Wondering if I just bought an old PC?

Zaghadka wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:49:33 -0700, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg,
> Snugglemonster wrote:
>
>> #4. What is the difference between the Core 2 Duo and Crossfire? And
>> which is better?
>
> Ouch. The difference between Core 2 Duo and Crossfire is the former is a CPU
> architecture and the latter is a PCI-E graphics bus. "Core 2" is a trademark.
> "Dual core" and "quad core" is the generic term. It means that there is more
> than one processor on the die.

Isn't it just an AMD vs Intel thing? (AM2 DualCore vs Intel Core 2 Duo)

> You can buy a minimally configured quad-core system for a bit over $1000, and a
> real monster for around $2k.
>
> Your machine was 3 years old the day you turned it on. It'll do just fine, but
> it's not going to run games well in a year. If you've got room to upgrade,
> you're in okay shape.

Hey, my AMD3400 with pissy X800Pro & 2Gb DDR400 still runs everything,
though not all things well. Supreme Commander was about the only game I
tried that really wasn't very playable on my system.

> But 1 gig of RAM isn't enough to run "Gothic 3" smoothly.

LOL! Yeah, 2 is much better

--
Nostromo
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Zaghadka wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:08:48 +1000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg,
> Nostromo wrote:
>
>
> My next machine (if I bother) is going to have an Intel processor.
> Maybe a Core 2 E6600, or perhaps I'll wait for the quads. If anyone
> has any advice on this, I'd appreciate it.
>
> The pendulum has swung back in Intel's favor, AFAIC.

I'm no expert but one thing that makes the Conroes such good value is the
clockability. My E6600 runs at 3.4 Gig...a full gig above default speed. I'm
sure I could squeeze more if I worked at it.
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

"Zaghadka" <zaghadka.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message

> My next machine (if I bother) is going to have an Intel processor. Maybe a
> Core
> 2 E6600, or perhaps I'll wait for the quads. If anyone has any advice on
> this,
> I'd appreciate it.

If you can wait 'til the end of July, the Q6600 will drop to the same
current price of the E6600 (I'm holding on myself for my upgrade). And yes,
right this minute, you won't get much gaming advantage from quad core
processors, but that's going to change very quickly before Xmas. The fact
that the next iteration of the Steam engine takes advantage of it is enough
for me.
--
-pm

http://oceanclub.blogspot.com

"Behind every great man there lies a great woman. And one in
front of him as well if he's lucky."
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

Well, luckily I can return my PC back to cyberpowerpc.com. I knew this
"new" PC was old, wasn't exactly sure HOW old so I thank ya'll for the
input, especially Zag.

I'm gonna hook my 5 year old PC back up and patiently play the waiting
game til end of this year and see what my options are then.

It's just been 5+ years since I upgraded, haven't been keeping up with
the joneses, basically rushed the decision to buy what i thought was
a decent "newer" PC, but apparently not. No biggee.

I may even decide to build my own PC, though that may be a tad more
expensive. I dunno we'll see. I have a 1.5 month old who will soon not
be sleeping as much so who knows if i'll even be doing ANY gaming in 6
months lol.
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

"Torbjorn Lindgren" <tl RemoveThis @none.invalid> wrote in message
news:lMBbi.117083$dg3.53210@fe10.news.easynews.com...

<snip>

|
| There's no technical reason why they couldn't make a Core 2 Solo, in
| fact I see that the Wikipedia mentions a couple of "ultra low voltage"
| Core 2 Solo for Q3 2007 which I have to assume is single core. The
| die size they list is suprisingly high though for a single core Core2,
| perhaps they just disabled it to push the power usage even lower.
|

I had heard about this Core 2 Solo also, and I believe the larger die was to
help with heat dissipation? The applications I heard about for the Core 2
Solo were typically embedded applications, so it's possible they were
keeping a large footprint to keep heat buildup down to a minimum... That
and a more common cooling parts base with the Core 2 Duos.

CoinSpin
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

"Snugglemonster" <morvak.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1181677404.259444.114560@g37g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
| Well, luckily I can return my PC back to cyberpowerpc.com. I knew this
| "new" PC was old, wasn't exactly sure HOW old so I thank ya'll for the
| input, especially Zag.
|
| I'm gonna hook my 5 year old PC back up and patiently play the waiting
| game til end of this year and see what my options are then.
|
| It's just been 5+ years since I upgraded, haven't been keeping up with
| the joneses, basically rushed the decision to buy what i thought was
| a decent "newer" PC, but apparently not. No biggee.
|
| I may even decide to build my own PC, though that may be a tad more
| expensive. I dunno we'll see. I have a 1.5 month old who will soon not
| be sleeping as much so who knows if i'll even be doing ANY gaming in 6
| months lol.
|

Building your own PC shouldn't be much (if any) more expensive, provided you
already have the Operating System and software you want on the new
machine... If you have to buy an OS, the price jumps a bit more.

