Time to upgrade your Chess Computer ... for $500

[Spock]

Intel Q6600 Quad Core (G0 stepping) - $280

I have it since a couple of weeks and it is a fantastic PC, faster than AMD and the 4 cores remain wonderful cool, a splendid job by Intel. After 10 years of AMD I am back at Intel.

Ed

Yes. I hope AMD can strike back, we need the competiton in the CPU market. Competition is good for us, the consumer.
While I like my Intel Quad Core, I still have a soft spot for my quad Opteron though...

[M ANSARI]

Yes I hope so too. I always have been more of an AMD person myself but really ... today Intel is just way ahead. My hopes were that Barcelona would get back the performance crown ... but that looks like it will not happen. The yields seem to be very poor and AMD actually was going to release Barcelona at a ridiculous 1.6 Ghz ... I think they have since changed it to 2 Ghz. Phenomn which is the equivalent of the Intel Quads has also been tested at 3Ghz ... but I am not sure if it will be released at that speed. The thing is that Intel is obviously holding back now because AMD cannot compete. They already have the Penryn which is supposed to run at 3.33 Ghz Quad ... and is 45um footprint ... AMD are struggling to release a processor at 65um. AMD does have an advantage when it comes to on die memory controller ... which should theoretically be better for Chess ... but it seems Intel also has that. I remember seeing a few tests where an Intel V8 (2 x Quad at 3Ghz) easily outperformed a test Barcelona with 16 cores. Let's see what happens now that AMD is going to release Barcelona ... it already seems to have passed its August release date target.

[mongrel]

Would you point me to your favorite forum or other source for information on this subject?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum (Probably the best but not exactly for newbies).
http://www.overclock.net (more suited for new comers).

Info/Reviews:
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.xbitlabs.com
http://www.dailytech.com

That first link needs an "s" at the end: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/

[Nid Hogge]

Yes I use MX-1 in preference to Arctic Silver 5. Depending on who you believe, it does a better job than Arctic Silver 5 and it's non-conductive. I didn't realise MX-2 was out. The dab in the middle of the heatsink approach - yes that's fine.

Yes it's brand new.. Out before a couple of weeks.

That first link needs an "s" at the end: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/

Ahh, yes indded. Thanks for the catch!