Is the Intel Pentium D 930 actually worth buying?

Is the Intel Pentium D 930 actually worth buying?

i mighthave mention this in my previous and similar thread, which i have lost the item towards it. but now i have been hanging on to this one for days, having a good chance to win it and if it is worth buying.

cause of me not going out that much, i wouldnt know the actual price of it, even the internet gives me different prices not sure of which is true. can someone tell me what is the selling price of it? as i am from the UK i dont mind if u give me a US price. i am sure it is the same here.

i am somewhere at £85 to be my maxium buying price, even though i am not that rich.

according to this site, it can be overclocked and it is very near matched to the AMD X2 i assume, please double check and read on:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...920-930_3.html

anyways, i would again very appreciate it, and again i do not have much time for it, just hoping i wont loose out on this item like i did with the last. can anyone give me pointers and bad ones aswell, and be harsh also if u wish. anything that will help me if im doing the right thing.

thanks very much. and god bless u lot too.

If you can find it at a much lower price than the newer core 2 duo, it'll do the job.

Go with AMD, they always have had a trick card up their sleeves.

I love it when they let intel have a great product for like a week, then steal their thunder with some sort of outragous announcement.

Quantum Computers anyone?

i see.

very interesting, but i always have my mind set to Intel.

also, the reason why i chose this particular CPU was because it is the only processor in the 900 series to use 95W (the lowest out of the others) and at a good decent and overclockable clockspeed. take a look at the link i have provided and read one from there, it is very comparable to the AMD 64 FX-60, by only a little, and with a good fan also.

i still wonder if the power (watts) of the CPU is still the main reason why the Pc will use alot of electricity and bumb up those bills, or is it the power supply itself?

I would say that the 930 scores even to an Athlon X2 3800+ each of them having their stronger and weaker sides.

But the cheapest your going to find a 930 is about $191.00 US.

Where a X2 3800+ goes below $160.00 US easily, for $191.00 you can get a X2 4200+.

Also AMD processors have the absolute lowest watts needed, 65 Watts for the normal version and an amazing 35 Watts for the energy saving model for about $10 US more.

The watts the processor uses is taken from the powersupply, lower watts mean lower processor temperatures and also lower power bills.

But if you are absolutely attached to having an intel processor thats cool, just expect to pay more for less at this time. I would suggest waiting until intel drops their prices though.

Theres nothing wrong with being a fanboy :)

If you want to stick with Intel, buy a core 2 duo then.

I love amd but the core 2 duo seems to be the best processors at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by semicolo

If you want to stick with Intel, buy a core 2 duo then.

I love amd but the core 2 duo seems to be the best processors at the moment.

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I can completely agree with that.

i still dont understand still with the power used in the processors.

is it just there to make sure you buy the correct PSU?

for example, if the 930 uses 95W and my PSU is 300-400W, which one will count for a great deal sum of electric bills?

The Watts represents the maximum current a cpu consumes under an normal load and under its default voltage.

However intel lies on their representations so expect your cpu to consume ~10-15% more than listed.

A PSU does not consume power, it converts AC current into different values of DC current and feeds it to all the devices of a computer. The more power that the parts consume the more power that the PSU has to convert. PSU's have limits on how much power they can convert at maximum, they are rated in watts.

Many PSU companys make cheap products that do not live up to their ratings or give false specs.

Saying that your PSU is 400w is useless because what matters is how many Amps are on each line.
Cheap companys like to stick lots of amps on the less important 5v and 3.3v lines and very little amps on the important 12v line. Making a powersupply listed as 450w only perform like a 250w.

Never use powersupplys that come with cases or are cheap, the powersupply is the most important part of a computer it wildy affects the overall performance of the entire system.

When feeding you computer consider this, Garbage in Garbage out. :)

umm ok then.

i was also actually hoping that ther would be an enegy saving PSU about, but i dont know for sure, maybe u can tell me?

From what you said, i think the 930 is a good choice for me (95W including that will remain the same wen OC'ed) also, how much WATTS would u recommend for a computer using of this age and for further higher specs?

and sorry one last thing, acording to that website, they used an ASUS motherboard for the overclocking, and from ive been told, it depends wat motherboard is good for overclocking, may i ask, can an Intel motherboard be very good for the job?

