If you don't already know what Conroe/Core 2 Duo is, see this in depth article: (Otherwise, skip below for the buyers guide).
Intel's Core 2 Extreme & Core 2 Duo: The Empire Strikes Back
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh … spx?i=2795
Summary:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh … 5&p=19
Anandtech has released a 19 page buyers guide for Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips (Conroe). The article includes motherboards from ASUS, Intel, DFI, Biostar, Gigabyte, ASRock, as well as high performance and value memory recommendations. Benchmarks for multiple configurations are included. A very informative read if any of you are thinking about building a system around one of these new chips.
Page 1
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=1
Summary:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.asp … 7&p=19
Intel's Core 2 Extreme & Core 2 Duo: The Empire Strikes Back
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh … spx?i=2795
Summary:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh … 5&p=19
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Intel's Core 2 Extreme X6800 didn't lose a single benchmark in our comparison; not a single one. In many cases, the $183 Core 2 Duo E6300 actually outperformed Intel's previous champ: the Pentium Extreme Edition 965. In one day, Intel has made its entire Pentium D lineup of processors obsolete. Intel's Core 2 processors offer the sort of next-generation micro-architecture performance leap that we honestly haven't seen from Intel since the introduction of the P6.
Compared to AMD's Athlon 64 X2 the situation gets a lot more competitive, but AMD still doesn't stand a chance. The Core 2 Extreme X6800, Core 2 Duo E6700 and E6600 were pretty consistently in the top 3 or 4 spots in each benchmark, with the E6600 offering better performance than AMD's FX-62 flagship in the vast majority of benchmarks. Another way of looking at it is that Intel's Core 2 Duo E6600 is effectively a $316 FX-62, which doesn't sound bad at all.
Anandtech has released a 19 page buyers guide for Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips (Conroe). The article includes motherboards from ASUS, Intel, DFI, Biostar, Gigabyte, ASRock, as well as high performance and value memory recommendations. Benchmarks for multiple configurations are included. A very informative read if any of you are thinking about building a system around one of these new chips.
Page 1
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=1
Summary:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.asp … 7&p=19
Testing Conroe with eight motherboards and thirteen different 2GB memory kits taught us quite a lot about using Conroe as the center of a new system. The Core 2 Duo CPU is fast, cool, and generally easy to work with in every motherboard with every memory we tested. Most of our Reference systems have been based on AMD/AM2 for the last couple of years. To be honest, going back to some of those same systems after our Conroe testing, the differences are more obvious and painful than you might think. Conroe is clearly the faster platform - and not by small, barely measurable differences.
However, Core 2 Duo is not as mature as AM2 at this point, nor are there as many options currently available for building a system. Things like NVIDIA nForce 590 and ATI dual X16 are just not readily available, although we are grateful ASUS updated the nForce4-based P5N32-SLI for Core 2 Duo. The availability of Conroe parts will quickly change, however, because Conroe is clearly the top performing platform, and there are no obvious weaknesses in the Core 2 Duo performance suite. Manufacturers are rushing to fill the void and provide the options buyers want for Conroe.
Last edited by ShotYourSix (2006-07-19 10:52:34)
