Need RAM advice

[CoffeeFiend]

Or AMD rise from the dead.

From the performance increases we've seen on their brand spanking new Opterons (Shanghai), and assuming their desktop chips make as much progress... It'll still take more than that to catch up to i7 unfortunately. I guess they'll keep being the budget CPU company for a while longer.

Anyhow. I just bought 4GB more of Corsair today (2x Antec 300, 2x Seasonic SS-350ET, 4GB of 800MHz Corsair DDR2 and 2 pairs of Sony earphones for $200.93 CAD including UPS dlivery and taxes in!) I'll soon find out how it plays with the old OCZ.

Edited November 27, 2008 by crahak

[weEvil]

Or AMD rise from the dead.

From the performance increases we've seen on their brand spanking new Opterons (Shanghai), and assuming their desktop chips make as much progress... It'll still take more than that to catch up to i7 unfortunately. I guess they'll keep being the budget CPU company for a while longer.

Anyhow. I just bought 4GB more of Corsair today (2x Antec 300, 2x Seasonic SS-350ET, 4GB of 800MHz Corsair DDR2 and 2 pairs of Sony earphones for $200.93 CAD including UPS dlivery and taxes in!) I'll soon find out how it plays with the old OCZ.

Having the best chip is not necessarily the most important. Price to performance counts alot.

As long as it can hold its own against i7 at a fraction of the cost AMD has a winner.

[CoffeeFiend]

Of course it's a a little of both.

But the way it looks now, the next AMD CPUs will be slower than the entry model Core i7, which will soon be a lot cheaper as Intel will stop selling all C2D's in the next few months. AMD may have a cheaper offering, but when it's slower than the entry level Intel CPU... Just like the current Phenoms, they're dirt cheap because they're just not fast (comparatively speaking). Just like the old AMD & Cyrix days, cheaper but slower.

It might be good enough for some people, but not really enough for a company to "rise from the dead" (like when the Athlon64 was kicking netburst's butt)

[weEvil]

Of course it's a a little of both.

But the way it looks now, the next AMD CPUs will be slower than the entry model Core i7, which will soon be a lot cheaper as Intel will stop selling all C2D's in the next few months. AMD may have a cheaper offering, but when it's slower than the entry level Intel CPU... Just like the current Phenoms, they're dirt cheap because they're just not fast (comparatively speaking). Just like the old AMD & Cyrix days, cheaper but slower.

It might be good enough for some people, but not really enough for a company to "rise from the dead" (like when the Athlon64 was kicking netburst's butt)

I doubt Intel will stop selling Core2Duo for at least 8-12months. But they will be cutting back the weaker models as usual. Core2Duo will remain entry-mainstream level for some time.

Also, you are not taking into account the cost of the platform. Its not just the CPU that's costly. AMD needs to cut the cost of the motherboards next.

[CoffeeFiend]

Check the latest Intel roadmap. Most C2D's (and even Quads) are being discontinued in the next 6 months. And with more i7 models being added soon and upcoming price drops (also on DDR3 and such), it'll quickly become mainstream.

And yes, I'm looking at the price of the whole platform too. Good AMD motherboards (the very few of them) aren't any cheaper. And yes, DDR3 may cost more now, but that's also very quickly changing. Give it a year, and it just might cost the same.

Edit: also looks like I'm gonna bump up RAM to 8GB instead of 6GB (someone I know with 2x2GB of DDR2 800MHz on his hands and no use for it!)

Edited November 27, 2008 by crahak

[weEvil]

Check the latest Intel roadmap. Most C2D's (and even Quads) are being discontinued in the next 6 months. And with more i7 models being added soon and upcoming price drops (also on DDR3 and such), it'll quickly become mainstream.

And yes, I'm looking at the price of the whole platform too. Good AMD motherboards (the very few of them) aren't any cheaper. And yes, DDR3 may cost more now, but that's also very quickly changing. Give it a year, and it just might cost the same.

Edit: also looks like I'm gonna bump up RAM to 8GB instead of 6GB (someone I know with 2x2GB of DDR2 800MHz on his hands and no use for it!)

No.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-roa...lease,6393.html

They're just now discontinuing the E6750. Look at the life its had. I don't expect them to kill of Core2Duo until at least the end of 2009.

[ripken204]

Check the latest Intel roadmap. Most C2D's (and even Quads) are being discontinued in the next 6 months. And with more i7 models being added soon and upcoming price drops (also on DDR3 and such), it'll quickly become mainstream.

And yes, I'm looking at the price of the whole platform too. Good AMD motherboards (the very few of them) aren't any cheaper. And yes, DDR3 may cost more now, but that's also very quickly changing. Give it a year, and it just might cost the same.

Edit: also looks like I'm gonna bump up RAM to 8GB instead of 6GB (someone I know with 2x2GB of DDR2 800MHz on his hands and no use for it!)

No.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-roa...lease,6393.html

They're just now discontinuing the E6750. Look at the life its had. I don't expect them to kill of Core2Duo until at least the end of 2009.

ya from what i remember reading there will only be a very small percentage of i7 being produced six months from now.

[weEvil]

ya from what i remember reading there will only be a very small percentage of i7 being produced six months from now.

Yes. With high prices too. It will remain an Enthusiast/Premium product for some time.

Intel has to recoup R&D costs. Its a more complex, and larger chip which uses more materials. Not only that but its currently the fastest CPU available, so they can charge more.

All this means that its going to cost alot more, and sell alot less. It would be financial suicide to cut the Core2Duos and go i7 only. Mainstream and low-end products are the bread and butter of the company.