Posted on 11/28/2006 7:08:02 AM PST by jonno
Excellent presentation - thanks.
OK, I'm an AMD fan, but the 4200+ seems to be at least a reasonable alternative to the E6300 for the average user, at that price point.
I agree...Intel all the way.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Retail $182.00
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Retail $182.00
To add even more insult to injury the slowest Core 2 Duo in the test, the 1.86GHz E6300 is barely slower than AMD's fastest Athlon 64 X2.
The processor landscape has been changed once more thanks to AMD's extremely aggressive price cuts. The Core 2 Duo E6300 is a better performer than the X2 3800+ but is also more expensive, thankfully for the E6300's sake it is also faster than the 4200+ and the 4600+ in some benchmarks. Overall the E6300 is a better buy, but at stock speeds the advantage isn't nearly as great as the faster Core 2 parts. In many benchmarks the X2 4200+ isn't that far off the E6300's performance, sometimes even outperforming it at virtually the same price. Overclocking changes everything though, as our 2.592GHz E6300 ended up faster than AMD's FX-62($695.99) in almost every single benchmark. If you're not an overclocker, then the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ looks to be a competitive alternative to the Core 2 E6300.
*** I added the $695.99 price tag for the FX-62, thats the current price for it VIA newegg.com
Remember NOW the E6300 and the 4200+ are the same $
The E6300 and E6400 can easily overclock to E6700 and Core 2 Extreme X6800 levels, though the smaller cache does limit performance a bit. That being said, our overclocked E6300 was able to equal and in all cases but one outperform AMD's Athlon 64 FX-62. In fact, in quite a few benchmarks, the overclocked E6300 is essentially out of reach of anything AMD can offer with their current K8 designs. At $182, the value here is tremendous, and if you're willing to overclock the benefits don't get any clearer than that.
OK, I already granted you that the FX line is overpriced. That's given.
The E6300 is barely slower than the FX 62, but it's also barely faster (sometimes) than the equally-priced 64 X2 4200+ (see the next chart after the one you pointed out)
This supports my contention that at or below the E6300 / X2 4200+ price ($182), the Athlon is still a perfectly good choice for a home computer.
...and the Core2 motherboards still cost more.
Probably so, but I'm guessing that the fellow who asked the original question won't be overclocking his computer. It's irrelevant in this case.
See previous post. He's not an overclocker, so it's moot.
That's entirely possible. But the fact that AMD is there, nipping at Intel's heels and thoroughly embarrasing them from time to time, makes the industry a better place for all of us. :-)
I just wish every industry had the nearly perfect free market competition that the PC industry has going for it!
But the competition is always good.
from the article:
thankfully for the E6300's sake it is also faster than the 4200+ and the 4600+ in some benchmarks. Overall the E6300 is a better buy
GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $90.99
I don't think thats very expensive for a motherboard...
PCI Express x16
PCI Express x1 (3)
PCI Slots (3)
Number of DDR2 Slots 4 x 240pin
8 Channel Audio
Gigabit Lan
4 X SATA 3Gb/s
8 X USB 2.0
Not the greatest but if he's NOT going to overclock... its not terribly expensive, and should he choose to it will still allow for some overclocking...
This one its much more and ISN'T expensive and would suggest this one over the other...
read the customer reviews and see what ram they are using... seems lke some of them are hitting 3GHZ overclock with this board...
DDR2 800
Maximum Memory Supported 8GB
PCI Express x16 (1)
PCI Express x1 (3)
PCI Slots (3)
PATA 1 x ATA100 up to 2 Devices
SATA 3Gb/s (6)
Audio Channels 8 Channels
S/PDIF Out 1x Optical and 1x Coaxial
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Gigabit LAN
8 X USB 2.0
This one is $25 more but it has faster memory and better North and South bridge.
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