As for an energy saving PSU, I have never heard of one. Like I said before a PSU DOES NOT use energy, it just converts it into the power needed for the rest of the computer but their may be certin brands that do it with less waste.

That intel would consume more like 138 watts in reality, like I said intel doesnt measure it like the rest of the industry does.

When OC'ing the processor needs even more power, even just a 200mhz OC will put the watts used atleast 178 watts.

Good overclocking motherboards are DFI and ASUS, I wouldnt touch any intel motherboard with a ten foot pool they use cheap chipsets.

As for what powersupply you would need, it depends on what parts your using which video cards, how much ram, how many hard drives and what kinds, theres litterally tons of variables.

Take a look at this, it will give you an idea on what PSU you will need.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

well ok then...

i think it looks like i am going to need a 400W-500W PSU then.

any good? or would it take up much of the bills?

also, the 930 uses 95W, thus wen overclocked, i assume it will be 135W?

A 400-500w PSU should be fine but what I have been trying to say is that the PSU doesnt take up any power bills at all, It is everything else that does.

Aslo the 930 doesnt use 95w, Ignore what the Specs show. 95w is incorrect...
It really uses more like 135w therefore when Overclocking it will be like 160w.

Intel chips are power hogs because they cannot legally use "Silicon On Insulator" when making their CPU's, SOI is owned by IBM and only AMD can use it so their chips are cooler and more energy efficent.

ok then, but 135W to 160W isnt that bad is it?

and especially wen u are using a Zalman CNPS9500 LED fan for it.

Ya stuff like watts a processor uses really doesnt matter much.

Good pick on a zalman fan for it, it would be a shame if you used stock cooling for OCing.

And remember to get a good motherboard, DFI if you can afford it. They are the best of the best but will only take other high quality parts. For example it wont run at all on cheap ram, think of it like sticking regular gas in a porsche.

ASUS also make good motherboards, sort of a compromise between the customability of a DFI mobo and price. Lots more features than normal brands at a good price, But still doesnt have nearly the options that DFI has.

oh ok then.

thanks very much.

wat is stock cooling by the way?

also, can u name me some good products which will be reasonable to put into a motherboard? like that are not cheap as u say?

Stock cooling is the Heatsink and Fan that comes with the processor when you buy it. They are made to cool only to what the processor needs at a minimum so they are bad if you plan to overclock.

The best CPU coolers are Thermaltake and Zalman, make sure you use thermal paste on them.

As for good products these are the better manufacturers, I have not tried them all.

RAM - G.SKILL, OCZ, CORSAIR, GEIL, CRUCIAL, PQI, SAMSUNG.

*These companies all have a value series of products and a performance series of products, the value series is typically for average users and the performance is for gamers and overclockers. If you plan to overclock your RAM use a good brands performance series.

PSU - FORTRON, SPARKLE, COOLERMASTER, ANTEC, ENERMAX, ZALMAN, TAGAN

*Make sure you have enough power but it is also important to leave some extra power for upgrade room.

Hard Drives - SAMSUNG, WESTERN DIGITAL, MAXTOR

*Computers usually are not picky about hard drives because only a couple companys make them

As for video cards anything thats made by ATi or nVidia should work fine.

Theres lots of good stuff out there and a lot more rip offs, always try doing a google search to see what other people think about it.

wow! thats alot of good stuff there.

specs that i plan to have in my PC are:

Intel Pentium D 930 3.0GHz (Overclocked somehow to ?) with Zalman CNPS9500 LED fan

4GB DDR RAM

200-400GB HD

2 DVD-R/RW drives or onw which is combo which helps with a big hard drive

Floopy disk drive (of course)

and either an ATI or NVidia graphics card.

those are just the basics. and i am on a tight budget here, so eBay will be my help.

Have you ever overclocked anything before?

If not then I would suggest OCing your video card for pratice, its like a tricicle for OCers.

actually overclocking is something ive never done before, but im very eagar on doing it.

Well if you havent overclocked before then read alot of guides and be very patient.

Dont try and do a max OC on the first day, learn to overclock your video card first then your ram before you should even attempt to OC your cpu.

Some Tips:

Patience, only go ~5Mhz at a time. Run a long benchmark each time and pay close attention to the sensors.

Just because your CPU temp is running cold doesnt mean your northbridge isnt turning into jello.

