Waiting for AMD: a good strategy?

orwell

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I have been reading about "K10" Barcelona quite a bit and it has got me rethinking my upgrade plans.

I was thinking of going for the Core2Duo 4300 (for its overclocking abilities). But then was thinking of just waiting for AMD because I think along with the R600, AMD is going to have a great upcoming year. Hopefully I can maximize the longevity of my upgrade by buying when the K10 and r600 are hot.

What do you guys think about that plan?
 

Major_Spittle

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I think the K10 is not supposed to be out until early 2008.

It will probably be crazy expensive to buy if it is worth a crap, which would mean all of Intel Quad cores will be cheap.

On the other hand, if it is not that great it could be cheap to buy but would be competing with the Intel Quad cores so would be priced similarly.

I would probably go Intel if you wouldn't be willing to pay a crazy price for an K10 if it is good or be willing to wait until K10 prices drop which would be late 2008 at the earliest. For me the Intel route would make more sense.

If you are willing to pay the premium price for a K10 that beats Intels products, then the Cost of selling off your Intel MB and CPU to buy an AMD MB should be no problem. And if the K10 flops, you are set to upgrade your C2D as soon as you find out it is a flop.

It would be nice if AMD would actually release some info (real benchmark comparisons) about the K10 for people looking to upgrade. I would think it would be in their best intrest to do so if all they had was good news. :?
 

halbhh

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Well, everyone, especially Jack, already said what I was going to.

One long term budget upgrade path could be: AM2 with 5200 or less now, with quad core upgrade sometime later in 2008 when the prices are favorable and you are ready, and skip the AM2+ motherboard, and get an AM3 motherboard (as another upgrade) in late 2008 or early 09, and then Am3 type components as you wish, over time, and finally an advanced AM3 generation chip (or chips! in a multi-socket) eventually when the quad seems old to you. Piecemeal, that's my style, and makes me feel new every few months.
 

qcmadness

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I think the K10 is not supposed to be out until early 2008.

It will probably be crazy expensive to buy if it is worth a crap, which would mean all of Intel Quad cores will be cheap.

On the other hand, if it is not that great it could be cheap to buy but would be competing with the Intel Quad cores so would be priced similarly.

I would probably go Intel if you wouldn't be willing to pay a crazy price for an K10 if it is good or be willing to wait until K10 prices drop which would be late 2008 at the earliest. For me the Intel route would make more sense.

If you are willing to pay the premium price for a K10 that beats Intels products, then the Cost of selling off your Intel MB and CPU to buy an AMD MB should be no problem. And if the K10 flops, you are set to upgrade your C2D as soon as you find out it is a flop.

It would be nice if AMD would actually release some info (real benchmark comparisons) about the K10 for people looking to upgrade. I would think it would be in their best intrest to do so if all they had was good news. :?

Barcelona is too critical to be delayed. A mid-2007 release is probably the result.
 

Major_Spittle

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One word for ya'.
PENRYN
That would be my #1 choice, but lord knows what chipset a person will need. I hope my P965 chip will run Penryn, if not I will get a Quad Core when I need to upgrade. I tend to think my 6700 at 3.5GHz will last awhile longer. :lol:
 

custompcz

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While there is a new chipset in the works for the new 45nm core I bet our P965's will be just fine after a BIOS flash. Mine is already good for the 1333FSB CPU's. Just look how the P945's can now be used for C2D's. :wink:
 

Mandrake_

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Something new is always coming out. Wait for AMD, suddenly Barcelona and Penryn are out. Then you may as well wait for Nehalem. You could be waiting forever for a new PC :wink: Now's a good time. Low CPU prices and great performance.
 

custompcz

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I agree but I would wait just until April or so to see if the across the board 4M C2D's are released and @ a lower price point to boot. I may even upgrade @ that point as well since I'm not getting to 4Ghz as I had hoped with this E4300. Great performer @ 3.4 for the $$ but still not 4Ghz.... 8)
 

custompcz

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Thanks.
Just can't get by the 380FSB wall. :roll: Stopped at a reasonable 1.46Vcore as any further increases don't seem to help. Temps are good though @ 21c/idle & 35c full load with Prime95 torture and superPi. Thats if Gigabytes hardware monitor is accurate. Speedfan shows the same temps as well so perhaps it is.
 

custompcz

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Very True! If you keep them cooled properly, virtually all of Intel's cores since Northwood OC very well. I've been using my modded Zalman Reserator to cool even the hottest of prescott cores and never had a problem seeing 4Ghz from a 3Ghz starting point. My PD 930 had no problems @ 4.2Ghz and when you increased the FSB they really gave the X2's a good run for usually less $$.
 

the_vorlon

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I have been reading about "K10" Barcelona quite a bit and it has got me rethinking my upgrade plans.

I was thinking of going for the Core2Duo 4300 (for its overclocking abilities). But then was thinking of just waiting for AMD because I think along with the R600, AMD is going to have a great upcoming year. Hopefully I can maximize the longevity of my upgrade by buying when the K10 and r600 are hot.

What do you guys think about that plan?

There is always something to "wait" for :)

I allocate about $75 a month to my computer - basically I am "renting" a machine from a psycological point of view. - It'like the cable or the phone bill.

This is how I do it.

1000: Build $2000 machine.

1010: Use for 10 months or so

1020: Sell machine for $+/- $1300

1030: Go To Line 1000

For $75 a month I am always more or less current. :)
 

Major_Spittle

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There is nothing to dislike about the intel chips,The oc headroom is just awesome.

Except that they are made by Intel ;) ...

Frankly, some people who started computing for various reasons, as a hobby, as a profession, etc. started by building AMD systems, overtime you built up confidence so there is good reason to like AMD even if they are not top performing... conversely, same goes with Intel some people build Intel boxes, worked with them, know them and trust the product so they will stick with it even when Intel is not top performance.

This is called brand loyalty to a point. Nothing wrong with that :)

My first build was a Cyrix, then Intel 300A Celeron, then I built 5 AMD Athlon/XP systems, Intel 560, Intel 6700. Every system I built has been OC. I really have no dog in the brand loyalty fight. I got my last two Intel processors free, so as you see I buy the best bang for your buck in the $100-$200 range. I can honestly say the Cyrix and 560 were the worst builds I ever did, the 300A and 6700 were the best builds, and the AMD's were always solid bargin chips but not great Overclockers.

My point is that I am loyal to the dollar, and I think this is where most people fall. I am sure AMD will get my bussiness again because they seem to do well in my $100-$200 price range usually. I think that price range is more my loyalty than anything, and AMD isn't doing good in that range right now.

Loyalty is nothing more than a sticker on the outside of your computer case when it is all said and done.
 

Major_Spittle

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1000: Build $2000 machine.

1010: Use for 10 months or so

1020: Sell machine for $+/- $1300

1030: Go To Line 1000

For $75 a month I am always more or less current. :)

You forgot to name your subroutine, there is no space in the goto command, and Line "1025: Wife complains about line 1000" was left out, but other than that it is a brilliant use of Old School MS Basic to show the same pratice that I adhere too.