Happy New Years Fellow Geeks!

[Merc]

Happy New Years my fellow geeks. I resolve that I will talk Pete into building a Core 2 Duo machine this year. http://www.world-of-smilies.com/wos_weihnachten/weihnachten17.gif

[35Pete]

Happy New Year Merc.

I'm gunning for a Core 2 duo upgrade with mobo by spring.

[Merc]

If it is the spring then I'd wait till the 45nm cores (Penryn) are available at the lower costs. They are very fast and very overclockable but Intel has delayed wide distribution, except at the very high end. Spring should be just about right Pete. Q9450 at $320 or so looks to be the sweetspot. http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php?id=16193&catid=2 Those dates have shifted to the right and there are many rumors about why but I'd guess lack of competition and some yield problems with 45nm. Intel has cut back some on R&D because there just is no reason to spend big bucks since there is no competition to speak of. Barcelona flamed out so Intel owns the market at the moment.

[35Pete]

If it is the spring then I'd wait till the 45nm cores (Penryn) are available at the lower costs. They are very fast and very overclockable but Intel has delayed wide distribution, except at the very high end. Spring should be just about right Pete. Q9450 at $320 or so looks to be the sweetspot. http://www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php?id=16193&catid=2 Those dates have shifted to the right and there are many rumors about why but I'd guess lack of competition and some yield problems with 45nm. Intel has cut back some on R&D because there just is no reason to spend big bucks since there is no competition to speak of. Barcelona flamed out so Intel owns the market at the moment.

Thanks bro. I knew I could count on you. Yeah, I love my AMD but the intel performance metrics don't lie.

What's crazy in that my AMD FX-64 will all the great add-ons (Asus Mobo, dual EN8800-GTX video cards, 4 GB of Corsair Dominator, et al..) will still smoke 95% of all the rigs out there.

But only another fellow geek would understand: "That ain't good enough!" LOL

[Merc]

Thanks bro. I knew I could count on you. Yeah, I love my AMD but the intel performance metrics don't lie.

What's crazy in that my AMD FX-64 will all the great add-ons (Asus Mobo, dual EN8800-GTX video cards, 4 GB of Corsair Dominator, et al..) will still smoke 95% of all the rigs out there.

But only another fellow geek would understand: "That ain't good enough!" LOL

True enough and those GTXes are incredible. I have only one but it is on water and O/Cs remarkably well. The only big desision you'll have to make is DDR3 or DDR2. Right now DDR2 is dirt cheap and DDR3 is incredibly expensive. That may change some by spring.

[35Pete]

True enough and those GTXes are incredible. I have only one but it is on water and O/Cs remarkably well. The only big desision you'll have to make is DDR3 or DDR2. Right now DDR2 is dirt cheap and DDR3 is incredibly expensive. That may change some by spring.

New mobo means DDR3. Yes more expensive up front but if I do no then I waste my upgradibility option.

[Merc]

New mobo means DDR3. Yes more expensive up front but if I do no then I waste my upgradibility option.

Next is Nehalem with the memory controller on-die and it will definitely be a DDR3 only CPU. It is due in the 3rd or fourth quarter of 08, more likely early 09 now, but it will require a new socket and chipset as well. PCIe2 and HT4 will be part of it as well so it would be an entirely new system (although PCIe 2 is backwards caompatible).

Food for thought, with the cost of DDR3 remaining very high over the next year or so at least and DDDR2 being so dirt cheap it is almost not worth considering as an impediment to upgrading. As an example, 2GB of Corsair XMS DDR2 800 can be had for $37 after rebate, 4GB (2x2GB)for $79. Right now and for the near future (8 mos-1.5 years at least) 2 GB of Corsair XMS DDR3 goes for $450 and 4GB goes for a whopping $859. Not really in the same league cost wise and the performance increase is negligible at best due to higher latencies. $450 as compared to $37 for the same performance and quality makes RAM a non-issue as it is more that the cost of a super high end motherboard.

Personally I don't plan on moving to DDR3 until Nehalem. It is prohibitively expensive and I hate spending $450 on something I can get for $125 max in a year and a half or so. Every new chip until Nehalem will be 775 socket and DDR2 compatible so I am planning on a Penryn with my present P35 chipset mobo for a year and a half when Nehalem is a known quantity and DDR3 is reasonably priced.

If I were you I'd look at a Penryn with a 780i chipset and 2GB of DDR2 from Team Group (Team makes some hot RAM) 780i chipsets should be out soon. Maybe buy the RAM now before the price goes up.

UPDATE: As I type the 780i chipset has hit the street. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131247

[35Pete]

Merc. I've been popping in and out of Newegg.com.

Core 2 duo extreme with DDR3 (1333 MHz), and an ASUS Mobo for about 2 large. What's your take?