Well, I'm perfectly aware that a dual-core cpu for $59 is amazing... however, I currently have a Pentium D 805... is it worth new mobo/cpu to upgrade to the x2 3600? and does anyone know of benchmarks comparing X2 3600 to say a core 2 6600, or x2 6000? Obviously those cpus would be faster... but are they fast enough to warrant the extra $$$$?

@ stock speed, the X2 3600+ will perform more or less like a 3.0GHz Pentium D; the 805 runs at 2.66GHz, so you do the math. If you want to overclock, most probably you will be able to send the X2 3600+ to X2 5000+ levels (2.6GHz), or even X2 5400+ (2.8GHz); that is better than a stock E6400 and nearly to E6600 levels.

Well, Technically speaking I'm aware of all the ghz specs of the CPU's... however, cache is less on X2 3600, and different architecture than Core 2. I'm sure X2 3600 is faster than any pentium d... but I wondered how it compares speed/$$'s when compared to say a Core 2

I don't have a Core2 for comparison, but I can say that the X2 3600 (Brisbane) is an amazing chip. It undervolts very well and can overclock very well (easily to the levels that m25 mentioned).

I think I read a while ago that the difference between 1MB L2 per core vs. 512K is something like 2 - 3% and maybe something like 5% when you're doing video encoding. For $59, the 3600 Brisbane is a steal.

If you're concerned about performance and want something better, by all means get one of the lower end Core2's.

For a straight trade the price-performance benefit isn't there, if on the other hand you want to OC it might be worth it depending on how lucky you are at OC'ing.

Depends; if it's a Brisbane, the cache is the same (2x512) and even if it's a Windsor with 2x256 L2 it won't hurt performance more than 2% in the worst case compared to a X2 3800+. As for the speed/$$ you mention, up to the X2 5400+, X2s are somehow better than Core2s if you're talking stock speed.

It runs at 9x200=1.8GHz -- No, it's not any faster than the P4D; about the same or slower. I'd get a cheap C2D or wait ..


C2D RETAIL
http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/sea [...] 0&m=&view=

3600+ run at 1.9 stock and it is deff not slower, it would be the same if not faster.

now im not sure if it would be worth it for you to change out your system. If you can get a C2D in that board i would run that, however if you cant and are using DDR2 ram it might be worth going to AMD because they have a good upgrade path.

At $59, yes it's worth it.

If you're into overclocking, its a very good chip. I got mine to 2.8ghz at stock voltages with stock cooling. I've since backed it down simply because I don't trust the stock cooler for the long term.

It runs at 9x200=1.8GHz -- No, it's not any faster than the P4D; about the same or slower. I'd get a cheap C2D or wait ..


C2D RETAIL
http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/sea [...] 0&m=&view=
It runs at 1.9GHz and as a rule of thumb, wipes out more or less any 3.0GHz (or lower) PentiumD.

As another note, the Brisbane 3600 uses a 9.5x multiplier rather than a whole number (if you couldn't figure out that 1900 / 200 = 9.5)