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Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:36 am
by luisnhamue
Mine is d pentium dual core e2160 @ 1.8ghz (200*9). I loved and i still remember it, crunching d athlon64 x2's. I used to oc 'til 2.4ghz. And it was d first cpu that i used 24/7 oc, giving real life gains, playing my games and converting some videos.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:52 am
by pikaporeon
This seems a bit gimmicky, but at the same time, I knew my answer right away - my Socket 939 AMD Athlon64 3800 X2.
It was my third chip that was mine and not my familys, and it was really my first jump into the enthusiast world. I'd carefully selected it based on price and TR reviews, and it stuck with me for ages. I sold it a few years a go to a girl I liked, and I know its still going strong and not really being a bottleneck in the games she's playing.

The fact I overclocked it to 2800 mhz (from base 2ghz) didnt hurt.

My chip before it was a blast too (AMD Athlon 1700+) for the unlocked multiplier, but I was too young to afford toys like a good GPU or a good cooler to go with it.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:56 am
by just brew it!
Hard to pick just one. I'd say it comes down to:

- Intel 8080 -- The CPU that launched the PC revolution.

- Motorola 68000 -- The CPU that launched the low-cost UNIX workstation market. I hesitated to put this one on here, since I've never personally *owned* one; but I used (and wrote code for) a lot of 'em back in the day!

- AMD Athlon "Classic" -- Shook up the x86 market, ensuring that Intel wasn't the only game in town. This was *huge* -- without competition from the Athlon, x86 CPUs would almost certainly be significantly more expensive today.

Edit - Honorable mention: Athlon XP 2100+. My first multi-core desktop used a pair of these that I MP-unlocked, on a Tyan Tiger MPX workstation motherboard.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:05 am
by drfish
Tough call, I've loved all my carefully chosen CPUs but I think I have to give it to the 3800x2 as well - just an awesome chip and all around great value for the time. Runners up would probably have to be my Q6600 and my older AXP 2600...

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:23 am
by Captain Ned
Can't really say, as I don't think the DEC PDP-8 had a discrete CPU as such.

Without that PDP-8 in my high school circa 1978, I doubt I'd be the geek I am now.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:36 am
by just brew it!
Captain Ned wrote:
Can't really say, as I don't think the DEC PDP-8 had a discrete CPU as such.

Without that PDP-8 in my high school circa 1978, I doubt I'd be the geek I am now.

Just because it wasn't a discrete chip doesn't mean it wasn't a "CPU".

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:04 am
by Captain Ned
just brew it! wrote:
Just because it wasn't a discrete chip doesn't mean it wasn't a "CPU".

We have become somewhat conditioned by Moore's Law, n'est-ce pas?

10 PRINT "By the time you read this the DECWriter will be out of paper"
20 GOTO 10
99 END

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:12 am
by Jason181
Long live the Celeron 300a! They all overclocked to 450 for less than 1/2 the price of a real 450. In addition, their 128k L2 ran at cpu speed, which was screamin in those days :)

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:18 am
by just brew it!
Captain Ned wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Just because it wasn't a discrete chip doesn't mean it wasn't a "CPU".

We have become somewhat conditioned by Moore's Law, n'est-ce pas?

10 PRINT "By the time you read this the DECWriter will be out of paper"
20 GOTO 10
99 END

Ever write FORTRAN code that sent output to an old school high speed line printer? Line printers used the first column of output (which didn't actually print) to control the paper feed mechanism; a space meant normal (single-spaced) output, a '0' meant double-spaced, and a '1' would start a new page. It was a serious faux-pas to forget this, especially if the first column of actual output contained numerical data. On a really fast line printer, you could empty an entire *case* of fanfold paper in a matter of seconds if most of the lines had a '1' in the first column!

(I'd also heard -- though never observed first hand -- that you could get the paper to fly out of the printer in an arc several feet high by sending output consisting *entirely* of lines with just a single '1' in the first column.)

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:43 am
by Captain Ned
just brew it! wrote:
(I'd also heard -- though never observed first hand -- that you could get the paper to fly out of the printer in an arc several feet high by sending output consisting *entirely* of lines with just a single '1' in the first column.)

