New Intel Core 2 Duo system
Finally picked up a 64-bit CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo E6400. Paired it with an ASUS P5B-Deluxe WiFi motherboard that has DDR2 800MHz (PC6400), PCI-Ex16, SATA 300 support. Planning to upgrade the WinXP OS to Vista at the end of the month. Also got an ATI X1900GT with 256MB of memory PCI-Express x16 graphics card. Popped in 4GB of DDR2 PC6400 modules in it. Also got a fairly nice Broadway Com Corp ATX mid tower case that seems to do the job ok (just wish it came with nicer variable speed fans, a front HDD LED, and a better 500W power supply).

The CPU seems to over clock from the 2.13GHz to 2.4GHz easily enough, even at 1.35v, and runs cool with the smart speed step tech (which drops it from 8x to 6x speed when idle). The memory was a bit flakey at the 1:1 1067MHz FSP timing, but seems rock solid at 900MHz (5-5-5-18 timings) and 1.8v. I was also surprised with several BSoD's when trying to run manual timings for CL6 (not going to waste too much more time on what is failing right now). The X1900GT video card will only overclock reliably from GPU 513MHz to 535MHz and DRAM from 657MHz to 800MHz.

Performance testing it all out, it is turning in well over double the scores I use to get on my older 2.8GHz P4 system. And a quick Auto Gordian Knot encode of Black Hawk Down (85% quality-single pass) went from 145 minutes down to 71 minutes on this new dual core. Also, Never Winter Nights 2 will now work at 1920x1200 at over 30fps with most features turned on (this was a bitter 2-4fps slide show on the older system).


- posted by Jeff @ 1:58 PM | 0 comments