[kramer2718]

Hi All,

I need to buy a new motherboard and processor for my computer as the old mboard has died. I'm thinking about buying a Pentium D 930.

Does anyone out there have any thoughts on that processor?

Specifically, I've never had a processor this fast, so I'm worried about cooling. With a dual core processor, do I need any special cooling or should the standard cpu fan, heatsink, and case fan work?


Let me know what you guys think.

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For starters, you will most likely not need any special accomodations. A good heatsink and fan will keep most non-overclocked processors at a comfortable temperature. Asides from that, I would suggest getting an AMD if you can and/or want to spend a bit more. The 64-bit processors will be better for longer, but they do cost a pretty penny.

[aerostarlegacy]

For starters, you will most likely not need any special accomodations. A good heatsink and fan will keep most non-overclocked processors at a comfortable temperature. Asides from that, I would suggest getting an AMD if you can and/or want to spend a bit more. The 64-bit processors will be better for longer, but they do cost a pretty penny.

[warriorscot]

AMD are cheaper than intel so hardly a factor. Pentium Ds are pretty crap trounced totally and completely by the AMD chips from that generation and this one. However there is a new intel dual core chip coming in july that will be better core 2 duo(they dont use the pentium name anymore).

[kramer2718]

Thanks for the thoughts guys, but my budget for the CPU is about $100 and I need it right away. I wish that I could wait until July, but I can't go without my box until then. The dual core Athlons are quite a bit more expensive than that. I can only afford the Pentium D 930 because I'm getting a special discount.

Looking at benchmarks, the Pentium D 930 seems to beat pretty handily the $100 AMD processors (like the Athlon 64 3000+). I guess the trade off is dual core vs. 64 bit and dual core seems to be faster.

[warriorscot]

They dont get beat in everything it depends on what you are doing with them multi threaded apps like the dual core but single threaded the single you have to fit it to what you are going to use.

[kramer2718]

No that's true. For those of you who want to do a comparison check out: http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html.

It looks like the Athlon 64 3000+ is a winner in some game bechmarks but that the Pentium D wins most of the compression/codec benchmarks and all the multitasking benchmarks (and I'm more interested in those latter activities). Interestingly enough, the Pentium D seems to beat the Athlon at the 3D Studio Max benchmark where I would expect that the 64 bit processor would shine.

[warriorscot]

They are using a 32 bit OS i think they usually do, its rare to compare the two on the XP x64 or 64 bit linux OSes, if you ran it on a 64 bit OS it would be slightly faster but on a 32 bit OS 64bit doesnt make a huge diff because it can be used effectivley.

Price wise here anyway the 930s go in against the 3700+ which is a significant threat as its a very good CPU.

If you can get a good deal though by all means go for it, the AMD advantage is only significant for gamers of people on tight budgets, mutlithreading intel is better which is high end apps 3d studio is multithreaded i think which is the reason it works well in the intel. Mind you intel have really had a foot up the backside lately and have slashed prices by alot i wouldnt be surprised if they are only just breaking even.

The reason for that is AMD has run out of new chip designs until the end of the year where as intel has some really amazing chips they have been working on for a while ready to ship in july so they are trying to get as much market share back from AMD as they can.

[Darryl]

I was looking at the 930 the other day on Newegg. To me, it seems like a great processor. 2X 2Mb L2 Cache, highly overclockable, and it was around $200 from newegg. Im no expert, and Im an AMD fan too, but I think it's a great chip. It seemed like Intel was finally giving AMD a run for their money. And the PD 805 is only around $130, and can overclock over 4Ghz.