Pentium D 805 - good choice for encoding?

[Inventive Software]

I'm planning an upgrade of my system (finally), and have shyed away from AMD's X2 processor, in favour of this beauty, that's available for around £60/70, and is nicely overclockable. It's dual-core too, and that's the selling point IMO. 2.6 GHz as standard on both cores, and I can crank it up to 3 GHz or more with the stock cooler, according to PC Format!

However, how does this compare to AMD's X2 line? I'm well aware of AMD's better memory performance, but for encoding (which is what I'll be doing most of the time) does that really matter?

Also, slightly unrelated, does anybody have experience with NVIDIA's Geforce 7300GT? Was going for the 7600GT, but that's a little out of my price range. This seems to hit the sweetspot, and it doesn't have Turbocache (evil evil NVIDIA:devil:.)

[feedback]

and have shyed away from AMD's X2 processor,
Why are you hesitant to use AMD's X2 processor? (I am just curious)

[UofC]

Encoding tends to come down to CPU power so an over clocked 805 will beat an overcloacked X2 in the same price range.

The 805 does get crazy results overclocking but the power consumption is way up there too. Makes sure you have a solid power supply. Look up tom's hardware, it has a good article on it.

The 7300GT is a decent card and should allow for regular gaming. A 7600 gt would be better but then again it is all in the money. ATI does not seem to do well in the lower end cards or so I have seen.

[Inventive Software]

@feedback: Even with the X2's recent price drop, it's still way out of my price range, and this (D 805) has decent cache and good SSE performance (critical in codecs).

[feedback]

@feedback: Even with the X2's recent price drop, it's still way out of my price range, and this (D 805) has decent cache and good SSE performance (critical in codecs).I understand.:)

BTW, one British pound is almost two US dollars.:eek: (1.89 to be exact)
You were talking pounds right?

Regards,

[Inventive Software]

Yeah, but we always ALWAYS get the price drops that the US consumers get anywhere from 2+ months after they do. It sucks, cause they also inflate the price, so it never matches the US price converted. :angry:

[SeeMoreDigital]

Inventive Software,

If you decide to go-for the Pentium D 805, what motherboard and RAM memory are thinking about getting?


Cheers

[joelancer]

Intels "Core 2 Due"s are out. they beat everything even at lower clock speeds, so i assume a low end core2due will probably beat that PentiumD.

also note - the 7300xx series cards are not good gaming cards, 7300s are the lowest end of the 7series, and specs for the 73GT say 350/666mhz 8pipes|10 Gb/s mem bandwidth.... thats probably same performance as a geforce 6600(Not GT).

if your only playing old/low end games then it doesnt matter... but minimum for new games in my opinion would be the 7600GS, here in the USA its a bit cheaper then the 7600GT. and the GS performs similar to a stock 6800... were as the GT beats a 6800ultra.

[Inc]

As said the 805 in OCed state consumpts power as hell, so you need at least a Motherboard with a 8phase power design.

The Asus P5WD2 was 'the' candidate for 805 overclocking. You can try an Asus P5P800 but you wont get over 3.3Ghz.

There are several cheaper p965 Boards outside but will fail on an high OCed 805 due the Vcore Drop (see above).

[joelancer]

im not one who readily knows were to find lots of benchmarks, so heres just 2 randome ones for example ->

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2716&p=6
http://www.evga.com/Community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17988

Though those benches comparie the Conroe to a 2.8 A64, i would still assume the lower clocked Conroes' would beat the OCd 805, since a 2.8A64 would be better then the Pentiums anyway.

If someone who normaly knows were to find such benches could post one compairing the Conroe to a Pentium, that would clearify it.

[feedback]

Intels "Core 2 Due"s are out. they beat everything even at lower clock speeds, so i assume a low end core2due will probably beat that PentiumD.
You are completely missing the point. The point is he is looking for something in his price range for encoding and the Core 2 Duo is not in it.

Even with the X2's recent price drop, it's still way out of my price range,

If money was no object (but it is) we may all be running a Core 2 Duo system.:)

Nonetheless, Inventive Software needs pertinent advice on a more moderately priced encoding system.;)

Regards,

[Inventive Software]

If you decide to go-for the Pentium D 805, what motherboard and RAM memory are thinking about getting?

The motherboard is one that supports the Pentium D, and possibly DDR2 RAM depending how cheap it is compared to DDR1.

