ago feldakat ( ha remember?) ?

I?d thought id share you my build just below, any comments welcome or surggestions. I realise maybe I should post this in general hardware but what the hell, since your all here. Thanks so far guys, I cant wait to get a decent frame rate with this rig Im going to build ( Next week).



Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965
Samsung SpinPoint T HD320LD 320GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer
Akasa AK-961 CPU Cooler with Fan Controller
Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case


Total £899.72

 

[BitByBit]

Athlon X2 5600+: £128 inc.

MSI K9N Platinum: £70 inc.

So for £200, you could build a pretty decent system and upgrade to AMD's next generation chip at the end of the year simply by swapping out your 5600+ for a Kuma or Agena.
A 5600+ is certainly in the same league as a stock clocked E6600 for most applications, and you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two (encoding being the exception).

Edit:
Woops, didn't see your last post there!

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965
Samsung SpinPoint T HD320LD 320GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer
Akasa AK-961 CPU Cooler with Fan Controller
Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case


Total £899.72

I just have a couple questions, Why are you getting an IDE hard drive and not sata? and why are you getting a PCI gigabit network card if the mobo has onboard gigabit lan?

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965
Samsung SpinPoint T HD320LD 320GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer
Akasa AK-961 CPU Cooler with Fan Controller
Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case


Total £899.72

I just have a couple questions, Why are you getting an IDE hard drive and not sata? and why are you getting a PCI gigabit network card if the mobo has onboard gigabit lan?

I need the extra NIC for another rig, Ill have to see about sata and if i can afford it.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: clarkey01

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965
Samsung SpinPoint T HD320LD 320GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer
Akasa AK-961 CPU Cooler with Fan Controller
Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case


Total £899.72

I just have a couple questions, Why are you getting an IDE hard drive and not sata? and why are you getting a PCI gigabit network card if the mobo has onboard gigabit lan?

I need the extra NIC for another rig, Ill have to see about sata and if i can afford it.

sata should be about the same price and you don't want to buy equipment which is being phased out, notice that the board you're buying only has one IDE port, it's just a matter of time till mobos come with no IDE ports...

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: clarkey01

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
Asus P5B Skt 775 Intel P965
Samsung SpinPoint T HD320LD 320GB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer
Akasa AK-961 CPU Cooler with Fan Controller
Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case


Total £899.72

I just have a couple questions, Why are you getting an IDE hard drive and not sata? and why are you getting a PCI gigabit network card if the mobo has onboard gigabit lan?

I need the extra NIC for another rig, Ill have to see about sata and if i can afford it.

sata should be about the same price and you don't want to buy equipment which is being phased out, notice that the board you're buying only has one IDE port, it's just a matter of time till mobos come with no IDE ports...

Not without alot of SATA Optical drives onthe market their isn't. You need a minim of 1 IDE at least for the time being.

But to save the IDE channel for the Optical Drives, for your HD I heavily recommend getting a SATA Drive.

 

[PinchyCM]

Originally posted by: PING
Fry's is now selling AMD X2 5600+ with ECS mobo for only $188.99. It's very tempting to upgrade my X2 4200!

dayumn. that's not much more for the board, considering the chip should be right around 170 after the cut. good deals indeed.

my clunker machine is back up and running - i might actually be able to hold out for the c2d deals now...

what are the chances they'll be bundled as well as they are on the egg?

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: PinchyCM

Originally posted by: coldpower27
AMD is pretty even stock wise up to the 6000+ which can trade blows with the E6600 evenly, but the E6700 and above is not something AMD can handle at this time.

this is true. pair that with the combo deals that newegg currently sports (they offer a tforce 550 for free for both the 5600+ and 6000+), and it's very very competitive in terms of bang/buck.

come monday (4/9), i think decisions will be a lot hard to make, since the 6000+ will be at ~180-190 price range. if they continue the bundle the tforce with it, you'd almost have to be crazy to not go for it.

even with the price cuts on 4/22 for intell, the e6600 will go down to ~230 (40 bucks more) and probably won't be bundled as well as its amd counterpart.

add that with the news that barcelona will come in am2 flavors as well, i think i know where i'll be buying come monday.

i'm all about bang/buck, baby!

ps - i want a c2d, i just can't justify paying so much more for it. especially with the combo deals going on.

edit: i guess only the 5600+ is being bundled with the tf550 now. oh well, still a fantastic deal if it holds up monday.

I will have to see what AMD's official prices come Monday are for the 6000+, but from what I have heard it is still in the 220USD range for the 6000+.

 

[PinchyCM]

if that's the case, then i'd probably go with a c2d combo. but 49% of retail, so i just based that off newegg's price last friday.