Which AMD CPU/Mobo?

[Nagasama]

i have a different opinion

See, at stock speeds, the E6300 is around the performance of a A64 X2 4600+.

i believe the 6300 would be about the same as a x2 3800. at the very best, close to my cpu...at stock speeds, mind you.

but i definitely agree w/ eclipse... your mobo limits your o.c. ability.
i am limited to 2.65ish with mine, BUT it cost 80 bucks, not 150.
i have read articles detailing the ability to oc the 4200 to 2.8 with no voltage increase with a certain foxconn board.
could possibly go to 3-3.2 with a VERY good overclocking motherboard, and alot of tweaking and testing (and a big zalman haha) jingle bells jingle bells...
and once again, i agree with eclipse, i agree that mobo will limit the overclock, and i myself am limiting the potential of my cpu. i bought my mobo b/c it was tried and true and had a chipset that was all but guaranteed to be stable (nf4). do your homework...
the only problem i had choosing between the 6300 and the 4200, and i looked at them both very closely, was that i saw many times in this forum and in others the inconsistency of the overclocks of the intels.
ie. some people could get 3.2, others could get 2.6 with the same set-up. granted, this could be from lack of knowledge or experience...or lack of desire to go to the limit.
but i achieved the overclock i expected (actually a little above) with my current set up. and also as expected, stable...i can run prime95 on both cores for 24 hours no sweat.
what i am liking lately in the forums here is the recognition given to both companies for their cpu's...not just, "buy brand x, i've got it and i know everything"...
either one of these cpus are EXCELLENT. it really depends on your personal preference, but do your homework...
if you are just beginning, maybe you should go with one of these less expensive cpu to experiment with your overclock. jeez...by the time you get it in the mail, it will be obsolete. haha.
good luck, man!

 

[TriEclipse]

Packard, if you buy the E6300 off of Newegg, there's a motherboard that'll keep you inside your $300 CPU+Mobo budget, and still let you get to 3Ghz+. This is actually almost the same as the $150 motherboard, just a different version. If will not overclock quite as high, but high enough to take your processor to it's limits.

Gigabyte S3

i believe the 6300 would be about the same as a x2 3800. at the very best, close to my cpu...at stock speeds, mind you.

I'm sorry, I just can't agree with that. For starters, I base my belief on these and other benchmarks. I obviously can't show you all the charts, but that one is accurate for the average. 4600+ is actually somewhat conservative, since initial synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark et al were putting it above the X2 4800+ mark. There is no way it's equal to the X2 3800+ though, its far too powerful. The price/performance ratio for the C2Ds is, thus, also much better.

Regardless, that all ceases to matter once you overclock it. No AMD processor, overclocked or otherwise, can match this $180 overclocking marvel.

What i am liking lately in the forums here is the recognition given to both companies for their cpu's...not just, "buy brand x, i've got it and i know everything"...

While AMD has more than proven itself capable of making awesome CPUs with 3 years of A64 domination, Intel has clearly taken the lead now. I'm not saying that A64 CPUs are by any means bad, I'm still on my A64 from days past, but there's no way I'd buy a AMD CPU over an Intel one now. The only reason would be if I had budget constraints since AMD has pretty much taken over the budget spot right now. If one company's products perform better, for a cheaper price, I don't see why someone wouldn't go with it.

 

[Nagasama]

ten-four...
the beauty of democracy! agree to disagree.
but, as eclipse stated, these benchmarks are impressive. i actually saw these myself before buying. bear in mind, the benchmark states to disregard differences of 5% or so, which makes the e6300 and the 4200/4600 roughly equivalent.
benchmarks all really depend on where you see them, who writes them, etc...unfortunately they are usually biased in some form or fashion. though AnandTech's are pretty useful in any event.
i think that most of us who have tweaked our systems (amd or intel) are usually quite happy with the results.
so, whichever one you decide on, there are plenty of people here willing to help (it's how i got started and i think it's great).

 

[The General]

“WarpSpeeder™
a new powerful control utility, features three user-friendly functions including Overclock Manager, Overvoltage Manager, and Hardware Monitor.”

But you'll want to be careful with that, as you definitely don't want an anti-matter leak from the warp core.

Anyway, regardless of price, Intel opened a can of whoop-*** on AMD, and all AMD could do was lower their prices. I got my Athlon 64 X2 3800+ for $289 and I got my E6600 for $330. The E6600 is so much faster and stock speeds it's not even funny. I was able to overclock the 3800+ to 2.65Ghz, and didn't even get much of a performance increase, if any. I got my E6600 from 2.4Ghz to 3.5Ghz, and the performance increase was ridiculous ... Right now I recommend you don't get an AMD.

 

[Nagasama]

warp-core, that rocks.
hey general...question for ya:

i will try the e6600 on my next build. did you have to get special cooling with that cpu at those speeds?
also, which mobo and ram do you use, if you don't mind.
my ram is good, no prob there, but i am just curious...

p.s. i got my 4200 for 185. price cuts rule!
thanks!

 

[The General]

I use this heatsink and I used this motherboard and got to 3.5Ghz and I am using this one right now at 2.93Ghz ... the reason I switched motherboards had to do with Linux compatibility. I have G.Skill "HZ's" by the way.

 

[TriEclipse]

X2 4200+ for $185...sick (in the good sense). I remember the days of $200 A64 3200+ processors.

 

[Nagasama]

yeah dude i was pretty stoked...i was reading about them right before the c2d came out and the 4200 was like 300 bucks.
now, when amd comes out with an answer to c2d, i will get an e6600 for half price. hee hee hee. capitalism is great.

 

[TriEclipse]

@ nagasama;

Actually, when AMD comes out with an answer to C2D, you should start saving up for Intel's 45nm processors. Capitalism is good, competition is better.