3 Choices of CPU/mobo......what to get?

Aug 27, 2004 at 4:28 AM Post #16 of 30
We had two pretty much identical AMD systems; XP 2000+ on MSI K8T Ultra Combo, and I couldn't be happier with 'em. The only lockups we had I attributed to programs or Windows, as when I ran Linux, (or the other computer, which wasn't a gaming machine, and as such, wasn't tweaked within an inch of it's life or flogged as hard) everything was fine.

However, my mobo just died a couple days ago (went to go boot, nothing. Reset BIOS, had case open, hit power, smoke poured out. For some reason, a major trace running from a fan header burned up), so we'll see how the new one fares. Luckily, MSI has an extremely good warranty (3 years), and excellent (if not gullible; I basically called 'em up, said I had a dead mobo, and they didn't ask for proof of purchase or anything, just gave me an RMA) customer service, so I oughta be up and running within a couple weeks. Upshot is that these mobos are a bit old, and MSI no longer makes them, so I'll be getting a free upgrade.

Anyway, back on subject... Intel is extremely stable, I'll give it that. I've used extremely high-end gaming machines built on Intel, and they're rock solid. That being said, I'd still rather have the performance and price of an Athlon box and deal with occasional problems. If you do your homework right before ordering parts, you can usually iron out most problems anyway. Although sometimes you can discover new ones, like me. Both MSI and AMD said the Duron worked with the above mentioned K8T mobo. Suprise, suprise, it doesn't. Won't even POST. Anyway...

(-:Stephonovich:-)
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 6:42 AM Post #17 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich
Being an AMD fan, I'd say go for the 64 3200+. They're certainly no slouch, and can hold their own with the P4.

And what's this about the board not having a big enough featureset? Asus has always been a leader in including goodies. That particular board has DDR400 support, HyperTransport, Gigabit LAN, 5.1 audio, Firewire, Parallel and Serial ATA, and RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 support. Also, of course, Asus's usual slew of OC and safety/troubleshooting tools.

Final words: don't get a Prescott. Just don't. They run hotter (MUCH hotter), don't really offer any performance gains, and if you ever decided to OC, they suck at that.

(-:Stephonovich:-)


You forgot to mention the optional upgrade for 802.11b WiFi. (Asinine mayhaps, but a wonderful addition if you don't need the speed, don't want to give up any of the PCI slots, already have a WiFi network set up, and want to get rid of one of the many wires.)

In fact that is my exact setup. A64-3200+ with an Asus K8V Deluxe, ba-blah ba-blah. . . I have ZERO stability problems in the last year or so. I do have the occasional lock up in some games, but that's basicly because of ATI's drivers (and they still haven't fixed the CoH problems!
mad.gif
) No problems with Doom 3 or anything else non-OpenGL related.

Warning: I may have had a problem that might crop up for the layman (used to be a tech) but if so it wasn't significant enough to remember (except for the 129+GB stupidity that Microsoft knew about for years but just COULDN'T be BOTHERED to incorporate into ANY of the updates. No, I'm not bitter about the loss of 100gbs of anime. Nope, not scarred for life. Not me.
frown.gif
)

PS. Did I mention that Microsoft is stupid?
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 2:35 PM Post #18 of 30
Unless you're planning on hearing a jet engine start up every time you press "power" in the morning, I'd go with the P4.
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 9:46 PM Post #19 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032
Unless you're planning on hearing a jet engine start up every time you press "power" in the morning, I'd go with the P4.


AMD != noisy. Have you seen the heat outputs for modern P4's? Especially the Prescotts; they're pushing 90 watts. That's actually a bit past most Athlons. (they run 80-85 watts) It's perfectly feasible to build a quiet AMD-based system. As for the jet engine bit, you haven't heard noisy 'till you've heard ThermalTake's Extreme Volcano 12+. A friend of mine has that on his Mobile 2500+. I swear, the whole thing shifts when you crank it up from the torque. It's insane. You actually have to raise your voice to talk over it. Turn it all the way down and it's pretty decent, but it's just hilarious to crank it up just to see people's reactions...
biggrin.gif


(-:Stephonovich:-)
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 10:05 PM Post #20 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032
Unless you're planning on hearing a jet engine start up every time you press "power" in the morning, I'd go with the P4.


That's not necessarily true anymore. A couple years ago AMDs ran much hotter than Intel, now it's pretty even, the newest P4s run slightly hotter than AMDs these days.

The trick is the to replace the stock heatsink with something really nice (ie: meant for overclocking) - but run it at stock speed with a very slow, quiet fan (at least 80mm). This will give more than adequate cooling, stability and best of all - quiet
biggrin.gif


Compared to years past (like 5+ years ago) computers parts in general are so dirt cheap now that I really don't mind shelling out extra money for little things that will keep my machine running happily for a long time. Quality power supplies, nice heatsinks, quality RAM, ASUS motherboard, all these little "premium" items add up to a vastly more cooperative system for small monetary premiums.

-dd3mon
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 11:50 PM Post #22 of 30
just read this, and it shows the P4 truly excel in encoding, its pretty even overall with the AMD.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2065&p=7


well, my last jump was from a P3 450 to a AMD 2200, now that was a big jump, and it has served me great so far, plenty of omph, until i encountered video ripping and some microsoft Media 9 high res video, where it start to shows its age.

But what should i expect from jumping from a 2200 to a 3.2Ghz / 3200 ?
 
Aug 27, 2004 at 11:58 PM Post #24 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin
just read this, and it shows the P4 truly excel in encoding, its pretty even overall with the AMD.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2065&p=7


well, my last jump was from a P3 450 to a AMD 2200, now that was a big jump, and it has served me great so far, plenty of omph, until i encountered video ripping and some microsoft Media 9 high res video, where it start to shows its age.

But what should i expect from jumping from a 2200 to a 3.2Ghz / 3200 ?


my guess is, the jump will be like jumping from 2200 to 2800 XP Barton..
(not really helpful am i...
tongue.gif
)

how much RAM you have by the way ? maybe its slow because of the lack of RAM or slower RAM ? it might be the slow Hard drive too... (should have at least 7200 rpm)
 
Aug 28, 2004 at 4:09 AM Post #28 of 30
A 64-bit version of Windows isn't gonna happen 'till Longhorn is out at the minimum. And that's, what, 2008? M$ keeps changing the date; it's hard to keep up with.

That being said, Linux already has 64-bit versions out...
biggrin.gif
Heck, I saw SuSE 9.0 Pro 64-Bit Edition for sale at Best Buy a few days ago. Freedom for the masses!

(-:Stephonovich:-)
 
Aug 28, 2004 at 4:09 AM Post #29 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin
But what should i expect from jumping from a 2200 to a 3.2Ghz / 3200 ?


Speedwise they are about even in general but hyperthreading let's you multitask better. In a long rendering run, I'd like to still use my computer. I find that certain tasks or misbehaved program can stall a 1 CPU system no matter how fast. Doing a single task I rather use the A64 but multitasking I rather use P4 with hyperthreading or either with 2 or more CPUs.
 
Aug 28, 2004 at 10:18 AM Post #30 of 30
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich
A 64-bit version of Windows isn't gonna happen 'till Longhorn is out at the minimum. And that's, what, 2008? M$ keeps changing the date; it's hard to keep up with.

That being said, Linux already has 64-bit versions out...
biggrin.gif
Heck, I saw SuSE 9.0 Pro 64-Bit Edition for sale at Best Buy a few days ago. Freedom for the masses!

(-:Stephonovich:-)


The 64-bit version will come out sooner than you think. MS already has a trial program for it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/6...n/upgrade.mspx
 
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