I'm thinking of building a new system with a 9600 Phenom.
On one hand, there is the TLB bug. But that seems to be contained and I haven't heard even one report of it being hit. The TLB fix, on the other hand, does significant performance damage according to the numerous reviews I have read. Poor WinRAR still isn't walking straight!
Then again, Intel's offering in that performance range is the Q6600, and it appears that I'd have to spend another hundred dollars between the CPU and motherboard to get the equivalent offering.
Plus there is the overclocking issue, which is something I like to do. It appears that the Q6600 has the leading edge over the Phenom 9600 [black too] when you take into account the wild variation in what you can get out of a Phenom.
But then again, I'm building a /small/ system with a uATX board. I can't OC too much on either side of the aisle because I don't know how well my uATX case will fare when I have a quad core CPU mixed in with an 8800 GTS, three harddrives, and an optical drive.
Methinks I'll go with the AMD Phenom. Folks have had release & engineering samples for months now, and the basic consensus seems to be disappointment from high expectations plus frustration with TLB issues. I can live with that.
If you really have your heart set on a Phenom, at least wait for a couple of months. The B3 stepping version will be out, which will fix the TLB bug.
I've also seen some reports about how some Phenom's have had to be returned due to having one bad core. Perhaps this issue will also be fixed with B3.
Then again, Intel's offering in that performance range is the Q6600, and it appears that I'd have to spend another hundred dollars between the CPU and motherboard to get the equivalent offering.
But then again, I'm building a /small/ system with a uATX board. I can't OC too much on either side of the aisle because I don't know how well my uATX case will fare when I have a quad core CPU mixed in with an 8800 GTS, three harddrives, and an optical drive.
The lower power cunsumption of the Intels should make a difference then. 40 watts lower load consumption would also translate into higher overclocking headroom (with the right µATX mainboard, Gigabyte G33s are good OC'ers at very reasonable prices). http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_13.html
Sounds like you really want AMD and then maybe Intel will not "feel right". I just wanted to point out that they are not in the same performance class at stock, and you seem to know already that Intel is vastly superior when overclocked. Higher performance vs brand loyalty.
I ordered:
one AMD agena 9600 black
one Asus M3A mobo
two sets 2x1 corsair xms2 DDR2 ram 1066
cheap pci 2.0 x16 video card.
artic cooler freezer pro 64
should be here Wednesday/Thursday.
I also ordered the psu, ram, hard drive and nick knacks to build a Q6600 when I get my next check. I'll then order the asus P5K-VM mobo, Q6600, 2 sticks of the same ram as ordered for the 9600, and an artic cooler freezer pro 7
so, the ram, hard drive and psu will be identical between both.
I ordered:
one AMD agena 9600 black
one Asus M3A mobo
two sets 2x1 corsair xms2 DDR2 ram 1066
cheap pci 2.0 x16 video card.
artic cooler freezer pro 64
should be here Wednesday/Thursday.
I also ordered the psu, ram, hard drive and nick knacks to build a Q6600 when I get my next check. I'll then order the asus P5K-VM mobo, Q6600, 2 sticks of the same ram as ordered for the 9600, and an artic cooler freezer pro 7
so, the ram, hard drive and psu will be identical between both.
Tony,
And your reasons to "her who must be obeyed" this time was? :-)
I've just ordered delivery due today (Tues):
Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express mobo
520W Coolermaster Real Power PSU
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2
Thermalright IFX-14 120/140mm heatsink
Other components will be rejects from upgrades to other peoples computers.
Tony,
And your reasons to "her who must be obeyed" this time was? :-)
Andy
I obeyed....
I only ordered ONE quad core. It wasn't two quads. OK...so it was one quad and 1/2 the bits for the second........and next week I'll just say "I needed to order a few more things that when combined with stuff I "already have" will get me a whole new computer (OK,...I won't say that the bits I "already have" were included in this weeks shipment"). "sheesh, honey, for only 400 bucks,,,I got an entire computer, What a deal...huh???" "can I shop or what???" I already prepped her a week ago by saying "You know I really wanted this computer, but I just can't see spending the money.....I priced it and it came out to $1200 bucks, so I didn't order it". (of course it really only came out to 900, but I added the fluff for the bits). Then she said "just order it", and I said "I'll go back and see if I can get rid of or find a cheaper replacement. Remember,,,this was last week.... So, Saturday when I placed the order... I said "I ordered my computer". She said "good" and she's so far said nothing else..
