Pentium D 9xx (price cut) vs Athlon64 x2

[tridart]

alright prices for the pentium D 9 series have dropped a great deal now. I see a need to revise the priceerformance ratio as AMD no longer is the sole leader for the "bang for buck" hype. The 950 has come close to a x2 3800+'s price range, or mayb a x2 4200+'s. And a x2 4400+ seems to b priced reasonably higher than the 950. So its no longer the same battle. With 930 being dirt cheap and offering a close fight in benchmarks against the x2 3800+, what does the outcome look like? Well..im planning to get a new system within the nxt few days, not months. I can't afford to wait for Conroe, let alone AM2.

I was looking at a64 x2 3800+ for a while then stumbled upon the d930 with a cheaper tag. The d950 is also reasonable (priced on-par w/ x2 3800+) bt i'v heard tht when it comes to pentium d 9x series, only the 930 is value for money. So putting value-for-money pentium against value-for-money athlon64, which would prove better for some1 who's gaming FEAR & the likes, & at the same time handling multi-threaded apps & doing graphic 2d/3d model/design/animation? Help appreciated. Thx beforehand.

 

[luminaris]

The problem is, although Intel has slashed prices on their chips, it's their chipsets that remain high priced making the motherboards that support the Pentium D series, expensive. Plan on paying the same amount for a supporting board with the latest and greatest Intel chipset. Even the older Intel chipsets remain expensive IMO.

The tradeoff is this, yes, the AMDs are more expensive but expect to pay less for the supporting hardware. Intels are cheaper but expect to pay more for the supporting hardware.

IMO, I would go AMD with a good reasonable board and memory.

 

[tridart]

whoa..good way ye put it pal. nice analogy..took me this long to notice. thanks!

 

[kunider]

the ASUS P5LD2 is very affordable, and run d9xx perfectly. if there's a problem, is that you have to upgrade your bios before putting the d9xx in it, but i'm not sure, i was already updated when i bought my d940.

 

[chillyman]

What about the 8xx Pentium D's...? They seem to be pretty competitive thanks to their great overclocking ability (albeit they tend to exaggerate results). But in any case they provide solid performance in multitasking senarios and their price-tag couldn't be any more attractive at this point.

 

[Ycon]

Get the 930 and pay a little more (like Luminaris said) for the D975XBX rev.304 until you can afford going with Conroe

 

[The_Prophecy]

The problem is, although Intel has slashed prices on their chips, it's their chipsets that remain high priced making the motherboards that support the Pentium D series, expensive. Plan on paying the same amount for a supporting board with the latest and greatest Intel chipset. Even the older Intel chipsets remain expensive IMO.

The tradeoff is this, yes, the AMDs are more expensive but expect to pay less for the supporting hardware. Intels are cheaper but expect to pay more for the supporting hardware.

IMO, I would go AMD with a good reasonable board and memory.

Asus has an 865PE based board for ~ $100 (P5P800 SE) which supports the the 900 series chips, although you will need to have the bios flashed before the 930 will be supported, unless you luck out and get a board with a later bios revision. This board also uses DDR1 ram and AGP, so if you're only planning on upgrading the cpu and want to leave everything else as is, this board will let you do that.

 

[davidflet9]

in uk the 940 is £30 cheaper than the 3800+ and in my view probably a better performer, or the 950 is a little more expensive but again more powerful i think