Vista Ultimate OEM

Yeah I figured with the BIOS updates

So what your all saying is that even though Intel and AMD are bringing out new sockets, Quad Cores should still be compatible with the older mobos, at least thats half promising!

It sounds like Socket F is meant to be for servers Jon, but thats no reason why it can't be used in the Retail market Had a Opty 146 in my machine for the past year and a half Think Gav has had the same processor for a while too, probably changed now though...


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

It's loosely based on server technology, and I guess it's aimed at the workstation market, but the enthusiast often shares that market too, so it'll go both ways.

I was going to get a Core 2 Quad myself Easter time, but after seeing the benchmarks I'm not too sure now. They aren't clocked as high as the Core 2 Duo's (I assume because they are mini Intel electric heaters) making single and dual threaded applications slightly slower, but if more and more software becomes multi threaded then it really comes into its own.

Quad's not worth it yet. We'll see what things are like later on, but it wouldn't be worthwhile purchase in my eyes at this moment.

Best wait on a true quad for that to be honest.

Well yeah, atm its a very stupid time, only Quad Core is the stupidly expensive Quad Core Extreme by Intel or the 2x Core 2 Duo's in the Mac Pro, which is still stupidly expensive Thats why I was inquiring about motherboard updates, probably get a Processor to tie me over (I've been keeping a keen eye on the Core 2 Duo E6600, seems reasonable price wise and not far off the E6700 performance wise!) and then upgrade later to a Quad Core when its needed (More to the point when Alan Wake is finally released )


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2007 06:45PM by Ianwoollam.

Intel are having a refresh of C2D CPUs in Q1 2007, so have a look and see if there's anything that suits you - looks like there'll be a nice choice price wise

Do you have any more info as to when in Q1 2007? At the moment I'm seeing around £200 for the 2.4 GHz.

Ditto, I had my heart set on getting the 2.4Ghz, Asus P5B Deluxe and Corsair Dominator 2GB next weekend

I have been hearing rumors of cheaper Quad Cores from Intel in the next few months though...


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

I heard there will be a price drop around April.

Dunno what Intel are upto regarding quad cores in Q1 more than what has been said, all I know is that Quad FX-oriented FX-76 and company will launch Q2 07 along with an updated Athlon 64 FX line in general. According to sources, AMDs next-generation architecture in full is due to launch in Q3.

Also to look out for this quarter from AMD are the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and release of the single-core Athlon 64 4000+. The 6000+ will be 3GHz and 2MB of L2 cache. It's a 90nm part that consumes up to 89W of power apparently, which is pretty damn low.

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Ianwoollam Wrote:
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> Ditto, I had my heart set on getting the 2.4Ghz,
> Asus P5B Deluxe and Corsair Dominator 2GB next
> weekend

Hmm... wait another week and see how the new Asus Commando i965 is looking - it's the replacement for the P5B Deluxe (essentially, it's just the usual 2nd wave of board coming out based upon the same chipset). Have a look around though, I believe it's already been released in the US. I haven't been looking though - I've got the P5B Dlx already, and it's a pretty damn good board - I was getting sick of stupid little niggles in ASUS boards, but this one's quite good. Also got the E6600 too (just so you know they're good together)

As for RAM, it's pretty universally acknowledged now that Corsair, while pretty solid, are fairly poor in the enthusiast area. GeIL, OCZ and particularly Team and CellShock are outperforming them, getting better clocks and lower latencies (not that important for Intel anyway) while usually coming in cheaper. The latter two there (Team and CellShock) are putting out some cracking sticks of RAM at the moment.

My GeIL cost £166 I think it was (PC6400 and CAS4), and that was a particularly good deal at a time when the others were costing £190 ish. Only reservation with it is that some (1 batch that OcUK received by the sounds of it) were dying quiet quickly, but RMAs were quick, and it does sound as if it was limited to that 1 batch.

Personally I'd get some CellShock at the moment if you're wanting some enthusiast stuff to overclock with.

