Is this a worthwhile upgrade? jumping back to Intel

[raymondlin]

My PC is being a pile of poo not doing what it's told so i am sending it back to carrera and replacing the Mobo and CPU while i am at it.

was getting a fault in nonpage area, and NTLDR error unpon installing windows. When it was ok, it had random reboots, up to 5/6 times a day.

Going from a

AMD 2200+xp, Asus A7V333 mobo, PC2700 DDR

to

Intel P4 3.0 Ghz 800FSB HT, Asus P4C800 Mobo.

Graphic card would be the same at ATI9700pro (i'll keep this for a little longer), just what kind of speed increase should i see in games and video encoding?

and What Ram should i get?

I really would want a P4 over a AMD, or is that silly thinking?

 

[Edwood]

If you are worried about energy efficiency and heat, I'd stay away from the upper end P4's. I have a 2.4GHz P4, and I can't fathom how hot the 3+GHz ones are. (Actually, I can, I helped a friend build one based on a 3GHz P4.)

However, if you are dead set on an Intel chip, I'd recommend going with Intel's 875 or 865 Motherboard chipsets.

My next system will definitely be an Athlon 64. 3000+ at least. It will be my first AMD CPU ever.

If Athlon 64 fully supports SSE2 instructions, then you'll see a significant improvement in encoding, particulary in video.

-Ed

 

[raymondlin]

http://anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1941

just had a look at that article, the Intel totally win on rendering and video encoding over the AMD.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood It will be my first AMD CPU ever.

Please stick with Pentium Ed........

 

[terrymx]

ram: i used a corsiar ram with a p4s800 mobo before, it causes restarts while playing games. i recommend apacer pc3200 ddr512, dual channel transfer, 2.5volts. runs more stable and doesnt restarts.

i built a p4 computer for my bro. its a 2.8ghz, can easily overclock to 3.0ghz without heat or stability problem. i use the $30 zalman cooler and artic silver thermal compound. two cpu fans. at normal speed, with the same motherboard you stated (P4C800), stays below 105*F.

after i played doom 3 on my xp2200+ and msi mobo, the cpu is like 135*F.

i reccomend intel if you live in a small room with not too much airflows. my amd cpu make my room very hot.

 

[viviorunitia4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin I really would want a P4 over a AMD, or is that silly thinking?

for the same price as that intel system, you could most likely get an Athlon 64 3000+ or higher...
And, I would recommend a dual cpu system over just the Hyperthreading, if you're gonna be doing graphics/multimedia editing and not alot of gaming... (either a Xeon or Athlon MP system could be had for around the same price as that P4 and mobo you said you wanted)
that's just my 2 cents, though

But, regardless of your processor decision, what you should do is install folding@home on your new computer, and join team 35126

 

[GokieKS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin http://anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1941 just had a look at that article, the Intel totally win on rendering and video encoding over the AMD.

That's a pretty outdated article. Recently, AnandTech has moved to a different benchmark system, and came to the conclusion that which processor is better suited for video encoding is highly dependant on which program, codec, and settings you use, and in actuality, AMD's processors doesn't really have a deficiency in this area as it has always been assumed to have:

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=15

Anyway, If I were buying an x86 system today, it'd definitely be an A64, probably a 3500+ and a nF3 250Gb.

But I already know that the next desktop system I own will be a PowerMac Dual G5...

~KS

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin My PC is being a pile of poo not doing what it's told so i am sending it back to carrera and replacing the Mobo and CPU while i am at it. was getting a fault in nonpage area, and NTLDR error unpon installing windows. When it was ok, it had random reboots, up to 5/6 times a day. Going from a AMD 2200+xp, Asus A7V333 mobo, PC2700 DDR

Gee, sounds familiar

My Athlon with A7V mobo had random reboots too

Worked just fine when it was sitting on the bench at the computer retailer though!

Wasted months trying to debug that pile of junk

Swapped over to an intel P4 2.4 and some crap mobo and it just worked

Still reboots once in a blue moon for no reason though

It's permanently tainted! arrrgh!

