P4 Help- 506 or 630

[gunman]

I'm on a tight budget for a messaround OC'ing Intel. Sorry I'm an AMD fan and would like to get a Intel to play with. But i don't know which proc to get. 630 has HT and 2mb L2 cache, while 506 is slower no HT and 1mb cache. So the question is, is the difference that wide that i would have to convince the powers that be (women) that spending for the 630 is worth it? :shrug:

[RAMMAN]

630 is definitaly worth it, mainly because of its 2mb of l2 cache.

[larva]

Well, a 506 works, so I'm not sure what story you would tell her. 630s have more performance potential because of the larger cache and higher fsb, but it rarely amounts to more than 5% in apps. HT is nice, but still would have to fall in the luxury category.

The main thing about the 506 is it doesn't need much fsb for 4GHz. If you have a 925XE or 945/955 chipset and good DDR2 and thus can easily run the 266fsb a 630 needs to achieve 4GHz, a 630 makes a lot of sense. If you are truly on a budget though, you can use a 915 board (with either DDR or DDR2) and only run 200fsb at 4GHz with a 506. Both chips will run 4GHz routinely; work backwards to the package that adequately support them and decide which system your budget is dictating you build.

[gunman]

ok sounds like a plan, I'm pretty sure I'll need the 2mb L2 cache to program :cool:

[xTrEmEoVrClOcKr]

630.

[ShakyJake]

I've owned both and while each went to 4 GHz I had to pump a lot more juice into the 506. The 630 went straight to 4GHz with minimal voltage increase (I could actually play games at stock voltage, but I did get some rare spontaneous reboots until I upped the voltage a notch). Also, the 630 ran a LOT cooler.

Bottom line: get the 630.

[CoreGamer]

The 630!

[gunman]

i think i might just get a venice 3200+ :bang head unless you can prove to me that intel is greater. I will be doing some actual programming on this comp too btw i have a 3000+ Crapcastle right now

[ShakyJake]

If you plan on overclocking I would think the 630 would spank the 3200+.

At 4GHz I know my 630, according to SiSoft Sandra benchmarks, is slightly faster than an Athlon FX-55.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

I will be doing some actual programming on this comp too btw i have a 3000+ Crapcastle right now

programming actually takes very little horsepower when it comes to your cpu. all you are doing when you are programming is writing lines of code in text. i'm in college right now, and all my programming for school work is done on the laptop in my sig.

[CoreGamer]

If you plan on overclocking I would think the 630 would spank the 3200+.

At 4GHz I know my 630, according to SiSoft Sandra benchmarks, is slightly faster than an Athlon FX-55.
That should answer your questions :P I wouldnt go 3200 when you could get a 630....

[xTrEmEoVrClOcKr]

Id take the 630 over the 3200, they are both great processors, when mainboards come into play, I'd pick Intel over AMD (stability / reliability).

[kenshee]

my 630 3.0ghz @ 3.6ghz stock cooler, stressed 49 degrees celcius idle 35 degrees celcius