AMD Dual core CPU's

[casey]

Does anyway know why it's taking so long for AMD to get CPU's to the stores? I ordered a 5000+ Dual core weeks ago and it's still on backorder without an ETA as of tonight. I notice most places don't have the 5000+ at all even to backorder..

[mylanta]

Doesn't it make you wonder Larry how they can take such an extreme price cut and then have no stock. It is bringing back memories of my retail career where they are making the cpu promotionally now and will not lose a penny on this price cut because they will produce it at a lower cost to sell at those prices.

[jcampi]

Forget the AMD shortage and go for Intel. Rich, it's funny how we are on different sides now with AMD/Intel. :-)

[mylanta]

It is indeed funny now John...in thinking about the whole situation, I would not go Intel dual core "D" cpu's which actually are not on par with Amd dual cores, even though the prices are lower now for Intel as there is a heat problem with those. No question the intel Conroe dual core are faster than Amd but they were supposed to be cheaper as well which they are not. The least expensive Conroe is $193 and that is a 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz I would not want and the other problem is right now the least expensive board is Intel $124 and it has 3 pci slots besides which will never do for my use. All other boards for Conroe are over $200 and while I know that will change, it makes them actually on the Amd side now of non competitive until that happens. I also think the reason the boards are so high, is that there must be a ways to go with architecture problems because normally there would be a flood of new boards for these cpu's by now. Not a great idea to be number one in anything anymore. Nvidia 4 chipset problems on Amd boards proved that and those problems with usb ports non functioning were never solved, they simply moved on to new series of chipsets with other problems. Now is a very difficult time to figure where to go building new as there are all kinds of tech problems out there due to all this new technology.But one thing I would not ever do is stick my head in sand and stay single core cpu as so many of the "if it aint broke don't fix it" batallion are doing as the Amd dual core Am2 and X2 are super to work with, you just need to be careful of motherboard and chipset you choose and right now the ATi chipsets are the answer believe it or not.

[Pi rules]

Rich, the cheapest Core 2 Duo is nearly on par with AMD's FX-62, the other ones blow it away. Did anyone notice that AMD seems to be stopping the 2x1MB L2 cache and going with 2x512 MB to make them cheaper? The X2 5000+ only has 2x512MB L2. Intel won this round.

PS: Rich - the 9xx series of Pentium D CPUs aren't that hot even with stock cooling. With stock cooling it was idle at around 40 C, with a Thermaltake Blue Orb II it's idle at the mid 30s C.

[mylanta]

Rich, the cheapest Core 2 Duo is nearly on par with AMD's FX-62, the other ones blow it away. Did anyone notice that AMD seems to be stopping the 2x1MB L2 cache and going with 2x512 MB to make them cheaper? The X2 5000+ only has 2x512MB L2. Intel won this round.

PS: Rich - the 9xx series of Pentium D CPUs aren't that hot even with stock cooling. With stock cooling it was idle at around 40 C, with a Thermaltake Blue Orb II it's idle at the mid 30s C.

PI I have read that they aren't running as hot, but I still did a unit the other day that started out at 60C with decent fans installed.
I noticed the change in cache and forgot to mention it as I have the older ones that are 2X 1 meg.

[golfmore]

What cache size do the 'newer' versions have? I am contemplating one of these. Now have a P4 Northwood. (Pentium D that is.)

[casey]

While waiting to get the 5000+ I purchased a 4000+ with a 1mb cache for $120. This was half price. They are doing away with the 1mb cache. I have been scanning the Intel and comparing the prices since I have everything else but it does seem that the Intel chips are a lot more expensive or they are hard to get also. I'm not sure about Intel chips blowing away the AMD chips as I have seen that the fastest Intel chip is now faster then the fastest AMD chip. The price for the Intel chip is also a lot more and what people are not taking into considereationis the AMD AM2 motherboards will be compatible with the AM3 quad core AMD CPU's suppose to be coming out early next year.At least that is what is being reported now.Does anyone think Intel boards will be compatible with the next generation CPU's. I have been reading that the best deal is the dual core 3800 for $150 overclocked to the higher speeds that cost a lot more. The 5000+ that I ordered is $315 and what is suppose to be a comparable chip is the Intel 6600 at $370 and then I would have to get another motherboard..

