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[Kev367th]

Well I guess AMD has dropped the ball by sitting on their collective ass** for 2 years plus.
K8L's should have been ready 12 months ago, even when they come out best estimates say they will ONLY equal the current Conroes.
Of course by then the latest Conroes will be faster.

So ordering this from Newegg, probably tomorrow will get them as late Chrissy Prez-

BFG Tech BFGR7950512GTOCE GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC Video Card

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804

ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

Total - $1004

Found a coupon code to knock $45 off the Crucial Ballistix memory.
Anyone else wanting it (for Newegg only) - EMC1217CRUBALLIS


Deal breaker - A system built around the AMD 5200X2 was around the same price, but is significantly slower. Even being able to drop in a K8L in late 2007 wouldn't make a big enough difference.
So the Conroe made the best choice.

[Eagler]

give you 50 bucks for the 4400 .. I have the same mb as your old one ..

[Krusty]

Let us know how it runs!

On a side note I wish they'd come out with more conroe motherboards. There's relatively few layouts to choose from.

[Balsy]

Originally posted by Kev367th
Well I guess AMD has dropped the ball by sitting on their collective ass** for 2 years plus.
K8L's should have been ready 12 months ago, even when they come out best estimates say they will ONLY equal the current Conroes.
Of course by then the latest Conroes will be faster.

So ordering this from Newegg, probably tomorrow will get them as late Chrissy Prez-

BFG Tech BFGR7950512GTOCE GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC Video Card

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804

ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

Total - $1004

Found a coupon code to knock $45 off the Crucial Ballistix memory.
Anyone else wanting it (for Newegg only) - EMC1217CRUBALLIS

LOL exact same rig I picked out for my Dads first home built for xmas, but he needs case, PSU etc...

Balsy

[Skuzzy]

Can't say as I blame you Kev.  I am sure you have already seen the rather large snafu AMD has made in thier 65nm parts.  Significantly slower than the 90nm parts they are replacing.  

Why they would allow parts to be tested by WEB sites, which they know are slower, is beyond me.

By the way, Intel has announced a price reduction coming in Q2 2007 for the Conroe's.  Upwards to 40%.  They also have quietly been making some changes to the current Conroe's to further reduce power consumption.  Here is the price plans.

Core 2 Quad Q6600 from $851 to $530
Core 2 Duo E6700 from $530 to $316
Core 2 Duo E6600 from $316 to $224
Core 2 Duo E6400 from $224 to $183
Core 2 Duo E6300 from $183 to $163

At the same time they will be launching 4MB cache versions of the E6400 (E6420) and E6300 (E6320).

Just FYI.

[Balsy]

Originally posted by Kev367th
Well I guess AMD has dropped the ball by sitting on their collective ass** for 2 years plus.
K8L's should have been ready 12 months ago, even when they come out best estimates say they will ONLY equal the current Conroes.
Of course by then the latest Conroes will be faster.

So ordering this from Newegg, probably tomorrow will get them as late Chrissy Prez-

BFG Tech BFGR7950512GTOCE GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC Video Card

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804

ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

 

Kev.. the ballistix runs at 2.2v and 4-4-4-12 timing, which the P5B says is unsupported, only supports 1.8v at 555 or 666 timing.  Im not an OC'er and either will be my dad.  How do you plan on using this ram? Setting the voltage, timing in Bios?

[Balsy]

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Can't say as I blame you Kev.  I am sure you have already seen the rather large snafu AMD has made in thier 65nm parts.  Significantly slower than the 90nm parts they are replacing.  

Why they would allow parts to be tested by WEB sites, which they know are slower, is beyond me.

By the way, Intel has announced a price reduction coming in Q2 2007 for the Conroe's.  Upwards to 40%.  They also have quietly been making some changes to the current Conroe's to further reduce power consumption.  Here is the price plans.

Core 2 Quad Q6600 from $851 to $530
Core 2 Duo E6700 from $530 to $316
Core 2 Duo E6600 from $316 to $224
Core 2 Duo E6400 from $224 to $183
Core 2 Duo E6300 from $183 to $163

At the same time they will be launching 4MB cache versions of the E6400 (E6420) and E6300 (E6320).

Just FYI.

All these are available (or will be ) on the 775 chipset?

[Reschke]

They are supposed to be on the 775 pin boards. That is one reason I just bought the Conroe E6600 one the Nforce 680i motherboard.

[Kev367th]

Originally posted by Balsy
Kev.. the ballistix runs at 2.2v and 4-4-4-12 timing, which the P5B says is unsupported, only supports 1.8v at 555 or 666 timing.  Im not an OC'er and either will be my dad.  How do you plan on using this ram? Setting the voltage, timing in Bios?

You use a 1.8v 555 or 666 just to boot it, then set the new voltage and timings, shut down and fit the "proper" ones.
Although it is also possible it will boot but with the incorrect speeds, which you then manually set in the BIOS along with the VDIMM.

Xbit has a bit on DDR800 on the P5B Deluxe, its was their testbed for some of the newer DRR800 modlues -
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/print/ddr2-800.html

Checked the Crucial site out, they are listed for the board, after much digging around found out how to do it.

Skuzzy - Bang for buck it just made sense to go with a Conroe.
I also priced an X2 5200 setup, came out all but the same, but is slower than the E6600.
Wasn't going SLI so no need for an expensive Mobo.
What was interesting - SLI for Intel is significantly more expensive (mobo wise) than for AMD.
In fact selecting the mobo was the biggest headache.
Especially given what Balsy pointed out.

To be honest I would have put up with a slower AM2 system PROVIDING the K8L's due in 2007 would have made the difference.
They won't, best guesses put them drawing AMD on par with the current Conroes, but of course by then the Conroes that are available will be faster.

[Skuzzy]

At this point the battle between AMD and Intel reminds of the one between ATI and NVidia a few years ago.

ATI would release a product only to be stomped on by NVidia releasing something faster the next day.  ATI finally realized they need to do something more than an incremental release and hit NVidia with the 9700Pro.

I think AMD needs to get focused on a real improvement and stop this incremental nonsense.  They are behind the eight ball right now and Intel is poised to release a next gen CPU around the same time AMD might have the K8L's ready.  Could be an embarassing release for AMD.

Much like the old ATI versus NVidia days.

[Kev367th]

Yup.
Big problem is they sat on their butts the last 2-3 years relying on the current X2 CPU's.
The K8L's should have been ready at least 8-12 months ago, but various changes in the architecture delayed it.
If they had just got it out it would have been a killer.
But of course this would of hit the X2 market for them.

Now they're playing catch-up again, and by the time they catch-up to the present Conroe level, it's too late again.

Still think for Quad core, K8L's are going to be the way to go, for dual core at the moment (and prob way into 2007 at least) it's Conroe.

Oh they (AMD that is) claim they'll have available 45nm CPU's in 18 months.