Apparently... Intel did it again.

[runawayprisoner]

Yes... the Q9450 processors also have a Xeon counterpart, and guess what? Again, identical specs, blah blah blah, you know the drill. Heck, it's even on 775 instead of 771 like the other good sheep. I'm telling you because I know some of you have been waiting a long time, and you may not stand a chance against the horde of people who have pre-ordered the Q9450 months ago. Okay... you ready for this? The processor is Xeon X3350. Look around. There are a lot of places that have it in stock. But be aware, people have started noticing as well. If you want to make a decision, now's the best time to start.

P.S.: And as usual, I volunteer as a guinea pig to test this Xeon processor... once again... against normal casual motherboards. Hmm... I wonder if they'll run?

[Lord Zedeck]

Yeah, I was reading around Wednesday and found this out. I'm really contemplating getting it (and selling my E8400 [hey, I'll make a profit plus the time I've had it for]), but two things have me hesitant.

1. I'm not sure about the retailer I was looking at. I think it had a 4.4 rating (out of ten) on resellers.com, so I don't know.

2. I'd like to know what overclocking, and more importantly, heat is like.

P.S. Why did you trade your Xeon E3110 for the Core 2 Duo E8400? The Xeon is the same thing, but I hear it's binned to require less voltage (rumor) and has the extra networking feature (okay, useless probably). Just wondering.

Anyway, do report back. Depending on what I hear, I may go for it, and if so, I'd like to ask where you got it from. Hopefully it still has availability if I decide to get it.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

He sold the Xeon (the E8400 Equivalent) almost instantly on ebay so it was gone pretty quick.

[runawayprisoner]

To know how the X3350 overclocks, you can head down to another thread that I created.

As for the E3110, I just sold it... cuz I wanted to earn some extra $50 for the fun of it. The same thing may not happen to this Quad chip... because supply is ample while demand is... not so ample. Not so many people are willing to trade in their Q6600 for something that is just 20-40% faster. Not so many people are willing to pay an extra $100 for this same chip while they could just get the Q6600 for $250. And... not so many people have a motherboard that can overclock this baby to her fullest potentials. But I DARE say that this thing offer more performance than the Q6600 can ever do... for a 24/7 chip.

P.S.: And anyway, I have a E8400 lying around now... and I may not use it anymore. Why? 3.6GHz quad-core... running Gran Turismo 4 in PCSX2 at near full speed is all I need, apparently.

[Paratech]

I need to get back into Gran Turismo 4 on my PS2, I had to wipe the memory save because I was running out of room! That would be fun on a PC, I'd imagine, even without the fancy special effects via emulation!

Maybe 3-5 years from now that kickass computer you have will be affordable for me! LOL

Still I'm thrilled I have Saturn emulation on my PC! I was psyched to run the Saturn emulator and the 4 of 6 games I own were compatible. The Jury's still out on whether or not I care about World Series Baseball not being compatible! LOL

[runawayprisoner]

I think there are still some affordable solutions for you out there... like the E7xxx series that will come out. And hey, did you know you can easily take any E2140 processor to 3.2GHz? That's plenty for lots of games under PCSX2.

[Paratech]

I just got my 2.6 dual core Athlon, It'll be a while before I upgrade again.

Maybe in a year or two I'll see if I can get a faster processor added...

[runawayprisoner]

Hmm... and my advice is to make a one time suicide run for the fastest chip you can afford... before bumping into a wall and die painfully.
But seriously, getting the best possible components all at once is better than accumulating upgrades. Least your system can stay on top for about a year or two.

[Paratech]

Well I think a 2.6ghz Dual Core should be ok for 1-3 years, then I hope I'll just have to buy a new CPU and not motherboard or memory.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

You will be lucky if you can even still get current parts in 3 years time....

[Phil]

In three years time, the Athlon name is going to be old news. same for the q6600, qx6850,, and heck, most of the 65nm chips, especially with the onset of nehalem

[runawayprisoner]

I still have some doubts about Nehalem, though... if it's using the same technology as the current 45nm chips, then the performance per core should not be so great compared to our current 45nm chips, right? And then... that many cores... I don't think any current software takes advantage of so many cores and threads... but then again, maybe I'm just being skeptical.

[Phil]

looks who's talking
i bet your going to be one of the first floggers of that chip

[runawayprisoner]

Nah, I'm good. I think I'll need a motherboard upgrade to be able to house one of those. I'll just be the good ol' supply source then. By the way, E8400 for $250 anyone? Or do you still want the Xeon chip for $380? Or would you rather wait a year for Nehalem? Knowing Intel, there will probably be Nehalem stocks at around February next year...

[Phil]

250? i might take you up on the offer. you still have the heatsink and fan?

[runawayprisoner]

I'm throwing in the Xeon heatsink and fan, which has copper base instead of aluminum like the cheap heatsink fan that Intel included with this box... if you buy it? They are almost the same... just that the Xeon fan has a copper base. Or if you want, I have an ACF7 Pro lapped here. It should let the chip idle at 25-27C and load at 55C even in this crappy eMachines case. The lapped ACF7 Pro would go for $30. Both of them would be... hmm... I say $300 already with shipping.

[Phil]

so how much are you selling them for altogether?

[Squall-Leonhart]

[Phil]

nice, kupo

[runawayprisoner]

Originally Posted by Phil

so how much are you selling them for altogether?

$300 (already with shipping). $320 if you want them to arrive in 3 days?

And wow to that Nehalem post. I wonder if you'll ever need to use that many...