Bargain Hardware Thread

[E_tron]

Pentium D 805 for 133usd! Half the price of the 65nm Pentium Ds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116001

Forget Celeron D, these are better for farms now.

[sdbardwick]

Another Fry's deal, for those near a store
Pentium D 805 + ECS motherboard = $149.00

[Peter Nelson]

Originally Posted by E_tron

Pentium D 805 for 133usd! Half the price of the 65nm Pentium Ds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116001

Forget Celeron D, these are better for farms now.

Maybe so at the time, BUT because of Conroe coming out in around July or later, Intel are already SUBSTANTIALLY DROPPING PRICES ON THE 9XX MODELS ie 930, 940, 950.

This just happened late April, and UK prices are from 1/3 to 1/2 off what they were a few weeks ago. Therefore in view of faster FSB of 9xx over 805, possibly consider 930, 940 for bang per buck. And obviously 9xx are on 65nm process so should overclock well.

[E_tron]

well, it looks like the celeron D is back on my list of bargain hardware. 2.16ghz chip for 42usd on socket 478. pull out those old motherboards and start crunching again. I cannot find any info on its termal dissipation; it is probably around 60 watts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112208

[E_tron]

For under 40usd, Celeron D's are desirable again! They clock well and keep up with prescott P4s. Building a farm? Try some of these out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=

[E_tron]

They aren't really a bargain, but Core 2s factor 4 times faster than a pentium 4.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115005

If you want a bargin, the Pentium D 805 is still very desireable. Bang for your buck is similar to the Core 2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116001

The 805 makes all Celeron Ds undesireable .

All Athlon 64 series are still overpriced.

Conclusion: Farm Core 2 6300's and OC them to 2.6ghz.

[rx7350]

Consider the PD 915, also. I was able to get one refurb off of NewEgg for $122. It has a higher stock frequency (2.8Ghz) relative to the PD 805, but the real difference is that it runs much cooler oc'ed, as much as 15C. I have two PD805's in case-less systems, and they do oc well at a very cheap price.

I'm waiting for prices to fall on the Core2's before I use any of those. Who knows how long that will be.

I need to build a household productivity pc before too long, and I'm considering the PD945. Would rather use Core 2, but right now the prices are too high.

[IronBits]

What if you were to also consider the cost of 24/7 electrical use?

[rx7350]

What is the power consumption on the various Core2 cpus as opposed to the PD945, and what's the cpu temp expectation (all other things being equal) of the same two cpu series?

[E_tron]

It's not economy... but these are some incredible overclocking parts. This solution is reported to use about 110watts at full overclocked power making it economical to operate too.

Step 1:
Asus P5B motherboard $140
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 $225
2x256MB of DDR2 533x2$35x2=70
Total: $435

Step 2:
Overclock the E6400 to about 2.8ghz on the stock cooler.

Step 3:
Enjoy two screaming instances of Prime95.

[TehPenguin]

Originally Posted by IronBits

What if you were to also consider the cost of 24/7 electrical use?

1) Work out how much power your computer actually draws:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

2) Divide it by 1000 (to get kilowatts)

3) Multiply this by 8760 (ie. 24 hours * 365 days = hours/year) (this will give you kilowatt-hours)

4) Multiply this by the cost per kilowatt-hour of your electricity provider. (Remember: This figure is a theoretical max, as it assume your ENTIRE computer is being used 100% - real power consumption is quite a bit less)

But, for those of you who can't be bothered:
a) For the same clock speed, a Pentium D uses more power than a Core 2 (Also, the Core 2 will get better times in Prime)

b) An average computer should use about 2000 to 3500 kW-hr per year