is this a good price for this CPU and motherboard?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:37 am

277$ core 2 duo e6600 Intel Processor.
120$ Asus P5LD2 MotherBoard

total price is approx 400$ i rounded some prices to the nearest $

edit: $249.00 for the ASUS P5KC MotherBoard

all prices are AUD.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:36 pm

Are those prices in USD or AUD? If they're USD, that's a bit high. Newegg has the E6600 for $223 and the mobo for $85. And I'd get the E6420 and overclock it to save another $40.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:39 am

For a Core 2 motherboard get the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (they have a revision which also supports 1333MHz FSB) it overclocks like mad and it's relatively cheap. People buy that motherboard just to overclock E6300s to 3.4GHz+. Some dude pushed his E6600 to 4.1GHz on water cooling using that motherboard. Though it was at pretty high voltage, 1.625 volts which is kind of extreme.

The closest thing you can get to the overclocking ability of the 965P DS3 would be either the Asus Commando or Striker, both of which cost a shitload more. And I don't really trust Asus, they've been known to use super cheap capacitors from Taiwan. My old K8N-E Deluxe had that problem and it's capacitors blew, you'd think they'd put good components on a high-end deluxe model, but they decided to stinge out.

It's $130 on newegg, here is a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128042

Important edit: Apparently the latest revision is 3.3 and not 1.3 like the one in that link. So 1.3 might not support 1333MHz FSB.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:33 am

Cyrus wrote:The closest thing you can get to the overclocking ability of the 965P DS3 would be either the Asus Commando or Striker, both of which cost a shitload more. And I don't really trust Asus, they've been known to use super cheap capacitors from Taiwan. My old K8N-E Deluxe had that problem and it's capacitors blew, you'd think they'd put good components on a high-end deluxe model, but they decided to stinge out.

Pretty much every board manufacturer got burned by the bad electrolytic caps.

It woiuldn't have been a problem if they'd gotten the formula right on the knockoffs, which everyone believed they had(or they wouldn't have bought them in the first place).

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:33 am

AUD

im not looking at spending more then 500$ nor do i like the idea of over clocking.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:32 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Cyrus wrote:The closest thing you can get to the overclocking ability of the 965P DS3 would be either the Asus Commando or Striker, both of which cost a shitload more. And I don't really trust Asus, they've been known to use super cheap capacitors from Taiwan. My old K8N-E Deluxe had that problem and it's capacitors blew, you'd think they'd put good components on a high-end deluxe model, but they decided to stinge out.
Pretty much every board manufacturer got burned by the bad electrolytic caps.

It woiuldn't have been a problem if they'd gotten the formula right on the knockoffs, which everyone believed they had(or they wouldn't have bought them in the first place).

Are you sure pretty much every manufacturer used those cheapass capacitors from Taiwan? Do you know which companies didn't?

franpa wrote:AUD

im not looking at spending more then 500$ nor do i like the idea of over clocking.

If you don't want to overclock you might as well buy an AMD then. The AMD X2 6000+ (3GHz) is about the same price as an E6600 (2.4GHz) and their performance should be about the same (one will get a few more frames here and the other will get a few frames more there). I say go AMD even though at best the 6000+ will only slightly outdo the E6600 mainly because AM2+ CPUs will be backward compatible with AM2 motherboards when they are released in late 2007 / early 2008.

This may be great news if the new AMD Phenom CPUs really turn out to be all the hype that's talked about (crazy rumour that they will do 1.8 times what a K8 CPU can do clock for clock). That and AM2 motherboards are generally cheaper than their 775 counterparts.

Though personally I wouldn't ever buy an X2 6000+ when a CPU half it's price needs to OC just from 1.8GHz to 2.4GHz in order to match it. But if you're really not overclocking you should take into consideration the backward compatibility AM2+ will have.

EDIT: Fixed typo.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:57 am

ah yes, but then i would have to look at different motherboards and i suck at choosing one that works for me, the one i have works fine except its the first revision and i need the second or newer revision for core 2 duo support, I've never tried AMD so I'm not entirely prepared for such a major switch.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:28 am

franpa wrote:ah yes, but then i would have to look at different motherboards and i suck at choosing one that works for me, the one i have works fine except its the first revision and i need the second or newer revision for core 2 duo support, I've never tried AMD so I'm not entirely prepared for such a major switch.

If you need to buy a new motherboard anyway don't get a revision of the same one you had before. If you're not overclocking look up reviews of which C2D motherboards have good features at low prices and look up their benchmarks compared to similarly priced motherboards.

LobStar · Post by **LobStar** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:32 pm

If your looking for a worth while processor, check this report out:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/pr ... dex.x?pg=1

Q6600 really does seem worth the value, at least to me, even if out of your targetted price range.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:19 pm

so you want me to buy a CPU that is more then double the price ($619.611 AUD), costs more to run, and in most tests done on there site, is much worser then the e6600 at single threads?

After running 16 processors through a lengthy round of testing and analysis, we finally succeeded in unmasking the "final five"—the five chips that offer the best overall performance per dollar across our tests. If you haven't been paying attention, those are the Athlon 64 X2 3600+, the Core 2 Duo E4300, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+, the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, and the Core 2 Duo E6600.