But I would highly recommend building your own. You know exactly what is
going into the beast, you can choose where to spend wisely and where to
splurge based on your specific needs, and you'll be intimately familiar with
the upgrade path for the machine in the future.

CoinSpin
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

Zaghadka <president.TakeThisOut@whitehouse.gov> wrote:
>A quad core Intel processor is called a "Core(TM) 2 Quad"
>http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2quad
>I don't even understand why there's a "2" in the name.

Because Core Solo/Duo is Yonah, with "Pentium M microarchitecture"
(with minor tweaks). Pentium M is in turn is an evolution of the
P3/P2/PentiumPro(P6) lineage.

After that they launched Core 2 Duo (the Quads came later). Core 2 is
inspired by the P-M/P6 lineage but has quite a lot of difference
(wider & faster), including SSEx units from the NetBurst lineage (P4).
It's significantly faster at the same clock than Pentium M or the
other in that lineage, and a *LOT* faster at the same clock than the
NetBurst/P4 lineage.

There's no technical reason why they couldn't make a Core 2 Solo, in
fact I see that the Wikipedia mentions a couple of "ultra low voltage"
Core 2 Solo for Q3 2007 which I have to assume is single core. The
die size they list is suprisingly high though for a single core Core2,
perhaps they just disabled it to push the power usage even lower.

Since this is Intel they just HAD to confuse people, so they named the
*architecture* of the Core 2's "Intel Core microarchitecture".
So "Core uArch" implies a Core *2* processor, not Core!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_microarchitecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core


>The pendulum has swung back in Intel's favor, AFAIC.

Yeah, Intel really has gone from strength to strength from the point
the first Core 2 processors was launched.

Give how overclock friendly the Core 2 processors are I suspect Intel
could have pushed frequencies much harder than they are doing but
there's no reason for them when AMD doesn't offer serious competition
in the high-end. As is they've already pushed AMD deep into the
"budget" segment.
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in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, "CoinSpin" <coin^spam^spin@hotmail.com>
wrote in news:136u60vlsptq679@corp.supernews.com:

>
> "Snugglemonster" <morvak.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1181677404.259444.114560@g37g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>| Well, luckily I can return my PC back to cyberpowerpc.com. I knew
>| this "new" PC was old, wasn't exactly sure HOW old so I thank ya'll
>| for the input, especially Zag.
>|
>| I'm gonna hook my 5 year old PC back up and patiently play the
>| waiting game til end of this year and see what my options are then.
>|
>| It's just been 5+ years since I upgraded, haven't been keeping up
>| with the joneses, basically rushed the decision to buy what i
>| thought was a decent "newer" PC, but apparently not. No biggee.
>|
>| I may even decide to build my own PC, though that may be a tad more
>| expensive. I dunno we'll see. I have a 1.5 month old who will soon
>| not be sleeping as much so who knows if i'll even be doing ANY gaming
>| in 6 months lol.
>|
>
> Building your own PC shouldn't be much (if any) more expensive,
> provided you already have the Operating System and software you want
> on the new machine... If you have to buy an OS, the price jumps a bit
> more.
>
> But I would highly recommend building your own. You know exactly what
> is going into the beast, you can choose where to spend wisely and
> where to splurge based on your specific needs, and you'll be
> intimately familiar with the upgrade path for the machine in the
> future.

Let me second this. I built my own about a year ago, with *no* prior
experience doing so. Took me about 2 hours to completely strip my old
case, and build a system.

I added a new motherboard, RAM, CPU, Video Card, Power Supply, and used
my old CD Burner and DVD-ROM drives. What helped me immensely was the
motherboard instructions came with what order to add other things.


--
Marcel
 >> Stay informed about: Wondering if I just bought an old PC? 

Zaghadka wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:15:13 +1000, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, Nostromo
> wrote:
>
>> So, call me a political purchaser, but I've seen nothing good come out
>> of the 'big boys' having a majority market share, ever, period. Just ask
>> Mr Gates. Even he knew when it was time to get out .
>
> I'll call you a "fool" if you're willing to accept less bang for your buck.

Yup, seems too many ppl today are selling their souls offshore for a
mere 5-10%. If that makes me a fool, then so be it. There's more to life
than just hitting rock bottom dollar every time.

--
Nostromo
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