Ok a few questions on CPU
The following article should help:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/cpu/intel-conroe-2-13-ghz.html
It compares the Conroe E6700 and E6400 against the the AMD FX-60 & FX-62. The Athlon FX are very expensive CPUs for the enthusiats, they can be had for around $800 and $1200 respectively.
The E6700 is the second fastest Conroe CPU. The X6800 is the fastest. The E6400 is the second slowest Conroe duo core that will be available for sale.
Some people may consider the data to be preliminary since Conroe is not on sale yet. But it is just one of many independent sites that have posted Conroe benchmarks recently. You can do a Google search for others.
AMD will but cutting prices on the Athlons on July 24th to compete against Conroe on price. However, a socket AM2 and socket 939 Athlon 64 X2 CPU of the same model (i.e. AM2 X2 3800+, and S939 X2 3800+) basically performs the same. AMD has stated this several times, yet some people thought an AM2 CPU would be faster than a S939 CPU (of the same model). They were mistaken because they simply thought anything new would be faster and didn't bother to read any benchmark reviews.
I did see a review somewhere that showed an AM2 Athlon can be faster than a S939 Athlon
if you use DDR2 800 RAM which is more expensive than DDR2 667 RAM or the regular DDR 400 RAM for S939. The various benchmarks that they uses showed a peformance gain of 0% - 6% with an average 3% performance gain. Also take into consideration that as with any test there is a 2% or 3% for margin of error which can erase any performance gains. If I can find the article I will post it.
Conroe represent an all new approach to CPU design by Intel. They have more or less abandoned pure speed in favor of a more efficinent design. This is similar to what AMD has done several years ago when they first introduced the original Athlon. Gone are the days of hot and fast CPUs. Conroe will be on average about as "cool running" as today's Athlon 64s. Taking a page from AMD's book, Conroe will be running slower than the Pentium 4. The slowest Conroe, E6300, will be clocked at about 2.13GHz, the fastest Conroe, X6800, will be clocked at 2.93GHz.
One important distinction between Conroe and other CPUs, including the AMD Athlon 64 X2, is the fact that it can run or execute 4 instructions at the same time rather than just 3. Simply stated, if you are printing a 100 page Word document which would you rather choose? Printer #1 that can print 10 pages per minute? Or Printer #2 than can print 14 pages per minute? This is over simplifying things, but the benchmarks between Conroe and Athlon 64 X2 speaks for themselves.
If you cannot wait, then get either an AM2 or S939 Athlon 64 X2. Basically there are no performance difference. Since S939 motherboards have been around for a while most of the bugs have been fixed and those mobos should be very stable. AM2 motherboards are new which means those mobos can be somewhat unstable. There have been many posts that has stated AM2 mobo are very picky about which brandname of RAM can be used.
If you do not plan on upgrading the CPU for three or more years then getting a S939 Athlon 64 may make sense since there is basically no performance difference with a similar AM2 CPU and the mobos are more or less stable. After three years you may want to replace all or most of your hardware anyway. If you plan on upgrading the CPU within 3 years to a X2 5000+ or faster (or AMD's next generation CPU the K8L) then it makes sense to buy an AM2 Athlon 64.
However, if peformance is what you want and you can wait until August, then Conroe is worth considering.
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