Never seen that exact action but I spent enough time around those old line printers that I'm sure it could happen. Back in the HS days my Dad's office had a Microdata 600LPM printer and you didn't want to be near it when it was in full song.

To think that most of the posters here will never have the joy of collecting/recollating hundreds of pages of output spewed all across the floor because one page of tractor-feed didn't refold the way it was supposed to.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:10 pm
by thegleek
Captain Ned wrote:
To think that most of the posters here will never have the joy of collecting/recollating hundreds of pages of output spewed all across the floor because one page of tractor-feed didn't refold the way it was supposed to.

I'm in the minority group that has seen and lived through those horrid days!

At any rate, my fav CPU:

Image

16 cores baby! WOO HOO!

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:35 pm
by Blazex
my tualaron 1ghz p3 celeron, thing was a champ, ran it from 02 to q4 07

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:41 pm
by drfish
I've got one more to throw into the ring. The 83Mhz Pentium Overdrive.

I stuck this chip in the first computer I was able to call my own, it was a 486 DX2/66 and in order to run with the Overdrive I had to perform my first BIOS update ever. :o Once it was installed it let me run Front Page Sports Golf and its revolutionary "TrueSwing" (can't believe I remember that but the review confirms it) control scheme; the beginning of motion controls as we know them? :lol:

Anyway, that hardware upgrade and the BIOS update that went with it defined my ~15 year old entry in the world of true geekdom - so it's kind of special.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:52 pm
by anubis44
Yeah, the Celeron 300a (Malaysia) that O/C'd to 450MHz without even a voltage bump, by simply changing the FSB from 66MHz to 100MHz was a very amazing CPU. But I think my current AMD Phenom II X2 550BE has to take the cake as the best CPU value ever.

It not only clocks from 3.1 to 3.6GHz on air, but it also has the unique ability to unlock from 2 to 4 cores, all with just a bios setting change! This means my $115 X2 550BE turned into a Phenom II X4 945BE, which was a $300 CPU at the time! I doubt such a bargain is likely to ever happen again, in relative terms.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:56 pm
by SuperSpy
My favorite was definitely the CPU that first got me into the enthusiast ring: the Athlon XP 1700 'Thoroughbred B', a buddy of mine and I spent like 40 bucks each on a pair and overclocked them to some insane speed. It was that little chip that really opened my eyes to overclocking and general hardware tweaks.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:14 pm
by Captain Ned
thegleek wrote:
I'm in the minority group that has seen and lived through those horrid days!

You'd be astounded by how much of the financial world still relies on tractor-feed line-printed green-bar.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:28 pm
by just brew it!
Captain Ned wrote:
thegleek wrote:
I'm in the minority group that has seen and lived through those horrid days!

You'd be astounded by how much of the financial world still relies on tractor-feed line-printed green-bar.

I still have a box of tractor-feed paper. It doesn't have any green bars on it though...

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:39 pm
by Captain Ned
just brew it! wrote:
I still have a box of tractor-feed paper. It doesn't have any green bars on it though...

I can't believe the number of places I go where the financial history is still fanfold greenbar in those (for the '80s) ubiquitous hanging ledger binders.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:58 pm
by SonicSilicon
I'm amazed the 6502 wasn't mentioned earlier. There's a chip that was used extensively and spawned many other widely used MPs.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:07 pm
by bthylafh
just brew it! wrote:
Captain Ned wrote:
thegleek wrote:
I'm in the minority group that has seen and lived through those horrid days!

You'd be astounded by how much of the financial world still relies on tractor-feed line-printed green-bar.

I still have a box of tractor-feed paper. It doesn't have any green bars on it though...


We've got probably a dozen greenbar printers scattered across the campus, and yes, they use actual greenbar paper. They're a mix of Okis, Genicoms, and at least one Printronix, and used for random large daily reports.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:37 pm
by just brew it!
SonicSilicon wrote:
I'm amazed the 6502 wasn't mentioned earlier. There's a chip that was used extensively and spawned many other widely used MPs.

