System setup and notes
| System | Intel LGA775 1333FSB system | Intel LGA775 1066FSB system | AMD AM2 system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, LGA775,
quad-core) Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.67GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, LGA775, dual-core) |
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 (2.93GHz, 8MiB L2 cache, LGA775,
quad-core) Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, LGA775, dual-core) |
AMD Athlon
64 X2 6000+
(3.0GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, AM2, dual-core) AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, AM2, dual-core) AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (2.6GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, AM2, dual-core) |
| Motherboard | MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35) | Intel D975XBX2 Bad Axe 2 rev. 303 (Intel i975X) | ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition (nForce 590 SLI) |
| Memory | 2GiB (2 x
1024) Corsair PC8500 |
2GiB (2 x 1024) Patriot PC8000 XBLK | |
| Memory timings and speed | 4-4-4-12 @ 800MHz (PC6400) | ||
| Graphics card(s) | Radeon X1900 XTX 512MiB | ||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 160GB SATAII (ST3160812AS) | ||
| Optical drive(s) | Sony DW-Q30A | ||
| BIOS revision | 1.2B1 (05/22/2007) | 15/03/07 (BX97520J.86A.2674.2007.0315.1546) | 01/02/0 (0109) |
| Mainboard software | Intel Inf 8.3.0.1013 | Intel Inf 8.0.1.1002 | NVIDIA nForce Package 9.34 |
| Graphics driver | CATALYST 6.10 BETA | ||
| Operating system | Windows XP Pro 32-bit with SP2 | ||
| PSU | OCZ GameXStream 700W | ||
| Monitor | Dell 2405FPW | ||
The introduction of the 1333FSB necessitates a change of motherboard - the 975x lacks official support for it - and so we have gone with the MSI P35 Platinum.
Software
| Benchmarks | Sandra Lite 2k7 SP1 Build 2007.8.10.105 Float Buffered Memory
Bandwidth ScienceMark 2.0 32-bit Build 21MAR05 Memory Latency CPU-Z v1.39 HEXUS.pifast LAME multi-threaded benchmark - 701.5MB file - encoded into 128kbps stereo. DivX 6.4 (existing DV avi source-file, Home-theatre profile, 1700Kbps, Insane-quality video, 40Kbps, Stereo, 16KHz Audio) CINEBENCH 2003 R9.5 POV-Ray 32-bit 3.7.0 BETA 16 - Use internal benchmark mode - biscuit.pov Far Cry 1.33 (low-end script - 1024x768) Quake 4 1.30 SMP Support Enabled (low-end script - 1024x768 - demo001 recorded by HEXUS) Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 1.05 (low-end script - 1024x768) |
|---|
Pricing
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 | Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 | AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing as at 16/07/07 | £600 (Estimate) | £720 | £120 (Estimate) | £195 | £108 | £95 | £85 |
The introduction of Intel's new CPUs ahead of scheduled price-drops on existing models makes the overall view a little confusing. Better, therefore, to look ahead to July 22, when there will be pricing adjustments on existing models.
[advert]No matter which way you want to cut it, though, the Core 2 Extremes are pricey - very pricey. Most people simply won't be willing to splash out £600 on a CPU no matter how good it is.
However, AMD's Athlon 64 X2s and the price-dropped Core 2 Duos are bringing an incredible amount of processing power tantalisingly close to the £100 mark.
The CPUs' slightly different performance under various benchmarks will give some clues as to which to favour but, overall, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ offers slightly worse performance than the slightly more expensive E6700/E6750.