Nonetheless, Inventive Software needs pertinent advice on a more moderately priced encoding system.;)

Already noted, as all I need is a cheap internal upgrade for uni, so this'll do me absolutely fine for dual-core till I have time/money to upgrade to Core 2 Duo.

also note - the 7300xx series cards are not good gaming cards, 7300s are the lowest end of the 7series, and specs for the 73GT say 350/666mhz 8pipes|10 Gb/s mem bandwidth.... thats probably same performance as a geforce 6600(Not GT).

if your only playing old/low end games then it doesnt matter... but minimum for new games in my opinion would be the 7600GS, here in the USA its a bit cheaper then the 7600GT. and the GS performs similar to a stock 6800... were as the GT beats a 6800ultra.

The 7300 should be faster than almost any 6xxx series card (stock settings of course) out there, as it's based on the G70 series of chips. The problem is that the 7300GT is the same price as the 6600 GT and cheaper than the 6800 GT, and the G70 series is a nice GPU to have. I won't be playing games higher than 1280x1024 as that's the monitor I have, and I'm not upgrading because of uni.

[joelancer]

sorry, im not planning on upgrading anything so i didnt look into pricess on the CPU... i assumed a Low end Core2 would be under $200 USD though.

and no - all 7series cards will not beat the 6series conserning gaming performance. the 7series cards may have a couple more features because of the updated core - but low end in any Series is Low end.

just like how a 6200 would be out performed by almost any 9xxx ATI card from the previouse Generation.

Iv test in the past a 6600GT, 6800, and 6800GS.. and acording to benchmarks, the 7600GT or Higher are the only cards that will beat all of the 6series.

and, like i said - if you only play like low end, old, or Non-FPS games, then it doesnt realy matter. But the 7300x will struggle to play games on Medium settings. Just for example even though its discontinued - even a 6600GT would be better gaming wise.

[dragongodz]

a review with Pentium D 805
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2736&p=8

a review with more modern cpus(so no 805 but core2 etc)
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=8

a review with 7600gs aswell as 6600gt and 7600gt
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=547

just like how a 6200 would be out performed by almost any 9xxx ATI card from the previouse Generation.
if you really think an ATI 9000/9100/9200 is faster than an Nvidia 6200 then try providing some proof.

[foxyshadis]

I notice that NewEgg is finally getting them in - another trumpeted release followed by slow shipments.

The lowest end core2 is around $200. But it still means a similar investment in the rest of your system just to run it, or a much larger one in any attempt to overclock it. (And remember, the lowest-end ones are often the QC rejects that don't run as cool or stable at higher speeds, although you sometimes get lucky.) While you can reuse parts from the PD era, it'll overvolt the cpu and cripple your speeds - especially if the board is 533, the core2s are made for 1066 and locked multipliers means half the speed.

Do get some good noise-canceling headphones if you get a PD 805...

[joelancer]

I said "Almost" any 9x card... it was a general example though just to show what i meant about how he's thinking incorrectly of the low end 7x performance. Though in response to your statement -> the good 9200's would definatly beat a 6200 if it has Turbocache.

the bellow image taken from one of the links... shows the slowest Core2 on there at 1.8ghz is only 8sec slower then the P4 extreem 3.7ghz in that particular Bench...... If he is buying all new parts for the planned 805 system... it may or may not be in his budget for the Core2, but it'd be definatly be worth looking into to find out. cause any one of those will overall kill the Penium4/D series, O/c'd or not.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1560/conrobenchzy7.png

[dragongodz]

it was a general example though just to show what i meant about how he's thinking incorrectly of the low end 7x performance.
i have no problem with that. i even provide a review showing it.

however
Though in response to your statement -> the good 9200's would definatly beat a 6200 if it has Turbocache.
DEFINATLY ? again, please provide proof of this because i doubt you are correct. even though the prices for things like the 7300gt or 7600gs(nearly the same price as a 6600gt where i live with a small amount of searching) is pretty good and i dont see anyone actually suggesting getting either a 6200 or 9200.

the bellow image taken from one of the links
creativly cut aswell considering the x2 4600+ was 52 , the same as the e6300 and the x2 4200+ was not that much slower at 56.
caveat being of course that different software will gain differently. for example i have also seen tests/reviews where the x2 4200+ faster than an e6300 with some programs. so gains by using programA shouldnt be expected to be the same as if someone used programB, of course.