Yes, I realize it was highly influential.

I didn't put it on my list because I somehow managed to never own, use, or program one to any significant extent unless you count my 8-bit NES console, or a brief stint I did back in the late '80s debugging 6502-based phone firmware.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:39 pm
by rogue426
That would have to be from my first system build, a Pentium 150 mhz, non MMX. This is the one that really launched me into the tech world and incremental upgrades on that first system. I remember a couple of Tualatin 1.13 systems that I really enjoyed tinkering with long after Athlon 64 came out.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:30 am
by JustAnEngineer
I had a lot of fun with my MOS 6510, but I was really amazed at the capabilities of the Motorola 68000 that replaced it.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 7:58 pm
by LoneWolf15
drfish wrote:
Tough call, I've loved all my carefully chosen CPUs


Ditto. I can't pick just one.

If I had to create a short list, it'd be the following:

AMD 486DX4-120MHz
AMD K6-233MHz
Intel Celeron 300A (Mendocino), clocked to 450MHz
Motorola PowerPC 604ev 300MHz (as found in the Power Macintosh 8600/300)
Athlon XP-M 2500+ (Barton), clocked to 2.4GHz
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

There are others I've been fond of, but all of the above are pretty innovative in one way or another, or really fast for their time.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:05 pm
by MadManOriginal
Celeron 266 @ 448MHz. All you Celeron 300A fans were late to the party! :p

My favorite probably out of nostalgia mostly, it was my first true ground-up self-build.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:00 am
by vargis14
LoneWolf15 wrote:
drfish wrote:
Tough call, I've loved all my carefully chosen CPUs


Ditto. I can't pick just one.

If I had to create a short list, it'd be the following:

AMD 486DX4-120MHz
AMD K6-233MHz
Intel Celeron 300A (Mendocino), clocked to 450MHz
Motorola PowerPC 604ev 300MHz (as found in the Power Macintosh 8600/300)
Athlon XP-M 2500+ (Barton), clocked to 2.4GHz
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

There are others I've been fond of, but all of the above are pretty innovative in one way or another, or really fast for their time.

!st cpu was a pentium 60 that i upgraded to a p120 overdrive deal
2nd 1st real gaming cpu p2 300 with dual 8mb vodoo2 sli setup,boy they got hot<put couple 80mm fans in sidepanel
3rd 900tbird amd on a crappy k7s5a ecs board
4th 2400xp same k7 board flashed
5th and close to the top a 940 pin fx-53 1 gig of corsair registered ram that cyberpower had to have miss priced system cost me 1500$And i was goin to add another 2 sticks of the same ram they where oer 500$ 9800xt,then x800xt 2.4ghz base but ran at 2.7 fine
6th 4800x2 with water and crossfire x1800xts,ati cme out with the 1900series so fast after the 1800s i had top of the line for a whole 3 weeks! ohh i had the original 24"1100$ dell lcd monitor i loved it..sold whole system for 1800 1.5 years later,since then only had lappys and dell hd zinos until this new 2600k,I have to admit my 17" inspiron dual core t5600 with 7900gs flashed to 7900gtx @ 600mhz core and 800 mem with a 5000 3dmark 06 score,now it sits all lonely like a weight set,Anyone want to buy it?still works,if ya dont use it to compute use it as a shield like capt america.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 4:41 pm
by LoneWolf15
vargis14 wrote:
!st cpu was a pentium 60 that i upgraded to a p120 overdrive deal


Show me the burn scars or it didn't happen. ;)

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 5:48 pm
by kc77
I've got three:
*My 486DX with the Turbo button. I loved playing the DOS version of Megaman with the Turbo button on.
*Then my Athlon 800. Damn thing got struck by lightning and still worked.
*Then my first Athlon 64 chip.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:06 pm
by DF bobo
I rather like the zilog z80.

Re: Favourite Cpu of all times

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:52 pm
by FuturePastNow
Core 2 Duo E6300. Budget power, and proof that Intel hadn't forgotten how to make processors.