My $800 budget gaming pc.. please help!

I'm going to try to throw some logic here into the mix.

I will very shortly be bulding my next computer. I have a socket 478 2.8 GHz Northwood in my computer right now, so it's just about time. When I bought this chip, it beat the price comparable AMD Athlon Xp (forget which one exactly it was), in every test except gaming. As I have always been a console gamer anyway (I now on an Xbox 360), I decided it was best to get the Intel chip.

A few months ago, I had some despensable money, (birthday), and it was decision time, either get the Xbox 360 (when I could find it in stock), or upgrade my computer. Ultimately, in the end, I got the Xbox 360, and I am glad for that decision. However, in the weeks leading up to the decision, I had planned out a few rigs, just in case I decided to build a new PC.

I have never owned an AMD chip, and at one point, was afraid to leave Intel. As I was thinking, it started to pain me that my (at the time netburst P4 775), configuration, costed me considerably more, and offered less performance. (As per multiple benchmark viewings). I decided, this is really stupid, I'll go for the AMD, if it's going to be better for me.

My new build coming up soon, may be either. I don't know who will offer better performance per $$$ were I need it most. Although Conroe has an advantage, the AMD price drops may still make it better per dollar in my price range. If that's the case, I will go for AMD.

The bottom line is for all of this, go for whatever it is that brings you more performance for your money. AMD or Intel won't mind if you leave them for the other company, really, it will just push them to make better/more affordable products. Do what is best for your performance, never because you like one company, or you dislike one, such as Intel because they're big. Nothing is worse than when people say, I'm building a new machine, it has to be AMD because I hate intel, no conroe. Honestly, get over yourself.

Just a little bit to chew on, sc7.
 
similiar dilemma

i have a similiar dilemma... i posted a similiar thread 2 weeks ago for a $1000 budget, but it seems like i was overshooting and 800 might be more of a reality for a budget.

originally i was going with a x2 3800 at 297, and from my thread i was told about the then upcoming conroe and amd price drops. when conroe came out none were in stock (still are not... for the most part) so i went to tomshardware and saw the benchmark tests.

i was comparing the E6600 with the athlon x2 4800 and athlon x2 5000 which are both not heavily in stock either.... and these chips do not reflect the same price drops (if any) as all the lower-ended chips. so i still plan on spending around the same (~$300) for the CPU. so i am just waiting on whichever is going to be more readily available..... the top-end athlon x2's or the newly released conroe E6600..... i did not want to go with the 6400 because
1) it has a 2mb cache vs. the 4mb cache in the E6600
2) i was not able to do a comprehensive comparison since it was not benchmarked on tomshardware


what do u guys think?

tom's hardware benchmark article: [ http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/ ] benchmarks start on page 12
 
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bball4life said:
The e6600 will blow the x2's away, it competes and in the end beats the fx-62, hands down core 2 in that situation.
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Ditto.

The e6600 is a much better performer in all respects then any of the X2 lines and hangs and for the most part beats the top of the line AMD's. E6600 gets the vote for now. If they drop the price of there FX series to compete with the E6600 and E6700 then it's time to consider the AMD chips again.
 
Wow you can overclocked a 4200+ to 4600+ speeds and still get less performance then a non-clocked Conroe.

So we have voided our warrenty on the chip to get less performance then we would get if we just bought a Conroe and didn't even overclock it and keeping our warrenty. Good call! :rolleyes:
 
lol, ive already ordered my conroe cpu.. it is backordered, but the place im ordering from is supposed to have some in stock on August 7th! I should be getting it soon!
 
Adam Murray said:
lol, ive already ordered my conroe cpu.. it is backordered, but the place im ordering from is supposed to have some in stock on August 7th! I should be getting it soon!
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Good choice, tell us how it is when you get it.
 
Ekim401 said:
Looks good, but 4200+ for only $30 more! and can clock to 4600+ speeds
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You can clock it to the FX-62 speed and the E6600 will still beat it. Plus, why not the the x2 5000+ so it can clock to the non existent X2 5400+ speed :P
 
Anything the AMD can overclock to, you can do the same and more with Conroe. Conroe is supposedly one of the best overclocking chips ever released.
 
It sure seems like it is one of the best oc'ing chips, when they did the pre-release reviews some hardware sites that reviewed the chips were hitting 50% overclocks without pushin it to the max, now thats just crazy and thanks to the lower stock voltages. :P
 
I think this will be VERY interesting for everyone here who is on a budget and can only afford an E6400 instead of the E6600 &E6700. Even though the E6400 lacks the 4MB cache and has a lower processor speed just look how it stacks up against it's bigger brothers and the AMD chips!

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_duo_e6400_review/page2.asp

This should lay to rest the worries that people had about which chips would perform better on the low end of the price range.

Friggin 3.4GHz on AIR!!! :)
 
That's good for me, as that's probably what I will be stuck with for my budget (and I'll be more than happy).
 
Yea considering it overclocked that much and performed better then a X2 4600+ sometimes better then a X2 5000+ and even sometimes better then the FX-62. Considering the price thats a hell of a performance/price. I'd be interested in how well they can get it to perform on more serious OC motherboards and better cooling.
 
JG30 said:
Yea considering it overclocked that much and performed better then a X2 4600+ sometimes better then a X2 5000+ and even sometimes better then the FX-62. Considering the price thats a hell of a performance/price. I'd be interested in how well they can get it to perform on more serious OC motherboards and better cooling.
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And that is just the e6400, someone needs to push the x6800 to its limits.
 
Apparently, Dual core is now the standard. The value will upgrade to conroe, and will be the only single core (core solo), models shipping.

Linky
 
SC7 said:
Apparently, Dual core is now the standard. The value will upgrade to conroe, and will be the only single core (core solo), models shipping.

Linky
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That will make conroe available to everyone who has a comp. :P
 
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