Conroe on the way. Now questions...

[Sancho]

A new motherboard and 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU are on the way.  Here's what I bought:

- PC CHIPS P23G (V3.0) motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz

I know this is not a sexy motherboard, but I'll be saving $400-600 by not having to buy DDR2 RAM, PCI-E video card, and a 24-pin connector power supply.  Performance will not be all that it could be, but in the short term this will still be a nice improvement over the single core Athlon 64 3000+ CPU I have now.  Later on after more Conroe compatible boards are available and the DirectX 10 video cards are out, maybe I'll buy all that stuff.  Anyway, a few questions:

1. Is a new 24-pin ATX power supply really necessary when upgrading to a board with a 24-pin power connector?  Isn't there an adapter available?

2. Does Windows 2000 work with conroe CPU or will I need XP?

3. Does Aces High benefit much from dual core?

[Puck]

Originally posted by Sancho

1. Is a new 24-pin ATX power supply really necessary when upgrading to a board with a 24-pin power connector?  Isn't there an adapter available?

2. Does Windows 2000 work with conroe CPU or will I need XP?

3. Does Aces High benefit much from dual core?

1. Yes

2. Why would you want to?

3. Probably not as much as you think unless Dale compiled it for a multi-threaded processor.  The second core may take some hosekeeping load, but otherwise a single app (generally) doesn't see much difference in performance.  Big bottlenecks will be GPU and memory access most likely.  Skuzzy is the Voice on this one.

[Grits]

Skuzzy has said several times that AH is multi-threaded.

[Puck]

Never said it to me, with gold embossing and a certificate of authenticity.

Designed for multiple threads or multiple processors?  I didn't notice any huge improvements running it on my dual hyperthreaded Xenon box (4 cores).  Of course the graphics on that machine aren't spectacular.  Not sure if Xenon is the right way for games, either, but it does make a spiffy server.

[Schutt]

Are you sure the conroe runs on that motherboard?

On the power supply, most motherboards that have a 24 pin connector can be run with the old power supply by leaving the additional pins empty, some eaven have a plastik cover for them. But they are there because the old plugs could not supply enough current for the power hungry stuff. If the graphic card is either cheap or has seperate power chord your good, but if its a medium range one which uses a lot of power through the motherboard your probably better off with a good power supply with a 24 pin connector.

As i recall it HTC officials said AH2 itself is not multi threaded BUT runs smoother with less stutters since some drivers / directx calls are multithreaded.

So...
1. No, not necessarily
2. dont know, suspect it does
3. does not benefit much

[Skuzzy]

AH2 is multi-threaded.

[SuperDud]

I notice a BIG difference with my conroe and it's the lowest ended one you could buy. With my Pentium 4 3.0GHZ I could only run at low settings at 50FR. With this conroe I rn everything at max along with animated water and have FR of 75! I will admit I upgraded my whole PC but before putting the conroe in I used my old pentium and was still only running at 55ish.

[Sancho]

Originally posted by Schutt
Are you sure the conroe runs on that motherboard?

Thanks for the replies.  Yes, the rev 3 of this board does.  Unfortunately Newegg sent me the older version of the same board which doesn't support conroe.   So now I have a E6600 sitting on the shelf for probably 5 days before I get hte right board.