[Epik]

I've got an E2140 at 3.2GHz. It's a $53 c2d at ewiz.com. Also a E8400 at 4.3GHz.

Q6600 at 3.9 is insane. My brother has his at 3.0GHz on air.

[d_crome]

Intel really opened a can of whoop ass on AMD after taking alot of heat (figuratively and literally) with their P4's.

I'm personally hanging out for November when the Nehliem (?) range of Intel chips will be released - i7 I believe is what they're marketing them as. They don't look to be much better for the everyday user (i.e. gamer) but the price impact they have on the existing Core 2 technology should be awesome.

I'm hanging out for a Q9550 and a solid P45 board - no point going DDR3 at this point in time when you can get 4 gigs of DDR2 for $50!

Also a nice 260GTX or ATI4870X2 might be the next vid card.

[UltimateBMW]

Originally Posted by d_crome

Intel really opened a can of whoop ass on AMD after taking alot of heat (figuratively and literally) with their P4's.

I'm personally hanging out for November when the Nehliem (?) range of Intel chips will be released - i7 I believe is what they're marketing them as. They don't look to be much better for the everyday user (i.e. gamer) but the price impact they have on the existing Core 2 technology should be awesome.

I'm hanging out for a Q9550 and a solid P45 board - no point going DDR3 at this point in time when you can get 4 gigs of DDR2 for $50!

Also a nice 260GTX or ATI4870X2 might be the next vid card.

The nehalem should be pretty awesome. The first fully designed 45nm chip, not just a shrunk down 65nm. I'm also looking into how the new socket will perform and what the specs on it will be.

[d_crome]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

The nehalem should be pretty awesome. The first fully designed 45nm chip, not just a shrunk down 65nm. I'm also looking into how the new socket will perform and what the specs on it will be.

I don't know how bad ass it'll be for normal users - from what I'm reading it's not looking so great an upgrade, especially when you factor in it's a whole new socket and RAM requirements.

Anandtech previewed the new chips....read it for yourselves.

[UltimateBMW]

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out when I have more time.

As for any upgrades for normal users... Of course it won't be that dramatic for normal users. Hardware capabilities are so far beyond the point of normal application running, it's not even a reasonable benchmark. The latest and greatest stuff is usually always for the ethusiasts when they first come out.

Just look at Dell, Alienware, and HP. It's weeks sometimes months after new hardware comes out before these computer builders even put the new components as options onto their websites and build sheets. If these components had any kind of significant market-share to hold in the average computer user, the above statistic would certainly not be accurate.

[d_crome]

No worries - from what it looks like, Intel is taking direct aim at the server markets with the i7 chip - as this is a market thats still dominated by AMD.

And as far as hardware being well and beyond the software requirements of today - you're smack on. Some games take advantage of 2 cores - SOME - I could probably count on my right hand the total that take on FOUR.

[san~man]

My Q6600 is stable @ 3.6 24/7 on air. Here's a screenie for super pi benching at 4.0 (fastest on air atm on overclock.net and can probably get faster with more tinkering):