Rich, not really sure I understand your post. Are you saying that the new chips will have inferior manufacturing compared to the older chips? I noticed a lot of Intel chips are also hard to get. Would this be for the same reason?

[mylanta]

Rich, not really sure I understand your post. Are you saying that the new chips will have inferior manufacturing compared to the older chips? I noticed a lot of Intel chips are also hard to get. Would this be for the same reason?[/quote]

No Larry if you mean my comment about INtel, it is concerns that there are not many mobos there yet and they are really pricey. I have yet to read there are problmes there, I just suspect there are is all.

[casey]

Doesn't it make you wonder Larry how they can take such an extreme price cut and then have no stock. It is bringing back memories of my retail career where they are making the cpu promotionally now and will not lose a penny on this price cut because they will produce it at a lower cost to sell at those prices.


Here is what I am asking about. You say "they will not lose a penny on this price cut because they will produce it at a lower cost to sell at those prices". What I take this to mean is they will cut cost producing the chip to make up for the price cut. This to me would mean an inferior chip. I could be wrong and you didn't mean it this way but it sure sounds like it to me..

I also read somewhere why they are going to the 512 cache but wasn't impressed with the article so I didn't keep a copy...

[casey]

I have no idea if what this person is saying is true but thought it would be an interesting discussion...



Since you bought an AM2 socket processor (deduced from your MB) I'd say you made the right CPU maker choice, although I'd probably gone with a X2 3800+ and OC'd it for the next 6-9 months, and bought one of the new quad 65nm AMD AM3 CPUs coming out Q1 or Q2 next year. Those monsters should be good - so your upgrade path in the future will be 1 CPU to purchase, nothing else (AM3 will be socket compatible with AM2 per AMD's website)

C2D's future version requires a different socket, from all accounts, and FB-DIMM as well. Additionally, initial tests of the Mac Pro indicate what some of us feared - Intel's C2D is memory bound with more than 1 CPU - note that the "quad" Intel's releasing late this year will be 2 CPUs in 1 package, thus will suffer the same issues which are even worse if done on a DDR2 MB)

[mylanta]

Exactly what I meant...and the lower cache shows that could well be true.
I mean the price cuts they took were extreme and yet they just came out with really good earnings...

[casey]

Exactly what I meant...and the lower cache shows that could well be true.
I mean the price cuts they took were extreme and yet they just came out with really good earnings...

I guess we are talking past one another because it is my understanding that the AMD 5000+ always only had the 2x 512 cache and they still have the same cache. I'm sure if they would change that after the price cuts people would have mentioned it.There was no change in the chips that I know of and if I'm wrong I hope someone will set me straight... The chips that were discontinued had the 1 meg cache but the ones they are still making stayed the same.

I just went back and checked and found that the 4800+ still had the 1 meg cache. Now I don't know if this makes a difference that one chip has the 1 meg cache and the other has 2x 512 cache. This is getting more confusing the more I check into it..

[mylanta]

I have a dual core 4200 with 2X1 meg L2 cache...it was $357.
The ones out now are 2x512 meg cache:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547
If you look at Newegg you will note the 4400 and 4600 advertised still have 2X1 meg cache but I bet when they run out, those will change also as they are different on other sites and have been for a while.
That change started because when I bought my 4200 originally only the 3800 had 512 cache and it was the reason I chose the 4200. My 4800 also has 2X1meg cache. I don't know but I just wonder where else they cheapened up...there isn't that much markup on hardware.The 4800 was $630 when I bought it and now $307. It cannot be the same, that was only
2 months ago (and no I didn't pay $630 for it, it was part of that incredible $600 ebay package I bought and sold off most of the rest of what was in it for a lot more.)

[jcampi]

Every article I've read (and I've read many) state all of the new dual core intel chips operate at about half the power of the AMD conterparts. I just assumed if the chips operated and used much less power consumption they should run cooler.