High Performace Build - Reasonable Price

[Excelsius]

I am going to build my first computer and have already done a lot of reading. I was so happy to come across this forum because I found out that Conroe is due in June/July! Anyway, here is the deal:

I do not care about PC games at all. I need a lot of power out of my PC because I will be using it for intensive applications like Maple (math program), SolidWorks (3d design), StarryNight, and ChemOffice among others. I also do a lot of WAV/APE compression from CDs and DVD copying+high quality encoding using DVD Rebuilder Pro with CCE SP. The system I build will cost me around $1200.

My first question is that although one of the threads in this forum does not recommend waiting for the Conroe due in June, I think that it is well worth the wait, is it not? I found out that the top Conroe E6700 2.67GHz/1066MHz 4MB will cost $530, whereas as of now I was considering buying AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4 GHz for $547 from Newegg.
Now given the use of my PC, do you think that Conroe will be better for me than AM2 (considering same price)? I don't really care about overclocking either because it will require a lot of time to learn about all the details to avoid having a fried $500.
I was very surprised to find out that the brand new Conroe is not going to be expensive at all. I guess intel is trying to reclaim the market. But then again, many people believe that AMD will be ahead of intel in as little as a year.

 

[Green Radience]

Its July, not June. You probably heard the June from me, but I was wrong. It only ships in June to the sellers, the actual processor come out in July.

Given the use of any PC on the planet, Conroe will be better. Its definately worth the 1-and-a-half-month wait, and I commend you on recognizing it so fast For an Athlon 64 to match the E6700 you plan on getting, it would have to be a Dual Core 3.5Ghz processor. That gives you an idea of what you're getting for $530.

AMD won't be ahead of Intel for a long time. Definately not in 12 months from the release of Conroe. K8L isn't making any architectural changes, thus won't help AMD's clock-efficiency.

As for overclocking, you can learn how to do it in one day. Its well worth it, seeing as you can get a 3.0Ghz Conroe And the chance of frying a processor due to overclocking is almost nonexistent nowadays. You'd have to try really hard to fry it. There are built-in failsafe measures to protect it.

 

[Excelsius]

Well then, that answers my question. Just as I thought. Since you are so confident about overclocking, maybe I'll give it a try, but I have a feeling that with this new Conroe I won't need to overclock it until much later, perhaps after I upgrade to Vista in 2007 and decide to run the Aero.
I am really glad that I didn't buy the CPU yet. When I read about Conroe a few weeks ago, all sources said that it won't be out until 2007 with Vista and that was very discouraging since my PC is a Dell that is almost 5 years old (1.80 GHz Pentium IV)! Some people might laugh at this, but I like buying a computer and keeping it for years with only minor updates - it saves a lot of money.
It will be pointless to discuss the other components of my new PC since between now and July a lot of things in chips will be changed. Thus, I'll be back to continue my PC building odyssey. Thanks for the help.

Is there any way at all to get the Conroe in June? Maybe a direct order from Intel?

 

[Green Radience]

I doubt it

 

[The General]

Well then, that answers my question. Just as I thought. Since you are so confident about overclocking, maybe I'll give it a try, but I have a feeling that with this new Conroe I won't need to overclock it until much later, perhaps after I upgrade to Vista in 2007 and decide to run the Aero.
I am really glad that I didn't buy the CPU yet. When I read about Conroe a few weeks ago, all sources said that it won't be out until 2007 with Vista and that was very discouraging since my PC is a Dell that is almost 5 years old (1.80 GHz Pentium IV)! Some people might laugh at this, but I like buying a computer and keeping it for years with only minor updates - it saves a lot of money.
It will be pointless to discuss the other components of my new PC since between now and July a lot of things in chips will be changed. Thus, I'll be back to continue my PC building odyssey. Thanks for the help.

Is there any way at all to get the Conroe in June? Maybe a direct order from Intel?

dont believe anything you hear about vista needing uBeR Opt!m!zed GFX

you will NOT need to overclock anything in order to run vista

heck, even a geforce fx5700 + s754 sempron 2800+ will suffice for those c00l effects.


and if i'm wrong about this, the WOW microsoft cant code to save their lives. XGL's c00l effects work on my old old toshiba laptop w/ intel graphics.

opengl > directx IMO

okay so most of that was off topic..

 

[Green Radience]

Conroe comes out July 23rd.

 

[Excelsius]

**** it! That's two entire months. I am hoping that the advances in motherboards, RAM, and soundcards will make this unnecessary wait worthwhile.