Actually, my backup was a bundle from Overclockers, with Geil Ultra ram, same as you've got it seems, think it was about £516 without the postage, because I'd probably just pick the stuff up But I still refuse to shop from there

hmmm you mean this mobo? [www.scan.co.uk] Its in stock atm... from what I've seen around, people say you can overclock a 6600 to 3.5 on that board! o_O it also looks like they have the SATA ports on a 90 degree angle! Been wanting that for a while in a motherboard, make cable routing so much easier That CellShock ram does look very good but the price is 189 without VAT and thats only for the 6400 kit! If I did get them, not including postage, it would all cost around £591 instead of £516 :/


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

Yup, it just came into stock today looking at the Hexus forums (ironic, given Scan never take items out of stock over a weekend (their only issue at all IMHO)).

Have a look around though - I've not looked into any of the bits you're ordering (other than the chip), as I'm quite content with what I've got. The CellShock looks awesome though - stupidly overclockable, which isn't much of a concern with the E6600 as the multiplier is quite high anyway. Mine does 3.3GHz stable, and I've never bothered pushing it further. I've gone the silent route with fans now (filled my PC up with Sharkoon Golfball 1000s) and am quite happy sitting back at 3.0GHz.

Actually I've just noticed something stupid, If I get the E6600 and Asus Commando from Scan and the GeIL 2GB PC6400 Ultra from Ocuk then it actually adds upto £530, the price I was going to pay for the Deluxe and Corsair ram from Scan, I can't seem to find any reviews of the CellShock, just forum posts about them, so I think I'll probably stick with the GeIL, as you've said it does seem to work with the Conroe and Asus mobos okay, got decent reviews, Hell I've been running Corsair Value Ram for the past year in my current box! So anythings better than that

And oh bugger, forgot all about the damn CPU Fan!


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2007 10:59PM by Ianwoollam.

I'm getting the 6600 and the Geil 2GB Ultra Low Latency memory. The only difference is that i'm looking at the Asus striker (nVIDIA SLi support) Do you know if overclocking the CPU up to the 3.0Ghz+ is as good as the P5s?

madotteя Wrote:
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> I'm getting the 6600 and the Geil 2GB Ultra Low
> Latency memory. The only difference is that i'm
> looking at the Asus striker (nVIDIA SLi support)
> Do you know if overclocking the CPU up to the
> 3.0Ghz+ is as good as the P5s?

I've been looking into the Nvidia 680i section myself, and to be honest, unless your looking at getting an SLi Setup, theres no advantage which warrants an extra £150 over the P5B Deluxe, Have a look at this here - [techreport.com] it compares all three, now except when the 795 and 680i's are running SLi, they are either more or less the same or worse than the 695's. But if you are going to get 2 GFX cards then that board will be the way to go if you want extreme overclocking.

But anyway to answer your question, The Nvidia boards are supposed to overclock better than the 695's so you'll easily get 3Ghz out of it, in that review I put up they managed to get 3.18Ghz out of a E6300 (Original Speed is 1.83Ghz) So It'll probably be able to do 3Ghz without breaking a sweat


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

Thank You

Also, I have heard that Vista will run much better with 4, rather than 2GB of RAM? Is there any truth in this and if so, is Dual Channel DDR2 supported in all 4 slots on the Intel mobos? I know with the 939s you could only run 2 slots at Dual Channel.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2007 12:09AM by madotteя.

madotteя Wrote:
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> Also, I have heard that Vista will run much better
> with 4, rather than 2GB of RAM? Is there any truth
> in this and if so, is Dual Channel DDR2 supported
> in all 4 slots on the Intel mobos? I know with the
> 939s you could only run 2 slots at Dual Channel.


Well, there's always truth in it - more RAM = good. But Vista is no worse than XP in my opinion - more RAM usage is reported, but Vista is extremely good at caching and RAM management - it's a huge improvement over XP. My HTPC is running with 1GB of Corsair Value, and it's perfectly fine.

32-bit Vista can only address 3.7GB (I think it is) of RAM anyway. If you're going, or are looking to go 4GB, make sure you get 64-bit Vista.

vista from what I have heard will be on the serial number of the pc/laptop.

You will only ever get one install after that you have to call them each time you need to activate it. If the serial numbers do not match you will not be given a code to activate it. You will have to buy a licence of them.

I've read that the retail has both 32 and 64 support, does that mean you install one or the other or does it mean that if you have 32 drivers it will run these along side the 64s?