I used to be a big fan of AMD, now I don't know whether I can recommend their stuff

 

[gsferrari]

My first AMD system (I just built one for my brother) :-

AMD Athlon XP-2800+
MSI KV7N2 - NForce-2 chipset
512MB Dual-Channel DDR RAM
ATi Radeon 9800PRO 128MB
19" Samsung Flat CRT
600W Custom PSU
DVD +/- Writer
CD Writer
120GB SATA Raid-0 Array
Water Cooling (sponsor sample...no details for public)

Works just fine without airconditioning in India

Ambient temperature = 35 degree celcius

I am an AMD man for desktops from this point onwards...very nice experience...

Cheers!

 

[skitlets]

If you do lots of cpu intensive tasks and need more power, the Intel Canterwood/Springdale platform is just as fast as the newer LGA platform at the same speed, but the Athlon 64 is definitely a beast, especially the newer socket 939. Neither AMD nor Intel is futureproof at this moment, however. If you want cheap speed, sure, grab the p4 and a Canterwood/Springdale mobo. If you're intent on 64-bit capabilities, the socket 939 is a good choice, or even the socket 754. 754 is about 10% slower than 939 at a given speed. If you want to upgrade video cards, get the LGA platform, as its the only one out currently with pci-x 16x video support. It also supports ddr2. What I'd do is wait for socket 939 to adopt the new video interface, then jump on that. Extreme speed with the ability to upgrade to next gen video cards. Here's an anandtech review spanning multiple platforms and cpus, but I don't think socket 939 was quite out yet, so the AMDs can only perform better.

 

[skitlets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raymondlin I really would want a P4 over a AMD, or is that silly thinking?

and yes, this is a little silly. It's a biased opinion picking one company over another, instead of one product over another. Both companies have had their problems.

 

[skitlets]

For ram, there are several reliable companies to choose from. Corsair, Kingston, and Mushkin put out enthusiast modules, geared at those who require high speeds and low latencies, but they also put out solid value sticks as well. Other companies with cheaper, but reliable memory include Buffalo, Crucial, and Samsung. Every product has a few bad apples, as nothing in the world of computer components is guaranteed 100% working, but how the company handles this issue proves if they are worthy of your money. For example, many people are diehard Western Digital or Maxtor hard drive fans, and will not buy otherwise, but both companies have the occasional faulty hard drive.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by terrymx after i played doom 3 on my xp2200+ and msi mobo, the cpu is like 135*F. i reccomend intel if you live in a small room with not too much airflows. my amd cpu make my room very hot.

Athlon 64 is an entirely different story. Intel is really starting to fudge their numbers. Particularly when it comes to heat and power usage. There are many benchmarks and measurements that are proving Athlon 64 to be far more efficient. Who'd a thunk it?

And if you see Doom 3 benchmarks, it's not a pretty sight for Intel. Especially if you factor in cost.

I'll still have at least six Intel CPU's in my home. Heheh. Even the most thrifty Athlon 64 cannot even come close to the performance per watt I get with my Pentium M based server. But, I did build that thing for efficiency. Waaaaaaay more expensive though.

When Intel get's their act together, I'll probably come back, but looks like I will be jumping ship to the AMD camp for my fun box at least.

-Ed

 

[skitlets]

Pentium M based server? I'm jealous. How'd you manage that? And seriously, Prescott is known as PressHot. It puts out so much more heat than the older Northwoods.

 

[gsferrari]

Ed,

I have a Sager NP-8790 Laptop

Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Northwood 800Mhz FSB
Intel i865 800Mhz FSB Chipset
1024 MB Dual Channel DDR400 PC3200 RAM
ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro 256MB DDR Gradphics Card
17" WSXGA+ LCD
2 x 60GB 7200 rpm HDD's in RAID-0 (hardware RAID)

The temperature monitor indicates a resting temperature of 45 Degree Celcius and this goes up to 60 Degree Celcius under extreme gaming. I havent had any thermal related problems with this laptop and a similar sager laptop that I owned before this one (older P4 533Mhz FSB and Radeon 9000 64MB).

I benchmark Aquamark at 27000 thereabouts, 3D Mark 2003 at around 4000.

Just bloody awesome