CPUs

[Geo]

Good grief, wtf happened to CPU prices while I wasn't watching?

I guess the days of being able to buy pretty decent CPUs (food-chain relative "pretty good") for less than $300 are pretty well over, huh?

Starting to get the itch, aiming this fall, and thot I'd take a look. I love HT to death, and quickly came to the realization that meant it would have to be X2 on the AMD side if I was going to go AMDwards. . .

 

[kyleb]

I have no clue what you are talking about. As far as I am conserned you can get a "pretty decent CPU" for under $150.

 

[Geo]

What I'm talking about, is when I look at Pricewatch I see 15 desktop cpus at $499 or higher. That's wildly unprecedented from my pov (tho I will readily admit I haven't been following cpu pricing the last year).

 

[kyleb]

There is certainly more oprions in the high end than there once was due to the introduction of varring cache sizes and dual cores, but I don't feel that the price of a decent CPU has been going up any more than normal.

 

[Geo]

Well, I did say "food-chain relative". What I meant by that, is that for years and years (and years) my strategy was "third from the top" on pricing, usually resulting in $200-300. Obviously I'll have to be rethinking that!

 

[kyleb]

Understood on how that would throw you for a loop, but I still contend that the $200-300 CPUs are still essentally "third from the top" with the tiers above them simply having more options.

My CPU buying strategy has always been to shoot for the lower end of the latest tech, cutting of where the premium for increessed performace steps up notably faster than the incresse in performace. So at this point I'd shoot for a 3200+ Venice, and the overclock it for all it is worth of course.

 

[Geo]

Thanks. Early days on the investigation; I tend to plot these things for months (getting maximum amusement value for my upgrade dollars ) before I pull the trigger --I'll probably drop by with a proposed buy list in a few months for critique.

 

[ANova]

I'm assuming you're talking about the X2s. Yup, they're expensive starting at $500 and going up to $1000. However, the Pentium D is available as low as $280. If you want AMD I would just suggest a Venice 3200+ or 3500+ and overclock. They're fairly cheap for the performance.

 

[trinibwoy]

It doesn't matter really. The price differential has simply increased much faster than the performance delta. You can buy a much lower priced part now and still get performance within a few % points of the top dog.

 

[Geo]

I'm longing for an X2. The real problem is this is a general purpose machine that has to do both gaming and business, and in business mode I often have 10 or more windows open at once. HT really made that go well (running a P4 2.4c @2.88). Reading Kyle's piece on X2 made me realize that X2 really *is* "AMD's HT" --their single processors suck eggs in that regard.

So, having screwed myself up into thinking seriously about my first AMD in a desktop box of mine since the sainted 486dx4/120, I was shocked by the pricing when I went to look.

But it wasn't just X2. . the FX's and several of Intel's were pretty frightening from a pricing perspective as well.

Old farts will tell you that historically, all the Intel's came out at top dollar of $600 or so, with gradations down from there, and as was noted above, a definite break in the trend you could easily spot where you were no longer paying a stiff premium for not much more performance. Usually "third from the top" was about where that happened, as they generally spat 'em out in groups of three or four. AMD processors were always less money, as they had to overcome prejudice and Intel's intrenched position.

Obviously things are a bit different now.

Ah well, probably be at least September, maybe later, before I pull the trigger --so some of those have a chance to drift down. Right now that Intel dual-core is looking best, but I suspect it won't be much of an improvement over my 2.4c@2.88. Ish.

 

[Moffell]

Well then, get the cheapest S939 A64 then and pull the waiting game on the X2's, they're socket compatible in case you didn't know. I doubt an overclocked A64 3000+ would be that much of a disappointment compared to your current P4.

Sticking with the P4 until xmas would be my option though.

 

[Geo]

Well then, get the cheapest S939 A64 then and pull the waiting game on the X2's, they're socket compatible in case you didn't know. I doubt an overclocked A64 3000+ would be that much of a disappointment compared to your current P4.

Sticking with the P4 until xmas would be my option though.

Y'know, I did notice the socket compatible thing, but didn't think of leveraging it that way --that might turn out to be an option.

 

[ANova]

FYI, Intel's dual core chips aren't selling that well so prices will be dropping pretty soon with the Pentium 4 following suit in August. Not sure of any price drops on the AMD front though.

 

[Geo]

The other interesting part with XFire. . .I'm looking forward to some good reviews looking at mobo compatibility between/amongst the various SLI/MVP flavas.

I see myself getting a dual-slot mobo, even if I never put a second gpu in it. . .I like having options. Tho part of me would like to play with it too, just to see how robust it is. And SuperAA looks cool. But in the end I don't see me slappin' down for two 7800 or two R520.

 

[wireframe]

The other interesting part with XFire. . .I'm looking forward to some good reviews looking at mobo compatibility between/amongst the various SLI/MVP flavas.

This one is a pain. I would really like a dual PCIe 16x board that is compatible with both. It just feels weird buying into one only to lock yourself out of the other. Why would I want dual PCIe x16? see below

I see myself getting a dual-slot mobo, even if I never put a second gpu in it. . .I like having options. Tho part of me would like to play with it too, just to see how robust it is. And SuperAA looks cool. But in the end I don't see me slappin' down for two 7800 or two R520.

I feel pretty much the same way, but who knows where temptation and a loose wallet will take me. However, the good thing about PCIe is that it is serial, so you should be able to use the second x16 slot for x4 purposes (PPU maybe?), etc. Of course it is always nice to have the option for SLI/CrossFire in case someone shows up at the door and decides to give you another G70/R520 for free just because you are such a nice neighbor.

In the end, though, I think I would purchase a robust x16 board over some fancy-pants SLI/Crossfire one that I wasn't sure about the quality. Another thing, I hate fans and the last thing I need is some whiny little 50mm to cool the chipset. It's sort of sad how there are so many mainboards but they are all "kitchen sink" variety. Would be nice if someone produced some more specialized ones. For example, no onboard audio, networking, and weird "intelligent" BIOS control, but lots of native SATA ports. Maybe remove all legacy parallel, serial, PS/2 ports and beef up on the USB and FireWire. That sort of thing. I know some boards like that exist and Abit even tried the no-legacy route 4 years ago and failed, but it would just be great if there were more choices.

 

[Geo]

On the SLI/MVP compatibility front, I'm really hoping we'll get better visibility over the summer and the news will be increasingly positive. But then, as Pete just told me elsewhere, I'm an optimist by nature.

At any rate, it would surely be nice if ATI's are recs rather than reqs on the mobo front, if ya know what I mean.

Yes, "impulse purchases" like a second gpu are planned and enabled months in advance.

 

[Blazkowicz]

It's sort of sad how there are so many mainboards but they are all "kitchen sink" variety. Would be nice if someone produced some more specialized ones. For example, no onboard audio, networking, and weird "intelligent" BIOS control, but lots of native SATA ports. Maybe remove all legacy parallel, serial, PS/2 ports and beef up on the USB and FireWire. That sort of thing. I know some boards like that exist and Abit even tried the no-legacy route 4 years ago and failed, but it would just be great if there were more choices.

I'm fine with even the cheapest of motherboards having everything
some people like you want to remove PS/2, serial, parallel but I fail to see what it brings except breaking the compatibility we've had for two decades, and increase costs because you have to produce different mobos.

You still have some choice, put these unused PCI slots to work if you want additional USB2/firewire/SATA connectors for cheap.