It's my hope that the younger married men in attendance, might learn something from my story....LOL
WARNING
The "already have" scheme only works if you already have LOTS of computer looking bits laying around to confuse her eye. It won't work if you only currently have one/two computers
RE: Hmmm... I'm thinking
)
If you really have your heart set on a Phenom, at least wait for a couple of months. The B3 stepping version will be out, which will fix the TLB bug.
I've also seen some reports about how some Phenom's have had to be returned due to having one bad core. Perhaps this issue will also be fixed with B3.
RE: If you really have your
)
I think this "TLB bug" isn't a real problem. It appears only on the highest frequencies, but I never could produce it on my P9600.
RE: RE: I'm thinking of
)
I concur. My dual-core E8500 works extremely well (very fast) and overclocks nicely to about +17% with just air cooling.
RE: Then again, Intel's
)
Its not in the same performance range, higher performance makes up most of the higher price for the Intel.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_8.html
(and the next few pages)
The lower power cunsumption of the Intels should make a difference then. 40 watts lower load consumption would also translate into higher overclocking headroom (with the right µATX mainboard, Gigabyte G33s are good OC'ers at very reasonable prices).
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_13.html
Sounds like you really want AMD and then maybe Intel will not "feel right". I just wanted to point out that they are not in the same performance class at stock, and you seem to know already that Intel is vastly superior when overclocked. Higher performance vs brand loyalty.
Team Philippines
I ordered: one AMD agena 9600
)
I ordered:
one AMD agena 9600 black
one Asus M3A mobo
two sets 2x1 corsair xms2 DDR2 ram 1066
cheap pci 2.0 x16 video card.
artic cooler freezer pro 64
should be here Wednesday/Thursday.
I also ordered the psu, ram, hard drive and nick knacks to build a Q6600 when I get my next check. I'll then order the asus P5K-VM mobo, Q6600, 2 sticks of the same ram as ordered for the 9600, and an artic cooler freezer pro 7
so, the ram, hard drive and psu will be identical between both.
RE: RE: If you really
)
Yeah, that's true. But, the real problem isn't the TLB bug itself. The problem is more with the BIOS fix for the TLB problem, which kills performance.
RE: I ordered: one AMD
)
Tony,
And your reasons to "her who must be obeyed" this time was? :-)
I've just ordered delivery due today (Tues):
Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express mobo
520W Coolermaster Real Power PSU
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2
Thermalright IFX-14 120/140mm heatsink
Other components will be rejects from upgrades to other peoples computers.
Andy
RE: Yeah, that's true.
)
It needs to modify only two model specific registers in kernel mode. (after each start)
Howto disable the tlb-fix
RE: Tony, And your reasons
)
I obeyed....
I only ordered ONE quad core. It wasn't two quads. OK...so it was one quad and 1/2 the bits for the second........and next week I'll just say "I needed to order a few more things that when combined with stuff I "already have" will get me a whole new computer (OK,...I won't say that the bits I "already have" were included in this weeks shipment"). "sheesh, honey, for only 400 bucks,,,I got an entire computer, What a deal...huh???" "can I shop or what???" I already prepped her a week ago by saying "You know I really wanted this computer, but I just can't see spending the money.....I priced it and it came out to $1200 bucks, so I didn't order it". (of course it really only came out to 900, but I added the fluff for the bits). Then she said "just order it", and I said "I'll go back and see if I can get rid of or find a cheaper replacement. Remember,,,this was last week.... So, Saturday when I placed the order... I said "I ordered my computer". She said "good" and she's so far said nothing else..
It's my hope that the younger married men in attendance, might learn something from my story....LOL
WARNING
The "already have" scheme only works if you already have LOTS of computer looking bits laying around to confuse her eye. It won't work if you only currently have one/two computers
RE: RE: Yeah, that's
)
So, does your performance testing reflect having the BIOS fix disabled?