The Clear CMOS jumper is your friend.

Do not up the voltage until you are certin that its whats holding back a higher OC.

The psu does eat some power, it only converts 80 to 90% of the energy, there's some heat generated (heat means power dissipation).

What motherboard will you buy ? I don't recommend the asus p5rd2-vm, since at least 1 out of 4 we use where I work are bad, don't know if it's a driver problem, some work like a charm, others aren't stable at all.

well i was recommended ASUS and DFI...

but i am also wondering if ESC or ECS (dont know which order) is a good motherboard to buy, and is god for overclocking. i did actually hear its a good motherboard, just like MSI, but i dont know if you lot will agree.

i also had in mind either 930-940-950 intel pentium D CPus to but, and if 940 and 950 they can work stable wen overclocked.

WARNING: DO NOT BUY ECS

Their Motheboards have a tendency to fry processors and ram, I have gone through 4 CPUs on one ECS mobo and im not the only one. I would not recomend anyone to use them. Their motherboards do not allow any overclocking either.

Also like semicolo said a powersupply does use some power, just to run the fan and when converting AC-DC some power is lost but it is neglible.

ASUS makes some good motherboards but they like to be pioneers with new technologys and this can bite them with compatibility, usually their boards get better with age through BIOS updates.
They can be either a dream or a nightmare, but they usually offer the best overclocking option next to DFI.

oh cool.

well thanks very much Tomolo, i wish i knew as much as you do.

but i am going to stick with Intel and overclock it. i am not even sure how to do it, either by software or hardware?

and which fan do i stick in before i overclock it or wen i first buld the computer? the stock fan or the Zelman's?

It dont matter which fan you stick in using the zalmans shouldnt cause any problems and overclocking a processor is completely done through the bios.

oh right.

i always thought u need to overclock the CPU with a kind of software or something.

wat exatly do u have to do then?

wow, do ALOT of reading.

Usually to get into the BIOS you have to press delete or F1 when your computer is first starting, good luck after that...

ummm ok then.

if i were to overclock it, according to that site i linked, they did it at 4GHz on the 930, thus would it be possible if i should do the same when i get my 930?

also, i think i just won a dodgy item:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Well you would need a good motherboard, ram, and cooling to reach the OC they got.

In that article they used ASUS P5WD2-E Premium mainboard, Corsair CM2X1024-6400PRO, and Zalman CNPS9500 cooling.

Like I said get a good ASUS board and good ram and maybe you can reach what they got but when overclocking its mostly luck, Identical items can perform completely different from each other...

so maybe u would recommend me those parts? or maybe better?

I recommend you an AMD... lol

Just buy whatever you want, those parts are excellent but there are many other good alternatives...

oh ok then.

due to wat the site used to overclock their CPU to 4.0GHz, with those parts (whic i assume to be of good quality), if i were to use parts that are better quality than wat was used in the test, would i be able to overclock it slightly higher than the 4.0GHz they did?

also, as i planned to use the same fan as they did, the Zalman CNPS9500 LED, is it possible that they maight have a better faster and quieter fan than that? even though the fan itself is good enough?

Overclocking is all about luck really, good parts mean you will have better chances of a good overclock but doesnt mean that someone with cheaper parts cant get a higher overclock than you.

Even two idential parts can perform extremely different, its all a coin toss...

sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be less expensive to buy a better processor and lower end memories rather than those expensive ram/fan needed for overclocking...

Ya basically the only ways OCing is worth it is if your just looking for a couple extra Mhz or if your an enthusuast that needs the best of the best, It doesnt hurt to see what your stuff can really do though...

hey everyone its me!

how are you all? i hope u lot are doing fine.

thanks for your info as well, really helped me out.

just like to ask, does anyone know anything about the 945? it seems to be a good CPU besides not having VT and why is it soo cheap as well?

No, don't buy it. It is made from suck and fail. Get a Core 2 Duo instead.

i would if i can get.

i lost a huge amount of them at good prices. now they pumping thrm up which i cant even afford.

unless someone can recomment me geting the E6300 or the E6400 (strip down versions of the CPU). its been said that they have a smaller die and lower heat use. and tends to be better Overclockers than the Conroe.

wat do u lot think?

Wait for the E4300 if you need a budget Core 2.