Just finished building my first computer!

[bmxmon]

And I gotta say im pretty happy. Its a pretty sweet rig, intel core 2 duo E4300 1.8ghz processor, though I will be overclocking it tomorrow to about 3.0-3.2 hopefully. MSI P35 platnium board, 2gb of ram, 160 gb HD, PNY 7900GS GeForce graphics card, and a honkin Cooler Master Gemini II cpu cooler (looks really sweet btw, like it has a header coming out of it, haha). All that shoved into a cheap, plain looking case, since all of the expensive ones are quite ugly IMHO, plus I cant stand doors on computer cases. That, plus some of the other less cool stuff I didnt mention cost me about $800, all from newegg. (though I have about $130 in Mail in Rebates...) I also got a tv turner card, hopefully i'll be recording the cool car shows and then post them on the net The reason for the new computer build was that my laptop died on me, so it was a good reason to learn how to build a desktop. Still gotta go update and DL all my old programs, right now im on an old version of IE and its kinda driving me nuts....

(Ignore the mess, lol)

[Unit 5302]

Originally Posted by bmxmon

And I gotta say im pretty happy. Its a pretty sweet rig, intel core 2 duo E4300 1.8ghz processor, though I will be overclocking it tomorrow to about 3.0-3.2 hopefully. MSI P35 platnium board, 2gb of ram, 160 gb HD, PNY 7900GS GeForce graphics card, and a honkin Cooler Master Gemini II cpu cooler (looks really sweet btw, like it has a header coming out of it, haha). All that shoved into a cheap, plain looking case, since all of the expensive ones are quite ugly IMHO, plus I cant stand doors on computer cases. That, plus some of the other less cool stuff I didnt mention cost me about $800, all from newegg. (though I have about $130 in Mail in Rebates...) I also got a tv turner card, hopefully i'll be recording the cool car shows and then post them on the net The reason for the new computer build was that my laptop died on me, so it was a good reason to learn how to build a desktop. Still gotta go update and DL all my old programs, right now im on an old version of IE and its kinda driving me nuts....

(Ignore the mess, lol)

You definately can't go wrong with the Core2 Duo setup right now. Especially after Intel recently dropped prices on them. My next machine will probably get the E6600 Conroe processor. In a benchmark test at work, an LGA775 Pentium 4 2.8GHz ran a case in 38min while the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo managed the same case in 19min. The application wasn't even multi-threaded so the performance gap between the two processors is even more significant.

My current desktop has become quite unstable, but I'm not sure what's causing the issues. I suspect the 9800 Pro in there is part of the issue, but it doesn't matter to me anymore. Upgrading the system doesn't make any sense. I'll just build a new one. I'm working on my Pentium M 2.13GHz laptop with an x700 graphics card and a 7200rpm HDD for now. With a 17" widescreen and a 10 key built in, it's a pretty good little desktop replacement.

[bmxmon]

My brother also just built a system, and it has the core 2 duo E2160. His is actually benchmarking better than mine, for some reason. So this morning has been spent trying to get the thing to beat his, yet to no-avail. We have the exact same graphics card, different ram (mine is faster) and different Mobo's. (Mine has more features, though I honestly dont know what they all do, haha) So its all in the tune as it sits now, I know mine can beat his, I just need to figure stuff out. Right now im sitting at 3.0ghz cpu with 999mhz ram. When I up it to 3.2ghz it has been failing, though im pretty sure its the ram, not the cpu. Anyway, the race is on between us, haha.
Like you said, I guess the architecture between the old chips and the core 2 duo's is pretty insane, making it faster with lower clock speeds. I honestly dont know too much about computers yet, though im trying to learn more. What do you do for work?

[Unit 5302]

Originally Posted by bmxmon

My brother also just built a system, and it has the core 2 duo E2160. His is actually benchmarking better than mine, for some reason. So this morning has been spent trying to get the thing to beat his, yet to no-avail. We have the exact same graphics card, different ram (mine is faster) and different Mobo's. (Mine has more features, though I honestly dont know what they all do, haha) So its all in the tune as it sits now, I know mine can beat his, I just need to figure stuff out. Right now im sitting at 3.0ghz cpu with 999mhz ram. When I up it to 3.2ghz it has been failing, though im pretty sure its the ram, not the cpu. Anyway, the race is on between us, haha.
Like you said, I guess the architecture between the old chips and the core 2 duo's is pretty insane, making it faster with lower clock speeds. I honestly dont know too much about computers yet, though im trying to learn more. What do you do for work?

Actually, Core2 Duo has it's roots squarely in Pentium III. Intel pretty much abandoned Netburst technology (the father of Pentium 4) and went back to the development of Pentium III. Intel's Isreal R&D unit was making impressive performance gains using modified Pentium III architecture.

The problem was multifold, but the main issue was manufacturing technology. Intel was losing too much voltage because of their super thin layering technology. It was a bit of a catch 22, really. The more Intel shrunk the layers from 0.18 microns on Pentium III Coppermine and Pentium 4 Willamette cores to 0.13 microns on Pentium III Tualatin and Pentium 4 Northwood to 0.09 microns, to 0.065 microns, the theory is that much less power would be required with each shrinkage. Unfortunately, the voltage paths were not 100% efficient, and the voltage began seeping out of its intended route. This made higher voltages absolutely essential to power the processors, and that in turn created far more heat than what was originally anticipated.

Problem number two was that In the hunt for ever increasing processing performance, Intel lengthened processor pipelines to triple what Pentium III had. Data that is anticipated, but not needed must fall out of the pipeline, and it must be replaced at a hyper fast rate from the L1 cache preferably, L2 cache as a second option, and RAM as a last resort. With so much pipeline necessary to support the super high clock frequencies, too much data was falling out despite Intel's best efforts at CPU data prediction technology. When data isn't backfilled, the processor is basically idle, killing performance. This pipeline issue is the main reason The AMD Athlon 64 processors processed much more data per clock cycle than Pentium 4.

Eventually, it became clear that Netburst technology was no longer viable for mass distribution with Pentium 4E Prescott. Intel was caught with its pants down and had no choice but to push ahead as best they could while their Pentium III development was ramped up for mobile computing and eventually for desktops. Intel wasn't about to invest too much time in Netburst; however, and they announced their new processor series code named Tejas was to be scrapped in entirety because Intel simply couldn't get it to run cool enough without exotic water cooling or a huge fan and heatsink to pull the heat away. Tejas was expected to run at 6.0GHz+ designed originally to replace Prescott (which itself was expected to ramp to 5.0GHz).

The original Pentium M (Centrino) was the closest cousin to Pentium III, both being single core processors, but it is known that Intel did lengthen the pipeline somewhat to help ramp up processor speeds a bit. Of course they added a lot more L1 & L2 Cache compared to even the Tualatin series Pentium III server processors, and there was a lot to gain from current memory technology. After Pentium M came Core Duo. After Core Duo came Core2 Duo, which is really just a Core Duo processor with some relatively simple enhancements.

Of course, that's all a simplification, but it just goes to show than older technology doesn't necessarily mean obsolete technology.