Intel Conroe opinions/users?

[Motofanatic]

Ok, there's too much crap to sift through on the computer nerdy bulletin boards.

I got burned getting a Prescott LGA775 P4 because the damn thing runs so hot, I've had to resort to watercooling to keep it cool. I should have gotten an AMD back in 2004.

So now I'm hearing the Conroe is kicking AMD's butt (performance-wise) and is supposed to run cooler. However, I'm reading a 50/50 split on all those nerdy bulletin boards that it does run cooler, or it runs the same temps as a Prescott.

Anyone here build a system recently around a Conroe? If so, which E6x00 did you use, which motherboard, which cooler and how are your temps? I'm not a gamer, but I do heavy duty programming and simulation so the CPU speed is important.

I'm figuring the users on this board are a bit more savvy with thermal paste, heat sink application and the like so I won't have to weed through posts from users that don't know how to properly build a PC and thus, report false findings on their CPU temps.

Thanks for your feedback/opinions.

[kb0nly]

Call me an old AMD supporter, but the Conroe isn't worth the investment for me. The benchmarks are showing that in some applications it's outdoing the FX series of AMD processor's.. But it's always the same arguments, real world feel compared to cold hard numbers.

I recently built a system around the E6700, i didn't choose it the customer did, and i damn near fell over when i found out the CPU was nearly the cost of my low budget complete system! Ouch!!!! But hey, AMD has some spendy CPU's on the market in the same price range or more so i can't pick on Intel based on price.

It was a retail packaged CPU with OEM heatsink, nice one really with a 80mm high output fan. The motherboard was an Asus, yet again not something i would normally choose, i have had too many bad Asus boards over the years. I have had over 100 Epox motherboards for various Intel and AMD based systems with only one problem to report over the years, a bad onboard ethernet port, and Epox replaced the board in about 5 business days.

All i can say is compared to my AMD systems that thing run hotter than heck.. Idled in the 40's, celsius, usually around 41-42, and would spike to 50-55 under load. Yes, you have to take into consideration that it has an OEM provided cooler on it, but when you buy the retail CPU that's what you get so thats what we used at first. This owner has a Thermaltake Big Typhoon cooler on order to replace the OEM one. I have used the Typhoon on Athlon 64's with great success, keeping them running in the low 30's at idle and mid 40's under load. I'm hoping this cooler can turn that Conroe into a CPU rather than a hot plate.

In my opinion though there is something that none of the review or benchmarks take into consideration! Bang for the Buck.. AMD has always had a better ratio of price to performance in my opinion.

I have been thinking about upgrading one of my systems, but only because i want to go with PCI Express instead of AGP. However, i plan on just swapping the motherboard and video card and leaving the rest as is.

Right now i'm running a A64 3400+, 1g of Ram, Nvidia 6800 Ultra. Over 400gb combined hard drive space, which might also need an upgrade later this year. That's the newest system of the bunch and it does everything i need to and more. The other desktop here is a slightly older Athlon XP based system, 3200, Nvidia 5700, 1g Ram, around 200gb of space. It still does a lot of stuff that i need it to, so i keep it around as a second computer for the workbench.

I know a lot of guys, mainly gamers, that are always complaining about how hot their Intel's run.. Seems to me that they have always had trouble, not to say AMD never has, i remember how hot the XP series was getting under load.