Which Cpu?????????

[DJ Stenny]

Hey folks. Please, help me. I'm trying to build a pc and i have two choices for a processor. AMD Athlon XP 2800 (2.08 GHz) or a P4 (2.4 GHz). i just want a pc that will work quickly and play games well. i got everything else all lined up. Please tell me. WHICH ONE????

[Lord Riff Raff]

AMD with Nforce2 Motherboard

[avtor]

p4 64bit power
AMD makes too much noise and i do not trust

100% pentium no matter what anyone says

[Lord Riff Raff]

Pentium 4 cpus are not 64 bit. The only 64 bit cpus you can get at the moment are:
Itanium 2 [Intel]
Opteron [AMD]
AMD 64 [AMD]
AMD64FX [AMD]

The AMD 2800 you can afford is the equivelent of a P4 2.8ghz.

[grantu2]

The Barton cores out performs the intel 2.5ghz 533fsb processors. So get atleast a barton 2500xp not a throughbred 2500xp.

Also a note amd and any other cpu for that matter doesn't make any noise at all, its the fans you get. I have a volcano 7+ all copper with a fan variable switch which I leave at around 3,000rpm's not much noise at all.

[Xzyx987X]

Originally posted by grantu2
Also a note amd and any other cpu for that matter doesn't make any noise at all, its the fans you get. I have a volcano 7+ all copper with a fan variable switch which I leave at around 3,000rpm's not much noise at all.

Heh, that's exactly what I have . It can be pretty noisy though if it isn't set to low. As far as the cpu goes, I'd reccomed a 64 bit AMD processor (did intel start making 64 bit processors too? I though they were sticking to hyperthreading.) Once there are more programs out that that support 64 bits you're sure to get the best performance with one of those.

Edit: Oh, nm about intel and 64 bit cpu's. Just noticed Riff Raff's post.

[Sephiroth]

... Intel over AMD? thats warmungering talk too me.. Anyway. AMD cpus are now almost the same cost wise as Pentium4s.. they're still cheaper though. You can get a socket 940 board (opteron and A64FX) and get a 1.4GHZ opteron (this performs about the same as a Pentium4 2.43-2.53ghz in most areas) the opteron is about $240 for the 140 series and about $10 more for the 240 series (dual opteration) it requires registered ram though. the A64 (socket 754) uses unbuffered (non-registered) ram, which is cheaper, but its only single channel, while the opteron and A64FX use dual channel. your pick.. the Pentium 4 and Athlon Xp are about to be replaced by newer porcessors (the Athlon XP technically already has, the A64 just hasent hit the retail business until a very,very short while ago. Hp was showing off their A64 3200+ system)

Comes down to it: prefrence really. the Athlon XP 3200+ performs about the same as a 3.2ghz Pentium4 and this continues all the way down the line (ie 2600+ is equivilent to a 2.6ghz Pentium4) the Athlon XP is a MUCH better processor for numbercrunching though, a pair of Athlon XP 2000+ could EASILY outperform dual 2.4ghz Xeons with HT in number crunching apps, like RC5 and 3d rendering.
dont believe me? (check out the MSI K7D MASTER-L review @ www.2cpu.com.. then well see)
Athlons are as good as pentiums, but in your case, go with the Xp2800+ its faster than even a 2.4ghz Pentium 4 HT

I prefer AMD over Intel anyday.. it just so happens that Intel cant be escaped though (my board has integrated Intel lan.. arggg ) and I can argue how AMD is better than Intel anyday, but since I dont wana start a WAR here.. Ill say that the two processors perform about the same, the p4 probally has a huge advantage in memory benches cuz its got QDR FSB, instead of Athlons DDR FSB, that changes with A64 and opteron, because they have their memory controllers integrated onboard, 3GBps with PC3200 RAM is nothing for a SINGLE channel Athlon 64. its been estimated the "FSB" (in quotations since opteron and A64 dont have one, and I'm just using it as refrence) of an Opteron or Athlon64 between 1200 and 1600mhz depending on the hypertransport link speed.


can't wait to see what presscott will do (pentium5?)

[jerome187]

If they both cost the same, definatly get the P4. If the Athlon cheaper (50$ or more cheaper) get that I suppose.

[Sephiroth]

ill agree, the presscott cpus will work orginally on socket 478, so the p4 platform will allow much wider upgrading options (even if the p5 will only work up to 3.4-3.6ghz on 875p and 865p platforms, the architectural differences should be an additional 10-30% increase in speed in itself) get the p4 if its the same as the Athlon.. good answer jerome187

[Lord Riff Raff]

On the fsb thing.
P4, Xeon and Itanium 2 have no where near as much memory bandwidth as AMD64(FX) or Opterons. The AMD64 cpus work at an effective fsb of their mhz. Giving the Opteron cpus up to 1.8ghz FSBs at the moment .

Toms hardware did a comparism a while ago and a Dual Opteron 240 could outperform a Xeon 3.2ghz in nearly every single test (only a few tests that were optimised for Intel cpus did it fail), and even then in some cases it performed higher than the Xeon in the intel optimised tests.

And remember these are 32 bit tests and don't nearly show the power of a 64 bit cpu.

[Sephiroth]

240's? ehh dont know abt that, but I do rember that even the slowest opterons kicked the arse of some pretty fast xeons in the benchmarks a dual opteron with 248s could probaly easily get 1.5-1.6 the score of a dual xeon setup @ 3ghz. The opterons and Athlon 64's (and FX) are assposed to be faster in 64bit mode, 2cpu.com had some info one eight opteron rigs running appache in 64bit mode, the review showed that the opteron worked MUCH better in 64bit mode than 32bit mode, they might now still have the info in the recent news, but they archive their top headlines, so go find it if your intrested in eight opteron rigs running 64bit software!

Thats the problem, the opteron dosent 'Have' a Frount side bus, old acryonyms die hard, we'll probaly be refering to FSB for a long time anyway.
I know, opteron and the integrated Memory controllers on those things are purely awsome, it really pushes the limits of the ram it uses, often getting more than 88-91% efficienty out of the ram which is VERY HIGH what really sux is that you have to use registered ram , Dont think that will change with opteron, though 939 will be the new socket for FX.
I CANT WAIT FOR DUAL CORE OPTERONS (If they ever come, mabye, but not anytime soon though )

[jerome187]

Yes the new 64 bit AMD chips are way better then Intels stuff, I'm pretty sure this guy isnt going to buy something that expensive.

So its more like a P4 vr Athlon XP match, and the P4 wins in all areas except price.

[Sephiroth]

AMD got agressive with the model numbering(ie, the current 3200+ im afraid to say is about the same as a p4 @ 2.8-2.9ghz and only beats a p4 @ 3.2ghz in a FEW areas), An Athlon XP 2800+ is probaly much better than a P4 2.4Cghz , but a P4 @ 2.66ghz could probaly get the athlon(2800+) in 40% of the benches. I guess the p4 is superior in some more ways, you can easily OC a p4 2.4ghz to 3ghz, which usualy gets you 1ghz+ FSB, and by then it would kill even an Athlon XP 3200+ @ 2.33ghz! but you can't really oc an Athlon 2800+ much higher without great cooling and an excelent stepping, 2.4ghz is usualy the barrier for most.

[Roux!]

/me 's brain suffered a short circuit...

[Sephiroth]

HAHA what seems to be the problem?