Aside from our final five, Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600 receives an honorable mention for being the best overall choice for users more focused on performance than on saving money

A word of caution, though: a number applications still don't benefit from the Q6600's extra cores at all—games and LAME MP3 encoding come to mind—so this chip isn't a performance panacea for everyone.

im only after a processor to last me 4 or so years. i dont need to pay a premium during thos 4 years.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:16 pm

I forgot to mention, Core 2 Duo prices drop on July 22nd (so retail stores should lower their prices soon after that) and some new CPUs will be released. There will apparently be a large price cut on the quad core processors. And if you plan on keeping your CPU for 4 years, get no less than the E6600 as you originally planned.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:44 pm

Cyrus wrote: Are you sure pretty much every manufacturer used those cheapass capacitors from Taiwan? Do you know which companies didn't?

Yes, I am sure.

As I said, pretty much everyone used them. So no, I don't know which companies didn't, because I'm pretty sure they ALL did on part of their product line.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 2:22 am

thanks for that tip Cyrus, and i got winXP home which i think supports a max of 1 CPU and a max of 2 cores.

LobStar · Post by **LobStar** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:07 am

Hey, I said it seemed worth the value for me. I even acknowledged it was out of your price range. I was just trying to share a report that I thought did a very good job at demonstrating what was the best bang for your buck. If you want to rip people apart for helping you... geeze...

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:38 am

lol sorry, i didnt mean to come across so harshly >.> im gonna do a bit more looking into motherboards... get one with SLI.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:47 am

SLI isn't worth it if you are giving yourself a budget.

For starters you'd need a minimum 550W SLI-ready power supply, with the associated increase in power consumption for only really noticeable performance increase in games from the last two years - and even then that would depend on the driver.

Then there is venting the heat from one or more pairs of video cards.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:59 am

hmmm, i got 600watt thermaltake power supply, and im considering the ASUS P5KC motherboard...

EDIT: $249.00 for the P5KC

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:26 am

I forgot to mention, Core 2 Duo prices drop on July 22nd (so retail stores should lower their prices soon after that) and some new CPUs will be released. There will apparently be a large price cut on the quad core processors. And if you plan on keeping your CPU for 4 years, get no less than the E6600 as you originally planned.

Cyrus, do you have a source for your claim about the 22nd of july? and i thought id post links to the specs of the 2 boards i was/am considering.

http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1 ... odelmenu=2 [ASUS P5KC]
http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1 ... odelmenu=2 [ASUS P5LD2 SE]

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:17 am

franpa wrote:
I forgot to mention, Core 2 Duo prices drop on July 22nd (so retail stores should lower their prices soon after that) and some new CPUs will be released. There will apparently be a large price cut on the quad core processors. And if you plan on keeping your CPU for 4 years, get no less than the E6600 as you originally planned.
Cyrus, do you have a source for your claim about the 22nd of july? and i thought id post links to the specs of the 2 boards i was/am considering.

http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1 ... odelmenu=2 [ASUS P5KC]
http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1 ... odelmenu=2 [ASUS P5LD2 SE]

I heard it on the Guru 3D forums a while ago... typing it in google should give you enough results:
http://www.google.ca/search?client=fire ... gle+Search

As for those motherboards I don't know anything about them considering I only know about the ones which are supposedly the best overclockers (which are usually ones with 965P or nForce 680 chipsets). Just look up some reviews or ask on Guru 3D. But in terms of price to performance the best one I've heard of is still the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, though people want it only for overclocking so I don't know if you'd like it at all.

Edit: Fixed typo.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:04 pm

190$ AUD? oO thats 163$ USD... thats pretty damn cheap haha ill wait for people to mark up the price to 300$ AUD

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:22 pm

franpa wrote:190$ AUD? oO thats 163$ USD... thats pretty damn cheap haha ill wait for people to mark up the price to 300$ AUD

Of course, it's the same in Canada as well and apparently in the UK as well. But keep in mind the average wages in Australia and the UK are much higher than Canada's. The things I could tell you about wages in this country are so fucked up that I don't even want to get into it, but to give you an idea, for an eternity the min wage was $6 while the dollar was artifically forced down to $0.60 USD. That's $3.60 USD an hour not including income tax which over the years has ranged from 15% to 50% depending on the job/income (the 50% applied only to doctors though, guess one of the reasons why Ontario has a doctor shortage).

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:46 am

what would be used in a 4x or 1x PCIE slot? i can live with having the thing, I'm just curious what would actually be used in it? wouldn't it be worse then 2 16x slots in crossfire mode? (I'm aware of what crossfire is, its ATI's equivalent to nvidia's SLI technology)

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:14 am

Crossfire is good, as long as you have an ATI card.

you'd use the 1x and 4x slots for RAID controllers and Gigabyte Ethernet cards. Pretty much anything once old PCI is phased out entirely.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:54 am

yes, i understand using gigabit network cards, but raid? oO haha i wont need that anytime soon

so since its not 2 16x slots, crossfire performance wont be affected?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:58 am

weee, asus p5kc motherboard, $273.90 and intel E66750 CPU $269.50
just finding out if my memory is compatible and then ill order the parts.

is the e6750 better then the e6600 if your not going to overclock?