If he is buying all new parts for the planned 805 system... it may or may not be in his budget for the Core2, but it'd be definatly be worth looking into to find out. cause any one of those will overall kill the Penium4/D series, O/c'd or not.
i agree if he is buying all new parts then he has a large selection of cpus he could look at. though NOT just core2. the reason i provided both reviews is so people could seeroughly where the D805 stood since both reviews have the x2 3800+ to provide a sort of link between them. also to show this current "core2 is the second coming and all models the fastest" that is going around is rubbish. yes core2 is impressive but if you are looking at an e6300 or e6400 then you do have AMD cpu options that compete with them.

[joelancer]

whow, i think you mis-read something, thats why you had a prob with something i said.... I never suggested anyone should get a 92xx or 62xx.
--------

no i didnt cut it for any reason other then to show the Xtreme and 6300. Obviously not ALL core 2's dont beat all the others... but Performance/power consumption/efficentcy/and price(and possibly overclock ability maybe i dont know) <- make your own conclutions, but IMO that puts the Core2 above the rest.(even IF it doesnt beat an OCed PentiumD, its still coming close with lower clocks and probably more stability.)

[ToiletDuck]

Just get an opteron 1.6ghz with an DFI ultra motherboard and you'll be able to overclock it to 2.8ghz on stock cooling and outrun all those.

[Inventive Software]

The processor is chosen, and it won't change unless the Core 2 Duo comes down significantly.

Motherboard and RAM I'll choose when I get there, but regarding the RAM, does the capacity matter when encoding? I was thinking 1 GB...

The graphics card is the most difficult one at the moment, as I'd like something that plays titles at most a year old (F.E.A.R and Oblivion are out of the question) at 1280x1024 with all the bells and whistles. I can't decide between the 6600GT and the 7300GT. Opinions/benchmarks?

[dragongodz]

can't decide between the 6600GT and the 7300GT. Opinions/benchmarks?
that is a tough choice in many ways. in some things they should be pretty close speed wise. however in some they arent. heres a review, with benchmarks of course, with the 7300gt.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=564
now compare that with the earlier link i gave that has the 6600gt compared to 7600gs and 7600gt. same benchmarks used so that should give you some idea.
how much is the 6600gt going for near you ? as i said in an earlier post the 7600gs is only slightly more than the 6600gt and 7300gt. roughly $20-$30 Australian dollars extra to be more precise.

[Inventive Software]

The 7300GT is going for £53 on dabs.com, the 6600GT is around £100 from same site, though. The 7300GT is cracking value, as that's got GDDR3 unlike the GS which has GDDR2.

[UofC]

Go for the 7300 gt. Or get a 7600 if you can score a good deal.

How do you become a turkey machine?

[dragongodz]

The 7300GT is cracking value, as that's got GDDR3 unlike the GS which has GDDR2.
and that will help you practically zero with a slower gpu. its like how some put 512mb on low end cards, rather pointless.

The 7300GT is going for £53 on dabs.com, the 6600GT is around £100 from same site
i just searched on that site and theres a dabsvalue 7600gs for 64.98 or a pny 7600gs for 73.90, cheapest 2. they are much better value than paying 100 for a 6600gt and faster than a 7300gt, irrelevant of ram type used. again please use the different review i gave links for to see what i mean.

[joelancer]

besides the fact dragongodz seems to already given you the info you need.... just FYI, the specs of the cards can also give you a good estimate of were they stand comapred to each other- example ->

i dont know about the brand you may be choosing, but these are the stock specs.

7300GT - 8pipe, 128bit DDR2, 350/666, ~10Gb/s mem
6600GT - 8pipe, 128bit DDR3, 500/900, ~14Gb/s mem
7600GS - 12pipe, 128bit, DDR2, 400/800 ~13Gb/s mem
7600GT - 12pipe, 128bit, DDR3, 560/1400 ~22Gb/s mem

so as you can see, not only do there specs stack in order, but so does there performances if you look at dragongodz's benchmark links.

[Inventive Software]

i just searched on that site and theres a dabsvalue 7600gs for 64.98 or a pny 7600gs for 73.90, cheapest 2. they are much better value than paying 100 for a 6600gt and faster than a 7300gt, irrelevant of ram type used. again please use the different review i gave links for to see what i mean.
Well thank you for the information, seems I needed to do a little more digging around to find the best deal, and that dabsvalue 7600gs seems to cut the mustard very nicely.

How do you become a turkey machine?
Long story, and I'm not discussing it in this thread. I'll PM you later!

[swaaye]

I wouldn't buy a Pentium D ever. Netburst sucks and even Intel is dumping it. Maybe buy it if it's very, very cheap.

Athlon 64 X2 is much better overall.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/01/dual/page10.html